Providing Value To The World

How are you providing value to the world?

Like many people, your initial answer to this question will probably revolve around what you’re doing to provide value and to contribute towards the upliftment of the world… I write articles on spiritual development, I teach young children, I make environmentally-friendly products, I do voluntary charity work….

As Lightworkers, when we consider providing value to the world, we usually think in terms of doing things like the examples above. They all seem very clearly geared towards assisting others and bettering the world. The value of such activities seems obvious and direct.

What if the answer to the question is something like I meditate every day or I work as an administrative assistant?

Meditating could be seen as a selfish activity – on the face of it, it is not other-oriented. Working as an admin assistant could be seen as a job far removed from traditional Lightworker roles.

However, an argument could be made that meditating calms you down, and that interacting with others later in the day is always much better when you’re in a calm state than when you’re rushed, anxious and worried. Similarly, an argument could be made that dedicated and competent administrative assistants provide value to the companies for which they work by keeping them organised, efficient and effective.

Both of these arguments are true. Yet they only hint at the full extent to which these two activities can be utilised to provide profound value to the world. The key to this lies in your state of being while doing these activities.

This is easy to see when we look at an activity like meditation. Entering into an alpha state and allowing Source energy to flow freely not only has positive benefits for ourselves, but also for the world – this energy ripples out and affects others, even those with whom we don’t come into direct contact during the day. We may not see the immediate impact of our meditative activities beyond our own well-being and positive changes in our relationships with family and friends, but it is there. Research has demonstrated that crime rates and accidents decrease when even a small percentage of the population of an area meditates (the Maharishi Effect).

Okay, so it is easy to add value to the world by meditating. But what if you don’t have time to meditate because you have to get to work as an admin assistant every day? The same principles apply. Even though you may not be sitting in the lotus position chanting Om, you can still bring a meditative state to your work by practising mindfulness and presence. When you are being peace regardless of what activity you are doing, you can bring peace to the world.

I think we can get very caught up in only considering value from a superficial point of view, in the sense that, on the face of it, someone working in an anti-crime charity seems to be adding more value to the world than someone working as an administrative assistant, for example. When we look at things from an energy level, however, the picture may be very different – it is possible that the charity worker is vibrating with anger and fear, whereas the admin assistant may be vibrating with love and peace. The former will ironically be contributing to increasing the very ills that she is trying to work towards decreasing, whereas the latter will be far more effective at decreasing crime and promoting peace, even though that isn’t her official job description.

So… let me ask you again. How are you proving value to the world?

The Magnet Conundrum: Polarity And Flow

Have you ever tried to explain the Law Of Attraction to someone? The chances are that you’ve used the phrase like attracts like. In fact, the chances are that you’ve also used the idea of a magnet to explain that we attract things and experiences to us that are in alignment with our predominant energetic vibration.

If so, you’ve probably also encountered some questions in this regard. After all, on the face of it, when it comes to magnets, opposites attract – the north pole of one magnet is attracted to the south pole of another. I’ve often seen skeptics use this apparent contradiction to criticise the Law Of Attraction.

Yet, when we look more deeply into the concepts of polarity and flow, it is possible to reconcile these two conflicting ideas.

As you know, all physical matter is made of atoms, which consist of electrons orbiting around a nucleus. You may also remember from studying science at school that a moving electrical charge (or electric current) produces a magnetic field. Since an electron is a small moving electrical charge, it follows that each electron in an atom produces a small magnetic field.

Although each electron’s tiny magnetic field flows in a specific direction, these don’t all necessarily line up with each other. For most substances, the directions of these fields remain randomly oriented even when in the presence of a larger magnetic field, such as that produced by a permanent (bar) magnet. However, for some substances, such as iron, the presence of a larger magnetic field causes the substance’s electrons’ small magnetic fields to all line up in the same direction as that of the larger magnetic field.

The electrons in magnetic substances such as iron will retain their alignment temporarily after the permanent magnet is removed, until the usual movement of the atoms causes them to fall out of alignment again. Permanent magnets are made out of special iron alloys whose electrons retain their alignment for many years after initial exposure to a larger magnetic field.

When it comes to magnets and attraction therefore, it is not the two poles (north and south) that are important. Instead, it is the alignment of the electrons’ magnetic fields that is responsible for allowing a strong magnetic field to flow through the substance and which causes attraction between the substance and the magnet. The two poles of a magnet are essentially just handy naming conventions to describe the direction of flow of a magnetic field.

Ultimately, alignment equals flow equals attraction… sound familiar?!

Flow And Buying A House

In my last post on Flow And Intention-Manifestation, I mentioned that my husband and I had recently purchased a house. One of the commenters on that post, T Edwards, asked:

Congratulations on your new home. My question is: do you give credit for bringing it into your life to ‘The Law of Attraction’?

I gave a brief reply to the comment at the time, although I realised that there was much more that I could say on the subject, so much so that I thought I’d take this opportunity to devote a post to it!

I think I should start by saying that I use the term Law Of Attraction to describe principles of how the universe works on an energy level, mainly because it is a term that many people know these days and which can therefore be used as a reference point. For me, however, the principles behind what is popularly termed Law Of Attraction represent deep spiritual beliefs, many of which I was first introduced to as a young child and which I’ve come to understand more deeply over the years. I’m still learning! So, while my answer to T’s question in the comments is that I do give credit to the Law Of Attraction for bringing the house into my life, my use of these principles is a much more spiritual one than popular products like The Secret describe.

My husband and I started looking for a new house to buy in January this year. We had owned our own home in South Africa, but had decided to rent when we moved to Scotland until we had become more settled and familiar with the city of Edinburgh and its surrounding countryside, and had a good idea of which area we wanted to live in.

I had started thinking about our ideal house when we first made the decision to move to Scotland and I knew a house purchase would arise in the next year or so. I developed a picture in my head of what it would look like (based on both my and my husband’s intentions, which are thankfully exactly the same when it comes to houses and decoration thereof!), and even drew a floor plan and a 3D picture of what it looked like. This picture was continually refined, and by the time January came round, I could see our ideal house extremely clearly in my head. It had the same status in my mind as the house we owned in South Africa, in the sense that it was as real to me as a house that I had actually lived in. I knew our ideal house intimately!

When it came to the details of our ideal house, we had some non-negotiables as well as some nice-to-haves. We were also clear that the house had to reflect the Divine qualities of love, peace and joy. We were looking for a house that felt like home the second we stepped through the door. In terms of finances, we planned to use the money from the sale of our house in South Africa as a deposit towards buying a house in the UK. Houses in the UK are a tad more expensive than in South Africa – our many Rands gave us a great deposit amount to use here, but unfortunately not enough to purchase a house outright! Nevertheless, we were grateful that we had that money to contribute towards the process as it would keep our mortgage down and make us more attractive to lenders.

The first few months of the house-hunting process were frustrating. Each property we saw matched our requirements to a certain extent, but none included everything we wanted, even when we considered doing renovations. Those that were closer matches were outside our budget, but even those didn’t have the energetic qualities we were looking for.

About four months in, I became very despondent. I started to doubt that we would ever find our ideal house within our budget. I hated the idea that we would have to settle for something far less than we wanted. Even though this was a dark time for me, it was out of this period that I began to clarify my thinking around Flow. I spoke to my guides about it, and I started practicing it in all areas of my daily life. I changed my focus from details and specifics to making Flow my primary focus. I learned to trust that if Flow is present, all else falls into place.

At about this time, the UK started to experience a so-called “credit crisis”, and the news was full of doom and gloom – mortgages were difficult to obtain and house prices were falling. I took the latter quite positively, however – if house prices were falling, it meant we would be able to get more house for our budget! I also chose to ignore the news reports about mortgages, and instead maintain my focus on Flow.

Shortly after this, we walked into the house that we ultimately ended up buying. It felt like home. It matched our intentions perfectly on an energy level. At first glance, it only had some of the non-negotiables that we’d wanted, and none of the nice-to-haves. But, upon closer inspection, we realised that we could easily renovate the house to obtain all but one of the non-negotiables and all but one of the nice-to-haves! Honest reflection showed me that these two unobtainable characteristics were in fact ego-driven wants. I released these, and in the process I realised that these two things that I had thought so important actually weren’t so important after all!

Had there not been a credit crisis, this house would have been out of our budget range by at least £10 000. As it was, we were able to buy it for £30 000 under budget, leaving us with money to spare for all those renovations! Thanks also to some helpful family and friends who are involved in the building trade, we are likely to obtain some hefty discounts on things like kitchen units and bathroom suites.

The actual purchasing process was a beautiful example of Flow. Our dates for giving notice on our flat matched up perfectly with the sellers’ moving date. Through our solicitor, we were put in touch with a financial advisor who organised a mortgage for us at a very good rate. The mortgage application process itself was easy and hassle-free. Our solicitor was amazing – he was efficient and thorough and kept us updated at each step. We essentially sat back and watched the process unfold, doing our small bit (e.g. signing a form, making a telephone call, making a bank transfer – nothing too onerous!) as and when required. In a telephone conversation with the seller at one point, he mentioned to me that he was amazed at how smoothly and easily everything was progressing – I could only agree! With Source energy directing the process, how could it be any different?!

If you’d like to see some pictures of our new ‘hood, you’re welcome to browse through those on our other personal blog.

Flow And Intention-Manifestation

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts (Make up your mind!), I’m a Libra and a Scanner. Consequently, I’m not always clear on the specifics of what I want to do or what I want to have, since there are so many experiences and things that are equally attractive and meaningful to me. No one thing stands out.

Yet, despite this, I am absolutely unequivocally clear about what I want to be. I know exactly which energetic qualities I want to be present in my life.

Clarity is important when it comes to intention-manifestation. But, how specific do we need to be? If we want to manifest a new car, for example, do we need to imagine every detail, from the make and model to the colour and engine size? Or is it more effective to focus our attention instead on the energetic qualities that we associate with having a new car and to be that now?

These are questions that I’ve been putting to my guides. Their response: flow first, specifics later.

Allowing Flow brings us into alignment with energetic qualities such as love, joy, peace and abundance, As such, our physical world will start to change to reflect these. We do not have to direct exactly how we want these qualities expressed, although we can if we so choose.

If we do decide to create something very specific, aligning with the flow of Source energy first makes manifesting these particular features easier. It takes far less effort to channel energy into specific details when we are already in a state of Flow than it does when we are impeding the stream of Source energy.

In addition, the more aligned we are with Flow, the less likely it is that we are attached to any specific characteristics that we decide to include in our intentions and creations. When we find ourselves intending to manifest something very specific, it is a good idea to reflect on why we want those particular physical characteristics. This can entail being very honest with ourselves – do we want a BMW, for example, for ego-based reasons (usually fear-based, such as “people will think less of me if I don’t have an expensive car”), or simply because, to us, it is a fun expression of the energetic quality of freedom? It is when we are truly not attached to specifics that it is best to introduce them into the equation.

I had the opportunity in recent months to undertake some of this reflection for myself. My husband and I bought a house (the legal and administrative process is now complete, and we move in today in fact!). When we first walked through the front door of the house at the initial viewing, it felt like coming home. The house was a perfect energetic match for what we had intended. Yet, very few of the specific physical details that we had wanted were present. Upon reflection, I realised that some of the characteristics that I had wanted to manifest in my ideal house were very much the choices of my ego. It was an eye-opening process, but one from which I was able to bring some more limiting beliefs into my conscious awareness to work on releasing them. As for the other characteristics to which I had no ego attachment… well, it turned out on closer inspection of the house at the second viewing that we’d be able to make some fairly minor alterations to the property to bring it in line with what we wanted!

All in all, our house-hunting and house-buying were a wonderful example of flow in action. The timing of the purchase and move for both us and the sellers was spot-on in terms of our respective life circumstances and requirements, and the entire legal, financial and administrative process has proceeded very smoothly and effortlessly. I’m certainly intending for the flow to continue on moving day itself!

I’m also intending for the effects of flow to extend to BT (British Telecom) and our internet service provider connecting everything at the new property as arranged, so please leave your comments – I’ll be popping in to reply to them!

In The Beginning Was The Word. Or, What’s In A Name?

According to a small book published in 1929, our names carry vibrations which strongly affect the development of our personalities and the events that we experience during our lives.

Veolita Parke Boyle, the author of the book (Fundamental Principles Of Yi-King, Tao: The Cabbalas Of Egypt And The Hebrews) asserts that the universe operates according to energy vibrations, and that each form vibrates at a particular frequency. Letters are considered no exception to this, as each on its own and spoken together as a word forms a particular sound, which invokes a particular vibrational frequency.

Our names, always associated with us, ensure that their particular vibrations remain connected to us. These vibrations, in turn, attract life circumstances to us that resonate with the same frequency. The system outlined by Veolita Parke Boyle argues that it is possible to manifest different circumstances by changing one’s name, although she cautions that this does not imply that no effort will ever be required again. Instead, changing one’s name to a vibration more favourable to what one intends to manifest would eliminate unnecessary struggle and busywork, although inspired action would still be required.

This system is considered completely different from numerology. For example, first names and surnames are not reduced to a single digit, but are treated separately (although the effect of each on the whole is considered). Each name also has an undertone, which is worked out mathematically from the name’s primary tone, and which can modify the effect of the primary tone in either a positive or negative direction.

Laurence Y Payg (pronounced “page”) has been featured on TV a lot in the last week or so here in the UK, as the country’s only professional analyser of names using the method outlined by Veolita Parke Boyle. He is famous for changing Laura Hollins’ name to Agyness Deyn (pronounced “Agnes Dean”), whose subsequent success as a supermodel is attributed to the choice of a name more vibrationally aligned to success.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this… do you think our names have their own vibrations as the theory states? Or is it that changing our names leads us to think differently about ourselves, and those thoughts change our intentions and what we manifest into our lives?

Lynne McTaggart: The Intention Experiment

A couple of chapters into Lynne McTaggart’s book, The Intention Experiment, I was disappointed. Bored and disappointed. Two emotions I certainly didn’t expect to feel while reading a book on one of my favourite topics, the intersection of science and psi.

It took me a while to figure out why I was feeling like this. It wasn’t that the book didn’t contain information from scientific studies on esoteric subjects such as meditation and intentions and healing. It did, and those studies in themselves were interesting. The studies presented do make one think about the connections between all living things and the power of the mind to affect matter. I finally realised, however, that I was battling to connect with Lynne’s writing style. It reminded me of some students’ literature reviews that I used to evaluate when I was an academic as well as of some journal articles that I would be asked to review – competent, don’t get me wrong, very competent, but “disconnected”. By this, I mean, they would present many scientific facts and figures, lists of studies and results, but ultimately not really tie these together in any coherent way to give the literature review a sense of continuity and a central critical argument (possible, even when one is trying to fairly present both sides of a debate).

I persevered with The Intention Experiment, however, and it did get better. By the time the final two or three chapters came round, linkages between sections and a critical viewpoint were emerging.

The last section of the book presents some very practical guidelines related to setting and sending an intention. I found these very helpful and probably enjoyed this section, which applied the results of the scientific studies to very specific exercises, the most. The book is further linked to Lynne’s website, where you can join a community, discuss your own and others’ experiences as well as participate in ongoing group intention experiments.

My criticisms above notwithstanding, I am still very grateful to Lynne McTaggart (and all the scientists mentioned in her book) for their continued work to understand the nature of the universe and to make it accessible to everyone.

Make Up Your Mind!

The issue of choice has followed me around my whole life. In terms of astrological signs, I’m a Libra. That means that I like balance and harmony. But that also means that I’m notoriously bad at making decisions, endlessly weighing up pros and cons and generally over-thinking things before coming to a considered conclusion. In addition, I’m what Barbara Sher calls a scanner and Margaret Lobenstine terms a renaissance soul. That means that I like variety. But that also means that I struggle to commit to any one thing, flitting between projects according to some schedule known only to my own whimsy.

So, as you can tell, for me, burdened as I am with the vagaries of planet alignment at the time of my birth and the genetic/environment mix that makes up my personality, the ability to make choices doesn’t really come naturally ;).

In one of my posts last week on quantum leaps and the importance of choices, I wrote:

“Triggering a change in our vibrational frequency from one level to another is achieved by means of making a firm decision regarding our intentions and desires. Until we commit to what we want, it remains only a possibility. It is our decision, focus and attention that ensure that it manifests into the physical.”

Similarly, in what must be one of the most quoted quotes in the personal/spiritual development field (and often wrongly attributed to Goethe!), William Hutchinson Murray stated:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

Clearly, to live a life we love, the ability to make choices is important. Clearly, judging from what I wrote last week, I know this. But do I put this knowledge into practice? Not always (see above!).

What I do often do, is express preferences. Not the same thing as making a choice at all. Preferences are about potentiality and hope, specifically hope that the universe will oblige by somehow bringing us the things and experiences that we want. Choice is about clarity and certainty, specifically certainty that the universe will work with us to help us create the things and experiences that we want. The concept of choice is empowering. Hoping that the universe will bring us what we want is an expression of powerlessness.

I spent some time over the last few days reflecting on my intentions to see if I had really made a choice about them or whether I was still just expressing a preference. For example, is Love a preference or a choice? Is the energy of Divine Love something that I’m really committed to inviting into my life and expressing with every fibre of my being? Similarly, with other energetic qualities: peace, joy, abundance… these are energetic qualities everyone wants in their lives, right? But is it just a preference, something we daydream about inbetween bouts of fear, anxiety, sadness and scarcity thinking? Or have we really made a choice to align with these energy streams?

Why would we not make a choice regarding what we want? Well, I for one can blame the factors in my opening paragraph :). In addition, for me, I know that I sometimes feel tentative, scared to make the “wrong” decision. However, what I’m learning is that the act of choosing is far more important than what we choose. It is the ultimate act of creativity. If we don’t like what we create, we can choose again and we can choose differently. In Conversations With God, God tells Neale Donald Walsch:

“If there is some aspect of creation you find you do not enjoy, bless it and simply change it. Choose again. Call forth a new reality. Think a new thought. Say a new word. Do a new thing. Do this magnificently and the rest of the world will follow you.”

Just because we make up our minds doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to ever change them!

Over to you… are you making choices in your life, or expressing preferences? What other reasons can you add to why we may struggle to make choices?

Quantum Leaping: How Long Does It Take For Change To Occur?

Teachings on the Law Of attraction focus a great deal on the issue of vibrational frequency, specifically on how to become a vibrational match for those things or experiences that you want to attract into your life. Changing our vibrational frequency feels like a process that takes time – after all, we spend time in meditation or visualisation, and we have limiting beliefs that we need to work through. Would it therefore surprise you if I said that changing our energy state from one frequency to another actually takes no time at all?

The types of activities that we associate with changing our energy state (e.g. visualisation) are an important part of the process. However, while they are preparatory activities that contribute to and lead up to the point of a change in vibrational frequency, they do not represent the change in energy state itself. This change occurs instantaneously. We can feel when the shift has happened – a sense of certainty exists that wasn’t there before. Potentiality has been converted to actuality.

What occurs when our vibrational frequency changes is akin to a quantum leap (also referred to as a quantum jump). An atom consists of negatively charged electrons orbiting around a positively charged nucleus, in much the same way that planets orbit the sun. Each orbit is fixed, and electrons can only travel on these specified pathways. When an electron jumps from one orbit to another, changing its energy state as it does so, this is referred to as a quantum leap, so called because the electron either gains or loses a quantum of electromagnetic energy (i.e. a fixed amount of energy known as a ‘photon’) in the form of light when it jumps. This change in energy is instantaneous and discontinuous – the electron jumps from energy level A to energy level B without passing any of the energy levels in between. It is a change that takes no time at all.

It takes observation of the atom to initiate a quantum leap, transforming the electron from a fuzzy state of potentialities into a particular point in time and space. As such, triggering a change in our vibrational frequency from one level to another is achieved by means of making a firm decision regarding our intentions and desires. Until we commit to what we want, it remains only a possibility. It is our decision, focus and attention that ensure that it manifests into the physical.

Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth

A New Earth is Eckhart Tolle’s second book on the power of living in the present moment. Like The Power Of Now, his first book, A New Earth is special to read. Words are powerful carriers of energy, and both of Eckhart’s books emanate the love, peace and joy that he obviously experienced while writing these from a place of presence and high level of consciousness.

The book takes its title from a Biblical prophecy that refers to the emergence of a new heaven and a new earth, the deeper meaning of which relates to the transformation of human consciousness and the reflection of this higher level of awareness in the physical world. Although the title has its basis in a Christian teaching, A New Earth is a spiritual book and as such can be read by people of any religion or people of no specific religion. In fact, it is interesting to note that the feedback received from the webcasts done recently by Oprah and Eckhart Tolle has indicated that many people have found that reading the book enabled them to understand the teachings of their religions in far greater depth and to apply them with far greater insight than they had previously had.

While The Power Of Now was written in question and answer format, A New Earth reads more like a traditional book, and it is therefore often the preferred introduction to the topic for many people. It was certainly Oprah’s choice for the webcasts that she and Eckhart conducted! Having read both books, I would probably recommend starting with The Power Of Now; however, this really is a personal choice and either will do as a starting point. The important thing is to read at least one of these books, and to reflect on and practice the teachings contained within them. Increasing your awareness and living in the present moment can be a challenging process, particularly when you start, but the rewards are immense. If you haven’t yet read my earlier review of The Power Of Now, you can find it and read about these rewards here.

In addition to going in-depth on subjects such as the ego and the pain-body, A New Earth addresses the topic of conscious creating, particularly in Chapter 10. Although Eckhart never refers to this as The Law Of Attraction, the principles that he discusses provide a spiritual view on the process of creation. If you’ve ever felt disillusioned by the very materialistic view of The Law Of Attraction, then Eckhart’s description of how consciousness creates may be just the antidote that you need!

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.

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.”

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.

Resisting What Is

Today marks the second day of strike action at the Grangemouth Refinery here in Scotland. The employees are protesting against changes to their pension schemes. The employees return to work tomorrow. As this particular refinery provides fuel to about 80% of the country, shutting it down during the strike will have an effect on the supply chain. However, there are sufficient fuel stocks in reserve to cover ten weeks of normal petrol consumption levels. In addition, more fuel stocks can be brought in if required.

Given the information above (which I’ve tried to keep as objective as possible) how do you, as a petrol consumer, react?

Do you:
* Get upset and verbalise this in your conversations with others by saying things like “This is ridiculous! I don’t understand how this can be allowed to happen! These employees shouldn’t be allowed to strike and cause a disruption to petrol supplies!”
* Rush to the nearest petrol station to fill up your car, convinced that supplies will run out despite assurances to the contrary. As you do this, you are experiencing feelings of outrage, anxiety and fear that if you don’t act quickly others will get in there before you, leaving you with no petrol for your car.
* Watch the news footage of queues at petrol stations and reports of some running out of stocks, and feel justified that you reacted as you did, telling everyone “I knew this would happen! Thank goodness I got in there quickly!”

Or do you:
* Accept the situation for what it is and go about your normal life, leaving your petrol consumption patterns unchanged.
* Remain calm and present, unaffected by others’ panicked reactions to an imagined future event (no more fuel anywhere).
* Know that you live in an abundant universe and that all your energy needs will always be fulfilled.

The outcome of the first set of reactions to the event is the creation of a reality that matches exactly what people feared – namely competition for fuel and shortages of supplies. The irony in this situation is that these reactions created a self-fulfilling prophecy: as people panicked and changed their normal consumption patterns, demand outstripped supply. Had people not reacted blindly to an imagined future and instead continued to buy fuel at their normal rate, scheduled fuel deliveries would have more than adequately met demand levels, even though the refinery was closed for a few days.

My husband and I made a choice to respond to the event, rather than react unconsciously. Our car was due to be filled up, but it was a task that could wait a couple of days. We went about our daily life, secure in the knowledge that there were sufficient fuel supplies for the country. Sure enough, by the time we had to fill up our tank, the initial rush to petrol stations had died down and we were able to fill up our car during the normal course of our day without any bother at all. While other people’s conversations were filled with talk of “the fuel crisis”, ours concentrated on other topics altogether. While other people experienced anxiety, fear and anger over the last few days, we experienced calmness and joy.

We experienced similar polarised reactions from others when we had a burglary recently. Although we didn’t condone what had happened, we did accept it. Once it had happened, we knew that we had a choice: either stay present, and follow through with what was now before us to do, or fight against what is and add negative emotions of anger and fear into the mix. Remaining present throughout the process opened up a space in which peace and joy could remain paramount, and as a result, I could feel a very clear energetic shift inside me and a stronger connection to Source.

Quite a few people with whom we interacted during the process displayed a similar response. They were supportive (emotionally and in practical ways) without dwelling on the negative aspects of the event. In our conversations with these people, the focus was on gratitude and the continued commitment to the creation of a friendly community in our block of flats. Overall, these interactions were uplifting. There were, however, others who had a very different reaction. These interactions took the form of moral outrage and a stream of invective against these criminals in particular and crime in general. Ironically, in their resistance to what had happened, these people seemed to suffer more as a result of our burglary than we did.

Suffering is not a given. More and more, I realise that reacting blindly to an event and fighting what is causes suffering, whereas acceptance and present-moment awareness frees up energetic space to create a live filled with love, joy and abundance.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic – are you able to accept what is happening as it is happening, or do you resist and wish things were unfolding differently? Do you notice that you suffer more as a result of your reaction to an event than as a result of the event itself?

[Edit: Andrea Hess’ latest blog entry deals with this very subject, specifically around spiritual practices – please read it if you haven’t already done so! In the meantime, since this topic is obviously coming up in my reality, I’m going to reflect on it some more and see what it is in turn reflecting for me!]

Do Things Get Worse Before They Get Better?

It was foul-smelling. It was foul-tasting. And it was a ritual in my family when people turned thirteen. A kind of rite of passage, I guess. What it was, was a tea made from dried Leonotus leonurus leaves, something that one of my great (great?) grandparents had picked up along the way from the indigenous people of South Africa, where we lived at the time. Whether or not the rumours that the plant could be smoked as a kind of cannabis substitute were true or not, we never knew nor tried :). Instead we drank it as a “blood purifier”, and parents made it specifically for their young ‘uns entering their teenage years as a way to stave off acne.

I remember my turn only too well. I can even still smell it if I take myself back to that time in my memory! Three glasses, one every twelve hours, downed really quickly after taking a deep breath, followed swiftly by a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Luckily, those three glasses comprised the entire treatment and it was unlikely to ever need repeating!

Luckily, too, it worked! At least, I remember myself and all my cousins sailing through our teenage years with nary a pimple in sight compared to our peers, so either our family was largely genetically blessed with “no-pimple” DNA, or the brew was effective in “purifying our blood” and removing any of the toxins that would cause acne. Writing this now, I’m not too sure of the scientific merit of “blood purification”, but that’s the story that was handed down in our family and it seemed to make a kind of logical sense at the time!

The only catch in this whole process was that the brew caused any toxins that you already had in you to be pushed out… so shortly after drinking the brew, some pimples would erupt, and once the smoke and debris had cleared they would slink away, never to be seen again. For that reason, this treatment was always doled out over a weekend, so that you could stay in if things got ugly!

Regardless of the type of physical detox regime followed, I’ve often heard people report similar experiences of initially feeling worse until their system has been cleared of all toxins, after which they feel lighter and have a level of physical health that is higher than where they were prior to the detox.

This process also seems to occur when we’re going through a “spiritual detox”. I’ve noticed that when I become aware of limiting beliefs, or start focusing my energy on making a significant positive change in my life (even if I’m intending to go from good to great), things often get worse before they get better. For example, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while (for the little while that it’s been up and running, that is!), you may remember me mentioning that honouring my boundaries has been an ongoing issue for me. I’m certainly way better at this than I used to be (can anyone say “doormat”?!), but it is an issue that still crops up every now and then. It’s been cropping up lately – I’ve had two colds related to the issue, and the latest evidence of the issue was a (minor) burglary – nothing got taken, but how’s that for a clear physical manifestation of violated boundaries?!

Now, in Law Of Attraction terms, focusing on something negative can cause it to manifest in one’s life. I know this, and so when I identify a limiting belief, I use it to clarify what the opposite positive belief is, and then direct my energy towards that. In my case with boundaries, for example, whenever I identify a belief like “People don’t respect my personal space”, I use it to figure out what I do want to create, in this case “People do respect my personal space”, or “My boundaries are respected”. I don’t even stop there – those are great, but they do still focus on other people, so I look at where I might be disrespecting my own boundaries, or where I’ve disrespected others’ boundaries. This leads to affirmations like “I honour and respect my boundaries” and “I honour and respect others’ boundaries”.

So, if I’m focusing on the positive side of things, and doing affirmations, why do I still experience the temporary negativity? What’s up with that?! Well, here are my thoughts on the matter:

When we live in a state of unconsciousness, we will more than likely still have limiting beliefs about a variety of subjects, but they all blend into a kind of low grade background hum and we don’t really notice the specific effects of them on our lives. That may initially sound like a good thing… but, usually life lived at this level of unawareness is not really a life lived at all. These are people who are not very happy with their lives in general, they experience a general sense of dissatisfaction, but can’t really seem to change anything in their lives for the better.

However, when we decide to live consciously, we bring those beliefs right into the open. As we progress, different beliefs will come under scrutiny at different times, and bringing them to the forefront of our attention can temporarily manifest these into our experience. This can be seen as an opportunity – we can clearly see what we are dealing with, and make a choice regarding what we are ready to let go of and what we want to create in our lives. Like a physical detox, a spiritual one can move us to the next level of health. It may be temporarily unpleasant, but the next level of health brings with it a significant increase in feelings of lightness and vitality.

Have you ever experienced the phenomenon of things getting worse before they get better? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts and experiences!

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.

Deepak Chopra: SynchroDestiny

For someone who loves reading books on metaphysical and spiritual topics, I have hardly read any of Deepak Chopra’s work – apart from one of his fiction books, SynchroDestiny is the first of his books that I’ve delved into! Luckily, it was a good introduction to Deepak and his style of writing, so I’ll definitely be investing in some more of his books soon :).

This particular book focuses on the phenomenon of synchronicities – those apparent coincidences that illustrate the larger forces at work in our lives. As the book’s blurb states, “…there is no such thing as a meaningless coincidence.”

The first part of SynchroDestiny focuses on the science that lies behind synchronicities and the Law Of Attraction. If you’re looking for a simple, clear explanation of some of the principles of quantum physics and nonlocal intelligence (the field), this is it. Deepak is definitely very skilled in explaining complex concepts in a very user-friendly manner! This section of the book also goes deeply into the concepts of coincidence and intention.

The second part of the book is devoted to the practical exploration of the concepts. These exercises are centred around the process of meditation, using mantras to focus the mind. I found these exercises interesting and useful, although I altered the process of meditation described to fit with my own style of meditating. Deepak’s methods may work for him and for others, but I found them to disruptive to my own rhythm, and I therefore had much more success when I integrated his techniques with my own. Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit to find what works for you – there is no “one size fits all” style of meditating!

Throughout the book, Deepak makes reference to the ancient Eastern wisdom of Vedanta, which describes much of what quantum physics is only now discovering regarding how the universe functions. In this respect, it is also incredibly interesting to read SynchroDestiny’s Appendix A, in which Deepak outlines the principles of the Hermetic tradition, which has its origins in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, to illustrate how these principles match those of the Vedanta. Reading these ancient teachings demonstrates clearly that the Law Of Attraction is not new!

Can You Change The Past?

If we can change the future by the choices that we make today, is it possible to change the past? Can we unsay some of the hurtful or thoughtless things we said? Can we take the paths we should have taken, but didn’t?

The idea of changing the past is known as retrocausality, and it isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. In fact, within the field of quantum physics, retrocausality is perfectly possible, although it has yet to be demonstrated.

For retrocausality to work, the past, present and future all have to exist simultaneously. In Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, they do. Many metaphysical and spiritual writers have also commented on the fact that our perception of time is an illusion, and that it is more accurate to describe the universe as functioning by means of state or intent rather than linear clock time.

The idea of retrocausality brings some troubling paradoxes to light, the kind that movies like The Butterfly Effect have portrayed so vividly. Is it really possible to change the past to such a degree that our present changes completely? Would we even want to? Sure, I have things that I might wish had happened differently in my past, but I am who I am today and have the life that I have because of everything (good and bad) that’s happened to me so far, and I quite like my life :). Who will I become if I go back and tweak things?! Even more scarily, what if I somehow changed things in a way that resulted in my parents never meeting, and I never “became” at all? It’s enough to blow your mind!

Perhaps this is a far too literal view of the subject. Scientists and philosophers alike have debated whether there are any limits to retrocausality, with some arguing that, while actual physical changes to events may be impossible, it is possible and sometimes beneficial to change one’s present perceptions of a past event. This may sound like a more wishy-washy view of changing the past, but it can be immensely powerful and liberating, especially when we consider this argument in the light of teachings by people like Eckhart Tolle. He reminds us that the only moment that exists is “now”. The past and the future are always only in our heads. When we remember the past, we remember it now. When we think about the future, we think about it now. And when we get to the future, it is just another “now”.

In addition, let me throw another thought into the mix… if you sit ten people down who have all supposedly experienced the exact same event and ask them to tell you about what happened, you’ll pretty much get ten different stories! Each person’s memory of the event is dependent on their perceptions of the event. Given this, can we even say that an objective past exists? All that actually exists is people’s perceptions of the past. Change those, and you seemingly can change the past as well as make a tangible difference in the present.