Part 2: Awakening by (re)opening the senses Every animal has a dominant sense, a sense that has been developed to a high level in order to help it survive. Often you can identify the dominant sense just by looking at the animal. Which of its sensory organs is largest? In these exercises you use the names of animals to remind … Read More
Sensory Doorways to Nonordinary Reality, #1
Part 1: Awakening by point focus In the next three articles I’ll describe powerful ways to expand your consciousness beyond the physical. What makes them unusual is that their starting point is the input of your physical senses. They engage the physical senses to transcend the physical senses. You might think of them as shamanic shortcuts to direct experience of … Read More
The Outer Courtyard of the Spiritual Heart
It’s where you find self-acceptance. From time to time I become aware that I am in an unloving place within myself. This shows up as judgment of others, usually of what they do or do not do. Sometimes it is about their appearance. I’m not proud of that. I don’t like to admit it. And I have learned to face … Read More
Where have all the elders gone…?
Gone to care homes, every one. When will we ever learn when will we e-ver learn? Do you have in your life someone who demonstrates any or all of the qualities named below? When I’ve worked with groups of people who are trying to become more conscious of what eldering is about, or who an elder is, these qualities are … Read More
The 23rd Psalm, compassionately revisited
As a child I was captivated by the beauty and strength of the images and message of the 23rd Psalm. After the first three verses, however, that feeling was lost. I was repelled by the confrontational aspect of verses four and five. This was not my idea of a desirable existence. Gone were the green pastures and still waters. The … Read More
Earthbound Love
If you’ve read more than one or two of my posts, you’ve noticed that I hop from one topic to another, and that the hops are sometimes rather large. This post is another of the metaphysical/spiritual ones. It attempts to capture one aspect of larger Experience. I’ve made many journeys beyond the physical, into past lives and realms where even … Read More
Grief as a Falling Tree
Have you been in a quiet forest when a dead tree falls? It does indeed make a sound. If you’re nearby, that sound can be quite impressive. It starts with a couple of loud cracks a few moments apart, then builds with more and faster loud bangs, the snaps of breaking branches, the crashing noises of branches and leaves against … Read More
I’m not ready…
When the people around you are looking to you, what do you do? Several times in my life, I have found myself looking around for someone else who could lead, who would know exactly what needed to be done and effortlessly take charge, someone who instantly inspired confidence in the rest of us. In those times I’ve been willing to … Read More
My Podcast Debut
A few weeks ago I met Valería Teles, the force behind the podcast “A Quest for Well-Being.” The eventual result was a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating discussion that I’d like to invite you to hear. It’s available as a 38-minute podcast in Valería’s Fit For Joy page. Valería says “This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a … Read More
Finding myself on the beach
Do you feel an emptiness, a yearning for something that you cannot name? That is the universe calling to you. That is the Consciousness of which we are all a part reaching out, yearning for you, trying to penetrate the veil between itself and what you—we—have been molded into by the world we live in. You wonder, “How do I … Read More