2/21/14—Transcending Limitations

Today's post is a classic post from 1/9/13, because I ran out of time tonight. :) 

Once a month, I go to a wonderful healing session up near Annapolis. The woman, Diane, practices the Bonny Method of Music-Evoked Healing. If you're reading on my official blog, you can see some of my past experiences here and here.

In today's re-post, I talk about a session I had a year go. But first, let me tell you the mechanics of what happens in these sessions because they're so unique. It begins with setting an intention and, in this case, it was about exploring false limitations. And then Diane guides me through relaxation the way a hypnotherapist would. Then she intuitively chooses music to help me on my journey. And as I listen to the music, I tell her the images that come into my head based on the music and she writes them down, while guiding the session.

Diane has a degree in music therapy, she's certified in the Bonny Method, she's a Reiki master, a Native American lodge keeper and really one of the best people I know. You'd think I'd have met her in some incense cloaked pillow pit lit by candles and black light, but I actually met her in an advertising agency I freelanced at some 15 years ago where she was a VP or some such mucky muck.

Anyway, I say all of that, because some will think, "oh, cool, let's get some gals together and do that Friday night," but it's not that easy. There's actually a lot of training that goes into it. And others will think "oh, this is one of Tierney's weirdo woo-woo friends." And while that's true, she's actually a very accomplished, trained and qualified woo-woo weirdo. And she would have to be, because sometimes these journeys can bring up difficult stuff and she needs to know how to handle that.

Gratuitous shot of the AWESOME Neil deGrasse Tyson & some white light. 

OK, so enough about that. The theme was about exploring false limitations. And because I've been doing this for quite some time, I almost immediately go into a subconscious state. By that I mean I go so deep that I don't even know what I'm saying half the time. "Tierney" has left the building. And I'm often shocked at some of the things she tells me that I say. I'm under for maybe 20-30 minutes? I don't know. It seems like a really long time sometimes. So this is a simplistic representation of what happened today.

I started out in this world, on a beach, in a cove. I was sitting at the back of the cove and saw an image in front of me that was, essentially, the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro. Then the image ripped in half, like you would rip a photograph and a beautiful, white coral staircase appeared on the beach, beckoning me upward. This staircase led to another reality, which was essentially a black hole. I didn't want to stay there, so I went up to another reality and another reality, neither of which were inviting. All had some form of abyss and, while I was safe and on sturdy ground in each one, each was a portal to a world I couldn't see from my vantage point. So I stayed safe.

This is the Jesus I saw...from the back. 

Finally a hummingbird came along to whisk me away to the "top" reality. By that, I mean these realities were shown to me in layers and this was the top layer. Hummingbirds, I found out after the fact, are symbolic of the miracle of life, as well as joy, love and beauty. (Trust me, if I were consciously making all this stuff up, Jesus wouldn't be in it, nor would a hummingbird. And, in fact, I only vaguely remembered any of this upon waking. Which is why she writes stuff down.) 

So the hummingbird flies me to the highest reality and it's all light. At first, I am the darkness that cuts the light. But then the light overtakes me, too. First I lose my body and can feel my distinct consciousness in the light. Then the lines of the consciousness loosen and I *am* the light. Eventually I move out of the light and am part of the cosmos. The "all that is" and I are inseparable now. I am capable of anything and everything. I can do all sorts of tricks. And at that point I say, "now I remember that I always used to be able to do this. And I was good at it. Then the ability (was taken from me.)" The "was taken from me" part is in parentheses. It's what I said, but not really what I meant. At one second in the journey I knew the entire process of how we lose the capability, but in the next second I didn't and those were the only words I could think of. I could have just as easily said "I lost it", "I let it go" or anything else. It really bugged me that I couldn't remember the rest of my thought, because it felt like there was valuable wisdom there, but it slipped away. 

The rest of the session was spent floating in that place in the cosmos, pure consciousness. And based on some of the things I said, it would seem that I'm much wiser and more carefree in that state. It was a state of divine detachment and, gratefully, the music that started playing (no kidding) was a lullaby, so I just felt held in "mother's arms" as I experienced the silence and ease of the "all that is". 

But back to false limitations. What this journey came to tell me—and tell all of us—is that there are NO limitations. What we truly are transcends all limitations, including space and time. As I said in the journey, we used to know how to transcend our limitations, but when we came here, we somehow forgot it. That doesn't mean it's not still there within us. Heck, even the fact that we're earthbound humans is a false limitation that somehow got placed on us when we were born. 

I had recently heard someone say that the reason we have seratonin and dopamine and all those brain chemicals is because if we didn't, we'd be scared shitless at the "reality" we'd landed in on this earth journey. I mean, just think of it...going from a place where you are fully at peace, inseparable with the "all that is," to a place where cells, our bodies, our homes, our planet, our beliefs—everything in our "reality"—separates us from who we REALLY are. So this is why most of us are driven to find that oneness again through religion and spirituality. (Or drugs.)

So that's the thought today. What if there really were nothing to limit you whatsoever? What if you moved through life knowing you held in your hand the creative power of the "all that is"? What if you had the ability transcend even the limitations of having a physical body or being tied to space and time? How would that change things? Are you ready to take that leap?

2/19/14—Choosing Your Life

What if, before you were even born, you chose who you would be, the challenges you'd deal with, the challenges you wouldn't deal with, who your parents and siblings would be, even how you'd die? I'm pretty sure I believe this happens. I say "pretty sure" because, fact is, none of us really knows. We can *think* we know down to the very bottom of our soul who/what God is, what life's all about, etc., but we'd be one of 8 billion people, all with differing beliefs and all of whom believe it to the bottom of their very soul. What makes any of us think we have all the answers?

So even if you don't believe we choose the big things in our lives, read on. Because imagining it's true can help you learn a lot about yourself, I think. 

As I was saying, I think we choose the major stuff before we're even born. We sort of dispassionately make certain decisions based not on how it would affect others, but how it would effect us. To our eternal soul, dying of cancer or of suicide is not a big thing. It's just an option on a menu. And if killing yourself is traumatic for someone you leave behind, that's none of your business. They chose to be in your life before they were even born so they could have the trauma. See?

This is different from the notion of fate, because fate seems to leave "you" out of the picture, as if some outside force is making the decisions. In this theory, you make all decisions. So it's something a higher you...a wiser you...a more holy you chose, knowing the whole picture. Thinking about that, right there, changes a lot of stuff for me. That means I wanted to be this person I sometimes don't want to be!

The other day, I came across a group of stories about kids who told their parents when and why they chose them. By this, I mean kids from age 3-6 who have memories of choosing their parents before they came here. A couple of the kids said they were brought into a room, like a store, and prospective parents would be lined up and they (their souls) would choose which set of parents to have as their own. Presumably all the parents would help with the lesson the soul came to learn, but each different set would come with their own different flavor.

So, for example, I chose to come here to have weight issues and esteem issues connected to weight, because that's one of the big things my soul wanted to learn about. So, theoretically, there would be a room full of parents—single parents, married parents, adoptive parents, rich parents, poor parents, etc.—and I chose Bob and Kathleen because they could suitably shame me for being fat. But I didn't choose Sam and Pat, because they would not only shame, they would abuse me. And I didn't choose single mom, Laura, because she's homeless and that's not a lesson I came here to learn or wanted to learn. 

The interesting thing is that Bob and Kathleen, in addition to shaming me for being fat, would also offer up some abandonment issues to me that weren't on the menu when my five siblings chose them. And they would also give me certain freedoms and perks that also weren't on the menu for my older siblings. So, weighing it all out, I chose Bob and Kathleen, knowing what would become of them and what lessons I would learn from that. And knowing that I'd have to share my entire life with five siblings who, at times, would be either be like strangers or best friends. I chose to live a largely solitary life. I chose not to have children. I chose to have dogs (who would become some of my greatest teachers.) And, however/whenever I die, I chose that, too. All the rest—all the details along the way—get filled in through the hand of God or the infinite organizing power of the universe.

I chose it all. And when I consider this belief, it changes things when you believe you CHOSE your challenges, rather than feeling a victim of them or, at the very least, saddled with them by some unseen force. There feels like there's more of a mission to this whole thing we call life, too. 

So, consider....if you chose the big challenges you have in your life, why? And how did the parents you chose impact that? What degree of difficulty do you think you aimed for in this lifetime? What lessons might you have come here to start on, but not finish? What different lessons did your siblings come to learn from the same parents? And if you're a parent yourself, for better or worse, why did each of your kids choose you? Even if you don't quite believe in this stuff, contemplating these questions can provide valuable insights as to your mission here on earth. 

2/17/14—Leaving Valuable Data Behind

Harbingers of spring, out in full force.

One of the things I wrestle with in this amazing world we live in, is what we give up in order to move forward technologically and socially. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we don't live in caves. I'm happy we don't communicate with smoke signals. And I'm thrilled I don't have to hunt what I eat. But none of these conveniences come without a cost. 

Like the universe, I think we're meant to expand and evolve in all directions. So it's not like this is the age of evolving technologically. It's (always) the age of evolution in every which way. I'm going to be 51 this year. When I think of how much everything around me has changed in my lifetime, from microwaves to computers to media, it numbs the mind. I can't even imagine how much more profound it would be for someone in their 90s. 

But just as our technologically advanced age has gifted us with information and data unlike ever before, it comes at a cost. Instant answers mean we reason less and rely more on the data we find. There are whole parts of our brains that see less action because answers are so easy to find. And, as I said, we're happy to believe in whatever we find. The stories that float around social media are proof of that. People get all up in arms about these "true stories" of things that never happened. It's like even the intuitive "hit" of "wait a minute, something doesn't ring true" is dulled. 

Often when I sit out in my back yard, I wonder what cave men would have made of the day I'm observing. Like yesterday, the skies were overrun with birds. First, he would have known they were robins. And second, he would have used that as a clue that spring and warmer weather was on the way. What we consider "quaint folklore" or "old wives tales" today were and are still valid data important to survival. 

He would have known by the shape of clouds and how the wind hit his face what kind of weather we were bound to have tomorrow. He would have known the time by how shadows move across the ground and the date by studying the stars and the angles of the sun. With this data, he would have known if it was time to start gathering wood or whether or not it was a good time to fish. His intuition would be finely tuned to subtle signs around him, alerting him to danger or opportunity. And all of this would come from within. And all of this is what atrophies when we use Google instead of common sense or intuition. 

Again, not saying Google (and I'm just using Google as an example) or any technology is bad. It's amazing what we can do and I'm grateful for it. But we pay the price for that by becoming further dependent on things outside of us and less dependent on things within us. And I think that, at the very least, is sad. At the most, it is extremely dangerous. 

It took early man generations of data and practice to fine tune their inner knowing. If anything were to happen to us, energy wise...anything from being hit by a meteor, widespread world war, an enormous natural disaster...anything that could wipe out energy resources or our access to data, we're screwed. Books and maps and other resources are becoming more and more scarce, while the information in them becomes more and more available online. But if you can't get online, or if some dictator rules what you can and cannot see, you're probably about as prepared as me to wing it in the wild. Even survivalists are not as prepared as they think (though they're way more prepared than I.)

We assume that the things available to us will always be available to us. And maybe they will be. But one thing is for certain, things will not be the same as they are. Chances are, we'll move even further away from our instinctual heritage and rely more on machines. And as we do, I believe we'll be moving ever perilously closer to our own undoing. 

Not to be overly dramatic, but the further we move from self reliance, whether that be emotionally, physically, intellectually or otherwise, the more vulnerable we become. It could be argued that we become become better able to defend ourselves, the more advanced we become. That is also true. But to focus on one way of being and abandoning another, which is what we're unconsciously doing, can't be smart. No matter how much we evolve in one direction, leaving another direction to atrophy is just asking for the pendulum to cause us to swing the other way in order to maintain balance.