Rick, my friend, you're backing the wrong horse this time.
The Catholic Church is not a benevolent institution with a few bad apples; its a nefarious corporation with a few good apples.
This barrel is rotten.
As I've said before, you have to credit yourself for your own wholeness, or holiness, Rick, not the church. I consider myself to be an effective holistic psychotherapist in spite of my profession, not because of it. The fact that psychotherapy as a profession existed, and therefore got me started as a practitioner, is hardly enough of a reason for me to honor an organization that supports the drugging of children or the selling of imaginary quick fixes to make a buck. Likewise, the fact that the Church introduces people to the positive teachings in the Bible doesn't mitigate the arrogant assumption of moral authority in an organization that has sanctioned, denied or hidden many evil acts over the years.
Not this time, Rick. Can't agree to disagree here. You're wrong.
Here in its entirety is Maureen Dowd's commentary in the NY Times on why the pope needs to step down:
Yup, we need a Nope.
A nun who is pope.
The Catholic Church can never recover as long as its Holy Shepherd is seen as a black sheep in the ever-darkening sex abuse scandal.
Now we learn the sickening news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” when he was the church’s enforcer on matters of faith and sin, ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a Wisconsin priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys.
The church has been tone deaf and dumb on the scandal for so long that it’s shocking, but not surprising, to learn from The Times’s Laurie Goodstein that a group of deaf former students spent 30 years trying to get church leaders to pay attention.
“Victims give similar accounts of Father Murphy’s pulling down their pants and touching them in his office, his car, his mother’s country house, on class excursions and fund-raising trips and in their dormitory beds at night,” Goodstein wrote. “Arthur Budzinski said he was first molested when he went to Father Murphy for confession when he was about 12, in 1960.”
It was only when the sanctity of the confessional was breached that an archbishop in Wisconsin (who later had to resign when it turned out he used church money to pay off a male lover) wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger at the Vatican to request that Father Murphy be defrocked.
The cardinal did not answer. The archbishop wrote to a different Vatican official, but Father Murphy appealed to Cardinal Ratzinger for leniency and got it, partly because of the church’s statute of limitations. Since when does sin have a statute of limitations?
The pope is in too deep. He has proved himself anything but infallible. And now he claims he was uninformed on the matter of an infamous German pedophile priest. A spokesman for the Munich archdiocese said on Friday that Ratzinger, running the diocese three decades ago, would not have read the memo sent to him about Father Peter Hullermann’s getting cycled back into work with children because between 700 to 1,000 memos go to the archbishop each year.
Let’s see. That’s two or three memos a day. And Ratzinger was renowned at the Vatican for poring through voluminous, recondite theological treatises.
Because he did not defrock the demented Father Murphy, it’s time to bring in the frocks.
Pope Benedict has continued the church’s ban on female priests and is adamant against priests’ having wives. He has started two investigations of American nuns to check on their “quality of life” — code for seeing if they’ve grown too independent. As a cardinal he wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners and not take on adversarial roles toward men.
But the completely paternalistic and autocratic culture of Il Papa led to an insular, exclusionary system that failed to police itself, and that became a corrosive shelter for secrets and shame.
If the church could throw open its stained glass windows and let in some air, invite women to be priests, nuns to be more emancipated and priests to marry, if it could banish criminal priests and end the sordid culture of men protecting men who attack children, it might survive. It could be an encouraging sign of humility and repentance, a surrender of arrogance, both moving and meaningful.
Cardinal Ratzinger devoted his Vatican career to rooting out any hint of what he considered deviance. The problem is, he was obsessed with enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy and somehow missed the graver danger to the most vulnerable members of the flock.
The sin-crazed “Rottweiler” was so consumed with sexual mores — issuing constant instructions on chastity, contraception, abortion — that he didn’t make time for curbing sexual abuse by priests who were supposed to pray with, not prey on, their young charges.
American bishops have gotten politically militant in recent years, opposing the health care bill because its language on abortion wasn’t vehement enough, and punishing Catholic politicians who favor abortion rights and stem cell research. They should spend as much time guarding the kids already under their care as they do championing the rights of those who aren’t yet born.
Decade after decade, the church hid its sordid crimes, enabling the collared perpetrators instead of letting the police collar them. In the case of the infamous German priest, one diocese official hinted that his problem could be fixed by transferring him to teach at a girls’ school. Either they figured that he would not be tempted by the female sex, or worse, the church was even less concerned about putting little girls at risk.
The nuns have historically cleaned up the messes of priests. And this is a historic mess. Benedict should go home to Bavaria. And the cardinals should send the white smoke up the chimney, proclaiming “Habemus Mama.”
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query pope. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query pope. Sort by date Show all posts
TODAY'S BOEHNER-POPE QUOTE!
John Boehner and the Pope found themselves alone during a visit on Thursday, something Boehner, a devout Catholic, had sought since taking the helm of the GOP caucus.
Said Boehner:
"The Pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and says 'Please pray for me.' Who am I to pray for the Pope? But I did," said Boehner, struggling to hold back tears.
Said Boehner:
"The Pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and says 'Please pray for me.' Who am I to pray for the Pope? But I did," said Boehner, struggling to hold back tears.
THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING, PART SIX: WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME!
No, I'm not just trying to be provocative or politically incorrect here in sharing this sixth installment of The Truth About Everything: "We are not all the same." I do understand, though, that people may find this truth and this particular blog post offensive at first blush. But hear me out.
Of course, in our society, we are all (at least technically) equal under the law, and equally entitled to our "inalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And more deeply, everyone on Earth is part of the great oneness of All That Is, and all living beings are worthy of unconditional love, as set forth in Truth #2. None are abandoned by Source. Ever.
However... a main cause of many personal and social conflicts, even of wars, is that we do not recognize that we are also different from each other in some very significant ways, and I am not referring to customs or languages, but something essentially much deeper.
For several years in the 1990s, I struggled with a riddle as a therapist. Why would some patients I worked with in therapy progress further and more rapidly than others when their overall character structure, relative backgrounds, childhood experiences and genuine commitment to their process was pretty much the same, and my approach and commitment as their therapist was a constant? What was the "X factor" in my clients' progressions through their self-work? Why did some seem to have different "ceilings" or thresholds as to how far they were able to raise their consciousnesses?
At a certain point in my pondering, I began drawing the conclusion that it must be a soul/energy issue. In other words, it seemed to me that some human beings incarnated with more of their Higher Self consciousness in tow, so to speak. I thought, perhaps in the same way that we devote different amounts of energy to different areas of our lives - work, love, child-rearing, leisure - maybe our Higher Selves invest different amounts of energy into different lifetimes. This idea seemed to work, seemed to make sense, but yet I didn't feel quite settled with it.
Then, not shortly after I considered the above idea, I came across a book called, "Upcoming Changes," by Joya Pope. The book was interesting enough until I got to the chapters on "Soul Ages." As I eagerly read that material, the proverbial lightbulb went off big time. Click. Click. Click. Yes. Yes. Yes. Now, it made sense.
The information Pope channeled basically laid out systematically and eloquently how just as human beings go through a physical developmental process, so too do our spiritual selves go through a process of growth and evolution. In other words, just as we grow from babies to adults physically over the course of one lifetime, our souls also evolve over many lifetimes through stages similar to infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elder. Her descriptions of the various soul ages were so spot on, and the implications so profound, that they dramatically effected my understanding of people, and of our world, not to mention shifting the way I worked and thought as a therapist.
Here's Joya Pope on Soul Ages:
"On each physical plane, existence changes and deepens the essence's point of view. This involves going through developmental levels - Infant, Baby, Young, Mature, and Old Soul. This is an extraordinarily long 'game' we are talking about, at least from the earthly perspective. Soul age refers to how a person has grown from experience on the planet, not just to how many lifetimes he or she has lived. No person, essence or entity is "ahead" or "behind" any other, but is simply occupying another place in the continuous circle leading to and from the Tao. Ways of being are supposed to be different in different developmental stages; at some point we experience it all, moving continually along to different levels of understanding and responsibility."
Wow! So, just as there are physical babies, there are baby souls. Just as there are physical adults, there are adult souls. Etc. Etc. And just as it would be irrational to expect a physical baby to be able to feed and shelter itself, or to drive a car or have sex, it is equally irrational to expect a baby soul, even in an adult physical body, to attain higher states of consciousness much beyond the accomplishments of reflex and survival. Baby souls, in other words, generally live simple lives, with simplistic beliefs, focused on getting their basic needs met, very often by seeking others to manage the provision of those needs.
Here's Joya Pope on one aspect of baby souls:
"Structure helps Baby Souls to feel comfortable in the world. They want to be directed and therefore seek out higher authorities who are willing to lay out clear rules for them. As a small example of this, they would rarely defend their child to the school principal, but push to make the child act acceptably to the teachers and administration. Sometimes a Baby Soul will seek out - even again and again - discipline from the prison system as a way to civilize himself. This soul age will hold traditional religious leaders in esteem, turn doctors into gods, and likely feel their country, their army, and certain politicians, can do no wrong."
[Not to be political here, but obviously, the so-called "Conservative Movement" in our society could perhaps more accurately be called the "Baby Soul Society." Sorry, I couldn't resist.]
The personal and social ramifications of this understanding, or the lack of it, are tremendous.
If you are a mature soul and you mistakenly assume that your young soul boyfriend is also a mature soul, you will conclude in frustration that his self-centered egotism is a deliberate assault on your integrity, rather than a measure of his "immaturity" at the soul level. Instead of accepting who he is, and moving on to a relationship with someone who is on your level, you will stay and fight, futilely, to try and get him to be someone he is not yet ready to be.
Likewise, if a predominantly mature soul country, like the United States (believe it or not), assumes that baby soul countries, like Iraq or Afghanistan, are maturational equals (in spite of the fact that they require women to hide their faces, still publicly stone people to death for adultery and commit suicide in hopes that there will be virgins in Heaven for them to have sex with), then we will uselessly bomb them into oblivion instead of helping them feel more secure and less threatened in the world, while simultaneously setting appropriate boundaries and restrictions (disarming them) on what they are allowed to do within the human community. (And remember, it is in the mistaken belief that they could be equal partners that we sold them many of their weapons in the first place.)
Now, like all of these Truths About Everything, one's first reaction to this one might be that the information presented here is not only radical, but potentially inflammatory. But would be a misunderstanding. As Shakespeare said: "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players." In other words, if life here in our world is a play, which essentially it is, then each of us, whatever role we play, is an actor whose role at any given time in the play may be of child or adult, villain or hero, leader or follower, but as actors, as souls, again, we are all equally worthy of all that life has to offer.
We don't believe, of course, that a child deserves to be less safe, healthy or happy than an adult does, but we do know that a child is not ready to provide for the common good, yet, nor offer guidance, leadership or wisdom for others, yet, either. They are still learning how to survive and thrive in physical reality and must be taught this by their elders. Children, and young souls, are narcissistic by nature, in other words. Mature and old souls are more altruistic and giving by nature. This is why old souls live lifetimes primarily as teachers in one way or another.
After you read the soul age material, look around you, at everyone, and consider what soul age you are dealing with in each relationship. You will find your perspective and your levels of frustration shifting when you do. And remember, don't give the car keys to a 3-year old!
Of course, in our society, we are all (at least technically) equal under the law, and equally entitled to our "inalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And more deeply, everyone on Earth is part of the great oneness of All That Is, and all living beings are worthy of unconditional love, as set forth in Truth #2. None are abandoned by Source. Ever.
However... a main cause of many personal and social conflicts, even of wars, is that we do not recognize that we are also different from each other in some very significant ways, and I am not referring to customs or languages, but something essentially much deeper.
For several years in the 1990s, I struggled with a riddle as a therapist. Why would some patients I worked with in therapy progress further and more rapidly than others when their overall character structure, relative backgrounds, childhood experiences and genuine commitment to their process was pretty much the same, and my approach and commitment as their therapist was a constant? What was the "X factor" in my clients' progressions through their self-work? Why did some seem to have different "ceilings" or thresholds as to how far they were able to raise their consciousnesses?
At a certain point in my pondering, I began drawing the conclusion that it must be a soul/energy issue. In other words, it seemed to me that some human beings incarnated with more of their Higher Self consciousness in tow, so to speak. I thought, perhaps in the same way that we devote different amounts of energy to different areas of our lives - work, love, child-rearing, leisure - maybe our Higher Selves invest different amounts of energy into different lifetimes. This idea seemed to work, seemed to make sense, but yet I didn't feel quite settled with it.
Then, not shortly after I considered the above idea, I came across a book called, "Upcoming Changes," by Joya Pope. The book was interesting enough until I got to the chapters on "Soul Ages." As I eagerly read that material, the proverbial lightbulb went off big time. Click. Click. Click. Yes. Yes. Yes. Now, it made sense.
The information Pope channeled basically laid out systematically and eloquently how just as human beings go through a physical developmental process, so too do our spiritual selves go through a process of growth and evolution. In other words, just as we grow from babies to adults physically over the course of one lifetime, our souls also evolve over many lifetimes through stages similar to infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elder. Her descriptions of the various soul ages were so spot on, and the implications so profound, that they dramatically effected my understanding of people, and of our world, not to mention shifting the way I worked and thought as a therapist.
Here's Joya Pope on Soul Ages:
"On each physical plane, existence changes and deepens the essence's point of view. This involves going through developmental levels - Infant, Baby, Young, Mature, and Old Soul. This is an extraordinarily long 'game' we are talking about, at least from the earthly perspective. Soul age refers to how a person has grown from experience on the planet, not just to how many lifetimes he or she has lived. No person, essence or entity is "ahead" or "behind" any other, but is simply occupying another place in the continuous circle leading to and from the Tao. Ways of being are supposed to be different in different developmental stages; at some point we experience it all, moving continually along to different levels of understanding and responsibility."
Wow! So, just as there are physical babies, there are baby souls. Just as there are physical adults, there are adult souls. Etc. Etc. And just as it would be irrational to expect a physical baby to be able to feed and shelter itself, or to drive a car or have sex, it is equally irrational to expect a baby soul, even in an adult physical body, to attain higher states of consciousness much beyond the accomplishments of reflex and survival. Baby souls, in other words, generally live simple lives, with simplistic beliefs, focused on getting their basic needs met, very often by seeking others to manage the provision of those needs.
Here's Joya Pope on one aspect of baby souls:
"Structure helps Baby Souls to feel comfortable in the world. They want to be directed and therefore seek out higher authorities who are willing to lay out clear rules for them. As a small example of this, they would rarely defend their child to the school principal, but push to make the child act acceptably to the teachers and administration. Sometimes a Baby Soul will seek out - even again and again - discipline from the prison system as a way to civilize himself. This soul age will hold traditional religious leaders in esteem, turn doctors into gods, and likely feel their country, their army, and certain politicians, can do no wrong."
[Not to be political here, but obviously, the so-called "Conservative Movement" in our society could perhaps more accurately be called the "Baby Soul Society." Sorry, I couldn't resist.]
The personal and social ramifications of this understanding, or the lack of it, are tremendous.
If you are a mature soul and you mistakenly assume that your young soul boyfriend is also a mature soul, you will conclude in frustration that his self-centered egotism is a deliberate assault on your integrity, rather than a measure of his "immaturity" at the soul level. Instead of accepting who he is, and moving on to a relationship with someone who is on your level, you will stay and fight, futilely, to try and get him to be someone he is not yet ready to be.
Likewise, if a predominantly mature soul country, like the United States (believe it or not), assumes that baby soul countries, like Iraq or Afghanistan, are maturational equals (in spite of the fact that they require women to hide their faces, still publicly stone people to death for adultery and commit suicide in hopes that there will be virgins in Heaven for them to have sex with), then we will uselessly bomb them into oblivion instead of helping them feel more secure and less threatened in the world, while simultaneously setting appropriate boundaries and restrictions (disarming them) on what they are allowed to do within the human community. (And remember, it is in the mistaken belief that they could be equal partners that we sold them many of their weapons in the first place.)
Now, like all of these Truths About Everything, one's first reaction to this one might be that the information presented here is not only radical, but potentially inflammatory. But would be a misunderstanding. As Shakespeare said: "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players." In other words, if life here in our world is a play, which essentially it is, then each of us, whatever role we play, is an actor whose role at any given time in the play may be of child or adult, villain or hero, leader or follower, but as actors, as souls, again, we are all equally worthy of all that life has to offer.
We don't believe, of course, that a child deserves to be less safe, healthy or happy than an adult does, but we do know that a child is not ready to provide for the common good, yet, nor offer guidance, leadership or wisdom for others, yet, either. They are still learning how to survive and thrive in physical reality and must be taught this by their elders. Children, and young souls, are narcissistic by nature, in other words. Mature and old souls are more altruistic and giving by nature. This is why old souls live lifetimes primarily as teachers in one way or another.
After you read the soul age material, look around you, at everyone, and consider what soul age you are dealing with in each relationship. You will find your perspective and your levels of frustration shifting when you do. And remember, don't give the car keys to a 3-year old!
REPOST: "THE EGO AND THE SOUL: HOW FAR THE JOURNEY GOES!"
This is an excerpt from a class I taught in 2001 at my Institute for Full Permission Living. The particular class was entitled: "Beyond Therapy."
This is a very important subject, addressing the question of why some people go further than others, even though they may be engaged in the same therapeutic process.
Here's the excerpt:
What determines how far a person can go at any one time in an evolutionary process? The methodology of the therapy we have practiced offers techniques for increasing self-awareness and understanding, uncovering beliefs and freeing up feelings. Those are essential ingredients needed for actualizing the goal of fulfilled living. No therapy, however, nor any techniques, can overrule a person’s free will. That is one of the basic ingredients of being sentient and conscious, that we possess “will-power” - even to disregard our own natural instincts, even to thwart our own fulfillment. Our free will cannot be taken away from us. Even under the most controlled of circumstances, such as being literally imprisoned, human beings can still exert their free will finally by ending their own lives if they choose to.
But what might cause a person to hold back from surrendering the ego’s self-will when doing so would lead to freedom and pleasure in life? Why would someone “choose” to stay in a seemingly less evolved place, and what are the implications for us as therapists and generally as people in relationships in such cases?
All of the great spiritual teachings available to us, both ancient and modern, at some point speak of a kind of “giving up of the self” as the task in an advanced phase of development. In addition to the great fear of the unknown that this inspires, it also calls for the release of one’s identification with the ego’s self-will. This requires the elimination of pride as a force in one’s consciousness. To many, this will seems like the equivalent of death or annihilation. Thus, even after the achievement of much emotional freedom and a great deal of self-awareness, there can still be resistance to further letting go. While most of us experience a certain level of this “death of the ego” when we go to sleep, meditate or have an orgasm, to live that way seems, in most people’s imaginations, to be the equivalent of non-existence. In fact, the ego does not die in such moments; it is merely released from all but its one proper function - that of observing.
Pathwork Guide: “Man believes this split-off ego-consciousness to be his real self...Thus, the ego maintains itself with pride. It maintains its separate state by creating an unreal, artificial conflict between the self and others. It is always ‘I versus you’ and this always creates a spirit of one-upmanship.”
Epstein: “It is the self-concept, the representational part of the ego...that is the target of Buddhist insight...the self-representation is revealed as lacking concrete existence...Thus, meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego; it is a method of using ego to observe and tame its own manifestations. Development of the capacity to attend to the moment-to-moment nature of mind allows the self to be experienced without the distortions of idealization or wishful fantasy.”
Another angle from which to understand why a person embarked on an accelerated evolutionary path may seem to hit a plateau in their “forward” motion is based on the notion of reincarnation as a developmental process, like growing up, and that each soul, therefore, may be at a particular “age” in their cycle of lifetimes. According to Joya Pope (Upcoming Changes), human souls are all in different stages in their reincarnational cycles on earth. She calls these stages “soul ages.” Just as we develop within the course of one lifetime from infants to adults, so too do souls develop over the course of many lifetimes. This may be one reason why people of the same basic age and background, for example, even two people from the same family can have such different characteristics and very different levels of maturity. It may also be why several people with the same basic character structure elements due to early childhood experiences may have quite different levels of functioning and progress differently in their therapy process. (I have tended to think of this difference between people regarding their spiritual development as a function of how much soul energy they have brought into a particular lifetime. In other words, someone leading a rather undeveloped, simplistic and not very self-aware life, yet perhaps living in a relative state of comfort with set routines and rituals, etc., I have thought of as someone who has not brought a lot of soul energy into that particular lifetime. Joya Pope would say that this is a “baby soul”, not totally brand new to life on earth, but close.)
On this continuum, one could envision that souls may bring in increasing amounts of energy with each incarnation, passing through a sort of spiritual childhood, adolescence, adulthood and maturity . Regarding the will issue, then, one might imagine that an adolescent or even young adult soul may strongly value and intensely cling to its newly blossomed human ego and the experience of asserting its will at that level above all else, while the mature, older souls may value the relaxation and peace that comes from surrendering the ego.
What does all of this mean for the practitioners of full-spectrum healing processes in their work with their clients? (And by implication, what does it mean for everyone engaged in the “business” of relationship?)
Any therapist in general is going to primarily attract and stay interested in working with people basically of the same relative level of development, or soul age, as himself or herself, with the therapist perhaps slightly ahead initially within the respective soul-age range. So, if the therapist is very ego-based, oriented towards relationships of control and outer accomplishments, a “young soul” according to Pope, he or she will attract clients with that kind of attitude and approach towards life. Together, they may enhance each other’s development and growth processes substantially, especially in external ways, though their relationship may be fraught with power struggles. An old soul, on the other hand, will mainly be interested in working with other old souls, with the focus of therapy being the enrichment of spiritual life first, and then learning how to blend that spirituality harmoniously and pleasurably with material abundance and physical well-being. (According to Pope, and my experience corroborates this, many an old soul will go through a period of material and financial struggle or impoverishment due to a lack of ambition in this area, while they are pursuing spiritual matters.)
A therapist may also attract some patients who are at a significantly earlier level of development or soul age than the therapist, or the therapist may evolve himself to a more developed place than when the initial relationship began with a particular patient. This can put him in conflict with his patient, especially if said patient hasn’t evolved at the same pace. In such a case, the therapist could become impatient, bored or pushy, or think that the therapy is failing in some way. In fact, though, the pace of one’s growth is not something that is only a function of the therapy. Accepting and recognizing that there are forces at work in a human being’s life that are not subject to the interventions of another is a crucial task of the maturing guide (and the maturing person in relationships).
Does this mean that people have developmental “ceilings” in a lifetime, places beyond which they “can’t” go due to lack of soul age or energy? Perhaps, but not necessarily so. Each soul comes in with a particular task or set of tasks to undertake and experience, and as such sets the stage for their development by arranging certain parameters (choice of parents and environment, gender and genetic make-up, time period, character structures, etc.). Those parameters will appear to be limitations to some extent in a lifetime as to how far a person can go in terms of self-awareness, understanding, knowingness and the capacity to love and experience pleasure. However, as the Pathwork Guide describes in some of its lectures, it is possible for a soul, upon completion of a particular task set forth in a lifetime to reach a certain level, to reincarnate again within the same lifetime.
This reincarnation within an incarnation will often manifest as a dramatic change in direction, lifestyle and attitude toward the main areas of life (i.e. - relationships and work) and very often take the form of some kind of crisis .
The Guide: “A person who is truly on a path of accelerated development can and frequently does literally reincarnate in the same lifetime...if the personality is truly devoted to give all of itself to his own fulfillment and expansion and to his capacity to change its inherent seed plan. Now, I say that a path such as this one...is indeed a very rare and intense one.”
A therapist can only be a supportive and reflective observer for patient going through such a dramatic shift. Such a change in life-tasks and parameters would also imply that the therapist’s place in that person’s life would also be dramatically altered. The nature of the relationship would surely change and could “end” altogether, at least in present time and in its present form. Likewise, if the therapist goes through such a reincarnation within a lifetime, his relationships with his clients will be pushed forcefully to a new place. Similarly, those shifts may bring about a new level of equality and mutuality between therapist and patient, or bring about an ending for the time being.
This is a very important subject, addressing the question of why some people go further than others, even though they may be engaged in the same therapeutic process.
Here's the excerpt:
What determines how far a person can go at any one time in an evolutionary process? The methodology of the therapy we have practiced offers techniques for increasing self-awareness and understanding, uncovering beliefs and freeing up feelings. Those are essential ingredients needed for actualizing the goal of fulfilled living. No therapy, however, nor any techniques, can overrule a person’s free will. That is one of the basic ingredients of being sentient and conscious, that we possess “will-power” - even to disregard our own natural instincts, even to thwart our own fulfillment. Our free will cannot be taken away from us. Even under the most controlled of circumstances, such as being literally imprisoned, human beings can still exert their free will finally by ending their own lives if they choose to.
But what might cause a person to hold back from surrendering the ego’s self-will when doing so would lead to freedom and pleasure in life? Why would someone “choose” to stay in a seemingly less evolved place, and what are the implications for us as therapists and generally as people in relationships in such cases?
All of the great spiritual teachings available to us, both ancient and modern, at some point speak of a kind of “giving up of the self” as the task in an advanced phase of development. In addition to the great fear of the unknown that this inspires, it also calls for the release of one’s identification with the ego’s self-will. This requires the elimination of pride as a force in one’s consciousness. To many, this will seems like the equivalent of death or annihilation. Thus, even after the achievement of much emotional freedom and a great deal of self-awareness, there can still be resistance to further letting go. While most of us experience a certain level of this “death of the ego” when we go to sleep, meditate or have an orgasm, to live that way seems, in most people’s imaginations, to be the equivalent of non-existence. In fact, the ego does not die in such moments; it is merely released from all but its one proper function - that of observing.
Pathwork Guide: “Man believes this split-off ego-consciousness to be his real self...Thus, the ego maintains itself with pride. It maintains its separate state by creating an unreal, artificial conflict between the self and others. It is always ‘I versus you’ and this always creates a spirit of one-upmanship.”
Epstein: “It is the self-concept, the representational part of the ego...that is the target of Buddhist insight...the self-representation is revealed as lacking concrete existence...Thus, meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego; it is a method of using ego to observe and tame its own manifestations. Development of the capacity to attend to the moment-to-moment nature of mind allows the self to be experienced without the distortions of idealization or wishful fantasy.”
Another angle from which to understand why a person embarked on an accelerated evolutionary path may seem to hit a plateau in their “forward” motion is based on the notion of reincarnation as a developmental process, like growing up, and that each soul, therefore, may be at a particular “age” in their cycle of lifetimes. According to Joya Pope (Upcoming Changes), human souls are all in different stages in their reincarnational cycles on earth. She calls these stages “soul ages.” Just as we develop within the course of one lifetime from infants to adults, so too do souls develop over the course of many lifetimes. This may be one reason why people of the same basic age and background, for example, even two people from the same family can have such different characteristics and very different levels of maturity. It may also be why several people with the same basic character structure elements due to early childhood experiences may have quite different levels of functioning and progress differently in their therapy process. (I have tended to think of this difference between people regarding their spiritual development as a function of how much soul energy they have brought into a particular lifetime. In other words, someone leading a rather undeveloped, simplistic and not very self-aware life, yet perhaps living in a relative state of comfort with set routines and rituals, etc., I have thought of as someone who has not brought a lot of soul energy into that particular lifetime. Joya Pope would say that this is a “baby soul”, not totally brand new to life on earth, but close.)
On this continuum, one could envision that souls may bring in increasing amounts of energy with each incarnation, passing through a sort of spiritual childhood, adolescence, adulthood and maturity . Regarding the will issue, then, one might imagine that an adolescent or even young adult soul may strongly value and intensely cling to its newly blossomed human ego and the experience of asserting its will at that level above all else, while the mature, older souls may value the relaxation and peace that comes from surrendering the ego.
What does all of this mean for the practitioners of full-spectrum healing processes in their work with their clients? (And by implication, what does it mean for everyone engaged in the “business” of relationship?)
Any therapist in general is going to primarily attract and stay interested in working with people basically of the same relative level of development, or soul age, as himself or herself, with the therapist perhaps slightly ahead initially within the respective soul-age range. So, if the therapist is very ego-based, oriented towards relationships of control and outer accomplishments, a “young soul” according to Pope, he or she will attract clients with that kind of attitude and approach towards life. Together, they may enhance each other’s development and growth processes substantially, especially in external ways, though their relationship may be fraught with power struggles. An old soul, on the other hand, will mainly be interested in working with other old souls, with the focus of therapy being the enrichment of spiritual life first, and then learning how to blend that spirituality harmoniously and pleasurably with material abundance and physical well-being. (According to Pope, and my experience corroborates this, many an old soul will go through a period of material and financial struggle or impoverishment due to a lack of ambition in this area, while they are pursuing spiritual matters.)
A therapist may also attract some patients who are at a significantly earlier level of development or soul age than the therapist, or the therapist may evolve himself to a more developed place than when the initial relationship began with a particular patient. This can put him in conflict with his patient, especially if said patient hasn’t evolved at the same pace. In such a case, the therapist could become impatient, bored or pushy, or think that the therapy is failing in some way. In fact, though, the pace of one’s growth is not something that is only a function of the therapy. Accepting and recognizing that there are forces at work in a human being’s life that are not subject to the interventions of another is a crucial task of the maturing guide (and the maturing person in relationships).
Does this mean that people have developmental “ceilings” in a lifetime, places beyond which they “can’t” go due to lack of soul age or energy? Perhaps, but not necessarily so. Each soul comes in with a particular task or set of tasks to undertake and experience, and as such sets the stage for their development by arranging certain parameters (choice of parents and environment, gender and genetic make-up, time period, character structures, etc.). Those parameters will appear to be limitations to some extent in a lifetime as to how far a person can go in terms of self-awareness, understanding, knowingness and the capacity to love and experience pleasure. However, as the Pathwork Guide describes in some of its lectures, it is possible for a soul, upon completion of a particular task set forth in a lifetime to reach a certain level, to reincarnate again within the same lifetime.
This reincarnation within an incarnation will often manifest as a dramatic change in direction, lifestyle and attitude toward the main areas of life (i.e. - relationships and work) and very often take the form of some kind of crisis .
The Guide: “A person who is truly on a path of accelerated development can and frequently does literally reincarnate in the same lifetime...if the personality is truly devoted to give all of itself to his own fulfillment and expansion and to his capacity to change its inherent seed plan. Now, I say that a path such as this one...is indeed a very rare and intense one.”
A therapist can only be a supportive and reflective observer for patient going through such a dramatic shift. Such a change in life-tasks and parameters would also imply that the therapist’s place in that person’s life would also be dramatically altered. The nature of the relationship would surely change and could “end” altogether, at least in present time and in its present form. Likewise, if the therapist goes through such a reincarnation within a lifetime, his relationships with his clients will be pushed forcefully to a new place. Similarly, those shifts may bring about a new level of equality and mutuality between therapist and patient, or bring about an ending for the time being.
BAD APPLES ROTTEN TO THE CORE! CHURCH SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN KNOWN FOR AT LEAST A CENTURY!!/PL COMMENTS!
Here's a clip from the news story first:
LOS ANGELES — The head of a Roman Catholic order that specialized in the treatment of pedophile priests visited with then-Pope Paul VI nearly 50 years ago and followed up with a letter recommending the removal of pedophile priests from ministry, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
In the Aug. 27, 1963, letter, the head of the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete tells the pope he recommends removing pedophile priests from active ministry and strongly urges defrocking repeat offenders.
The letter shows that the Vatican knew, or should have known, about clergy abuse in the U.S. decades ago, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney in Los Angeles who provided the letter. The accusation comes as plaintiffs in Kentucky are attempting to sue the Vatican for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about priests who molested children.
Yet the problem was very well-known to Rome well before the 1960s. The 1917 code of canon law criminalized sexual abuse of minors. Five years later, the Vatican penned a document outlining detailed procedures for handling such cases. In 1962, that document was updated and has been used in many of the lawsuits by victims against U.S. diocese and the Vatican itself.
Here's PL:
Okay, obviously there's no more need for me to slam any particular defenders of the church at this point. They are toast, and hopefully, they are reconsidering their blind allegiance to authority.
So, let's try and understand the why of the situation at hand in this ongoing travesty.
When a problem goes back centuries, when there needs to be a "special order" created to deal with it, it is obviously not a "bad apple" problem; it is a systemic problem. Clearly, the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church has been rampant in many places for many, many years.
What is it, then, about this particular organization that leads to this kind of particular dysfunction.
Well, I've been writing for a while on this blog about sexual repression and the very serious damage it does across all aspects of our society. Sigmund Freud, of course, wrote extensively about the subject over a century ago. He illuminated not only the reality that human beings are intensely sensual beings by nature right from infancy, but he also wrote about how and why certain institutions, like the church, sought to inhibit sexual expression.
Freud understood that in order for the Church to maintain its hold on its followers, it must be seen as all powerful by its followers. The Church understood this very well, which is why it established the incredible "Infallibility Doctrine," which unabashedly states that the Church and the Pope are incapable of erroneous policies or dogma! Whew!!
And of all of the forces driving human beings, the Church understood that sexual desire was the strongest, and therefore, the one the Church must seek to dominate (excuse the pun!) at all costs. Thus, for parishioners, sex for any purpose other than procreation between a heterosexual man and a woman was prohibited. For priests, who could only be men, sex was completely off limits. Oh, and these orders were, of course, infallible!
Okay, so, who would be drawn to join such an extremist organization, one in which the most powerful urges in our species were deemed unacceptable under all but the most proscribed conditions?
Well, it's Psychology 1.0 folks. Only people who have major issues around sexual expression, extreme guilt and shame combined with a harsh, oppressive conscience and an attraction to authoritarianism would seek out the ludicrous and maniacal restrictions of such a regime. And Psychology 2.0 will tell you that eventually, the rubber band will snap and the full force of the repressed, festered and now extremely distorted sexual urges will explode out in compulsive, destructive behavior, and that doesn't just mean child abuse; it mean all kinds of acting out, including violence.
One last point. The Church, of course, didn't create the people who've joined it. The Church is a manifestation of human ego which won't allow there to be a force greater than itself. The sexual force is first and foremost a spiritual force. It channels directly through us from our souls. Great sex, connected with love and Eros, blows the ego away, knocks it out. But if we haven't done the work necessary to deconstruct our ego, the ego will fight for control over us, even establishing a vast corporation like the Church to do its bidding.
Ahh... well, sorry, it always comes back down to that, doesn't it? Working on yourself. You name the evil - and we can certainly label the Church that way - and the solution is in-depth, determined, individual self-work.
Amen!
LOS ANGELES — The head of a Roman Catholic order that specialized in the treatment of pedophile priests visited with then-Pope Paul VI nearly 50 years ago and followed up with a letter recommending the removal of pedophile priests from ministry, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
In the Aug. 27, 1963, letter, the head of the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete tells the pope he recommends removing pedophile priests from active ministry and strongly urges defrocking repeat offenders.
The letter shows that the Vatican knew, or should have known, about clergy abuse in the U.S. decades ago, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney in Los Angeles who provided the letter. The accusation comes as plaintiffs in Kentucky are attempting to sue the Vatican for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about priests who molested children.
Yet the problem was very well-known to Rome well before the 1960s. The 1917 code of canon law criminalized sexual abuse of minors. Five years later, the Vatican penned a document outlining detailed procedures for handling such cases. In 1962, that document was updated and has been used in many of the lawsuits by victims against U.S. diocese and the Vatican itself.
Here's PL:
Okay, obviously there's no more need for me to slam any particular defenders of the church at this point. They are toast, and hopefully, they are reconsidering their blind allegiance to authority.
So, let's try and understand the why of the situation at hand in this ongoing travesty.
When a problem goes back centuries, when there needs to be a "special order" created to deal with it, it is obviously not a "bad apple" problem; it is a systemic problem. Clearly, the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church has been rampant in many places for many, many years.
What is it, then, about this particular organization that leads to this kind of particular dysfunction.
Well, I've been writing for a while on this blog about sexual repression and the very serious damage it does across all aspects of our society. Sigmund Freud, of course, wrote extensively about the subject over a century ago. He illuminated not only the reality that human beings are intensely sensual beings by nature right from infancy, but he also wrote about how and why certain institutions, like the church, sought to inhibit sexual expression.
Freud understood that in order for the Church to maintain its hold on its followers, it must be seen as all powerful by its followers. The Church understood this very well, which is why it established the incredible "Infallibility Doctrine," which unabashedly states that the Church and the Pope are incapable of erroneous policies or dogma! Whew!!
And of all of the forces driving human beings, the Church understood that sexual desire was the strongest, and therefore, the one the Church must seek to dominate (excuse the pun!) at all costs. Thus, for parishioners, sex for any purpose other than procreation between a heterosexual man and a woman was prohibited. For priests, who could only be men, sex was completely off limits. Oh, and these orders were, of course, infallible!
Okay, so, who would be drawn to join such an extremist organization, one in which the most powerful urges in our species were deemed unacceptable under all but the most proscribed conditions?
Well, it's Psychology 1.0 folks. Only people who have major issues around sexual expression, extreme guilt and shame combined with a harsh, oppressive conscience and an attraction to authoritarianism would seek out the ludicrous and maniacal restrictions of such a regime. And Psychology 2.0 will tell you that eventually, the rubber band will snap and the full force of the repressed, festered and now extremely distorted sexual urges will explode out in compulsive, destructive behavior, and that doesn't just mean child abuse; it mean all kinds of acting out, including violence.
One last point. The Church, of course, didn't create the people who've joined it. The Church is a manifestation of human ego which won't allow there to be a force greater than itself. The sexual force is first and foremost a spiritual force. It channels directly through us from our souls. Great sex, connected with love and Eros, blows the ego away, knocks it out. But if we haven't done the work necessary to deconstruct our ego, the ego will fight for control over us, even establishing a vast corporation like the Church to do its bidding.
Ahh... well, sorry, it always comes back down to that, doesn't it? Working on yourself. You name the evil - and we can certainly label the Church that way - and the solution is in-depth, determined, individual self-work.
Amen!
I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY! ARREST THE POPE, FORGIVE THE BEATLES?!
In a surreal lyrical juxtaposition worthy of Lennon and McCartney, a movement, spearheaded by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, to have the Pope arrested is gaining some legal traction, while the Vatican has decided that The Beatles were, after all, a really great musical group!
Here's Dawkins:
"This man [Pope Benedict] is a leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence."
Here's Hitchens:
"This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalized concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment."
Meanwhile, here's Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor in chief of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper:
"It's true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives. They even said they were more famous than Jesus. But, listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels."
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE?
Here's Dawkins:
"This man [Pope Benedict] is a leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence."
Here's Hitchens:
"This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalized concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment."
Meanwhile, here's Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor in chief of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper:
"It's true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives. They even said they were more famous than Jesus. But, listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels."
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE?
Baby Souls
Understanding that human beings are all the same in certain ways, and as such entitled to equal treatment and valuation under the law, is a foundation of civilization. Just as important, though, is recognizing that we are all different from each other in significant ways as well. Too often, we get angry at each other, on an individual basis and en masse, because we don't accept our differences. We actually don't even really believe in our differences, especially and including at the "soul development" level.
A most excellent description of the differences between souls, called "Soul Ages" was written about by Joya Pope in her book, "Upcoming Changes." In the book, Ms. Pope explains how an evolving soul, just like a developing human being, can be at various stages in their growth process. Understanding this can change the way we deal with others in a very productive way. Just as you wouldn't expect a 3-year old to drive herself to preschool or make his own dinner, you wouldn't expect a "Baby Soul," to be able to embrace liberal, democratic self-government or guilt-free, uninhibited sexuality.
If we could understand this, for example, about religious fundamentalists - whether in the Middle East or middle America - we would realize that we can't force "democracy" or enlightened points of view on them. In their own exploitive ways, Republicans, and of late, Hillary Clinton, have understood this and used it to their advantage. In the United States, however, there are also a large number of "Mature Souls" counterbalancing the number of Baby Souls, so our government shifts back and forth between conservative and liberal forces on a fairly regular basis. The intense battle between the two main Democratic contenders for the presidency right now is an example of this conflict.
Below are some excerpts from the "Baby Soul" section of Joya's book. See what you think, and see if you recognize anyone you know!
Here's Joya Pope:
"Structure helps Baby Souls to feel comfortable in the world. They want to be directed and therefore seek out higher authorities who are willing to lay out clear rules for them. As a small example of this, a Baby Soul (in an adult human body) would rarely defend their child's rights to the school principal, but rather would push to make the child act acceptably to the teachers and administration. Sometimes a Baby Soul will seek out - even again and again - discipline from the prison system as a way to civilize himself. This soul age will hold traditional religious leaders in esteem, turn doctors into gods, and likely feel their country, their army, and certain politicians, can do no wrong.
"Traditions, rituals, and law and order provide a welcome sense of security.
In a dogmatic, black-and-white way, they identify right from wrong. Usually conscientiously good citizens, they can be counted on to do the "right" thing, but this is also the soul age with the greatest propensity to long-term grudge holding.
"The Ku Klux Klan would be a Baby Soul organization on the negative end of the spectrum, while many service organizations like the Knights of Columbus or the Rotary Club would be on the more positive end. Anti-abortion organizations, school prayer promoters, and fire-and-brimstone preachers all tend to emerge out of Baby Soul consciousness and concerns. Preferring to be big fish in small ponds, Baby Souls are often found in small communities.
"When their beliefs are opposed, Baby Souls may become inwardly bewildered. Baby Souls are so sure they are right that they have difficulty comprehending opposition. This is not a self-reflective phase.
When dealing with physical problems, Baby Souls ordinarily prefer conventional medicine, medications and surgery. Considering alternative therapies or looking for the root of the problem doesn't make sense to their way of approaching the body. With the exception of so-called "healing" within charismatic churches, this soul age is sold on orthodox medicine.
Around sexual matters, there is uneasiness, shame and guilt. This is not a time for hot tub entertaining, but hiding bodies, making love in the dark - probably with pajamas and without great sensuality.
"Baby Souls sometimes come into prominence. They don't often look for a big stage, not having the resourcefulness or experience to handle it well, but they may gather fame for their unyielding political or religious beliefs. Jerry Falwell is a prominent religious leader with Baby Soul beliefs; Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, two others. Idi Amin, Hitler, Khomeini, Bin Laden, etc., and, in the United States, Richard Nixon, Evan Mecham, Jesse Helms and some of our more rigidly conservative Governors, Congressmen and Senators are examples of Baby Souls putting out their world views on a larger scale. Pat Boone and Charleton Heston were among the few Baby Souls peopling the entertainment business!"
Hey, Joya - don't forget Ronald Reagan, who not only liked to eat jelly beans in the Oval Office, but also called his wife, "Mommy!"
A most excellent description of the differences between souls, called "Soul Ages" was written about by Joya Pope in her book, "Upcoming Changes." In the book, Ms. Pope explains how an evolving soul, just like a developing human being, can be at various stages in their growth process. Understanding this can change the way we deal with others in a very productive way. Just as you wouldn't expect a 3-year old to drive herself to preschool or make his own dinner, you wouldn't expect a "Baby Soul," to be able to embrace liberal, democratic self-government or guilt-free, uninhibited sexuality.
If we could understand this, for example, about religious fundamentalists - whether in the Middle East or middle America - we would realize that we can't force "democracy" or enlightened points of view on them. In their own exploitive ways, Republicans, and of late, Hillary Clinton, have understood this and used it to their advantage. In the United States, however, there are also a large number of "Mature Souls" counterbalancing the number of Baby Souls, so our government shifts back and forth between conservative and liberal forces on a fairly regular basis. The intense battle between the two main Democratic contenders for the presidency right now is an example of this conflict.
Below are some excerpts from the "Baby Soul" section of Joya's book. See what you think, and see if you recognize anyone you know!
Here's Joya Pope:
"Structure helps Baby Souls to feel comfortable in the world. They want to be directed and therefore seek out higher authorities who are willing to lay out clear rules for them. As a small example of this, a Baby Soul (in an adult human body) would rarely defend their child's rights to the school principal, but rather would push to make the child act acceptably to the teachers and administration. Sometimes a Baby Soul will seek out - even again and again - discipline from the prison system as a way to civilize himself. This soul age will hold traditional religious leaders in esteem, turn doctors into gods, and likely feel their country, their army, and certain politicians, can do no wrong.
"Traditions, rituals, and law and order provide a welcome sense of security.
In a dogmatic, black-and-white way, they identify right from wrong. Usually conscientiously good citizens, they can be counted on to do the "right" thing, but this is also the soul age with the greatest propensity to long-term grudge holding.
"The Ku Klux Klan would be a Baby Soul organization on the negative end of the spectrum, while many service organizations like the Knights of Columbus or the Rotary Club would be on the more positive end. Anti-abortion organizations, school prayer promoters, and fire-and-brimstone preachers all tend to emerge out of Baby Soul consciousness and concerns. Preferring to be big fish in small ponds, Baby Souls are often found in small communities.
"When their beliefs are opposed, Baby Souls may become inwardly bewildered. Baby Souls are so sure they are right that they have difficulty comprehending opposition. This is not a self-reflective phase.
When dealing with physical problems, Baby Souls ordinarily prefer conventional medicine, medications and surgery. Considering alternative therapies or looking for the root of the problem doesn't make sense to their way of approaching the body. With the exception of so-called "healing" within charismatic churches, this soul age is sold on orthodox medicine.
Around sexual matters, there is uneasiness, shame and guilt. This is not a time for hot tub entertaining, but hiding bodies, making love in the dark - probably with pajamas and without great sensuality.
"Baby Souls sometimes come into prominence. They don't often look for a big stage, not having the resourcefulness or experience to handle it well, but they may gather fame for their unyielding political or religious beliefs. Jerry Falwell is a prominent religious leader with Baby Soul beliefs; Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, two others. Idi Amin, Hitler, Khomeini, Bin Laden, etc., and, in the United States, Richard Nixon, Evan Mecham, Jesse Helms and some of our more rigidly conservative Governors, Congressmen and Senators are examples of Baby Souls putting out their world views on a larger scale. Pat Boone and Charleton Heston were among the few Baby Souls peopling the entertainment business!"
Hey, Joya - don't forget Ronald Reagan, who not only liked to eat jelly beans in the Oval Office, but also called his wife, "Mommy!"
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...THE POPE?!
You got that right. No one is immune to the vortex of energy we've been identifying as 5th Dimensional consciousness, not even the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation today, the first time a sitting pope has stepped down in almost 600 years! (Benedict, of course, was mired in the scandals of the Church covering up decades of sex abuse of parishioners, including children.)
I've been writing about the "Whatever happened to..." phenomenon for a while now, taking note of the unusually high number of people not only leaving the planet via the death experience (a record last year), but also those disappearing from our personal and collective realities by more or less receding into obscurity.
You can read some related posts HERE.
Meanwhile, all we can say as we keep shifting is...
SEE YA!
I've been writing about the "Whatever happened to..." phenomenon for a while now, taking note of the unusually high number of people not only leaving the planet via the death experience (a record last year), but also those disappearing from our personal and collective realities by more or less receding into obscurity.
You can read some related posts HERE.
Meanwhile, all we can say as we keep shifting is...
SEE YA!
3-D, 4-D, CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN AND... WHAT'S UP WITH FPL?!
Readers of this blog must wonder at times where I'm coming from.
On the same page, I can be talking about how we create our reality from within, no exceptions, we are all one and love is the essence of All That Is, and then scroll down and I'm calling the Pope and Mel Gibson crazy or ranting about the Park Slope Stepford Parents or listing lengthy and complex stages of healing in therapy.
What gives, PL?
Well, I'm glad you asked. I am indeed coming from more than one place on this blog.
At once, I am attempting to impart what I have discovered as spiritual truths about the nature of reality, truths that operate beyond three-dimensional existence, but incorporate 3-D, while simultaneously commenting on this physical/linear level of creation from a physical/linear perspective. It is an interesting, and I must admit, stimulating exercise.
I know that to heal the Pope in Rome, I have to heal the Pope in me that I've created. But it is kind of fun to lambaste and chastise the pontiffs whose dictates I felt tortured by in childhood every time I got angry or horny. Of course, now I know that I created those Popes, too, but nonetheless, the limitations of this game create challenges that I have clearly wanted to take on, so I pretended that Popes were outside of my creative abilities growing up.
Woah, what the heck are you talking about PL?!
What I'm saying, folks, is that it's all a game down here in 3-D physical reality on planet Earth, a game with rules that we made up and agreed to abide by... until we don't agree anymore. Since I've been writing screenplays and TV episodes, I've come to realize that the process of creating reality is exactly the same as the process of writing a movie. We choose the settings, the characters, the story lines and the timing of events, all in a somewhat structured, yet still very improvisational way. It really is fun... if you let it be, even if what you're writing is melodrama or horror.
Ahh... I hear the protests: "Suffering isn't fun, PL. And neither are war or poverty or racism or violence or oil spills!"
Well, first of all, to many individuals, being a warrior is very exciting, and ennobling poverty, or greed for that matter, are common approaches to life that people take pride in, and so on. Also, for a lot of other people, fighting against war and poverty and oil spills is a stimulating game that elevates their perceived sense of self.
That being said, however, we may be coming to a time when those games have been played-out for a majority of human beings, a time when we do in fact put an end to war and poverty because they're just not interesting story-lines anymore. "Boring. Been there, done that. Let's try experiencing alignment with unconditional love and oneness again, outside of the illusion of a space-time continuum."
It seems that many of us on Earth are ready to shift the game in that direction, into Fourth-Dimensional Reality, with the help of The Wave.
But don't mistakenly think that life on Earth is something to escape. It's not. We're here to experience being here, and ultimately to experience what unconditional love expresses itself like in three dimensions. It can be quite exquisitely pleasurable in its own very unique way once we really master the game.
You know, just before you reach the top of a mountain you've been climbing, the pain in your legs and the exhaustion may seem overwhelming, but if you continue on, the exhilaration from the view at the top of the mountain will be equally overwhelming in a joyful, awe-inspiring way. And maybe at that moment, it will all seem worth it.
Hey! Good game!!
On the same page, I can be talking about how we create our reality from within, no exceptions, we are all one and love is the essence of All That Is, and then scroll down and I'm calling the Pope and Mel Gibson crazy or ranting about the Park Slope Stepford Parents or listing lengthy and complex stages of healing in therapy.
What gives, PL?
Well, I'm glad you asked. I am indeed coming from more than one place on this blog.
At once, I am attempting to impart what I have discovered as spiritual truths about the nature of reality, truths that operate beyond three-dimensional existence, but incorporate 3-D, while simultaneously commenting on this physical/linear level of creation from a physical/linear perspective. It is an interesting, and I must admit, stimulating exercise.
I know that to heal the Pope in Rome, I have to heal the Pope in me that I've created. But it is kind of fun to lambaste and chastise the pontiffs whose dictates I felt tortured by in childhood every time I got angry or horny. Of course, now I know that I created those Popes, too, but nonetheless, the limitations of this game create challenges that I have clearly wanted to take on, so I pretended that Popes were outside of my creative abilities growing up.
Woah, what the heck are you talking about PL?!
What I'm saying, folks, is that it's all a game down here in 3-D physical reality on planet Earth, a game with rules that we made up and agreed to abide by... until we don't agree anymore. Since I've been writing screenplays and TV episodes, I've come to realize that the process of creating reality is exactly the same as the process of writing a movie. We choose the settings, the characters, the story lines and the timing of events, all in a somewhat structured, yet still very improvisational way. It really is fun... if you let it be, even if what you're writing is melodrama or horror.
Ahh... I hear the protests: "Suffering isn't fun, PL. And neither are war or poverty or racism or violence or oil spills!"
Well, first of all, to many individuals, being a warrior is very exciting, and ennobling poverty, or greed for that matter, are common approaches to life that people take pride in, and so on. Also, for a lot of other people, fighting against war and poverty and oil spills is a stimulating game that elevates their perceived sense of self.
That being said, however, we may be coming to a time when those games have been played-out for a majority of human beings, a time when we do in fact put an end to war and poverty because they're just not interesting story-lines anymore. "Boring. Been there, done that. Let's try experiencing alignment with unconditional love and oneness again, outside of the illusion of a space-time continuum."
It seems that many of us on Earth are ready to shift the game in that direction, into Fourth-Dimensional Reality, with the help of The Wave.
But don't mistakenly think that life on Earth is something to escape. It's not. We're here to experience being here, and ultimately to experience what unconditional love expresses itself like in three dimensions. It can be quite exquisitely pleasurable in its own very unique way once we really master the game.
You know, just before you reach the top of a mountain you've been climbing, the pain in your legs and the exhaustion may seem overwhelming, but if you continue on, the exhilaration from the view at the top of the mountain will be equally overwhelming in a joyful, awe-inspiring way. And maybe at that moment, it will all seem worth it.
Hey! Good game!!
BACK TO YOU, RICK? Church Sex Abuse Scandal Has Now Reached The Pope!/Catholic Church Child Abuse Claims Sweep Across Europe
Here are but two breaking stories this week on why I so particularly and relentlessly zero in on the Catholic Church:
VATICAN CITY — Germany's sex abuse scandal has now reached Pope Benedict XVI: His former archdiocese disclosed that while he was archbishop a suspected pedophile priest was transferred to a job where he later abused children.
The pontiff is also under increasing fire for a 2001 Vatican document he later penned instructing bishops to keep such cases secret.
The revelations have put the spotlight on Benedict's handling of abuse claims both when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977-1982 and then the prefect of the Vatican office that deals with such crimes.
DUBLIN — It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation's demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.
Ireland was the first in Europe to confront the church's worldwide custom of shielding pedophile priests from the law and public scandal. Now that legacy of suppressed childhood horror is being confronted in other parts of the Continent – nowhere more poignantly than in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI.
Yeah, right.
VATICAN CITY — Germany's sex abuse scandal has now reached Pope Benedict XVI: His former archdiocese disclosed that while he was archbishop a suspected pedophile priest was transferred to a job where he later abused children.
The pontiff is also under increasing fire for a 2001 Vatican document he later penned instructing bishops to keep such cases secret.
The revelations have put the spotlight on Benedict's handling of abuse claims both when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977-1982 and then the prefect of the Vatican office that deals with such crimes.
DUBLIN — It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation's demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.
Ireland was the first in Europe to confront the church's worldwide custom of shielding pedophile priests from the law and public scandal. Now that legacy of suppressed childhood horror is being confronted in other parts of the Continent – nowhere more poignantly than in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI.
Yeah, right.
WARNING! EXTREMELY UPSETTING HEADLINES THAT NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF SOUL AGE!!
In February, I posted two horrific stories (link HERE), stories of unspeakable brutality against two young girls, one in a middle eastern country (Turkey) and one in a third world country (Somalia). I'm adding a third incredible item from today's news. You will find these stories very upsetting, but there is a reason I am posting them here, something that I wish to illustrate.
On the right hand side of this blog there are several links to other sites. One of them is a link to a description of "SOUL AGES" from the book, "UPCOMING CHANGES," by Joya Pope. Understanding this concept - that we are not all the same in terms of our soul ages - is crucial to finding and establishing peace in our world, and in our own personal lives.
We all are aware of the phenomenon of how two people can be of the same chronological age, of the same demographic background, even from the same family circumstances, and yet be so entirely different. I have had this experience as a therapist as well. I am the same therapist with all of my patients, yet a sampling of my caseload would show that no two people, even with the similarities listed above and even demonstrating equal dedication to their healing process, progress at the same rate or to the same degree. This is beyond the nurture-nature debate, and beyond genetics. There is a soul element at work here, and what is clear is that at the soul level, no different than at the physical, we are on a continuum developmentally.
Just as a two-year old child will wantonly take whatever it wants from another toddler, even using physical violence for its aim, completely without any conscience about it whatsoever, even with sadistic pleasure, a "Baby Soul," though it may be in an adult physical body, can likewise live an entire lifetime wantonly using brutality to gratify its primal urges, and even take pleasure in the expression of its brutality.
Which brings me to today's terrible news story:
"Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, could be stoned to death at any moment under the terms of a death sentence handed down by Iranian authorities. Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately. Ashtiani, who is from the northern city of Tabriz, was convicted of adultery in 2006. She was forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes."
Sorry about that, readers, but I wanted to be graphic enough to make the point. Such behavior in a culture cannot be explained away by differences in political philosophy or religious beliefs, nor does it stand up to scrutiny to claim that these despicable acts are merely the manifestation of sexism (or even sexual repression which I've written about extensively on this blog) or racism or greed or any other psychological disturbances. Not when an entire culture is involved. There has to be yet another element involved for such large scale "insanity."
What is happening in countries or groups that act in this way is not very different in significant ways than what would happen if you put a group of two year olds together in a room and left them there indefinitely without an adult. Now, imagine if those abandoned two year olds had the bodies and brains of human adults, and had access to money and weapons.
Exactly.
So, here we are faced with this situation, assuming, of course, that in our culture we are mainly at least a combination of "YOUNG, MATURE AND OLD SOULS," and so, what should we do?
Well, if an adult entered that room of two-year olds, what would said adult do? Institute sanctions depriving them of milk and diapers? Bomb them? Wipe them all out? No. An adult would first take away any dangerous objects (weapons), then provide basic nourishment and boundaries, and guidance towards future socialization. Yes?
So, why are we at war with Baby Soul countries, where women are so oppressed that they have to cover their faces in public, and where men think that if they kill "infidels" in suicide missions they will be rewarded by getting to have sex in Heaven with 70 virgins?! (Why would any adult man want to have sex with even one virgin?!!?)
We are acting insanely ourselves, it would seem, and beneath our own developmental level, by warring against these people, aren't we? We should be containing them, yes, so they cannot inflict harm on others, but we should also be nurturing and guiding them, right? What gives?
Well, maybe to find the answer, we need to know at what soul age our leaders, who are making these decisions to go to war or not, are operating from.
I have written a lot on this blog about President Obama's status as an emotional "adult," in comparison with the "kids" who'd been running things for so long prior to 2008. Most politicians in the U.S. are "Young Souls," a hallmark of which is enormous egocentrism and a craving for power. "A Young Soul typically has little respect for anyone whose ideas are not their own," writes Joya Pope. "At this consciousness level, if one can make money or gain influence, the long term consequences of any act aren't terribly important. The problem with toxic wastes being dumped all over is one result of being in a Young Soul culture in a hurry to make a buck. While Young Souls are productive, industrious and goal oriented, their vision extends only so far, and they are not likely to question their motives or ethics."
Obama, operating more from a Mature Soul place, is "emotional centered," and according to Pope, to a mature soul, "All the wealth, power and acclaim aren't quite enough; profits and winning no longer have transcendental value." It is the beginning of "generativity", the desire to give back to the world and the next generation, which comes into full force in the Old Soul phase of spiritual development.
I do believe that Obama wants to get us out of the two wars he inherited, and I believe that his impulse is to find a way to reach out to these baby soul cultures and offer genuine assistance to them. That is why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
On a personal level, this is very relevant information, too. If you find yourself in conflict with someone who "just doesn't get it" or " just doesn't care" or is "out of control" emotionally, you are most likely dealing with a baby soul or a young soul. If you are not also a baby soul or young soul yourself (and you're probably not or you wouldn't be reading this blog), then it behooves you to step up as the mature or older soul in the situation and, regardless of everyone's titles, be the one in the guiding position. Yes, that may mean guiding your boss or parents, even though you've been used to deferring to such "authorities" throughout your life, because in the end, the older soul is the one best equipped to lead, especially in terms of consciousness.
So, sorry about the graphic news items, folks, but our tendency to stay asleep and simply look at such horror stories superficially slows our collective development down. Those of us who are mature or old souls need to step up, or step down from our mountaintop retreats, and assume the role of guides.
On the right hand side of this blog there are several links to other sites. One of them is a link to a description of "SOUL AGES" from the book, "UPCOMING CHANGES," by Joya Pope. Understanding this concept - that we are not all the same in terms of our soul ages - is crucial to finding and establishing peace in our world, and in our own personal lives.
We all are aware of the phenomenon of how two people can be of the same chronological age, of the same demographic background, even from the same family circumstances, and yet be so entirely different. I have had this experience as a therapist as well. I am the same therapist with all of my patients, yet a sampling of my caseload would show that no two people, even with the similarities listed above and even demonstrating equal dedication to their healing process, progress at the same rate or to the same degree. This is beyond the nurture-nature debate, and beyond genetics. There is a soul element at work here, and what is clear is that at the soul level, no different than at the physical, we are on a continuum developmentally.
Just as a two-year old child will wantonly take whatever it wants from another toddler, even using physical violence for its aim, completely without any conscience about it whatsoever, even with sadistic pleasure, a "Baby Soul," though it may be in an adult physical body, can likewise live an entire lifetime wantonly using brutality to gratify its primal urges, and even take pleasure in the expression of its brutality.
Which brings me to today's terrible news story:
"Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, could be stoned to death at any moment under the terms of a death sentence handed down by Iranian authorities. Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately. Ashtiani, who is from the northern city of Tabriz, was convicted of adultery in 2006. She was forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes."
Sorry about that, readers, but I wanted to be graphic enough to make the point. Such behavior in a culture cannot be explained away by differences in political philosophy or religious beliefs, nor does it stand up to scrutiny to claim that these despicable acts are merely the manifestation of sexism (or even sexual repression which I've written about extensively on this blog) or racism or greed or any other psychological disturbances. Not when an entire culture is involved. There has to be yet another element involved for such large scale "insanity."
What is happening in countries or groups that act in this way is not very different in significant ways than what would happen if you put a group of two year olds together in a room and left them there indefinitely without an adult. Now, imagine if those abandoned two year olds had the bodies and brains of human adults, and had access to money and weapons.
Exactly.
So, here we are faced with this situation, assuming, of course, that in our culture we are mainly at least a combination of "YOUNG, MATURE AND OLD SOULS," and so, what should we do?
Well, if an adult entered that room of two-year olds, what would said adult do? Institute sanctions depriving them of milk and diapers? Bomb them? Wipe them all out? No. An adult would first take away any dangerous objects (weapons), then provide basic nourishment and boundaries, and guidance towards future socialization. Yes?
So, why are we at war with Baby Soul countries, where women are so oppressed that they have to cover their faces in public, and where men think that if they kill "infidels" in suicide missions they will be rewarded by getting to have sex in Heaven with 70 virgins?! (Why would any adult man want to have sex with even one virgin?!!?)
We are acting insanely ourselves, it would seem, and beneath our own developmental level, by warring against these people, aren't we? We should be containing them, yes, so they cannot inflict harm on others, but we should also be nurturing and guiding them, right? What gives?
Well, maybe to find the answer, we need to know at what soul age our leaders, who are making these decisions to go to war or not, are operating from.
I have written a lot on this blog about President Obama's status as an emotional "adult," in comparison with the "kids" who'd been running things for so long prior to 2008. Most politicians in the U.S. are "Young Souls," a hallmark of which is enormous egocentrism and a craving for power. "A Young Soul typically has little respect for anyone whose ideas are not their own," writes Joya Pope. "At this consciousness level, if one can make money or gain influence, the long term consequences of any act aren't terribly important. The problem with toxic wastes being dumped all over is one result of being in a Young Soul culture in a hurry to make a buck. While Young Souls are productive, industrious and goal oriented, their vision extends only so far, and they are not likely to question their motives or ethics."
Obama, operating more from a Mature Soul place, is "emotional centered," and according to Pope, to a mature soul, "All the wealth, power and acclaim aren't quite enough; profits and winning no longer have transcendental value." It is the beginning of "generativity", the desire to give back to the world and the next generation, which comes into full force in the Old Soul phase of spiritual development.
I do believe that Obama wants to get us out of the two wars he inherited, and I believe that his impulse is to find a way to reach out to these baby soul cultures and offer genuine assistance to them. That is why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
On a personal level, this is very relevant information, too. If you find yourself in conflict with someone who "just doesn't get it" or " just doesn't care" or is "out of control" emotionally, you are most likely dealing with a baby soul or a young soul. If you are not also a baby soul or young soul yourself (and you're probably not or you wouldn't be reading this blog), then it behooves you to step up as the mature or older soul in the situation and, regardless of everyone's titles, be the one in the guiding position. Yes, that may mean guiding your boss or parents, even though you've been used to deferring to such "authorities" throughout your life, because in the end, the older soul is the one best equipped to lead, especially in terms of consciousness.
So, sorry about the graphic news items, folks, but our tendency to stay asleep and simply look at such horror stories superficially slows our collective development down. Those of us who are mature or old souls need to step up, or step down from our mountaintop retreats, and assume the role of guides.
MORE ON "THE WAVE!" - THE POPE EXPOSED!
"Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit."
Hello?
Hello?
TODAY'S HISTORICAL POPE NOTE!
Exactly four hundred years ago in 1610, Galileo Galilei published The Starry Messenger, a book that defined his monumental theory that the sun - not the earth - is the center of the solar system. Galileo's theory flew in the face of long-established Catholic dogma that the earth does not move. Eventually, Galileo would collide with the awesome power of the Pope.
In 1632, Galileo faced trial for heresy, a capital offense. During his trial, Galileo was threatened with the instruments of torture that were maliciously brandished in his face. Under duress of the dual threats of torture and execution, Galileo recanted - but he lived under house arrest for the rest of his life in a form of suspended animation rather like Aun Sang Suu Kii, and he became the Renaissance icon of injustice and the overarching powers of the Papacy. For these reasons, Galileo is indisputably the most iconic figure of scientific persecution, a genius whose ideas displaced religious orthodoxy with reason and fundamentalist fantasies with rational analysis.
In 1632, Galileo faced trial for heresy, a capital offense. During his trial, Galileo was threatened with the instruments of torture that were maliciously brandished in his face. Under duress of the dual threats of torture and execution, Galileo recanted - but he lived under house arrest for the rest of his life in a form of suspended animation rather like Aun Sang Suu Kii, and he became the Renaissance icon of injustice and the overarching powers of the Papacy. For these reasons, Galileo is indisputably the most iconic figure of scientific persecution, a genius whose ideas displaced religious orthodoxy with reason and fundamentalist fantasies with rational analysis.
5D POPE STRIKES AGAIN!
As I often say to people in therapy, always follow the sequence of events to understand the connection and cause and effect of events. So,
this was yesterday...
this was yesterday...
And this is today...
JOHN BOEHNER RESIGNS FROM CONGRESS!
Is that a 5D pope, or what?!
GET THAT POPE A SURFBOARD!
Confluence. Convergence. Cleansing. Healing. Transition. Transformation.
These are a few of the words that come to mind on this Sunday morning when I think of the events, both individually and collectively, that have swept across the inner and outer landscape of humanity in the first 13 1/2 weeks of this new decade.
If you've been opening up to your own inner life, your outer life has been changing at an accelerated rate this year. You've fallen in love, left a job you hated, found creative inspiration, discovered a new level of spiritual connection. If you've staunchly held your ground against self-revelation and change, you're getting slammed. You're going through a painful separation, a financial or health crisis, a natural disaster perhaps, or maybe you've left the planet altogether.
Now, these two paths aren't necessarily mutually exlusive. The purpose of the slam experience is no different than the purpose of the positive experience of the surge of energy. Either way, we are moved forward. I've often used the anology of a powerful river as representative of the current of life that is inexorably moving us towards a fuller connection with our higher, truer self. We, as swimmers (or rafters or surfers) in the current, have the free will to go against the current or go with the flow. In that sense, we always get to choose how we experience life. Easy. Hard. Flexible. Rigid. Surrendered. Willful. In the greater scheme of things, however, we are part of a larger body and regardless of our resistance, inevitably, we are heading downstream. The River is greater than our ego. That's just the way it is. Fortunately.
So, as we head fully into spring and on into summer, I say - let go, everyone! Take off your clothes (you can put on a swimsuit if you must!) and jump in the water. Ride the wave!
Come on in, Joe "The Pope" Ratzinger - It's easier than you think!!
These are a few of the words that come to mind on this Sunday morning when I think of the events, both individually and collectively, that have swept across the inner and outer landscape of humanity in the first 13 1/2 weeks of this new decade.
If you've been opening up to your own inner life, your outer life has been changing at an accelerated rate this year. You've fallen in love, left a job you hated, found creative inspiration, discovered a new level of spiritual connection. If you've staunchly held your ground against self-revelation and change, you're getting slammed. You're going through a painful separation, a financial or health crisis, a natural disaster perhaps, or maybe you've left the planet altogether.
Now, these two paths aren't necessarily mutually exlusive. The purpose of the slam experience is no different than the purpose of the positive experience of the surge of energy. Either way, we are moved forward. I've often used the anology of a powerful river as representative of the current of life that is inexorably moving us towards a fuller connection with our higher, truer self. We, as swimmers (or rafters or surfers) in the current, have the free will to go against the current or go with the flow. In that sense, we always get to choose how we experience life. Easy. Hard. Flexible. Rigid. Surrendered. Willful. In the greater scheme of things, however, we are part of a larger body and regardless of our resistance, inevitably, we are heading downstream. The River is greater than our ego. That's just the way it is. Fortunately.
So, as we head fully into spring and on into summer, I say - let go, everyone! Take off your clothes (you can put on a swimsuit if you must!) and jump in the water. Ride the wave!
Come on in, Joe "The Pope" Ratzinger - It's easier than you think!!
REPOST: "SOUL AGES"
One of the conundrums I faced as a therapist for several years was why some people in therapy greatly improved their lot and rose to higher levels of self-actualization and some people did not. Even if they had similar backgrounds and similar problems, and even if an equal amount of effort and dedication was involved on the part of the patient and therapist, some would go much further than others.
Why?
If all things were equal, including my input and talents as a therapist, why couldn't all of my patients within a certain range make similar improvements in their conditions? It's kind of comparable to the age-old question of why two siblings of the same sex and fairly close in age with the same parents can so often turn out to be so dramatically different.
I really puzzled over this for a long time, especially after I began my training program for new therapists. I knew that they, too, would eventually come up against this dilemma, and would be inclined to assume that it was simply more resistance on the part of the patient, even though so much resistance had already been broken through.
As with all insights, the answer began to make itself clearer and clearer in my mind as I progressed on my own inner journey and self-work, and as I worked with more and more people in treatment. But it also required a "spiritual perspective" to finally arrive at an understanding that we human beings were more than just our bodies and brains, more than our genes and experiences; we were also "energetic beings," imbued with a "soul force" that was unique in both quality and quantity in each person. I became aware that people had different "amounts" of spiritual energy or "chi," and therefore, what each person could achieve in a particular lifetime had specific parameters.
Wow! With that lightbulb, things began clicking into place, and as a result, I became more patient with my patients, seeking to discover what each individual's innate potential was rather than pushing them to attain what I thought they should be aspiring to.
This evolution in awareness for me became further refined when I came upon the concept of "soul ages," in a book by Joya Pope, called "Upcoming Changes." (Joya's website on soul ages is a must read at: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html). The dominoes fell over in perfect harmony as I read about the characteristics of "Infant Souls," "Baby Souls," "Young Souls," "Mature Souls" and "Old Souls." I suddenly could see everyone I knew, including myself, in a brilliant new way. And of course it made complete sense: if human life parallels spiritual life, then why couldn't souls be at various stages of development (ages) in certain planes, too, as they are here on Planet Earth? The Soul Age material channeled by Pope even perfectly described the various countries and cultures according to soul ages, how certain like souls will generally congregate together to work on similar issues of development. (I often thought that if our leaders had been aware of this reality, we would have taken a very different approach to the conflicts in the Middle East, but that's a different discussion.)
The potential in this understanding for eliminating judgement, including of ourselves, is great. I have read and reread the description of an Old Soul so many times because it always helps remind me of why I'm struggling with what I struggle with and why I'm thought of as an eccentric by some people, when I'm just being what I consider to be normal... for me! And likewise, if someone is a Young Soul, and therefore all about ambition and getting things done in the outer world, or a Baby Soul, mainly satisfied to attain the gratification of their survival needs, why would I judge them for being themselves?
Check it out at the website: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html
Why?
If all things were equal, including my input and talents as a therapist, why couldn't all of my patients within a certain range make similar improvements in their conditions? It's kind of comparable to the age-old question of why two siblings of the same sex and fairly close in age with the same parents can so often turn out to be so dramatically different.
I really puzzled over this for a long time, especially after I began my training program for new therapists. I knew that they, too, would eventually come up against this dilemma, and would be inclined to assume that it was simply more resistance on the part of the patient, even though so much resistance had already been broken through.
As with all insights, the answer began to make itself clearer and clearer in my mind as I progressed on my own inner journey and self-work, and as I worked with more and more people in treatment. But it also required a "spiritual perspective" to finally arrive at an understanding that we human beings were more than just our bodies and brains, more than our genes and experiences; we were also "energetic beings," imbued with a "soul force" that was unique in both quality and quantity in each person. I became aware that people had different "amounts" of spiritual energy or "chi," and therefore, what each person could achieve in a particular lifetime had specific parameters.
Wow! With that lightbulb, things began clicking into place, and as a result, I became more patient with my patients, seeking to discover what each individual's innate potential was rather than pushing them to attain what I thought they should be aspiring to.
This evolution in awareness for me became further refined when I came upon the concept of "soul ages," in a book by Joya Pope, called "Upcoming Changes." (Joya's website on soul ages is a must read at: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html). The dominoes fell over in perfect harmony as I read about the characteristics of "Infant Souls," "Baby Souls," "Young Souls," "Mature Souls" and "Old Souls." I suddenly could see everyone I knew, including myself, in a brilliant new way. And of course it made complete sense: if human life parallels spiritual life, then why couldn't souls be at various stages of development (ages) in certain planes, too, as they are here on Planet Earth? The Soul Age material channeled by Pope even perfectly described the various countries and cultures according to soul ages, how certain like souls will generally congregate together to work on similar issues of development. (I often thought that if our leaders had been aware of this reality, we would have taken a very different approach to the conflicts in the Middle East, but that's a different discussion.)
The potential in this understanding for eliminating judgement, including of ourselves, is great. I have read and reread the description of an Old Soul so many times because it always helps remind me of why I'm struggling with what I struggle with and why I'm thought of as an eccentric by some people, when I'm just being what I consider to be normal... for me! And likewise, if someone is a Young Soul, and therefore all about ambition and getting things done in the outer world, or a Baby Soul, mainly satisfied to attain the gratification of their survival needs, why would I judge them for being themselves?
Check it out at the website: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html
TODAY'S IMPORTANT QUESTION!
"Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?"
It was asked by Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times.
Here's Ms. Dowd: "It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin. Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children. The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.
Read the entire essay HERE.
It was asked by Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times.
Here's Ms. Dowd: "It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin. Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children. The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.
Read the entire essay HERE.
THE POPE IN 5D?!
Well, if the Pope on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine isn't 5D, I don't know what is!
SOUL AGES
One of the conundrums I faced as a therapist for several years was why some people in therapy greatly improved their lot and rose to higher levels of self-actualization and some people did not. Even if they had similar backgrounds and similar problems, and even if an equal amount of effort and dedication was involved on the part of the patient and therapist, some would go much further than others.
Why?
If all things were equal, including my input and talents as a therapist, why couldn't all of my patients within a certain range make similar improvements in their conditions? It's kind of comparable to the age-old question of why two siblings of the same sex and fairly close in age with the same parents can so often turn out to be so dramatically different.
I really puzzled over this for a long time, especially after I began my training program for new therapists. I knew that they, too, would eventually come up against this dilemma, and would be inclined to assume that it was simply more resistance on the part of the patient, even though so much resistance had already been broken through.
As with all insights, the answer began to make itself clearer and clearer in my mind as I progressed on my own inner journey and self-work, and as I worked with more and more people in treatment. But it also required a "spiritual perspective" to finally arrive at an understanding that we human beings were more than just our bodies and brains, more than our genes and experiences; we were also "energetic beings," imbued with a "soul force" that was unique in both quality and quantity in each person. I became aware that people had different "amounts" of spiritual energy or "chi," and therefore, what each person could achieve in a particular lifetime had specific parameters.
Wow! With that lightbulb, things began clicking into place, and as a result, I became more patient with my patients, seeking to discover what each individual's innate potential was rather than pushing them to attain what I thought they should be aspiring to.
This evolution in awareness for me became further refined when I came upon the concept of "soul ages," in a book by Joya Pope, called "Upcoming Changes." (Joya's website on soul ages is a must read at: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html). The dominoes fell over in perfect harmony as I read about the characteristics of "Infant Souls," "Baby Souls," "Young Souls," "Mature Souls" and "Old Souls." I suddenly could see everyone I knew, including myself, in a brilliant new way. And of course it made complete sense: if human life parallels spiritual life, then why couldn't souls be at various stages of development (ages) in certain planes, too, as they are here on Planet Earth? The Soul Age material channeled by Pope even perfectly described the various countries and cultures according to soul ages, how certain like souls will generally congregate together to work on similar issues of development. (I often thought that if our leaders had been aware of this reality, we would have taken a very different approach to the conflicts in the Middle East, but that's a different discussion.)
The potential in this understanding for eliminating judgement, including of ourselves, is great. I have read and reread the description of an Old Soul so many times because it always helps remind me of why I'm struggling with what I struggle with and why I'm thought of as an eccentric by some people, when I'm just being what I consider to be normal... for me! And likewise, if someone is a Young Soul, and therefore all about ambition and getting things done in the outer world, or a Baby Soul, mainly satisfied to attain the gratification of their survival needs, why would I judge them for being themselves?
Check it out at the website (http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html) and see what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts and reactions and whether or not you found yourself!
Why?
If all things were equal, including my input and talents as a therapist, why couldn't all of my patients within a certain range make similar improvements in their conditions? It's kind of comparable to the age-old question of why two siblings of the same sex and fairly close in age with the same parents can so often turn out to be so dramatically different.
I really puzzled over this for a long time, especially after I began my training program for new therapists. I knew that they, too, would eventually come up against this dilemma, and would be inclined to assume that it was simply more resistance on the part of the patient, even though so much resistance had already been broken through.
As with all insights, the answer began to make itself clearer and clearer in my mind as I progressed on my own inner journey and self-work, and as I worked with more and more people in treatment. But it also required a "spiritual perspective" to finally arrive at an understanding that we human beings were more than just our bodies and brains, more than our genes and experiences; we were also "energetic beings," imbued with a "soul force" that was unique in both quality and quantity in each person. I became aware that people had different "amounts" of spiritual energy or "chi," and therefore, what each person could achieve in a particular lifetime had specific parameters.
Wow! With that lightbulb, things began clicking into place, and as a result, I became more patient with my patients, seeking to discover what each individual's innate potential was rather than pushing them to attain what I thought they should be aspiring to.
This evolution in awareness for me became further refined when I came upon the concept of "soul ages," in a book by Joya Pope, called "Upcoming Changes." (Joya's website on soul ages is a must read at: http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html). The dominoes fell over in perfect harmony as I read about the characteristics of "Infant Souls," "Baby Souls," "Young Souls," "Mature Souls" and "Old Souls." I suddenly could see everyone I knew, including myself, in a brilliant new way. And of course it made complete sense: if human life parallels spiritual life, then why couldn't souls be at various stages of development (ages) in certain planes, too, as they are here on Planet Earth? The Soul Age material channeled by Pope even perfectly described the various countries and cultures according to soul ages, how certain like souls will generally congregate together to work on similar issues of development. (I often thought that if our leaders had been aware of this reality, we would have taken a very different approach to the conflicts in the Middle East, but that's a different discussion.)
The potential in this understanding for eliminating judgement, including of ourselves, is great. I have read and reread the description of an Old Soul so many times because it always helps remind me of why I'm struggling with what I struggle with and why I'm thought of as an eccentric by some people, when I'm just being what I consider to be normal... for me! And likewise, if someone is a Young Soul, and therefore all about ambition and getting things done in the outer world, or a Baby Soul, mainly satisfied to attain the gratification of their survival needs, why would I judge them for being themselves?
Check it out at the website (http://www.michaelteachings.com/soul_ages.html) and see what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts and reactions and whether or not you found yourself!
MEA MAXIMA CULPA!
Wow! Last night I watched the explosive HBO documentary, "MEA MAXIMA CULPA: Silence in the House of God." I was both moved to tears and was left with my jaw hanging open, but not for why you might think.
I have been fully aware for a long time of the cycle of horrendous sexual abuse of children occurring within the confines of the secretive and corrupt Catholic Church, an endemic problem that was first noted by a cleric in the inner circle of the Vatican over 15 centuries ago!
To a newcomer, yes, and to those who have been in denial, the information as documented by the HBO piece will be shocking. But what moved me so much was the 5th Dimensional storyline at work here, one that directly connects to the news yesterday of the first resignation of a Pope in over 600 years!
In Mea Maxima Culpa, Alex Gibney, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, documents a decades-old effort to protect and aid sexually predatory priests, a conspiracy that the film shows, snakes through every level of the Roman Catholic hierarchy including the current and past popes. The narrative is framed by the case of a priest being publicly accused of molestation — Father Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee's St. John's School for the Deaf. There, we learn through the signed testimonials of four former pupils — Terry Kouhut, Gary Smith, Pat Kuehn and Arthur Budzinski — how the beloved priest systematically raped and abused more than 200 pupils during his unstoppable 24-year tenure.
What hit me like a ton of 5th Dimensional bricks was the idea that a handful of young deaf boys from the mid-west, now middle-aged adults, could take down the hierarchy of the most powerful institution of the Piscean Age, one that has defined male power for over 2,000 years. Four deaf guys versus the Pope and his megalithic Church... and the deaf guys win!
Now that's 5D!
You can watch Mea Maxima Culpa on HBO on Demand now. It's an eye-opener!
I have been fully aware for a long time of the cycle of horrendous sexual abuse of children occurring within the confines of the secretive and corrupt Catholic Church, an endemic problem that was first noted by a cleric in the inner circle of the Vatican over 15 centuries ago!
To a newcomer, yes, and to those who have been in denial, the information as documented by the HBO piece will be shocking. But what moved me so much was the 5th Dimensional storyline at work here, one that directly connects to the news yesterday of the first resignation of a Pope in over 600 years!
In Mea Maxima Culpa, Alex Gibney, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, documents a decades-old effort to protect and aid sexually predatory priests, a conspiracy that the film shows, snakes through every level of the Roman Catholic hierarchy including the current and past popes. The narrative is framed by the case of a priest being publicly accused of molestation — Father Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee's St. John's School for the Deaf. There, we learn through the signed testimonials of four former pupils — Terry Kouhut, Gary Smith, Pat Kuehn and Arthur Budzinski — how the beloved priest systematically raped and abused more than 200 pupils during his unstoppable 24-year tenure.
What hit me like a ton of 5th Dimensional bricks was the idea that a handful of young deaf boys from the mid-west, now middle-aged adults, could take down the hierarchy of the most powerful institution of the Piscean Age, one that has defined male power for over 2,000 years. Four deaf guys versus the Pope and his megalithic Church... and the deaf guys win!
Now that's 5D!
You can watch Mea Maxima Culpa on HBO on Demand now. It's an eye-opener!
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