Below is another insight that I've been led to in my quest to heal my eyesight as those in Brazil did. For those of you following my blogs on My Vision Quest, you may recall that when I went to Brazil to see the healer/medium John of God, I learned of 4 individuals whose eyesight was restored and, in two instances their optic nerves were not functioning at all. They were not seeing by way of the usual mechanism of the eye. Consider what the following excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now say about who we are and the power of our consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle: "Highly conscious beings who are aware of their connectedness with the Source and with each other inhabit a world that to you would appear as a heavenly realm. And yet, all worlds are ultimately one. Our collective human world is largely created through the level of consciousness we call mind. Even within the collective human world there are vast differences, many different sub-worlds depending on the perceivers or creators of their respective worlds. Since all worlds are interconnected, when collective hhuman consciousness becomes transformed, nature and the animal kingdom will reflect their transformation. Hence the statement in the Bible that in the coming age, the lion shall lie down with the lamb. This points to the possibility of a completely different order of reality.
""The world as it appears to us now is largely a reflection of the egoic mind. Fear being an unavoidable consequence of egoic delusion, it is a world dominated by fear. Just as the images in a dream are symbols of inner states and feelings, so our collective reality is largely a symbolic expression of fear and of the heavy layers of negativity that have accumulated in the collective human psyche. We are not separate from our world, so when the majority of humans become free of egoic delusion [that we are primarily bodies, not primarily spirits with a thin veil we call a body], this inner change will affect all creation. You will literally inhabit a new world. It is a shift in planetary consciousness."
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Our Consciousness Creates Our World
Below is another insight that I've been led to in my quest to heal my eyesight as those in Brazil did. For those of you following my blogs on My Vision Quest, you may recall that when I went to Brazil to see the healer/medium John of God, I learned of 4 individuals whose eyesight was restored and, in two instances their optic nerves were not functioning at all. They were not seeing by way of the usual mechanism of the eye. Consider what the following excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now say about who we are and the power of our consciousness.
• Interviewer's first Question: "We believe in death and that's why the body dies, right?"
Eckhart Tolle: "The body does not die because you believe in death. The body exists or seems to because you believe in death. Body and death are part of the same illusion created by the egoic mode of consciousness which has no awareness of the source of life and sees itself as separate and constantly under threat."
Interviewer's nextt Question: "Why does an animal have a body? It doesn't believe in death."
Eckhart Tolle: "There's no world out there. We create what we see so animals appear to die, etc."
"One of the greatest insights that has come out of modern physics is that of the unity of the observer and the observed. The person conducting the experiment, the observing consciousness, cannot be separated from the observed phenomena, and a different way of looking causes the observed phenomena to behave differently.
"If you believe in separation and the struggle for survival then you see that belief reflected all around you and your perceptions are governed by fear. You inhabit a world of death and of bodies fighting, killing, and devouring each other. Nothing is what it seems to be. The world you see and create with the egoic mind may seem to be a very imperfect place even a vale of tears. But whatever you perceive is only a kind of symbol like an image in a dream. It is how your consciousness interprets and interacts with the molecular energy dance of the universe. This energy is the raw material of so-called physical reality. You see it in terms of bodies and birth and death or as a struggle for survival.
An infinite number of completely different interpretations, of completely different worlds, is possible and in fact exists. All depending on the perceiving consciousness. The being is the focal point of consciousness and every such focal point creates its own world although all those worlds are interconnected. There's a human world, an ant world, a dolphin world, and so on. There are countless beings whose consciousness frequency is so different from yours that you are probably unaware of their existence as they are of yours.
• Interviewer's first Question: "We believe in death and that's why the body dies, right?"
Eckhart Tolle: "The body does not die because you believe in death. The body exists or seems to because you believe in death. Body and death are part of the same illusion created by the egoic mode of consciousness which has no awareness of the source of life and sees itself as separate and constantly under threat."
Interviewer's nextt Question: "Why does an animal have a body? It doesn't believe in death."
Eckhart Tolle: "There's no world out there. We create what we see so animals appear to die, etc."
"One of the greatest insights that has come out of modern physics is that of the unity of the observer and the observed. The person conducting the experiment, the observing consciousness, cannot be separated from the observed phenomena, and a different way of looking causes the observed phenomena to behave differently.
"If you believe in separation and the struggle for survival then you see that belief reflected all around you and your perceptions are governed by fear. You inhabit a world of death and of bodies fighting, killing, and devouring each other. Nothing is what it seems to be. The world you see and create with the egoic mind may seem to be a very imperfect place even a vale of tears. But whatever you perceive is only a kind of symbol like an image in a dream. It is how your consciousness interprets and interacts with the molecular energy dance of the universe. This energy is the raw material of so-called physical reality. You see it in terms of bodies and birth and death or as a struggle for survival.
An infinite number of completely different interpretations, of completely different worlds, is possible and in fact exists. All depending on the perceiving consciousness. The being is the focal point of consciousness and every such focal point creates its own world although all those worlds are interconnected. There's a human world, an ant world, a dolphin world, and so on. There are countless beings whose consciousness frequency is so different from yours that you are probably unaware of their existence as they are of yours.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Ten Years Later: A Spiritual View of 9/11/01
A Native American Perspective on the Evil of 9/11/01 [The following is excerpted from A Matter of Love www.thespacebetweenstars.com]
If everything comes from the Divine, then why not evil? Can the Darkness somehow serve the Light? Are the calamities of life spiritual gifts? Is it that we can make some use of the tragedy, find a silver lining in the cloud? Or, is there a silver lining there already? Can what is unspeakably horrible from one point of view be something that is beneficial from another perspective?
Just days after the World Trade Center attack, I was e-mailed a copy of a statement by Jean Reddeman of the Mohican Nation. Her Native American name is Wasaki Emani Wi, which means Strong Walking Woman. Among her people, she is considered a seer, which I believe means that she is a prophet and a clairvoyant. She indicated that the tragedy had been predicted by the elders of her tribal nation many years ago. They foresaw a “massive spiritual exodus.” The elders saw that many “advanced souls” were going to sacrifice their lives to help shift the values and consciousness of not only America but the world from a materialistic focus to a spiritual one.
Jean indicated that the elders believed that this immense sacrifice would not have happened if America had already made the shift to the spiritual values of love, compassion, and peace. She went on to say that the elders “had predicted that great good will come after this tragedy especially if people recognize the teachings of the event and if they honor those who died during the tragedy.”
In speaking of those who died in the tragedy, Jean said that these “very evolved souls will be helping the major shift that the world so sorely needs.” She claimed that, “They came into this lifetime to give us this gift, the gift of their lives and of their love so that the world would change to a better place.” She emphasized that: “We must honor them, we must go forward. We must listen to their messages from the heavens.”
According to Jean, the role of women is especially important in moving on to implement the change needed. Jean quoted an old Mohican Proverb:
A nation is not lost as long as the women’s hearts are still high. Only when the women’s hearts are on the ground—then all is finished, and the nation dies. The women are the life carriers.
Jean proclaimed that women must, in effect, access the depths of their heart, and this will enable men to find what she calls “their original strength.” She specified that this is not the strength resulting from economic, political and military power but is from “spiritual strength.” The world needs this “nurturing energy.” And she goes on to emphasize the importance of this energy:
We cannot go on with wars; we will all die, if we do. We have to see in the middle of the pain and chaos the greater lessons.We must thank them [those who died at the hands of the terrorists] from the bottom of our hearts, with incredible love, for they are great people. We have to share this moment so that together we can go to this new consciousness, the female energy that is so much needed at this time.
From my perspective, we need to see through our heart with the eyes of love and compassion as we look at the areas of the world where terrorism breeds so freely. The deprivation and despair of such harsh living conditions like those in the Middle East are a fertile breeding ground for suicide bombers.
Future bombers are living at the level of the reptile as they struggle to survive such harsh conditions. Dropping care packages and not just bombs in Afghanistan and later in Iraq was a small step in the direction of addressing the underlying deprivation.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Recalling TV & Radio Spots I Did re: 9/11
How do you deal with such a massive terror attack? What about the stress? What about the anger some of us are feeling after the attack on New York and the Pentagon? This is the question we are going to put to Dr. Stephen Jackson this morning. Dr. Jackson do you have any answers for us?
—Rita Foley
[Note: To hear the interview with Rita Foley gp tp www.thespacebetweenstars.com and click on In the News and scroll down to Associated Press Radio. It is on the last few minutes of the 18 minute interview that starts with a discussion Talk America on dealing with anger, anxiety, grief and son rgarding September 11, 2001. See also TV clips on MSNBC clip with Rick Sanchez on talkng to your children and Iyanla Vansant. The following is an excerpt from the book A Matter of Love.]
Rita Foley of Associated Press Radio put this question to me just days after the tragedy that rocked our world. My answer, which I had to deliver in ninety seconds, can be summed up by saying we need to express rather than repress or aggress our stress over these horrific events and help others do the same. Emotionally, we can’t heal what we don’t feel. By feeling our pain fully and expressing it, we release our pain and foster healing. And yet, can we really heal our heartbreaking grief over the loss of loved ones?
222222
I explained on one show after another that we heal only as we keep ourselves from giving in to the tendency to repress our pain. Furthermore, I emphasized that we do this by continuing to express our painful feelings to ourselves and others. Eventually, we drain the pain from our heart by expressing all our feelings: our anger, fear, and grief. I told Rick Sanchez on MSNBC that we need to help our children fully feel and redirect the hate triggered by the murder of so many innocent people in New York, Washington, and Shanksville. I explained how the letters of the word heart reveal how we can redirect the hate. We need to hear and feel with our heart what our anger, fear, and grief are t—telling us about what we love, about what is important to us. If we repress or aggress our stress it will poison us with anger and rage, anxiety and fear, as well as with inconsolable grief and depression. Instead, we need to express our pain so that we can feel it and heal it.
We can find solace as we focus on the love in our heart. When we shift our focus to love we access the healing power of our heart and find some comfort. Though our loved one may be gone from this earth, our loved one will forever live on in our heart.
For our heart is the calm, caring, connecting, and continuous consciousness that is the core of our being. When our heart is open, it is like an endlessly flowing fountain. In the fountain of our heart, love flows freely and the poisons of our negative emotions cannot stagnate there. They are washed away.
Our heart can also be likened to the sun that continues to shine even as the clouds of our fear, anger, and sadness or grief hide it from our view. Just as the clouds can do nothing to harm the sun, so the poisons of anger and fear can only hide, not harm, our heart as the core of our being. Nonetheless, when the stress of holding on to our fear and anger is chronic, it may harm our physical heart.
Evil occurs when we allow the dark clouds of our anger and fear to block our access to the light of love in our heart. As we shall see, blocking out our pain is the mental and emotional basis of evil. When we block out our pain, we are in danger of being insensitive to the pain of others and we can more easily inflict pain on them. This is one of the reasons that adults who were abused as children often abuse their children. They don’t remember how it felt when they were beaten and humiliated.
By feeling and expressing our painful feelings of anger, fear, and grief, we can heal and eventually find inner peace and relief from our suffering. Expression and not repression or aggression keeps our heart clear and unclouded by the poisons of anger and fear. The letters of the word peace reveal the essence of inner peace:
P-peace, E-equals, A-acceptance, C-compassion, and E-empathy.
We heal as we feel by accepting with compassion and empathy our own emotional pain. And we help others heal as we help them accept with compassion and empathy their pain. Instead of defending ourselves against feeling our pain, we open our heart to feel and heal our pain. Inner peace is our reward.
The key to detoxifying our life and our relationships is to respond to the tests life gives us with acceptance, compassion, and empathy emanating from our heart. When I was in college we used to say we aced the test when we received a grade of A. Finding inner peace really involves learning to ace the tough tests of life. We do this by responding with acceptance, compassion, and empathy. Of course, we have to ace and then express our anger, fear, and grief arising from the stressful events taking place.
So many lost loved ones on September 11th and many children lost one or both parents. As individuals, and, as a nation, we got caught up in the illusion that retaliation was our healing balm. This instinctive reaction comes from our reptilian brain; the reptile in us is governed by fight and flight. Unfortunately, actor Richard Gere caught the rage of the reptile brains of the audience when he spoke at a rally in Central Park in New York City. Gere was booed when he conveyed how we needed to respond with love and compassion, not hate and retaliation. He was right. The audience was not yet ready for his beautiful message: it was too soon.
Many were still in the grip of heart-wrenching emotional pain. Nevertheless, we ultimately find inner peace as we feel acceptance, compassion, and empathy for our pain and the pain (even if based on delusions) driving our enemy to attack us. We can then begin to recover from such an immense tragedy as September 11, 2001.
—Rita Foley
[Note: To hear the interview with Rita Foley gp tp www.thespacebetweenstars.com and click on In the News and scroll down to Associated Press Radio. It is on the last few minutes of the 18 minute interview that starts with a discussion Talk America on dealing with anger, anxiety, grief and son rgarding September 11, 2001. See also TV clips on MSNBC clip with Rick Sanchez on talkng to your children and Iyanla Vansant. The following is an excerpt from the book A Matter of Love.]
Rita Foley of Associated Press Radio put this question to me just days after the tragedy that rocked our world. My answer, which I had to deliver in ninety seconds, can be summed up by saying we need to express rather than repress or aggress our stress over these horrific events and help others do the same. Emotionally, we can’t heal what we don’t feel. By feeling our pain fully and expressing it, we release our pain and foster healing. And yet, can we really heal our heartbreaking grief over the loss of loved ones?
222222
I explained on one show after another that we heal only as we keep ourselves from giving in to the tendency to repress our pain. Furthermore, I emphasized that we do this by continuing to express our painful feelings to ourselves and others. Eventually, we drain the pain from our heart by expressing all our feelings: our anger, fear, and grief. I told Rick Sanchez on MSNBC that we need to help our children fully feel and redirect the hate triggered by the murder of so many innocent people in New York, Washington, and Shanksville. I explained how the letters of the word heart reveal how we can redirect the hate. We need to hear and feel with our heart what our anger, fear, and grief are t—telling us about what we love, about what is important to us. If we repress or aggress our stress it will poison us with anger and rage, anxiety and fear, as well as with inconsolable grief and depression. Instead, we need to express our pain so that we can feel it and heal it.
We can find solace as we focus on the love in our heart. When we shift our focus to love we access the healing power of our heart and find some comfort. Though our loved one may be gone from this earth, our loved one will forever live on in our heart.
For our heart is the calm, caring, connecting, and continuous consciousness that is the core of our being. When our heart is open, it is like an endlessly flowing fountain. In the fountain of our heart, love flows freely and the poisons of our negative emotions cannot stagnate there. They are washed away.
Our heart can also be likened to the sun that continues to shine even as the clouds of our fear, anger, and sadness or grief hide it from our view. Just as the clouds can do nothing to harm the sun, so the poisons of anger and fear can only hide, not harm, our heart as the core of our being. Nonetheless, when the stress of holding on to our fear and anger is chronic, it may harm our physical heart.
Evil occurs when we allow the dark clouds of our anger and fear to block our access to the light of love in our heart. As we shall see, blocking out our pain is the mental and emotional basis of evil. When we block out our pain, we are in danger of being insensitive to the pain of others and we can more easily inflict pain on them. This is one of the reasons that adults who were abused as children often abuse their children. They don’t remember how it felt when they were beaten and humiliated.
By feeling and expressing our painful feelings of anger, fear, and grief, we can heal and eventually find inner peace and relief from our suffering. Expression and not repression or aggression keeps our heart clear and unclouded by the poisons of anger and fear. The letters of the word peace reveal the essence of inner peace:
P-peace, E-equals, A-acceptance, C-compassion, and E-empathy.
We heal as we feel by accepting with compassion and empathy our own emotional pain. And we help others heal as we help them accept with compassion and empathy their pain. Instead of defending ourselves against feeling our pain, we open our heart to feel and heal our pain. Inner peace is our reward.
The key to detoxifying our life and our relationships is to respond to the tests life gives us with acceptance, compassion, and empathy emanating from our heart. When I was in college we used to say we aced the test when we received a grade of A. Finding inner peace really involves learning to ace the tough tests of life. We do this by responding with acceptance, compassion, and empathy. Of course, we have to ace and then express our anger, fear, and grief arising from the stressful events taking place.
So many lost loved ones on September 11th and many children lost one or both parents. As individuals, and, as a nation, we got caught up in the illusion that retaliation was our healing balm. This instinctive reaction comes from our reptilian brain; the reptile in us is governed by fight and flight. Unfortunately, actor Richard Gere caught the rage of the reptile brains of the audience when he spoke at a rally in Central Park in New York City. Gere was booed when he conveyed how we needed to respond with love and compassion, not hate and retaliation. He was right. The audience was not yet ready for his beautiful message: it was too soon.
Many were still in the grip of heart-wrenching emotional pain. Nevertheless, we ultimately find inner peace as we feel acceptance, compassion, and empathy for our pain and the pain (even if based on delusions) driving our enemy to attack us. We can then begin to recover from such an immense tragedy as September 11, 2001.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
My Vision Quest: Mind Creates Body. . .
[Note: The same preface precedes all the blogs on my vision quest and the ones on giving up grievances. It provides the personal context regarding the relationship of each piece to my quest to restore my eyesight since I've exhausted all that Western medicine can do to repair the damage done by my advanced case of glaucoma. Therefore, if you've read it before, you may want to refresh your memory or skip to the new blog entry below.]
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer the excerpted material for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions.]
Excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
"What you perceive as a dense physical structure called the body, which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real, is not you. It [the bodily] is a misperception of your essential reality that is beyond birth and death and is due to the limitations of your mind which, having lost touch with being, creates the body as evidence of its illusory belief in separation and to justify its state of fear.
"But do not turn away from the body for in that symbol of impermanence, limitation, and death that you perceive as the illusory creation of your mind, is concealed: the splendor of your essential and immortal reality. Do not turn your attention elsewhere in your search for the truth for it is nowhere else to be found but within your body."
These passages are in line with the teachings of A Course in Miracles and the experience of those individuals in Brazil whose vision was restored while their optic nerves remainined unhealed, Last night I had one of those dreams in which I am suddenly able to see clearly both near and far. I was able read a passage in a book and I was also able to see across the street. When we dream, our body's eyes are closed. With what are we seeing? Certainly, it is not the body's eyes just as it is not with the mechanism of the body's eyes that the individuals whose vision was restored in Brazil now see.
• Today, reflect on what this may mean about who and what we really are. In line with St. John's claim that God is love, A Course in Miracles states, "God is but love and therefore so am I." From time to time today, take a deep beathe and, as you exhale, consciously let the tension drain from your body, and silently repeat these words. Notice how you feel in your body. I once received that when I can see through the eyes of God with total love and no fear, my vision will become clear.
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer the excerpted material for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions.]
Excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
"What you perceive as a dense physical structure called the body, which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real, is not you. It [the bodily] is a misperception of your essential reality that is beyond birth and death and is due to the limitations of your mind which, having lost touch with being, creates the body as evidence of its illusory belief in separation and to justify its state of fear.
"But do not turn away from the body for in that symbol of impermanence, limitation, and death that you perceive as the illusory creation of your mind, is concealed: the splendor of your essential and immortal reality. Do not turn your attention elsewhere in your search for the truth for it is nowhere else to be found but within your body."
These passages are in line with the teachings of A Course in Miracles and the experience of those individuals in Brazil whose vision was restored while their optic nerves remainined unhealed, Last night I had one of those dreams in which I am suddenly able to see clearly both near and far. I was able read a passage in a book and I was also able to see across the street. When we dream, our body's eyes are closed. With what are we seeing? Certainly, it is not the body's eyes just as it is not with the mechanism of the body's eyes that the individuals whose vision was restored in Brazil now see.
• Today, reflect on what this may mean about who and what we really are. In line with St. John's claim that God is love, A Course in Miracles states, "God is but love and therefore so am I." From time to time today, take a deep beathe and, as you exhale, consciously let the tension drain from your body, and silently repeat these words. Notice how you feel in your body. I once received that when I can see through the eyes of God with total love and no fear, my vision will become clear.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
My Vision Quest: No One Fails to Heal if . . .
[Note: The same preface precedes all the blogs on my vision quest and the ones on giving up grievances. It provides the personal context regarding the relationship of each piece to my quest to restore my eyesight since I've exhausted all that Western medicine can do to repair the damage done by my advanced case of glaucoma. Therefore, if you've read it before, you may want to refresh your memory or skip to the new excerpt from A Course in Miracles below.]
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer one of the daily lesson from the workbook section of A Course in Miracles for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions. Also, For those of you who are Christian as well as those of you who are not or may not believe in any religion, any terms typically associated with Christianity (Christ, Holy Spirit, Father, etc.) are not intended to promote a religion but are intended to provide a universal, spiritual experience beyond any creed or dogma. And for me, the terms point me toward an experience necessary for the healing of my vision.]
Excerpts from Lesson 185 I want the peace of God.
"To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized. No one can mean these words and not be healed."
"The mind who wants peace must join with other minds."
"It is this one intent we seek toddy uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it."
• Today, from time to time, consider what you believe will bring you "comfort and happiness," e.g., prized possessions, achievements, a perfect love partner, recognition, and so on. After each one, ask 'Is this what I would have in place of heaven and the peace of God? Remember, this lesson proclaims that "no one can mean these words and not be healed."
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer one of the daily lesson from the workbook section of A Course in Miracles for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions. Also, For those of you who are Christian as well as those of you who are not or may not believe in any religion, any terms typically associated with Christianity (Christ, Holy Spirit, Father, etc.) are not intended to promote a religion but are intended to provide a universal, spiritual experience beyond any creed or dogma. And for me, the terms point me toward an experience necessary for the healing of my vision.]
Excerpts from Lesson 185 I want the peace of God.
"To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized. No one can mean these words and not be healed."
"The mind who wants peace must join with other minds."
"It is this one intent we seek toddy uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it."
• Today, from time to time, consider what you believe will bring you "comfort and happiness," e.g., prized possessions, achievements, a perfect love partner, recognition, and so on. After each one, ask 'Is this what I would have in place of heaven and the peace of God? Remember, this lesson proclaims that "no one can mean these words and not be healed."
Sunday, June 26, 2011
My Vision Quest: Adjust Your Vision—Angel or Stone statue?
[Note: The same preface precedes all the blogs on my vision quest and the ones on giving up grievances. It provides the personal context regarding the relationship of each piece to my quest to restore my eyesight since I've exhausted all that Western medicine can do to repair the damage done by my advanced case of glaucoma. Therefore, if you've read it before, you may want to refresh your memory or skip to the new blog entry below.]
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer the excerpted material for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions.]
Excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
"The body does not die because you believe in death. The body exists or seems to because you believe in death. Body and death are part of the same illusion created by the egoic mode of consciousness which has no awareness of the source of life and sees itself as separate and constantly under threat.
"So it creates the illusion that you are a body, a dense physical vehicle, that is constantly under threat. To perceive yourself as a vulnerable body that was born and a little later dies, that's the illusion. Body and death, one illusion. You cannot have one without the other. You want to keep one side of the illusion [when you hold physical immortality to be true] and get rid of the other. But that is impossible. Either you keep all of it or you relinquish all of it.
"However, you do not escape from the body nor do you have to. The body is an incredible misperception of your true nature. But your true nature is concealed in that illusion not outside it. So the body is still the oily point of access to it. If you saw an angel and mistook it for a stone statue, all you would have to do is adjust your vision and look more closely at the stone statue, not start looking somewhere else. You would then find that there never was a stone statue."
• Today, consider how you as an observer of what you call reality is shaped by your inner conversatopm or what cognitive-behavioral therapy calles "self-talk." Consider how changing your self-talk can change your reality. Wayne Dyer put it this way, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.
John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.
Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?
When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer the excerpted material for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.
[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions.]
Excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
"The body does not die because you believe in death. The body exists or seems to because you believe in death. Body and death are part of the same illusion created by the egoic mode of consciousness which has no awareness of the source of life and sees itself as separate and constantly under threat.
"So it creates the illusion that you are a body, a dense physical vehicle, that is constantly under threat. To perceive yourself as a vulnerable body that was born and a little later dies, that's the illusion. Body and death, one illusion. You cannot have one without the other. You want to keep one side of the illusion [when you hold physical immortality to be true] and get rid of the other. But that is impossible. Either you keep all of it or you relinquish all of it.
"However, you do not escape from the body nor do you have to. The body is an incredible misperception of your true nature. But your true nature is concealed in that illusion not outside it. So the body is still the oily point of access to it. If you saw an angel and mistook it for a stone statue, all you would have to do is adjust your vision and look more closely at the stone statue, not start looking somewhere else. You would then find that there never was a stone statue."
• Today, consider how you as an observer of what you call reality is shaped by your inner conversatopm or what cognitive-behavioral therapy calles "self-talk." Consider how changing your self-talk can change your reality. Wayne Dyer put it this way, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
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