A good case against the theory of reincarnation can be made based on the fact that few people are able to recall their former lifetimes with any certainty. Suspicion about a past life may flicker ever so slightly in someone’s memory banks but then be easily dismissed and forgotten. To catch fleeting memories and make sense of them, one has to be vigilant, look to connect the dots (clues) and be willing to set aside scepticism until truth can be determined.

In actuality, we hardly remember most of the events of this lifetime, let alone past lifetimes. I suppose the simple answer as to why we don’t is that all those simultaneous memories would be a bit disconcerting to say the least. Disconcerting or not, there are times when we want to remember; when we want to unravel the treads that have woven the tapestry of our current life and brought certain people into our arena.

If one dismisses reincarnation, the nature of relationships becomes a rather curious thing. Why are some people drawn to one another like opposing poles of a magnet? Likewise, why is any attempt to bridge the space between the repelling sides of two magnets futile?

My stepfather and I were in the later group, dancing around each other without ever touching. I often asked the stars in the night sky how a man could feed, clothe, school, entertain, and yet, not love me, something I desperately thought I needed.
I was well into my adult years when the answer came to me in a dream. As my body slept, I had a bird’s eye view of Ireland, the Emerald Isle. I flew over the northwest coast where the rock cliffs rose to hundreds of feet above a cold and treacherous sea. I saw a small thatched-roof cottage, my once-upon-a-time home, situated close to the edge of those cliffs. I observed sheep in the distance, far too many to count, corralled in by stone walls.

With dream intuition, I knew that the too-thin, ten year old girl sitting on one of those walls was me three hundred years in the past. There was a man in the picture as well, an uncle, in the typical Irish cap of the period. He carried a twisted cane.

As I watched from above, he grabbed me off the wall in a drunken rage and whacked me at the side of my knee. My offense was having lost sight of a incorrigible, younger brother who had been left in my care. Many such beatings had eventually left me with a crippled right leg. His ofttimes cruelty, and general failure to provide for his family, scarred my tender heart and left me without any hope for the future.

My stepfather, who was of Irish descent this lifetime, was my uncle in that past life. Like many Souls with unsettled debts, we were back together again, this time in America. Had we spent other lifetimes together that had led to the life in Ireland? No doubt. But I didn’t need to see them all. Replaying our history together in Ireland was the key to unlocking the current karmic dance.

In the 1940s, a military jeep overturned and badly mangled my stepfather’s right knee. The injury caused much suffering for most of his adult life. It was part of what fueled his drinking problem, his anger and jealousy. Watchful of his dark moods, our family lived in a state of uncertainty knowing we were always on the verge of some terrible upset.
No doubt his mutilated knee was karmic payback for the repeated blows he inflicted on the side of my knee. (The dream offered an explanation for the wariness I had for the cane he carried from time to time in this lifetime.) Beyond the crippled leg, a result of what goes around comes around, he also did something this lifetime that he had failed to do in Ireland; he provided for his composite family as best as he knew how. He often said that he was who he was and could not do any better than he did.

In later years, I understood that his lack of love did not have so much to do with me as with his nature; one he felt he couldn’t change. The reasons for that are a part of his private story. But needless to say, by providing for me in this lifetime, he paid a debt he owed. (I have my suspicions, however, that the cruelty he inflicted upon an older brother in this lifetime will cause the karmic dance to go on between the two of them. But that is none of my affairs.)

Of course, what is, or rather was, a part of my affairs, was to garner the knowledge that there are always two sides to every relationship. Before he died, gratitude and forgiveness took me to a place where I could finally love him without condition. I had learned that being loved was not so as important as being love.

The curtain of mercy that separates you from the past can be drawn back. How? By activating curiosity and putting a past life query out there to the great forming power of the universe, that’s how. Then wait and watch for the revelations via dreams, visions or intuition. But, the bottom line in all of this, as far as I’m concerned, is to live consciously, resolve our debts and not create more, and grow spiritually in the here and now. It’s all about the here and now, my friend, all about the here and now.

Author’s Bio
Jo Leonard is a spiritual adventurer. Her passion in life is to share the knowledge she has gathered after a lifetime of searching for God. She has traveled the world presenting consciousness-provoking talks and workshops to other like-minded seekers. A published author, her writings, both non-fiction and fiction alike, are spiritually insightful and inspiring.

She currently lives in Occoquan, Virginia with her husband and two Siamese cats and serves as a VP for a commercial printing company near Washington DC. You can visit her website at www.jeleonard.com Her new book, The Would Be Saint, is available at www.amazon.com

Put very simply, your Akashic Record is the energetic recording of your soul’s journey since your beginning. It is everything about you, all around you, and within you. It is everything you are, have been, and the potentials you are yet to become. It is a special field of energy that permeates your entire being. It is not something separate from you, but an integral part of you. I believe the Akashic Records are living, changing “documents.” As you change, heal, and grow, your Akashic Records are ‘updated’ to reflect those changes.

As you can imagine, your Akashic Records hold an infinite amount of information. There is no end to the information you can explore about yourself and your relationships with others when working in the Akashic Records. The information is always presented to you in a loving and compassionate way from your Divine Spiritual Family (father/mother God/Goddess, God/Goddess, Spirit, Universe, Source, Ascended Masters, Archangels, loved ones, etc.).

There are specific beings/energetic aspects that specialize in the energy field of the Akashic Records, and I call them the Record Keepers. I believe that in the end we are all ONE. So when I refer to the Record Keepers as “other beings,” I also understand that they are just another aspect of me, from my perspective, and another aspect of each of you from your perspectives. For ease of discussion purposes I may refer to them as “beings” or as “energetic aspects.” So these beings, the Record Keepers, are also a part of your Divine Spiritual Family. These Divine beings have always been at your side eagerly waiting to assist you. Out of respect for your free will, they do wait until you initiate contact and ask for help. Using the method taught in this book is really just assisting you to create a user friendly way of asking for guidance and receiving it!

The information that is obtained from your Akashic Records is a direct result of your questions.

Your questions guide the Record Keepers and Ascended Masters to the “right” energetic space to retrieve the answers that you are ready to know. Notice the key words ready to know. . .

Sometimes we think we are ready to know something, but in reality we are not. In those times, the answers seem to elude us, only to become crystal clear in the oddest and most unlikely moments. Or as I like to say, in the Divine right moment!

Imagine an infinite apple orchard full of apple trees which are chock full of apples. Each apple holds the key to different experiences your Soul has had, and each tree represents themes that you have experienced throughout your Soul’s journey. When you want to know a certain piece of information, you have to come up with a way to direct the Record Keepers to the right tree and then to the right apple. By choosing the right apple, you will get the information you are seeking, which will facilitate your healing and growth.

The Record Keepers are the energetic aspects that tend to these immense apple orchards, and when you ask a question it helps to guide them to the correct tree. The more specific your question, the closer you get to the specific apple that holds the piece of information you are seeking. The potential for healing occurs when you are able to really get down to the “core” of an issue, the seed of knowledge and wisdom that is hidden within the specific apple. Often the awareness of the core cause of an issue is enough to create the energetic shift that results in a healing.* Other times you will need to put into practice the insights that you were given in order to manifest the energetic shift in your Akashic Records. Putting it into practice could be as simple as making a new choice when confronted with a repetitive pattern. *healing: A shift in energetic frequency to the next higher level of divine love and light, which may manifest in the spiritual, physical, mental, or emotional realms.

There is an unlimited potential for healing when working with the energy of the Akashic Records. The extent of the healing itself is directly related to your level of commitment and intent to heal yourself.

Once you set your intent within yourself that you are ready to do your inner work, the Record Keepers readily come forward to assist you as best they can. Like all other Divine aspects of energy the Record Keepers radiate upon you the energy of Divine Love and provide guidance when you ask or when you make it known in some way that you want help. Your Divine Spiritual Family would never interfere with your free will. Therefore, you must initiate the connection and ask for what you want or need. They are eagerly awaiting your initiation and are ready to respond. Having a strong, clear connection with your inner wisdom is more than a gift. It is a Divinely-given right. You do not have to earn this special talent. It is not something that is only for the chosen few. It is for everyone who takes the time to make it known that they want it!

As a co-creator of your reality it is up to you to initiate change in your life.

First you must ask for help, then you must be willing to put to use the information you receive. It is always your choice; but if you don’t put into practice what you are learning, then nothing in your life is going to change. You know the old saying, “the definition of insanity is to keep doing what you have always done and expect to get different results!”

Our Divine Family of Light sends us messages and guidance all of the time. It is up to us to either acknowledge those messages or ignore them. They plant the seeds of light and knowledge, and wait for us to nurture those seeds. They wait patiently as we allow those seeds to mature into wisdom. They also watch with infinite compassion and acceptance if and when we choose to squash those seeds instead of nurturing them! They radiate us with the same loving energy even if we choose to make the same old choices and create the same old patterns, essentially ignoring any guidance they were trying to provide. That is what free will is all about. You always have the right to choose without worry of being judged by your Divine Family. The main purpose for working in your Akashic Records is not to receive mandates about what to do with your life or how to live your life, but to provide you with the information, knowledge, and wisdom you need to broaden your perspective, allowing you to make healthier choices. In other words, working with the energy of the Akashic Records provides you with the support you need to grow and evolve personally and spiritually.

When you have clear intent that you are ready to heal all aspects of your life, then your true work begins.

Spirit responds to your requests to heal and provides you with the opportunities for growth. Each time something comes up for you in your life that pushes your buttons, it is Spirit’s way of providing you with an opportunity for growth. It has always been this way. The difference is that now you will have the ability to go into your Records, dig around, explore, and uncover the core of the issue at hand. Once you have uncovered the core issue, you are able to begin the healing process.

The Record Keepers are waiting with anticipation for you to begin this personal and spiritual journey. The moment you made the conscious decision to read this book, they were able to move even closer to your being. They have always been at your service, but were unable to interfere. When you chose this book, you were sending a message to them that you are ready, willing, and able. In response to your actions, they are able to step closer. They want you to learn how to connect with them and your own inner wisdom more easily so that they may be of more assistance to you during this time of growth. Self discovery, spiritual growth, and personal growth are all important parts of your healing process. Through your connection with your Akashic Records and your Divine Spiritual Family, you will experience deeper and deeper levels of self-empowerment and self-direction as you discover the euphoria of going within to connect directly with your Divine Source.

With each visit to your Akashic Records, you have the potential to heal another piece of yourself. With each healing/shift of energy, you feel more and more complete and whole. The more complete you feel, the harder it is for anyone or any situation to knock you off balance again. You are able to maintain longer and longer periods of peacefulness and centeredness each and every day.

With each visit to your Akashic Records, you also come to understand more and more of your true nature, your Soul and Spirit nature, your co-creative God/Goddess nature. The work is not always easy, but it is definitely worth it.

Find out more about how you can learn to access your own Akashic Records by visiting www.SacredInsights.com

Kathy Karlander is the resident “Expert” on SelfGrowth.com for the Akashic Records. Her gift lies in helping others to better understand the nature of Who They Are, and why they are here. Find out more about her classes, services, and products at www.SacredInsights.com

The Seven Universes

A good friend of mine, who is older and much wiser than I, recently brought forth to my attention, a 70+ year old book of essays called, “The Urantia Book”. He has been studying these papers for many years and wanted to share them with me. So far, I have been blown away by the content within these pages.

Since the book is over 70 years old, you can actually download The Urantia Book for free since it is in the public domain now… there are also many great audio readings out there. Since this book has over 2000 pages, my preferred method of digestion of these texts is to read along while listening to the audio of the books. This helps me gather the messages more thoroughly, as the material is quite heady.

What is The Urantia Book?

The Urantia Book is not a complete religion. It does not have a clergy, a creed that one is required to believe in, or rules of behavior that one must follow. It is a book which has spawned two organizations, now called the Urantia Foundation and the Urantia Fellowship. The book is used by individuals of many religions as a spiritual guide.

The Urantia Book is

• for people interested in life
• for people who want something more than mere religion
• for people who would like to discover their highest spiritual and personal potentials.

The book states that Urantia is an ancient name for the planet earth. It is a large book with over two thousand pages and almost 200 individual essays that reveal information about:

• God,
• other supernatural beings
• the history of earth and of the rest of the universe
• the development of humanity
• the history, message and purpose of Yeshua of Nazareth, (a.k.a. Jesus Christ)

Why You Need to Know About The Urantia Book

Making good life decisions—the exercise of true wisdom—requires insight into the context in which the decision or choice is being made.

The Urantia Book provides a comprehensive overview of the context in which we live our daily lives — historical, social, personal, intellectual, spiritual, and material. It provides important background information that will deepen, enrich, and strengthen your relationship with God, empower you to prevail in your struggles with the difficulties of daily life, and enable you to participate creatively in the much-needed spiritual transformation of our world.

By integrating science, philosophy, and religion into a coherent world view, the Urantia Book enhances the meanings we derive from our life experience, equipping us to live our lives relative to positive, creative spiritual values in the midst of difficulty, chaos, and uncertainty.

I have just begun the journey of pouring through the 2100+ pages of The Urantia Book. In fact, I had been reading a PDF and listening to the audios, but last night, I picked up an actual copy of the book and listened to the foreward and read along. It appears that we have a long journey ahead of us as spiritual beings and I look forward to exploring all this universe has to offer.

If The Urantia Book intrigues and resonates with you, may I suggest you download the PDF of the book and grab the corresponding audio reading to listen to, as you read. The words and concepts are SO intellectual, that using both senses is really the only way to go.

Other information sources:

	A list of Urantia Book related websites is at: http://ubwebsites.com/ They list major sites, introductory sites, locations where the complete text can be downloaded, translations, discussion books, etc.
	A list of web sites that form the Urantia Book Readers United Resource web ring is at:http://www.webring.org/
	Norm DuVal has a “Urantia Foundation Truth Site” at: http://www.freeurantia.org/ Their site is “dedicated to religious freedom, ‘unceasing exposure’ …of Urantia Foundation’s sophistries, and resistance to Urantia Foundation’s religious tyranny and persecution against believers of the Urantia Revelation.”
	A Urantia Reflectivity Circuit lists a directory of Urantia book study groups, social gatherings, book reviews, etc. See: http://www.ubook.org/
	Locations of Urantia study groups can be obtained from the Urantia Foundation or from theFifth Epochal Fellowship, 529 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614 (312-327-0424).
	Urantiabook.org maintains a list of reader email lists and study groups athttp://urantiabook.org/
	A book which is critical of the Urantia Book but contains interesting historical references is: Martin Gardner, “Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery” Prometheus Books (1995). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
	The Fellowship of Readers of the Urantia Book maintains a very extensive WWW site at:http://www.ubfellowship.org
	UBtheNEWS is an independent project by Urantia Book enthusiasts. It explains corroborations between the Urantia Book and subsequent scientific discoveries. See:http://www.ubthenews.com/

For as long as I can recall, it seems that I have felt that I am to share great truths to the world. At times, I sit with doubt as to why I would be such a messenger. To those who know me, my personality is one of keen wit and hilarity. I love a good laugh. Some have even called me a “bullshittapotomus”. And I embrace that side of me. But, as I move down the path of life, I feel myself beginning to embrace the wisdom and knowingness of this great universe.

As much as I try to fight the spiritual side of my being… it is there. It is what we are. We are spiritual beings having this human experience. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the day-to-day mundane chores of life, that we fail to recognize the greatness that lies within these cells.

We have to realize that we are here for something greater than getting by, paying the bills, surviving and hoping there is enough money at the end of the month. We were meant to prosper, to love, to share, to grow and to teach.

We weren’t meant to sit on our collective asses and watch as much television as we do. Numbing the mind and spirit in the process. I figure that I currently only watch about 1-2 hours of television shows a week. There are very few good shows on TV worth spending hours of your waking life and youth glued to the edge of your seat for. My indulgence is a bit of sport, NFL, baseball and college hoops. (Although, with college basketball season approaching, I’m sure my television consumption will rise.)

As a civilization, we have more information available to us, than ever before. Still, if you gaze out at the amazing stars at night, you can not help but feel to be a very small piece of it all. This does not mean we are insignificant. On the contrary, we are very important. Our thoughts and actions have a huge impact on our own world and environment. Our collective consciousness has to change from that of lack and of war… to the belief that we are all part of this great creation of God’s.

We know more than ever before… but sometimes, it seems as if no one has learned a thing.

This blog post was inspired by a divine audio snippet by Neale Donald Walsh in his Conversations with God, Book 3. I want you to take 17 minutes of quiet time and listen to the words within. It feels me with joy to hear this… and of all of the media that I have… 10s of thousands of mp3 tracks… this was the random one that came to my attention… and I feel that I should bring it to your attention.

Neale Donald Walsch talking with God in a 17 minute dialog about the afterlife, Satan, the Cosmic Wheel, sex and other interesting thoughts. [right click and save to disk]

If you aren’t familiar with the Neale Donald Walsch Conversations with God book trilogy, I’d suggest borrowing it from your library or snagging it from Amazon. It truly is an interesting work.

I am going to make a point to post more thoughts more frequently. This One Consciousness site has had the potential to be great. There have been some amazing thinkers posts their wonderful words on this site, and we are blessed to have them share. If you feel like sharing your thoughts on this site, with a blog post of your own… feel free to get an account and create your words for all to read.

Namaste, In La ‘Kesh and Temet Nosce

Travis Wright

Grandfather's Clock Stopped - It's always 6:05!

I‘ve been thinking and dreaming a lot lately about time – in the teachings of my medicine lineage we work in the North Direction with Hummingbird Medicine and Hummingbird teaches us about how to move back and forth through time and how to step outside of time.  The three areas that I’ve been pondering are Measurement, Management and Mastery.  We have organized our reality around the Gregorian Calendar for quite some time now – we measure time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years that are not exactly aligned with our sweet Earth Mama’s cycles and rhythms.  Our bodies – natural extensions of the Earth – created from her elements – have their own internal clock – they know when to rise, when to rest, when to eat, when to go inward, when to act, when to be still.  We can actually bring the light of our conscious awareness to our own natural rhythms – track them and see how much alignment we’ve created in our outer world with our inner clock.   What if we consciously chose a more natural way of measuring – perhaps in alignment with the cycles of the moon, the earth’s rotation on it’s axis, the rotation around the sun – what would happen if we threw out the calendar all together – put the clocks and the watches in the trash and just tuned in to the rhythm that has rocked the cradles from the beginning?

Hatun Kinte - Sewa Kinte - Great Hummingbird - Teach Us To Move Through Time - Step Outside of Time - to Embark on Our Epic Journey

How about Managing Time – how often do you feel as if you are squeezed for time, pressured into moving at a pace that is just not who you are at your core, do you try to schedule every moment of your life – breaking up each precious moment of the day and allocating something to DO for yourself in those moments?  What if you took a different view of time – and realized that there is no race – there is no need to rush – there are no “dead”lines other than the ones you make for yourself.  Death is the BIG CLOCK that is ticking for everyone – notice we use the word “dead” in deadline – to put the pressure on – to bring on the fundamental fear that is at the core of our fear matrix – that we must “get it all done” before we run out of time!  What if instead of trying to manipulate, manage or manhandle time to suit your purposes, you instead allowed yourself to surrender to a larger view – a larger perspective of time and a larger perspective of life, death and the way the Universe actually works?

Mastery of Time is when you Re-member that this whole concept is MADE UP IN YOUR HEAD!  You get to decide – about everything!  You can, if you wish to expand your conscious awareness, begin to see how you can move through time, bend time, stretch time, move back in time, step forward in time, and even if you really wish to hone your skills step outside of time all together.  Time I have found, is highly elastic.  Sometimes I set an “appointment” for myself here in the 3D and discover (sometimes to my consternation when I’ve let myself re-attach to the collective notion of time) that I’m not going to be arriving at the appointed hour.  Some would say “I’m late!”  some actually do speak about themselves and say “I’m ALWAYS late!”  When we speak to ourselves in this way – of course we are – we create our own late!  Every TIME!  I have come to understand much better (I think that the 9/11/01 example was a wonderful clue for us to see) that there is Man Time and then there is DIVINE Time – In DIVINE Time – thousands of people who would normally have been to work “On TIME (in Man Time)” didn’t get there – and of course were spared from the experience.   When you become a Master of Time – you RE-Member that you are ALWAYS EXACTLY ON TIME!  Because the only place you can ever be is HERE, NOW.  Time (as is Death) is an illusion.  Being is the Truth.  BE – HERE – NOW.  Bring the fullness of your presence to this and every moment – let go of time and you will be immeasurably blessed by the river of life that is timeless.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

How the journey of your soul been?

There is a philosophy called HUNA from ancient Polynesia… it is a fabulous study on the way things work in the universe and its several thousand years old. One of the things they say is “Everything is Working Out Perfectly” or EWOP.

When you tie this into what you read in the book, Journey of Souls, by Michael Newton. You realize that you CHOSE this path prior to coming to Earth, and that you have some big lesson or lessons that you are here to work on. Some major purpose.

As we all know, our purpose is NOT to just get by and to make ends meet, but to excel and to move forward down our spiritual paths.

Apparently, in the end, we all become spiritual teachers on the journey for souls that aren’t as far down that path as we are… and eventually we get to a point in which we no longer reincarnate on Earth as our souls progress to higher levels of understanding… of course, with each life, comes harder lessons… but we choose this in advance.

So, it boils down to the fact that all of our existence is a divine creation… a path that we CHOSE to take. It’s not easy, but once we learn this, it seems to make the journey a little lighter a whole lot less stressful… less stress…. less worry. We just need to glean the lesson from within.

Sounds wild, eh? But it feels like the truth… I’m WAY less stressed than I used to be… it seems to take some of the edge off, knowing how the universe actually works!

P.S. You can preview the book and read most all of it at Google Books

Much Love & Light

Travis Wright

Spirituality seems natural... makes us feel connected.

Specifically, the study shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships — both measures of spirituality, the researchers claim — are happier.  

Personal aspects of spirituality (meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal aspects (quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) were both strong predictors of children’shappiness, said study leader Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace.

However, religious practices were found to have little effect on children’s happiness, Holder said.

Religion is just one institutionalized venue for the practice of or experience of spirituality, and some people say they are spiritual but are less enthusiastic about the concept of God.

Other research has shown a connection between well-adjusted and well-behaved children and religion, but that is not the same, necessarily, as happiness.

Spirituality trumps temperament

In an effort to identify strategies to increase children’s happiness, Holder and colleagues set out to better understand the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness and happiness in children aged 8 to 12 years.

A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, their spirituality, their religiousness and their temperament. Parents were also asked to rate their child’s happiness and temperament.

A child’s temperament was also an important predictor of happiness. In particular, happier children were more sociable and less shy. The relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong, even when the authors took temperament into account.

However, counterintuitively, religious practices — including attending church, praying and meditating — had little effect on a child’s happiness.

And therein may lie some useful information for parents.

“Enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and happiness,” the researchers stated. Strategies aimed at increasing personal meaning in children  — such as expressing kindness towards others and recording these acts of kindness, as well as acts of altruism and volunteering — may help to make children happier, Holder suggests.

These findings were detailed in the Dec. 11 online edition of the Journal of Happiness Studies.

More on teens and spirituality

Another research project recently added weight to previously known links between spirituality and happiness among teens.

This researchers compared teenagers with the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with their healthy peers. The analysis showed that while spirituality helped all the kids cope, it was especially helpful for the ones with IBD (which causes abdominal pain and other nasty symptoms, as well as higher risk for psychosocial difficulties and mental health problems; it is more serious than and not the same as IBS or spastic colon). The exact cause of IBD is not known, and there is no cure.

The researchers, Dr. Michael Yi and Sian Cotton at the University of Cincinnati, defined spirituality as one’s sense of meaning or purpose in life or one’s sense of connectedness to the sacred or divine. Again, they weren’t talking about religion, church, temple or mosque.

Teams led by Yi and Cotton collected data on socio-demographics, functional health status and psychosocial characteristics as well as spiritual well-being for 67 patients with IBD and 88 healthy adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19.

One of the most important predictors of poorer overall quality of life for both the healthy and the sick teens was having a poorer sense of spiritual well-being, Yi said, although personal characteristics such as self esteem, family functioning and social support were similar between adolescents with IBD and their healthy peers.

Less depression, more well-being

Cotton’s analysis of the same 155 adolescents found that higher levels of spiritual well-being were associated with fewer depressive symptoms and better emotional well-being.

“However, even though both healthy adolescents and those with IBD had relatively high levels of spiritual well-being, the positive association between spiritual well-being and mental health outcomes was stronger in the adolescents with IBD as compared to their healthy peers,” Cotton said, noting that this indicates spiritual well-being may play a different role for teens with a chronic illness in terms of impacting their health or helping them cope.

The results were detailed in recent online versions of the Journal of Pediatrics and the Journal of Adolescent Health. Yi’s and Cotton’s research was funded by career development awards by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

via LiveScience

Awaken Humanity to One Consciousness!

Part of the reason that OneConsciousness.org is set up, is because of the constant message in my brain to help awaken others.  Most people in the world have totally forgotten their soul’s power and have yet to reawaken to certain Laws of the Universe.

Perhaps it is our responsibility to help awaken the sleeping people?  Let us bring to their attention waves of influence and information that helps unlock the hidden perfection within the mind/body/soul of all living people.

Next, ask yourself “What am I doing RIGHT NOW to help awaken others to path of spirituality?” Perhaps you could do a blog post, comment on someone elses post with additional clarification to help lead someone down the path with a link, maybe you could tweet something other worldly or something fresh that comes your mind from your spirit guides.

Mother Earth has received quite a beating these past 110 years. Cities have grown at an obscene pace, people spend most of their time in a 9-5 haze, and most people have no ideas who their neighbors are… In a way, we are very secluded, yet always very connected.

Rediscover your inner wisdom and help others discover the same. Chances are, that by helping others, that you will move down the path to enlightenment a bit quicker?

In Love, Guidance & Oneness…

Travis Wright

(The top half of this post was originally published in December of 2007 on Applaud Magazine’s blog)

As is customary at this time of year we all take a few moments to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to the year past, saying goodbye to the frenzy of holiday preparation and celebration, saying goodbye to habits that no longer serve. As the year wound to a close I had to say goodbye to an old friend too. My labrador retriever – Blackjack was assisted to cross over last Thursday. Blackjack was what you’d call a “good old dog”. He was a loyal companion and friend, a good watch dog, a guardian and playmate for my son and a true and kind member of our family. At 17 1/2 he lived a long and mostly healthy life. He ran, jumped, played and kibbitzed right on up to 15.

Then he started to slow down a bit, he got a little grey around the edges, he lost his vision. Many people told me after he lost his ability to see that he should be put down but I refused to do that. He was still generally healthy, found his way around the house and the yard well enough and was an integral part of our family life. My boy James was insistent that he should live to die a natural death and so this was a most difficult rite of passage for him. In the last year I knew that time was short. Last Christmas Eve I didn’t think he’d make it through the night and I stayed up late opening sacred space and showing him where the rainbow bridge was. He surprised us all by staying for another whole year! Finally the end drew much nearer. He made it through this Christmas and then went rapidly down hill.

When he couldn’t get up anymore, stopped eating and drinking and had to be picked up to go outside we knew it was time. I opened sacred space before we left the house, called in all of the spirit guides, spirit animals and energies of light to make the way clear and obvious for his spirit, opened his chakras and showed him the rainbow bridge to the other side. It was a tough decision to make but the right thing to do. The vet (Dr. Stephen Frye, Clark Veterinary Hospital in Nashua) was incredibly compassionate, gentle and kind. He helped us to say goodbye in a way that was filled with dignity, grace and the ultimate kindness. Blackjack has already come to work with me in my medicine work, to dance in my dreams and will always be a guardian spirit and friend for my son and our family. While saying goodbye is never easy to do I’m incredibly grateful to Dr. Frye, to my husband Ross and to the lovely Marie Glover at Animal Heaven (in Hollis NH) who made this experience the best that it could be. Goodbye Blackjack and hello once more. May you journey joyfully to your home star and illuminate the path for those of us to follow. Your faithful friendship was a magical gift. With all our Love – Amethyst, Ross and James

December 28, 2008 – When I was contemplating what to write for One Consciousness today I was brought back in time to this time last year and found that I had this lovely article written about a loyal and true friend and companion and felt it was fitting to share in his honor with the readers here.  The whole subject of loyalty has been “up” lately in my life. Most importantly I’ve been getting the guidance to remain loyal to myself – sometimes this can be quite a challenging thing for us to do – our loyalties are torn – we are spread thin – there are so many priorities.  I invite you to use the final days of 2008 to take some time in sacred space and to come back to the center of who you are.  As you do this you may find that some of the activities or people that you’ve been giving your loyalty to aren’t serving you and the greater good any more.  You may find that as you clear your mind, body, heart and Spirit that you are being called to a higher level of loyalty and you may need to apply all the teachings and practices that have brought you thus far to make the changes that are necessary for your growth and evolution right now.

Ayni Despacho Photo from Four Winds Sanctuary Project Site

We just held a despacho ceremony (a ceremony from the Peruvian tradition of shamanism) at our home last night in honor of the new moon followed by fire ceremony.  This despacho was very interesting – we were guided to place many, many prayers in to this gift bundle for Pachamama (Mother Earth)  around what needed to die for us as this year comes to a close.  After all of our group had placed in their prayers I received guidance to lay down over this arrangement of kintus (prayer bundles made with leaves and flowers) a layer of incense & purifying herbs, followed by a layer of “clouds” (made from pieces of cotton balls stretched out) onto which we then placed our prayers and planted the seeds for our becoming.  It was most interesting because it was like two despachos in one – one layered on top of the other with purification between the two.  Take this sacred time to lay down and put to rest what needs to go in your life – purify and cleanse and prepare the canvas/blank page/soil for your seeds, your intentions, your dreams for yourself, your family, your community and your world.  Be loyal to the higher calling.  Let it be.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

DMT can help you tap into your Oneness?

Some scientists are calling it “the spirit molecule.” Dimethyltryptamene, or DMT, is a controlled substance that we are all guilty of possessing because our bodies produce it naturally. When extracted from plants, however, DMT becomes controlled, or illegal.

It’s illegal because DMT molecules share the same shape as molecules of seratonin, the joy juice that keeps us happy. DMT tricks our brain receptors into thinking they’ve found joy juice.

The source of DMT production in our bodies is the pineal gland, a pea-sized gland that sits dead center between the two hemispheres of our brain. Renee Descartes called the pineal gland “the seat of the soul.”

Pineal gland cells share a common evolutionary ancestry with retinal cells, which produce images of outer reality. Dream imagery, or inner reality, may derive from the DMT-laden pineal gland.

University of New Mexico psychiatrist Rick Strassman, a leading DMT research scientist, has written a book entitled DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences.

In the book Dr. Strassman states that the pineal gland’s release of DMT at day 49 of gestation marks the entrance of the spirit into the fetus.

Is the great stuff or what!

The pineal gland is large in children, which may account for their imaginary friends and vivid imaginations. At puberty the gland begins to shrink.

In clinical trials with DMT conducted by Dr. Strassman in the 1990s, users reported a slow, deep spiritual experience similar to that of psilocybin mushrooms but more intense. Sixty percent of his volunteers reported similar experiences involving other-worldly entities who seemed to be trying to share information with them. Dr. Strassman writes:

Indigenous cultures are in regular contact with denizens of the invisible landscape and have no problem straddling both worlds. Often they do this with the aid of psychedelic plants.

Many modern-day scientists possess an abiding faith in the spiritual. But lack of open dialogue about these issues makes it difficult to enlarge our view of the reality of nonmaterial realms usng scientific methods. Instead, we flee from considering the realm of acceptable spiritual experiences.

We may have to rely more on science, especially cosmology and theoretical physics, than on our more conservative religious traditions for satisfactory explanations of “spirit world” experiences.

Near-death experiences. Alien abductions. Lucid dreams. Even gods and goddesses. Try DMT for an explanation and it all holds together.  It’s brain chemistry. It’s neuropharmacology. It’s quite possibly other realms. Whatever it is, it’s the new frontier, a closer examination of consciousness, and it’s very, very exciting.