Wind of the Soul » Releasing Fear

Free Your Mind

John Wolfe — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:58:08 +0000

There are currently 106 blog posts contained at Wind of the Soul. The majority of these are devoted to encouraging the individual to follow their inner-wisdom, explore their creative passion, break free from the ranks of limiting social concepts/expectations and be wary of chasing external “happiness.” While I usually don’t post videos, I was so moved by this three minute and thirty second clip, I wanted to share it. In his 1999 speech, Terence McKenna captured the majority of my thoughts and feelings in the most concise and rapid manner I’ve ever witnessed.

Terence was a poetic genius and wordsmith who consistently stretched the concepts and paradigms of reality. Though he’s passed on, I’m sure his consciousness continues the journey down the rabbit hole, freeing more minds as he goes.

Whether you agree or disagree with McKenna (or me for that matter), the material is thought provoking and causes us to take a step back and examine our existence. Once we stop exploring; stop questioning; stop examining – that’s when we are in trouble.

I can’t vouch for the website featured at the end of the clip, as I’ve never been there, nor have I ordered any of their products.

This video can also be accessed by visiting the You Tube page.

Posts Related to Free Your Mind

Shaking off Social Pressure to Achieve Self Actualization
Blazing Your Own Trail
Blazing Your Own Trail: the Techniques Part I
Intentionally Reclaiming Our Power
Evoking Change Through Uplifting Action

Podcast #11: Economic Recession = Rebirth

John Wolfe — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:12:12 +0000

This installment features a narrative of the blog entry: Economic Recession = Rebirth. The episode explores the ability, afforded to us by financial downturn, to reconnect with purposeful, conscious action and intrinsic value. By reconnecting and becoming more conscious, we stop reacting and we lessen our dependence on external items and circumstances for sustaining or inspiring our happiness.

This episode’s running time is 8 minutes, 25 seconds and file size for download is 7.71 MB. It can be played on your computer’s media player by following this link, or via the embedded player in the Audio section, or in the embedded You Tube player below. Thanks for joining me for this installment. I appreciate the continued feedback regarding the Wind of the Soul Podcast Series.

Granting Yourself Permission

John Wolfe — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:28:35 +0000

Many years ago, when confronted by the question, “Are you happy?” I distinctly recall my reaction. Though the individual posing it was being completely sincere, I felt it was a ludicrous thing to ask. How could something so simple seem like such a strange query? As she awaited a response; my mind, only partially aware of the ever increasing lull in the conversation, was desperately trying to piece together some semblance of a reply. I stumbled around a bit and timidly answered with, “I guess”. After that, the rest of the exchange was a blur.

Looking back on it now, I understand why I reacted in that manner. It was a subtle form of shock. There I was, in my early twenties, never having contemplated whether or not I was truly happy at the deepest level of my being. In fact, up until that point, I don’t think I even considered happiness an option or an emotion associated with living life. Sure, I had fleeting moments of joy, but real, concrete happiness always seemed to be a nice fantasy reserved for someone else.

For me, life at that point had become completely unintentional. I lived to get things done and that was that. I was working and going to college, but all of my experiences were devoid of passion, drive, purpose, clarity and meaning.

Other than the emotion of fear, I had little reason to get out of bed in the morning. Fear and anxiety became my sole motivators for living. I stayed at a job where I was underpaid and under appreciated because of the fear of trying something new. I went to school, not for myself or because I enjoyed it, but because I was scared of what my family would think if I didn’t go and terrified of what would become of me without a degree.

I engaged in one unhealthy relationship after another because I was fearful of having something worthwhile and someone who honestly cared about me. My relationships (both friendly and romantic) were a reflection of how I felt about myself on the inside. I didn’t believe I was worthy of sincerely being cared for in anything more than a superficial manner, so I found people who were more than willing to oblige and second that sentiment.

Even my exercise program was driven by fear. I worked out to the point of seriously injuring myself on more than one occasion (through extreme forms of weight training) because I was fearful of the alternative: looking “normal” or “average.”

When you have an extremely rigid, fear based mentality, concerning the majority of your interactions and experiences, it’s easy to see how someone can become cynical and devoid of joy. While I wasn’t super successful in terms of material gain and financial wealth, during this phase in my life, I did obtain many of the things we’ve been led to believe induce happiness, yet I was far from living in that state of being.

The “happiness question” planted a seed within me. Though it didn’t sprout overnight, to this day it continues to be the inspiration for everything I pursue in my life. Real, concrete happiness is a state of being which can only be internally realized (not possessed) through the lack of attachment to any outcomes or circumstances, but it has to begin with a realization. I believe that realization is the moment we grant ourselves permission to feel, explore and find out who we are; not the person our family, friends, co-workers, customers, or even strangers expect us to be, but who we are.

If we aren’t granting ourselves permission to explore our true nature, then the majority of our relationships are built on false pretenses anyway. How often do we play a deceptive role or diminish ourselves just to fit in or to make someone else feel content and not threatened by our choices?

When exploring this concept, I’m reminded of a quote by Nelson Mandela:

“Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking, so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I was miserable because I was conforming to what others expected of me; primarily trying to please people who didn’t care about me; trying to entice people to care about me who were as devoid of joy and meaning as I was; performing unfulfilling tasks for empty paychecks; engaging in pursuits I derived no value from, and attaching myself to every outcome and circumstance – all because I was unable to grant myself permission to find my true nature and break free from the fearful role I was playing. I conformed and played the part I was expected to play, while becoming little more than a scared, twisted-up-knot of misery.

Our light doesn’t shine when we “play the game” that’s expected of us. The game itself is built on fear and the system thrives (while the majority of humanity suffers) as we are playing small and in fear mode. Our light shines when we grant ourselves permission to tear down the walls of conformity; when we take chances; when we throw the rules out the window and grow through self-exploration and unique, individual expression.

None of this is meant to be an excuse to treat others poorly. As we begin to engage in a sincere, honest relationship with ourselves, all of our other relationships will benefit because we will be truly connecting. Some relationships may fall away, but that’s only natural as we grow and make major life changes.

Each and every stage of growth begins with that first step of granting ourselves permission. And, each and every stage of moving closer to recognizing real happiness begins with the same step.

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Posts Related to Granting Yourself Permission

Believing in Yourself
Blazing Your Own Trail
Self Truths: Part 1
Shaking off Social Pressure to Achieve Self Actualization
Realizing Your Purpose

Becoming a Vegetarian

John Wolfe — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 05:45:02 +0000

Have you ever had an experience in which you honestly felt you weren’t fully responsible for making the decision or the choice to engage in a set of circumstances or an event – it just sort of slipped up on you? This line of thinking is not my normal approach with regards to taking full responsibility for everything in our lives. However, I’m willing to entertain such a thing because I felt something similar regarding my “choice” of becoming a vegetarian in 2008.

Prior to this last year, I had always been a meat eater. That’s not a fact I’m proud of, but it’s something I’m willing to admit. Though I was raised in a household where my mom was a vegetarian, I still consumed meat. Even after embarking on the path of becoming more consciously aware and respectful of all living things, I continued to consume meat.

The contradiction in that last sentence should have been obvious to me at some point, but it wasn’t. Just like so many of the issues I’ve had to face in becoming more self-actualized, my “taste” for meat (as a young adult) was motivated by my own issues of low self-esteem.

As a teenager, I was constantly teased for being painfully thin. This situation only compounded an already burgeoning state of insecurity. By age 18, I began a very serious bodybuilding and weight training hobby, with the hopes of shedding my old appearance. I had grown to hate the body I saw in the mirror and was willing to do almost anything to permanently alter or change it, even if it meant hurting myself in the process. My motto was: “I can’t do anything about my face, but I can certainly do something to fix my body” – somewhat empowering, yet simultaneously self defeating, wouldn’t you say?

Because of my strong desire to outgrow my old body, I began devouring any and all bodybuilding literature, videos, conversations in the gym, etc. Everything pointed in the same direction with regards to a muscle building diet: animal protein and more animal protein. I submersed myself in the lifestyle and lost sight of the consequences of my actions. While this post isn’t about body image (that’s coming up in a future entry), it’s important to point out how easy it is to make unconscious decisions when we’re suffering emotionally. The dietary habits I formed during that decade of self-destructive bodybuilding had become ingrained. Throughout my late twenties and early thirties I continued to eat meat.

However, in 2008, this practice came to a screeching halt. While I’ve been completely aware of the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle for years, my personal change had nothing to do with intentionally emulating these admirable actions (at least it didn’t feel that way). I don’t actually know how to explain the manner in which I became a vegetarian. This takes me back to my statement in the opening paragraph: I didn’t feel fully responsible for making the decision.

I woke up one day, and it was as if my taste buds for meat had been removed. It began with beef in March of last year and worked its way down the list of the other animals (e.g. chicken and fish) I was consuming. Honestly, I attribute this change to absolutely following the wind of my soul, whether I was aware of it or not.

Based on my current path, becoming a vegetarian was the next logical step in my development and evolution. It appears “something” knew that better than I did. Feel free to call it whatever you like: a subconscious motivation, a conscious choice that I chose to overlook, or some form of soulful intervention; all I know is that I’m currently far more satisfied with my food choices, by no longer being responsible for contributing to the slaughter of animals. My dietary intake still includes large amounts of protein, but they now come in the form of protein powders, dairy and soy based products only.

I’m not here to judge anyone’s choices when it comes to eating or not eating meat. Just as I had to go through my own experience of waking up, so will others and I respect that.

However, in closing this post, I will leave you with this concept: if an animal is killed in a violent manner (name a slaughterhouse in which that’s not the case) and a person chooses to eat its meat – that same animal’s molecules are melding with the molecules of the individual; this includes everything the animal felt, coursing through its veins, at the moment of death.

We compound the poisoning of our own vibrational state, by first killing and then eating that which has been violently killed. Yet, if we’re already in a place of psychologically poisoning ourselves on a daily basis, what other actions would be fitting to take, if not those which mirror our own internal turmoil? I’m not defending the killing or carnivorous action; only understanding the lack of awareness in why it’s committed, because I used to be there.

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Economic Recession = Rebirth

John Wolfe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:07:11 +0000

Though, I’m a huge advocate of being vigilant concerning where we place the majority of our attention, I also understand the importance of being aware of the current economic reality facing this nation. I’m not an economist, nor do I pretend to have the slightest grasp of fiscal expertise. But, perhaps I possess something else which qualifies me to write this post: I’ve had an experience with a situation that’s currently happening to many people. And, in my opinion, I represent a real world example of coming out the other side better off for having experienced it.

Seven and a half years ago, I was displaced from my job of almost a decade (along with roughly one thousand others) when my employer filed for bankruptcy. We were union; I was vested and building on a decent little pension, not to mention having amazing medical, dental and vision coverage. My hourly rate of pay was almost five times that of minimum wage (in 2001).

Due to the great benefits and the literal amount of blood sweat and tears I had invested in my position, I was devastated when our location was unable to escape a wave of closures that rocked the company. There were “rescue” buyout negotiations occurring all around us, yet we weren’t among those being saved.

Furthermore, our fate wasn’t strictly decided in a corporate boardroom. We were also at the mercy of a judge. He ruled in favor of allocating all of the funds earmarked for employee severance packages (mine was worth several thousand dollars) to two individuals brought in by the corporate office. They each cleaned up with close to a quarter of a million for “helping” the company stay afloat for an additional two or three months – so much for doing right by the employees who had helped sustain the company for years.

The weeks following my layoff, initially, were extremely dark and depressing, yet somewhere within the somber mood I recognized that the situation afforded me with a fantastic opportunity to begin anew. Though I had gained great experience from my job and could have probably found a position rather quickly in the same line of work, I realized I wasn’t being fulfilled by that form of employment. I also began to realize I wasn’t living up to my potential, based on my own natural abilities.

Sure, I was surviving, but I was no where near experiencing the feeling of thriving at work or in life. I wasn’t passionate about my choice of vocation, nor did I feel I was providing the type of benefit and service I was truly capable of providing. Deep down, I knew I wasn’t doing something that was important to me – making a major difference in people’s lives.

Though I always gave 110% during my shifts, my talents were being stifled by staying onboard. The company’s Chapter 11 issues couldn’t have come at a better time. The closures forced my hand into taking action. I had reached what I felt was the first major crossroads of my life and it was time for me to choose the path less taken; the one that existed just outside my proverbial comfort zones.

When we, as individuals or as a collective group, experience drastic changes like those accompanying a massive layoff or a nationwide recession, it’s always an opportunity for the individual, as well as the group, to rebirth and reinvent itself. And, while I’m sure there are a million and one surface reasons being put forth to explain why this economic recession has occurred; I believe none of these explanations address the core cause.

A surface issue is always the physical development of that which is brewing deeper within the psyche of an organism. In the case of a recession, the organism just happens to be an entire nation. Inner turmoil (be it consciously or subconsciously) always leads to the external manifestation of choices and options. It’s up to us as to how we choose to respond to the current situation facing this country. We can either consciously act or unconsciously react.

For years, the collective American psyche, predominantly, has selected external accumulation, status and achievement over internal happiness (a form of unconsciously reacting to social conditioning) or else has mistakenly confused these things with happiness. This mentality has helped usher in the all too common physical practice of short changing fellow human beings, in terms of services rendered, for a shoddy, often times overpriced and even unnecessary, end product or outcome.

The more we devalue our own existence through a gluttonous, achievement/status only mindset, whether as suppliers or consumers, we develop a belief in needing to acquire more and more of what we feel is an extremely limited set of resources. Not only are we potentially hurting others, but we are also hurting ourselves by living or functioning outside our means, spiritually and/or financially. As we begin to selfishly pursue and acquire more “things”, we simultaneously find more ways to cheat one another in order to continue acquiring even more.

Ultimately, a nationwide, financial downturn is actually society’s way of unconsciously restoring balance. On the surface it seems like an extremely horrible thing, but I believe there is absolutely a method to what seems like total madness.

Internally and emotionally speaking, I believe a financial crisis occurs because of a loss in faith – not faith in money – but faith in one another. When we no longer trust the majority of those that are providing their services, we become fearful and we constrict our energy flow. This energy flow can be represented in many ways, money being one of them. Unfortunately, some that are providing a true increase in life, through their services, may also be impacted along the way. However, I believe, they will weather the storm or even potentially thrive because they have made valuable service their priority. This is exactly why certain individuals thrived during the great depression. They didn’t excel because they were shrewd, they excelled because they were sincere in their pursuit of service.

It’s for good reason, during times of economic crisis, that people invariably bring themselves back to an awareness of only focusing on what truly matters, e.g. the necessities in life. As we get back to the basics and we focus on necessity, it naturally brings us to a better understanding of intrinsic value. This is what helps lead us to our rebirth and reinvention, if we can eventually see it in that manner.

When we zero in on what really matters (our relationship with our self, our families, our friendships, and our health) and we strip away the rest of the material fluff, we come back to a true understanding of what it means to be joyful for the sake of being joyful. This place of being happy and whole, for the sake of being is what allows us to consciously act instead of reacting to our current circumstances, whether we’re prospering or not.

As I have always stated in a large percentage of my posts – there is absolutely nothing wrong with being extremely wealthy or acquiring possessions. It’s when these things are pursued at the expense of developing our own amazing potential for being loving, joyful, peaceful beings (internally and externally) that we encounter an imbalance.

When we all find the means to channel these beautiful emotions, along with our relative resources and physical talents, into a way for sincerely providing valuable, worthwhile, uplifting service (a form of taking conscious action for the greater good), I believe economic recessions, on a grand scale, could be a thing of the past. Whether they become extinct or not, if you begin living more consciously and sincerely (acting instead of reacting) and you consistently provide and invest your resources in real service for others, you’ll weather any financial storm and even better, you’ll help others do the same.

Podcast #10: Evoking Change through Uplifting Action

John Wolfe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:50:01 +0000

This episode is an audio narration of my latest blog entry, Evoking Change through Uplifting Action. It covers embracing internal love, peace and acceptance, for the purpose of following through with uplifting, life-changing physical action. It’s this action which leads to profound personal (as well as global) change.

You can access this episode in several ways: through the audio section’s player, the embedded You Tube players below, or via the following link: Episode #10.

“Evoking Change through Uplifting Action” runs for 12 minutes and 35 seconds. File size for download is 11.5 MB.

Part I

Part II

Evoking Change through Uplifting Action

John Wolfe — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:56:07 +0000

As is customary for me, when PBS goes into pledge drive mode, my TV spends more time on than it does off. During these pledge drives, you’ll find public television airing more personal development and spiritually based programming. Several days ago, they featured a self-help seminar, titled: The Traveler’s Gift, by Andy Andrews. I first became aware of Andy through his book, Storms of Perfection, in which he shared the personal success stories (which stemmed from the repeated “failures” and persistent drive) of many well known celebrities, athletes and business people.

The point of Andy’s PBS special was to reinforce the idea that each and every one of our actions, no matter how trivial they seem, create an impact; not only in our life but in the lives of so many others – even to the point of reaching future generations.

As Andy stated, “There are generations yet unborn, whose existence depends on the choices you make and the action you take. Because everything you do matters – every move you make, every action you take; not just for you; not just for your family or hometown – everything you do matters for all of us, forever.”

After shutting off the television, I began feeling for how Andy’s words resonated with me and how I’m applying them in my own life:

When we take any action, it not only has a direct impact on that which we are acting upon, but it also has an impact upon unknown or unseen (to us) variables, far removed from our immediate vicinity. For example, let’s take a look at a small derogatory action, such as someone throwing the finger to a fellow driver in traffic.

We assume a gesture such as that only has a direct, relevant impact in that very short moment in time. Rarely do we contemplate the kind of negative momentum that action may create in the life of the recipient, and in the lives of each individual the recipient comes into contact with after that moment, and in turn, each person those people come into contact with. Such a simple gesture can affect the mood and mindset of an individual in a manner far greater than we realize and that mood and mindset will determine their follow-up actions towards others. During the course of a single event, our activities have the potential to impact anywhere from a handful of people to thousands or even millions.

Every one of our actions and deeds creates a ripple effect throughout humanity and the Universe itself, sometimes enacting small outcomes, and at other times enacting greater ones, but the point is they all create an impact and they all count. When we take that into consideration, it becomes more important to consistently perform more conscious acts.

It may seem silly to think something as insignificant as gesturing with our middle finger can change the course of events for a multitude of individuals, but that (in a way) is exactly what it does. You see, the web of existence is so interconnected and intertwined that there is not one single action or deed which can escape causing an impact in our lives and in the lives of so many others. Everything was designed that way for a very good reason: to show us just how our choices can either benefit us greatly as we recognize and promote our unity, or else how they can harm us immensely as we react from a fear based belief in separation.

So, we have to ask ourselves, are the majority of our actions spurring on something positive in others or are they eliciting the opposite response? Of course, we each have to take responsibility for our deeds. Just because we perform a rude gesture doesn’t grant the recipient of that gesture cart blanche for treating anyone they encounter badly. But, it does need to make us more conscientious of our own behavior, whether we are the recipient or the giver. And, once we understand this principle and how far reaching it can be, we owe it to ourselves and others to be more conscientious. Another beautiful thing about embracing this knowledge is the fact we naturally become less reactive (more on this later) when we are on the receiving end of a rude gesture or unkind act.

Coming to the understanding of this concept was not difficult for me, but actually knowing it in my core has taken a while longer; not because I didn’t care about what I did to others, but, because I spent many years not caring about myself. I used to suffer from extremely low self-esteem. As a child, it was so bad; I heavily identified with the character Little Jackie Paper from “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

That may sound sort of humorous, but in essence, I felt paper thin and ineffective, so I assumed my actions and deeds counted for very little and had almost no impact on anyone else. This assumption was derived from my own internal views and judgments about my worth. Since I didn’t care about myself, how could I assume someone so “unimportant” could ever impact others (who I believed to be more alive and consequential)?

Developing an understanding, regarding the impact and brevity of the actions we take, is a natural byproduct of learning to love and respect ourselves and appreciate who we are. Our actions can only be as beneficial or as detrimental as the beliefs we retain in our internal landscape. As we strive to experience more internal growth, through self-love, forgiveness and understanding, we will naturally feel the desire to primarily perform positive external acts and deeds; not because it’s “right” or in abidance with social or religious law, but because it feels natural. In fact, it will become second nature to us, without trying to force it or even having to think about it because it will be a reflection of who we are internally.

Taking positive, impactful action is not about being a people pleaser or doing it for attention. Performing “good” deeds to please others or to show off and garner praise also stems from an inner place of doubting our own value. Performing uplifting, life affirming action should come from a place of truly wanting to make a difference and help others, while simultaneously respecting yourself.

One of my favorite lines from the book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior states: “A [peaceful] warrior acts, only a fool reacts.” The same can be said of creating positive action. If we are already in the internal place of peace and love, then we will act without being prompted (from social pressure) into doing so. People pleasing and performing good deeds for attention are not conscious action; they’re an unconscious reaction propelled by the fear of not fitting in or not feeling worthy of the attention we hope to gain from those we are trying to please. The same can be said of performing a negative or vengeful, detrimental deed – it’s not an action, but a reaction from a very fearful place.

As I speak of making a positive impact, I’m not necessarily referring to huge gestures. They can be extremely small, yet extremely effective. Just as something as seemingly miniscule as throwing the finger can negatively impact others in a big way; a smile, wave, pat on the back or a kind, sincere word can have a pronounced, beneficial impact on the life of the recipient and the lives of those he or she comes into contact with. Imagine the sort of change we would see if each of us received and passed on that type of interaction, with everyone on a daily basis.

Most people think it’s ridiculous to assume each one of us can actually change the world through caring, uplifting gestures (both big and small). I’ll say this: it takes just as much (if not less) physical effort to generate a beneficial act as it does to carry out an action full of anger or hate. The amount of effort required is not what’s preventing us from completely shifting the current world paradigm at the grand scale. Nor is the change slow in coming because we are pinned down by a lack of sufficient supplies.

Everything we need to accomplish this goal already exists in abundant quantity (be it material items or our own kind words). The woman/man power is there. The resources are there. The infrastructures are there. What’s missing is the internal decision (on the part of each person) to move toward that which is represented by love, peace and an uplifting spirit. If we choose to not be internally responsible for how we feel about ourselves and others – as it’s represented by the actions we take – we will never see beneficial change in our own lives or in the planet at large. It all starts from within.

The size of the gesture is a relative thing. If we each do what we can (and then just a little bit more) from where we are, the rest will take care of itself. That’s the beauty in this interconnected web of existence.

Andy Andrews is absolutely right – “…everything you do matters – every move you make, every action you take; not just for you; not just for your family or hometown – everything you do matters for all of us, forever.”

Posts Related to Uplifting Action

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Understanding Death through Consciously Living Life

John Wolfe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:35:08 +0000

I just found out a recent acquaintance of mine passed away. We weren’t friends. We actually spoke only briefly a couple of times. But the fact our last conversation occurred a few days prior to her passing is what prompted me to write today’s entry. It never ceases to amaze me how our consciousness can be physically focused one minute and then “gone” the next. I suppose no matter my state of comprehension, regarding the subject of death, I will always be taken aback at that one simple realization.

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time pondering over whether or not we even survive the process of dying. After much soul searching and exploration into the subject, including my own personal experiences with astral projection, I came to the conclusion that a form of our awareness does continue on. Just what that form may consist of and if it’s indeed eternal with regards to our individual personality, I can’t say for certain.

In fact, I don’t believe anyone can ever unequivocally answer those questions from their current physical position, no matter how spiritual, psychic they are, or “who” they may be capable of channeling. Thankfully, developing a broader perspective and a deeper, more conscious understanding does not hinge on the necessity of being able to completely answer those questions. I believe our own inner knowledge may eventually negate the need to find those answers anyway, but that is something I’m still discovering.

Now, I don’t concern myself with these topics because I’m fearful of losing my identity when death washes over me. Rather, I do it because I’m intrigued with the mystery and am interested in trying to obtain some form of deeper understanding, if possible. This is why I continue to conduct my own experiments into altered states of consciousness. These states allow me to have a better appreciation for consciousness itself, as well as providing me with the ability to find new interpretations on our existence.

I believe our best method for not only trying to understand death, but to also release much of our fears associated with it, is through exploring and utilizing wider aspects of consciousness. Consciousness appears to be the only constant, whether we’re physically focused or not. If anything can provide us with some form of insight into the afterlife, it would have to be the further development of our own awareness of the here and now.

In my opinion, that specific form of awareness is not typically developed through ordinary interactions and so called social obligations, such as going to school, to work, shopping, dining out or watching television. While we are (somewhat) active in those situations and we may even be learning something new, we are usually utilizing rudimentary levels of our conscious abilities. It’s these cursory levels scientists are referring to when they speak of human kind only using ten percent of their brain potential.

In scientific pursuits there has to be something quantifiable and measurable. Scientists can’t measure or test for the source of consciousness so they don’t give it any attention, but they can measure the manner in which the brain fires and at what capacity. Since I tend to view the brain as the link up between the body and soul, as opposed to seeing it as the source of consciousness; I believe we can take these scientific findings and apply them to that which is metaphysical. In other words, as most of us are going through the typical, average, ordinary motions of our lives, we are only tapping into and allowing a fraction (10%) of our soulful consciousness to flow.

Here’s the thing, though: despite how it may feel, there are no typical, average moments in life. It’s not the fault of the tasks we undertake or what’s happening in each second that causes us to utilize less than ninety percent of our potential. Instead, I believe it’s the way we consciously (or unconsciously) process the moments in which those events are occurring.

We have been trained and programmed to view our experiences through an extremely narrow lens. The narrower the lens is, the smaller the percentage of consciousness that’s being utilized. This has little to do with intelligence. Someone can be highly intelligent, but still employ very little of their potential for conscious expansion.

When I initially decided to write this post, I considered stating more of my opinions about what may be waiting for us once we cross over. In fact, I actually wrote two pages pertaining to my ideas regarding the after life, but I decided to erase them. When I started writing this entry for a second time, I began using the process I’m encouraging in this post.

I made a conscious decision to try and employ more than the ten percent my opinions (as seen through my narrow lens) would have afforded. My impressions and ideas about something as enigmatic as what awaits us beyond death will do very little to help you find your own answers. In striving to empower you, the reader, by speaking of methods to enhance and expand upon the way you interpret each moment of your life experience; I feel I’m utilizing a larger portion of my conscious abilities. I believe the best way to understand death is to more clearly and presently experience life, instead of barely thinking and acting from automation or rote. Blindly following other people’s interpretations of life, as well as death, is what places so many of us in primarily an “unconscious,” disconnected state throughout our lives.

So, what does an enhanced, conscious clarity of physical existence have to do with better understanding death? As we continue walking around in a daze about our role in life and who we are, we stifle our emotions and become disconnected from feeling our feelings and actions. We eventually shut down deeper modes of understanding and limit our perceptions. As our perceptions become more and more dulled, it’s natural to transfer those same limiting views over to our ideas concerning death. If we are already living a stifled form of life, there’s no way we can have a broader more aware take on the mortality of our physical vehicles. This is why the statement: “many people have died years before they’re actually buried” is so true.

To become fully aware throughout your day; seeing events and experiences through “new” eyes and finding ways to think and feel that have quite possibly never been accessed before is the most empowered form of living. I believe this in turn helps us to become more empowered in our views on death and dying.

If we have the ability to truly feel what our consciousness is (it’s definitely not automation) and what’s it’s capable of, then we will know it is impossible for something so immense to be snuffed out when we pass on. As we begin to see our unlimited potential unfold while we are seizing not only the day, but each moment of it, it becomes easier to grasp how that which flows through us will always continue on in some way and in some form.

I have written several articles contained here at Wind of the Soul which go into great detail regarding techniques for becoming more consciously aware and present. Several of these can be accessed through the links in the related posts section.

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Honoring Your Emotions & Experiences

John Wolfe — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:38:59 +0000

Over the years, as I have worked to explore my total-self, I’ve discovered an occasional tendency to try and ignore or hide certain emotions and experiences. If something didn’t feel “proper” or if it didn’t seem to fit into a so called sublime spiritual state of being, then I found the need to repress or ignore it. And when I wasn’t forcing it back into the abyss where it came from, then I was feeling guilt or shame for thinking the thoughts and for taking the specific actions related to the thoughts.

For me, coming into a better understanding of my spiritual side has been amazing; however, it has also caused me to place a lot of undue, unnecessary stress and pressure upon myself. I think anyone that’s engaged in self-exploration and growth will eventually encounter some form of self-condemnation or judgment. As we tune into what we feel is a more aware, connected, conscientious state, it’s not uncommon to hold ourselves to an even higher standard than ever before regarding our past and present emotional responses and actions.

Despite the improved states of awareness we may have achieved through spiritual pursuits, we need to be cautious about denying any part of our human experience. Acknowledging our emotional tendencies and physical experiences is part of the journey. There comes a point, however, when it’s important to understand we must not only acknowledge, but eventually honor all of our feelings and experiences. To acknowledge is simply to recognize (with or without attachment), but in showing honor we are providing ourselves with a form of respect minus any critique.

I’m not saying we can’t or shouldn’t learn to make continuous choices which are more advantageous for ourselves as well as for others. But, I do believe it’s easy to wander into the trap of expecting our human aspects, tendencies and “faults” to fall away once we experience more pronounced inner growth. Because of these unrealistic expectations, we may begin to vehemently deny, repress and/or resent that side of us as it expresses itself. I believe this tendency is, in fact, where the damaging concept of sin stems from. We are definitely spiritual beings, but we are these beings while simultaneously having a human experience, in which there’s nothing sinful.

There are certain biological and physiological drives and responses that will always accompany this physical journey no matter how much enlightened knowledge we possess. That doesn’t mean we are victims, prisoners or unwitting pawns of the human vehicle. It only means it’s important for us to understand these functions for what they are and embrace them as we continue our own growth.

The sooner we can distance ourselves from the concept of having to live some imaginary, saintly, sterile life, just because we are on a spiritual journey, the better. I don’t think we should equate true spiritual awareness with feeling guilt or denial over any of our emotions and experiences. In fact, feeling guilty and sinful have about as much in common with spirituality as George Bush does with being considered a Rhodes scholar. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!

We have always been taught that fear and the repercussions from some external power (be it our parents, teachers, pastors, god, the long arm of the law, etc.) should keep our actions and thoughts in line. In other words, it’s ok to be ourselves, just as long as we measure up to a certain ideal or standard. Deviate from that standard and we’re up the creek (at least in the eyes of many). The problem with this logic is very evident- it teaches us to not honor our true feelings and it causes us to find shame in many of our actions.

Once again, I’m not encouraging anyone to break the law or mistreat others. I’m encouraging you to think about why you may feel compelled to not honor all of your emotions and actions, whether they’re deemed proper or improper by society or any form of spiritual or religious teachings. When we can learn to honor every part without judgment, I believe we will have a more whole, integrated, joyous experience. As our lives become more whole, we stop operating from fractured psychological and physical states.

Imagine a jigsaw puzzle. Every disconnected piece may contain snippets of beauty, but in its broken state it’s impossible to see the phenomenal, big picture. And to complicate things further, many of us decide to throw out our own life pieces that we feel no longer fit with our current self-image or understanding. However, when each piece is not only kept but acknowledged for what it is, honored and then joined together- an amazing scene unfolds.

Honoring who we are (even our supposed wrong doings) and leaving condemnation behind does not mean we are doomed to repeat our past, nor does it prevent our own internal and external growth. On the contrary, it enhances our growth. The most disconnected, diminished state of being is one that’s broken into a million pieces represented by fear, guilt, repression, regret and disassociation with our feelings and experiences. Bring your pieces together by embracing the human side (including all of its interesting parts) and joining it with the spiritual side. To ultimately understand they are both one gigantic, intertwined experience, without any real separation, is the ultimate state of honoring who you are.

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The Evolution of Spirituality

John Wolfe — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:40:42 +0000

Many people are capable of embracing the old adage, “Variety is the spice of life”; as long as variety doesn’t stick its nose into the spiritual side of their lives. After spending many years reading and learning about an array of metaphysical and spiritual teachings; the one thing I have consistently observed: almost every book, theory, philosophy, religion, etc. differs significantly from another. Often times the core tenants are similar, however the farther you move away from the core, the greater the quantity of spice that’s been added.

These differences used to frustrate me because I wanted so desperately to find the ultimate truth. Little did I realize the variations I was so agitated with contained more validity than any “Holy Grail” of external knowledge I imagined to exist. It wasn’t necessarily the teachings, contained in each variation, which brought me to this epiphany. Rather, it was the fact so much variety could exist.

Looking back, it’s ironic to find that the multitude of words, contained in these teachings, never delivered what I consider to be my greatest understanding. Don’t get me wrong, I have benefited immensely from a large volume of metaphysical philosophies, but many (including religion) fail to recognize they are not thee be all and end all; instead they are only a small portion of an even greater spiritual evolution. They are but stones peaking out from under a vast body of water for us to tread upon, in order to keep moving forward.

Some ancient teachers, and modern “masters” alike, have stated the information they impart should not be deviated from in the least little bit. They hold on tight like rabid dogs, not wanting anyone to reinterpret the application of their teachings.

Yet, I feel individual deviation (not deviancy) and remodeling are natural inclinations, if we’re in tune with our own innate calling. It is not only natural, but a given we will take established information, apply it in our lives and then reintroduce its understanding (or discard it) from our own perspective. If we aren’t doing that, then we may risk functioning from a place of complacency and fear driven dogma.

Those that absorb and explore information and then reinterpret it from their perspective (whether they keep it to themselves or not) are contributing to this evolutionary process we call spirituality. As human beings we tend to think of evolution only occurring at a very physically based level. Yet, physicality stems from meta-physicality. The expansion of one aspect contributes greatly to the other. It’s a give and take process.

Spiritual growth is not something that began and ended during the age of Christ or Buddha. We aren’t left here to simply follow in someone else’s footsteps from two thousand or more years ago and hope we receive a reward when we pass on. We’re here to create, expand (consciously or unconsciously), and evolve beyond the information brought forth before us. Expansive spiritual experience is not about repeating the same exact tenants for eon after eon. It’s about acknowledging the core teachings and then contributing from our personal perspective.

The understanding that spiritual teachings have a multitude of variation and difference is not something to shun; instead it’s something to embrace and expand upon. Many times, people see a wide variety of interpretations in spiritual information and they will either give up on it altogether or hold on tighter to their familiar convictions; believing there cannot be so much difference. They, like me, wanted it all to be cut and dried.

But I’ve learned we don’t live in a cut and dried Universe. We live in an expansive, impressionable Universe; one that does not possess any single ultimate truth, nor hold any one above another. Instead, it has the ability to reflect each and every diverse experience; making them all true in their respective moment. However, one moment eventually turns into the next and the evolutionary process, across all realms, is again under way.

We can either move freely with this process, while allowing it to contribute greatly to our expansive nature and vice versa, or we can hold tight to our old concepts and ideologies, believing they are the ultimate truth.

There’s no wrong answer here. But if we choose to move freely with the spiritual evolution, we just may develop a better understanding of consciousness, equality, how unique individuality is possible among mass unity, and the potential for un-limiting our selves.

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Freeing Ourselves of Guilt

John Wolfe — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:18:23 +0000

Out of all the emotions that lend themselves to self-sabotage, perhaps none are as potent as guilt. When we carry a heavy heart, burdened by something we’ve done that’s deemed wrong or improper, we constrict the expansion of our being. Guilt has the potential to shut us down in so many ways.

Often times, I have looked to my past and thought, “Why on earth did I do that?” Usually this thought is laced with heavy doses of gut wrenching judgment. The more I dwell on condemning my past actions (actions which cannot be physically changed anyway), the more I can feel myself undermining my potential.

Somewhere along the way, many of us have adopted the illogical attitude we aren’t a good person if we don’t carry around regrets from our past. We grow up believing we should be disgusted with ourselves for making certain choices. After all, no person of good moral standings would dare do something like that (insert any unfavorable action here) and not feel bad about it until the day they die, right?

I don’t mean to suggest we should not learn from our past experiences, nor am I saying we shouldn’t make choices that are more advantageous for ourselves and those around us. I just don’t feel we should ball up all of our supposed misdeeds and hold onto them as a means for re-iterating our unworthiness. The more we dwell on our past actions, the more we continue to lose sight of the present. By doing so, we act out our own inner beliefs concerning our lack of self worth.

Even if we feel being mindful of our past will guarantee we won’t repeat those same actions; we overlook the understanding that the guilt we carry around prevents us from having peak experiences and interactions. If we stay vigilant in remembering our past “mistakes” as mistakes, then there’s no way we are completely free of feeling guilty for what we did.

And it’s impossible to be laden with a guilt ridden conscience and simultaneously be present, aware, joyful and connected to everything we do. The very things we are trying to avoid repeating are continuing to influence us in a negative way because we’re keeping them active in our thought processes.

We also believe that others should feel guilty for their wrong doings. We seem to think guilt is the correct response because it eventually leads to a confession, an apology or a mending of ways. However, endorsing and trying to foster guilt in others via blame, serves to diminish us as well. We don’t feel guilt because we need to make something right for someone else. And we don’t feel the need to endorse its expansion in others so we can feel better. We feel these things because internal mechanisms are letting us know it’s time to make amends within ourselves.

Feeling this way is a sure sign we are ripping ourselves apart internally. While apologies can be beneficial; they often serve to make the person that’s being apologized to feel vindicated and slightly superior. The apologist then walks away feeling diminished in who they are for having to act a certain way to appease someone else.

I want to reiterate, I’m not advocating that we live a life of treating others in a harmful way and then feel good about doing so. I’m advocating releasing the need to measure up to anyone’s standards. And I’m advocating we find a form of inner unconditional love which will always guide us in the direction of knowing the best way to treat ourselves and others.

Feeling prolonged guilt highlights a lack of unconditional love of self. Likewise, any time we demand an apology from others it highlights another form of placing conditions on our loving emotions. We won’t ever find that place of loving unconditionally by harshly judging our actions or expecting others to do the same concerning their own.

When I look back on certain situations from my past and I feel a twinge of judgment or condemnation regarding my behavior or the behavior of other people, I try and remind myself of this: our past can sometimes be akin to walking around in an unfamiliar room in the dark. We are all bound to trip over many things until we can hone in on our surroundings. We stumble often because we are trying many different means for finding our way. If we would allow ours eyes to adjust to the environment first, things would go much smoother.

This adjustment comes from the desire to see more clearly, while consistently slowing down in the midst of our experiences. I believe when we develop an understanding of the true motivation of our past actions and the emotionally motivated actions of others, our eyes begin to bring things into a clearer focus. We are then capable of forgiving both ourselves and other people without having to give (or expecting to receive) any form of emotional reparations. This provides us with an opportunity to free ourselves of guilt.

Releasing Attachments to Judgmental Labels

John Wolfe — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:53:57 +0000

A large portion of our personal interpretation, concerning reality, stems from our willingness to slap labels on experiences. Admittedly, it’s extremely difficult to not label items, events and other people, when we consider our entire means for communicating is dependent upon descriptive terms and phrases.

But, we can begin to make a conscious effort, in the language we choose, to rearrange the stamps and marks of identification which are slung around on a routine basis. Even more importantly, we can begin to internally release our attachment and affinity for casting a very specific type of label: the label of judgment.

While there are many forms of judgmental labels, the specific ones I’ll be focusing on in this post are those of right and wrong. We are immediately brought up with the idea that doing the right thing will continue to garner “love” from those in positions of authority i.e. parents, teachers, mentors, relatives, the community, law enforcement, etc. And of course, conversely, we have it drilled into us that doing the wrong thing will bring just the opposite.

The majority of parents and caregivers in no way feel they are literally taking their love away when a child behaves in a manner that’s deemed poorly or unacceptable. However, when parents immediately begin placing conditions upon their responses to children’s behavior, they are in fact placing conditions upon their loving responses toward those children as well.

In other words, do “X” activity and mommy/daddy will be so happy that she’ll/he’ll sing your praises from the rooftops. Do “Y” activity and you will make daddy/mommy very angry and forced to punish you. This, in a sense, is placing conditions on the loving emotions parents are willing to express at certain times. Most would have a tendency to deny it, but it’s extremely difficult to find the emotion of love when you’re fuming mad.

Because of this, children begin to see a trend in the emotional frailty of their parents. As they are constantly reminded of the correlation between their behavior and their parents’ responses, they begin to identify and attach heavily to the labels of doing right and doing wrong or being good and being bad.

Children also begin to believe it’s appropriate (through watching adult behavior) to place conditions on their own responses to their surroundings. Often times, when they encounter something that doesn’t appease them, they have a melt down. Hence, children have tantrums when adults say no and adults have their own emotional tantrums when the kids act up. It’s a learned cycle.

I’m not insinuating we should remove discipline from a child’s environment. I am suggesting we need to find ways to not make the distinction so extremely obvious when children displease us, compared to when they make us happy. It’s this extreme distinction that pounds labeling and the idea of conditional responses to specific behavior into a child’s head.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore our own emotional responses as adults either. It only means we need to do a better job of relaxing and releasing the need to express them so drastically and dramatically. It also means we need to find a balance when disciplining children, especially in the language we use, which is typically filled with words of comparison and judgment. It’s the continued emphasis on labeling that can set some children up for self-esteem issues, ideas of inappropriateness, guilt, chronic fear of failure, the inability to have their own healthy relationships, and plenty more.

Now, why is it so important to identify triggers like these from our own childhood? One, so we can make a difference for future generations and two, so we can understand how to put an end to this learned behavior within ourselves.

On a metaphysical level, I maintain the Universe isn’t making judgments or keeping score over what’s right and what’s wrong. These concepts are all drummed up in the human brain and perpetuated generation after generation. Events are not right or wrong, good or bad. At a deeper level, they just are. By stating that last sentence, I’m certainly not advocating that people lead a life of crime anymore than I’m advocating violent behavior towards others.

I believe once we are capable of reaching a level of understanding how the concepts of right and wrong have been blown so extremely out of proportion, we are already far better prepared to know how to treat others anyway. Someone who is in a position of deep introspection and contemplation has reached a place in their lives where they understand this. They realize their actions have a more advantageous effect when they are geared towards helping rather than harming. They ponder this information only because they are interested in pushing the envelope on the currently accepted ideas pertaining to life’s meanings.

Personally, I don’t lead a life of crime, not because it’s deemed wrong and I might go to jail, nor do I harm people, not because that’s deemed wrong and I might go to “hell.” I don’t do those things because they aren’t congruent with my inner knowledge and my inner desire to help others. I realize I have choices and options and I simply choose to try and lead a life of helping instead of harming. However, many people are in the dark about their options and feel that harming others is the only way to find their power. This doesn’t make it wrong. It only makes it different.

I know this probably sounds like a bizarre stance to take, but it’s all about exercising our ability to try and see beyond the confined ideas of existence, which have been forced down our throats. It’s this very forcing of labels, ideas and situations, onto us, that lead some towards a life of crime. Instead of going inward and finding their power amidst the stillness of their consciousness, they lose their awareness and rebel externally.

As we come to realize we are the source of all things expressing itself through this environment and we also understand we are the creators of our life experience, labels like right and wrong seem rather silly. How could universal source energy (the only thing that truly exists) ever commit something wrong against itself?

This is similar to the concept I addressed in my post “Life Lessons?”. If we are the god source energy and we create our reality every second of our lives (and I believe we do), then how could we ever be here to learn lessons? The only “lesson”, if you want to call it that, which we are here to learn or remember, is who we are and what we are truly capable of doing.

The problem in all of this is that most don’t realize they are god source energy. From that one falsehood stem a thousand more. Yet, they are all based on the original falsehood: that we are not of that which created this entire Universe. This is the very reason I don’t believe there is an ultimate right or wrong, a heaven and hell, or things like sin and karmic debt (not in the strictest sense of the word). These ideas were concocted by individuals that thought they were somehow separate from one another and separate from a deity that was purported to exist at a level far beyond their reach or comprehension.

If others choose to believe in sin, the devil, harsh karmic justice that follows us from one lifetime to the next, and what have you, I completely respect that. Due to our ability to create our own reality, they may very well find variations on those themes popping up in their life experiences, both here, and waiting for them on the other side. However, I choose to try and unfetter my beliefs, as much as possible, to allow my understanding to expand beyond limiting thoughts and concepts. I know there are worlds of existences, waiting out there, which extend outside our most limiting, ingrained thoughts.

Now, I will admit, I do still find myself labeling and judging some things as right or wrong, but the nice thing, these days, is that I catch myself midsentence and realize what I’m doing. As I make more of a conscious effort to relax the need to do so, the portion of my brain, which identifies with these labels, begins to feel the need to engage less and less.

In writing this post, I can see the glaring issues staring at me. If I’m saying that all things simply are and there’s no ultimate right or wrong, then how can I also say labeling and critiquing are undesirable activities? Isn’t that, in and of itself, a judgment call?

Therein resides the “problem” with philosophizing about our existence and the ideas that we are responsible for every aspect of our lives. However, we must be willing to take those steps outside all conventional “wisdom,” or else we are doomed to stay inside the box for eternity.

I realize, at the physical level of existence, it’s not easy to see things which seem unjust and horrible and not attach severe labels of criticism. We all do it, but the more we can direct our attention toward the idea that things simply are, as opposed to focusing on the idea bad things exist, the less we will find “atrocious” events in our midst. It’s ok to have a range of emotional responses to experiences and it’s also ok to view things as good and bad, but we must make a conscious effort to realize a large portion of our responses are programmed and conditioned.

The more open we are to this realization and the more we continue to work on deprogramming ourselves/working with our emotions, the better for us and our children. By continuing to fill children’s heads with labels and critiques, we stifle their open minded, awe-inspiring, creative abilities. And it’s never too late to regain all of those abilities within ourselves as well.

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Ineffable States of Enlightenment

John Wolfe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:10:53 +0000

“A fly wanders back and forth through the air, then lands on the window pane. It launches itself, flies for two feet, then lands on the glass again. It continues to walk around, on the glass, never finding the exit.

“It doesn’t know that there is an opening in the window just a few feet away. You and I can see the opening because we have the big picture. If only the fly would un-limit itself, get the bigger picture, and allow itself the freedom and perspective to fly higher, it could rise above it all and be free.

“Instead, it is content to wander aimlessly. Now I tell you: You are that fly. You know the way out. But You Choose to Ignore it.” – excerpted from Lessons Out of the Body, by Robert Peterson

In my last post I discussed the concept of letting go and how I’m learning to apply it in a very specific area of my life. However, I’ve also come to realize letting go, in other areas, can lead to some of the most profound experiences of our lives. If we could learn to release our over attachment to beliefs, circumstances and ideas, we could expand our perspectives immensely. It’s this expansion of perspective that will continue to prevent us from stagnating in every experience of consciousness we encounter.

I used Robert Peterson’s quote, pertaining to the fly, to illustrate how we are always just a short distance away from entering into a brand new state of ever unfolding enlightenment. The fly quickly becomes accustomed to only seeing what’s right directly in front of it. Even though the exit exists just a few feet away, it often chooses the bondage of what’s familiar over a journey into more expansive experiences.

Are any of us really that different than the fly crawling around on a pane of glass, always missing the obvious? We gravitate towards appealing ideas and beliefs out of habit and fear; hoping for something, anything to provide salvation. Often times, our determination to make that form of salvation the only way enchains us in shackles that bind, limit and define us for the rest of our lives. Those self limiting concepts can prevent us from finding our own individual opening in the window.

There’s not one set of teachings: religious, spiritual, new age, channeled, self help, personal development, or otherwise that will ever have all of the answers. Every one of them, if you’re not aware, can eventually trap you right back on the window pane. As you’re lulled into believing you’ve finally arrived at THE one truth, you’ll continue to miss the opening that’s waiting just beyond your own limiting beliefs. Our perspective is forever expanding, if we’d only choose to see it that way.

It’s for this reason I stated there is no truth and truth is all there is, in my post Discovering the Truths of Your Existence. By this statement I meant that there’s no ultimate truth out there because your personal truth is all that exists. We each continue to define ourselves based upon this, yet we simultaneously expect the world around us to behave according to our standards of that truth. And each individual aspect of consciousness within the world is reacting to its own version.

People are quick to argue (and a lot worse) over which religion is right or which philosophy or self-help guru has the correct angle. The problem with this line of thinking is simple: none of them can ever be eternally correct. They will all have bits of truth residing within, but just as soon as we assume any one is the be all end all, we have again lost sight of the open window. And the more vehemently we cling to that idea as the only truth in life, the further away from the opening we continue to crawl; turning our back on the way out.

Our beliefs not only shape and limit our experiences in this physical plane of existence, but they may very well do the same once we shift our focus into the nonphysical. In Robert Monroe’s book Far Journeys, he spoke about how our expectations and beliefs create the locations we encounter once we pass into the nonphysical.

During his out of body journeys, on the astral plane, Monroe encountered what he called belief systems, full of souls, which were set up according to religious affiliation and denomination. These souls had already crossed over, yet they had built entire communities on the astral that resembled their physical counterparts. They would attend church along with other “earthly” activities. Some were even still waiting for Christ to meet them when they died, despite the fact they were already dead!

Monroe would do his best to try and coax them out of their belief systems. His intentions were to show that there were more amazing environments (since he had witnessed some of them) beyond their self imposed restrictive communities. The only limit to these other amazing, expansive environments was their own ability to fathom the potentials and possibilities. Some came along with him and others reluctantly stayed behind, turning their back, once again, on the opening in the window.

Obviously, I can’t write about there not being an ultimate external truth and then say for certain Monroe’s experiences were the definitive answer pertaining to the afterlife. However, I believe his experiences do provide us with another clue in our journey. We must use all of the teachings that are available to us as stepping stones towards finding our inner version of truth. And know that even this truth continues to expand and change because that’s the nature of consciousness and this entire Universe.

While I feel our physical environment is loaded with many excellent teachings and teachers; each one is only capable of delivering their truth that is currently stemming from their present perspective in the moment of now. Yet the next moment of now is not the same as the previous one because everything has expanded once again, due to the nature of consciousness. If the Universe, both its physical and nonphysical equivalents, continues to expand, then what are the odds that only one set of teachings, religious or otherwise, is the only universal truth out there?

I’m not suggesting we should cease broadening our horizons through exploring spiritual teachings, philosophies and religions. I’m suggesting we take those teachings for what they’re worth and remember they may have some valid application based upon our current state of awareness only. And as we continue to expand, those same teachings may eventually serve to limit us. Just imagine, since you started reading this sentence the Universe has expanded and subtly changed and it will do so again by the time you come to the period at the end of this paragraph.

The Universe does not stand still, nor does consciousness. If both were stagnant, then perhaps one set of teachings would suffice forever, but that’s not the case. As this conscious Universe continues to expand, teachings from two days ago and even two thousand years ago cannot consistently apply to the farthest reaches of our physical and nonphysical awareness, in this new, present moment of unexplored existence.

Step on the stones of those teachings that have been previously laid before you and continue stepping without hesitation. Pass easily and freely through each new opening in the window panes of your life. As you reach uncharted waters, consistently go within to allow your own present truth to shine forth, moving you beyond the next and the next; always understanding the experience will never cease to change and expand. And always knowing that is exactly how it’s meant to be.

Let go, allowing yourself to flow freely toward your ever developing, ineffable state of enlightenment. For this is not a destination of achievement; it’s a state of forever becoming.

If you’re interested in learning more about Robert Peterson, along with his spiritual insights and experiences out of the body, I highly recommend visiting his website. Both of his books can be found there, free of charge.

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Learning to Let Go

John Wolfe — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:00:31 +0000

Within the last few months I’ve made some important discoveries regarding the title of today’s post. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve gotten good at consistently applying those discoveries, but I’m continuing to try.

I’ve always been the type of person that’s been an absolute perfectionist about endeavors that I feel are worth pursuing- especially anything of an artistic nature or something that’s intended to benefit others. Even if a project sounds great or looks great, after five hours of work, I believe it will be even better after ten hours and so on.

This is the same logic I apply to my writing and audio recordings. Pick out any post, on this site, that’s at least three typed pages long and I can show you ten+ hours of writing that went into that particular post. Pick out any podcast, thirty minutes or longer, and I can show you twenty+ hours that went into creating it. Most bloggers would probably never dream of spending that much time on a single post or recording, but I frequently demand it of myself.

When you love what you’re doing, the hours fly by anyway, so it’s not an issue regarding the time invested. The issue here pertains to my need to sometimes over manage the creative process. While I’m absolutely concerned about my material being beneficial and top notch; much of the over managing stems from a place within me that’s concerned about being accepted (by my readers/listeners) and succeeding as a professional blogger.

Now, I don’t base my version of success on the same merits society typically uses. If I were to do that, it would be safe to say I’ve never been a “success” at anything I’ve ever done. Simply, because I’ve never actively pursued many of the material things and positions of status we’re coaxed into pursuing for measuring our levels of achievement.

Instead, I base my success on the amount of joy I’m receiving from my work and the amount of help and benefit I’m providing to others. These are the goals that continue to inspire me. All of the work I’m currently doing provides me with more joy than anything I’ve ever done in my life, so on that front, I would have to say I’m extremely successful.

However, I have occasionally noticed my readers don’t seem to communicate with me (via many different means) nearly as often as the readers of other blogs; especially those sites that pertain to somewhat similar content. I know many bloggers aren’t overly concerned with lack in reader feedback; in fact, some shut comments down entirely on their sites.

But for me, reader email feedback and comments are an important part of the process. This isn’t about getting my ego stroked. I’ll approve negative reader comments as quickly as I approve the positive ones. Instead, it’s about reaching out to my readers and gauging whether I’m providing value or not based upon your interactions. Even when I receive negative comments, I know I’m stimulating people’s minds.

It’s this area that’s created some concern for me and has at times, led to the occasional doubt about my work and whether or not I’m really making a difference. When doubt starts to creep in, I begin noticing an incessant increase in the need to try and control the creative, expressive process and its outcomes.

In Podcast #5: The Inspiration Behind Deliberate Creation, I spoke about getting out of our own way as much as possible to allow all we desire to unfold. In the post Effortless Passionate Creativity, I discussed the idea when we passionately create, without over thinking and managing, we become a conduit for the most positive aspects of Universal energy. These are life changing concepts I’m fully aware of and believe in, yet sometimes I continue to miss the forest for the trees and catch myself getting in my own way.

This is an area where I’ve learned I have to consistently release and let go. When I first came to that realization, I was a little confused about what letting go meant. I used to believe you had to keep something at the forefront of your thoughts, almost at all times, to really make it manifest. It’s like having tunnel vision. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to embrace the concept of letting go; if it meant that being distracted from my vision would prevent it from coming to fruition.

It’s taken me a while, theoretically working with this idea, to finally, fully realize letting go doesn’t mean relinquishing my dreams for this site or the quality of my work. It means letting go of trying to force my acceptance and my success (based on feedback). It means being myself, continuing to do what I love; having fun, maintaining my vision, staying positive, staying consistent, taking action when it is necessary- backing off when it’s not, and realizing everything will work out.

With that being said, I absolutely appreciate the great feedback I have received. Many of you have sent such amazing messages; they’ve brought tears to my eyes and to you I’m thankful. Others have left messages completely disagreeing with my philosophies and to you, I’m also thankful.

And to those who visit, but aren’t inclined to leave comments and feedback: I appreciate your interest in my work as well. I’m coming to realize your silence may or may not mean I’m making a difference in your lives. Either way, it’s ok because my intent to do so and the joy I feel from taking this journey is what counts (this is true for all of us and whatever endeavor we undertake). Thank you for helping me to learn to let go.

In my next post I’ll be expanding upon this idea and how it can be useful, for the purpose of broadening our horizons, both here and once we move beyond this plane of focus.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

Q & A: Visiting Psychics & Selling Metaphysical Teachings

John Wolfe — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:43:54 +0000

Question: My wife’s girlfriend averages visiting a psychic, three or four times a month. I’d like to hear your opinion about psychics, and more specifically, psychics that specialize in foreseeing the future?
-Carl H.

Answer: I feel we can take any information, no matter the source, and use it to our advantage or disadvantage. This is just as true of psychics as it is anything else. The main problem that can erupt, lies in our over reliance and dependence on these external forms of information. Your question leads me back into the area of thought I explore more frequently than any other in my posts- and that’s the understanding of our own spiritual power.

Every problem that we perceive ourselves having usually stems from some form of fear, whether in this physical focus of awareness or after we cross over (as in the case of some hauntings- depending upon how conscious ghosts are). Fear is only a misunderstanding of who we are, or better said- what we are and what we’re capable of.

Many people that rely consistently on psychics are working through their own levels of fear. They are in a place of transferring their power to someone that they perceive having abilities greater than their own. That’s not to say psychics cannot be of amazing benefit to people. The ones that specifically come to mind are psychic mediums that connect with energies that have crossed over.

Many times these individuals provide a form of closure for those that are grieving, which may not have been reached otherwise. In these cases, visiting a medium is extremely cathartic. But again, some people will begin to use mediums as a crutch to consistently try and communicate with those that have made their transition. This is where some of the more unscrupulous types will take full advantage of a vulnerable individual, further contributing to their feelings of disempowerment.

Now, as far as seeing a psychic with clairvoyant abilities- I believe there are multiple probable realities being born constantly out of our individual conscious awareness, along side the awareness of mass consciousness. Legitimate clairvoyants are tapping into one possible form of reality that has the potential for developing, but that doesn’t mean it will definitely unfold in the manner they perceive.

Our input is the driving force behind those events that occur at our level of reality. If someone concentrates heavily on the predictions set forth by a psychic (or the news media ? ) then they have been influenced by the power of suggestion. Absorbing the prediction and allowing it to influence their thought processes and actions will definitely bode in the favor of the psychic being correct more often than not.

While my answer in no way covers the entire spectrum of psychic phenomena, I feel we all possess these latent abilities. An occasional visit to a professional is great, especially if the person comes away feeling soothed and at peace, but if someone becomes reliant upon these sessions to function, then I don’t feel they are utilizing the psychic’s services in a beneficial way.

Question: I have a couple of personal questions for you. Do you have plans to write a book? Are you doing any forms of public speaking on the subjects you write about and talk about in your podcasts?

Answer: I’m not currently doing any public speaking. That area isn’t something I’m really interested in pursuing, but who knows? I could find myself following that path one day. Though, I’m actually extremely introverted when it comes to speaking in front of groups.

Now, I am very interested in writing a book, but I want it to be unique and have its own merits that haven’t been covered by others, because there are so many excellent books (in my area of interest) on the market already. With that being said, there’s also a part of me that feels I can provide the most benefit writing in the type of atmosphere I’m currently working with at Wind of the Soul.

There’s something about doing what I do for the absolute love and enjoyment of it without selling a product. I don’t want to feel like people have to pay me for the information that (I believe) inherently resides within us all, if we search for it.

Of course, I believe in having abundance in all areas of my life, including finances. Yet, that doesn’t mean I have to lose sight of my main purpose. I’d rather (at least for now) continue to work with advertisers, affiliates and receive voluntary donations, so that I’m free to give everything I have to my visitors, minus the need for selling. The day may come when I incorporate a few products into my site, but they will be extremely affordable and of high quality. I wouldn’t be comfortable offering them if they didn’t fit the bill on both counts.

I write and speak often about trusting in the natural flow of our life experience. That’s exactly what I continue to try and do with my work. I focus on providing what I have to offer to my visitors and trust that the natural flow of my life and the Universe will provide the abundance in a perfect unfolding.

If that unfolding eventually leads me to writing a regular book, e-book, or even public speaking, then I’ll know the time is right for doing it. But right now I’m extremely happy providing all of my content in this manner and no matter what, I’ll always continue to blog and record free audio content for Wind of the Soul. ?

And that does it for this question and answer installment. I’d like to thank both of my readers for sending in their questions. If you have any metaphysical, self help, or spiritual development type questions you would like to see addressed, feel free to send me an email. As always, your name will be kept private unless you request otherwise.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

Related Posts

Q & A: Destiny & Karma

Moving Beyond Fear

John Wolfe — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:41:02 +0000

If you’ve ever visited my other website, you know I love October 31st. One of the reasons in particular is that it finds creative means for symbolizing humanities biggest fear: death. While that may sound strange or macabre, I believe it can be extremely beneficial. In the midst of this symbolism (and when done “properly”), it has the potential to engage our curiosity and interest in the subject, thus placing us partially in the driver’s seat- a location which is conducive for embracing and exploring.

When we are exploring from a place of interest, though we may still have some trepidation, we aren’t cowering from a place of terror. This is all part of taking the emotional journey back to reclaiming our power over fear. Once we release a large portion of our fear of the unknown, we can move into a more amazing experience of living.

To that end I’d like to discuss an ongoing encounter I’ve had with a strong fear and my process of working on releasing it, in the hopes it will provide benefit to my readers that may be struggling with some phobias of their own.

While my story is definitely not a life and death situation, it is about an issue which represents a lot of personal resistance. For my entire life I have had an acute fear of visiting the dentist. This primarily stems from the fact that every procedure I’ve ever had, at every visit, has been accompanied by large amounts of pain- this includes average, run of the mill cleanings. Ever since I was a young child I’ve been a mouth breather at night time. Mouth breathing (in some people) can lead to extremely agitated and highly sensitive gum tissue. This in turn leads to large amounts of pain and bleeding during ordinary dental procedures.

For years I pressed on, with my visits, in the face of the pain. While I did succeed in making it through each appointment, I was doing so through an action only strategy. I was not balanced in my decisions. My emotions were all over the place about going, but because I was more concerned about the aesthetics of my smile and what society thought of me (if I didn’t obtain regular dental check ups) than I was about my own emotional well being; I continued forcing myself to go in spite of my phobic feelings.

And because I was highly stressed concerning the circumstances of my mouth, I continued to compound the situation further. As I’ve mentioned before, high stress levels lead to the opportunity for disease within the body and I was certainly dis-eased about this situation.

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go to the dentist, but I am saying we should go for reasons which aren’t primarily based in fear. We should never follow fear’s lead for taking physical action (unless we are faced with a life threatening situation). And essentially that was exactly what I was doing. I was taking a fear filled, painful experience and trying to motivate myself into moving forward through the use of more fear based tactics- not a good mixture.

Unfortunately, this is the strategy most dentists and doctors use to get us into their offices. How often do we see propaganda warning us we had better get in and have certain procedures done or else? And often times, the or else has more to do with a potential blow to our delicate self-esteem (and a lining of their pockets) than it does with preventative medicine and concern for our health. I’m not insulting the entire medical/dental community, but it’s blatantly obvious a large portion of the healthcare industry uses strong arm fear tactics, aimed at our insecurities, as marketing strategies for boosting business.

Western medicine has yet to understand our role in influencing our individual reality because it’s still stuck in the old Newtonian and Cartesian views. Until it’s ready to embrace the shift, which the new models of quantum physics have revealed, it will continue seeing an increase in problematic health conditions that its current understanding of the physical body (and reality) can’t explain.

Our health is just like everything else in our lives. It requires a fifty-fifty balance of action and emotional/thought tuning. Until we are ready to fully engage on both levels (and in most cases back way down from the action only strategies we’ve become accustomed to employing) we will never be whole in our body’s ability to attain wellness.

Since, for years, I never located that balance concerning my oral health (let alone realized it was important) my fear continued to intensify like a snowball rolling down hill. It built up to the point of becoming a serious phobia. It was out of control and I was out of alignment; feeling tremendous resistance around the subject matter. Even though I continued performing all the usual personal care for my teeth at home, I stopped going to the dentist for a little over three years. I was paralyzed by a feeling of sheer terror. My back was against the wall and I knew I needed to discover a way around it.

The first step, I found, in moving beyond this condition was to fully acknowledge that my fear was stemming from within. While this didn’t fix everything, it did place me in a position of feeling stronger about my circumstances. Instead of trying to strictly blame my fear solely on my past dentists and dental visits, I was able to claim responsibility for my feelings. This claiming of responsibility helped me to realize my fear was not external from myself. I had created it all on my own.

Primarily, we tend to view our fear of the unknown as separate from ourselves. We’re always afraid of what’s “out there” waiting to get us. Each time we interpret things in that manner, we are giving up our power. This act of transference places us in a very vulnerable position because we are granting our fear the means for controlling portions of our thoughts and actions. We continue to create more fearful experiences and responses by believing fear has the power to force its way into our lives through its own accord. Nothing could be further from the truth.

After owning my fear (in a healthy way), I began to reason its intensity was so pronounced because I really did care about my teeth and my oral health, and not just because of social pressures. I reached a point where I honestly cared for my own well being instead of what other people thought of me. Now I was making progress. I no longer had a fear based motivational response for going to the dentist; instead I wanted to go for the general care of my mouth. Once my objective for going had been established and it was no longer for superficial reasons, I was able to work on relaxing the anxiety associated with the visits. This is where meditation and visualization came in very handy.

During my fifteen to twenty minute meditations, prior to my visit, I would establish a place within my mind that allowed me to symbolically release my resistance so the natural flow of my life experience could unfold. This was accomplished through the use of water as my visual aid.

I envisioned myself being part of a mountain stream. I would totally submerse my consciousness in the setting and become one with the water; gently and unhurriedly flowing forth around rocks and barriers. I took in the smells of nature and the colors of the sky and mountains. I worked to cement this location and the feelings associated with it in my mind, so it would be easy to re-create while sitting in the dentist’s chair.

While there was still some fear and pain associated with my first visit back, I was probably calmer during my most recent appointment than I’ve ever been before. I even found myself extremely present in each moment during the visit. I began to explore and take interest in the procedures they were performing (although admittedly that’s not always easy when you have a couple of sharp instruments stuck in your mouth at once ). As I mentioned in my very first paragraph, it’s through exploration and engaging the circumstances we used to fear that allows us to regain some of our personal power.

The third step, which helped me to move beyond my fear, was to understand the necessity for embodying what I speak about and vice a versa. I can’t write about spiritually empowering my readers if I’m not consistently working on regaining my own place of empowerment.

Before I end this post I would like to address pain’s relationship to fear. There are a lot of macho slogans floating around on bumper stickers and t-shirts out there, such as: Pain is Fear Leaving Your Body, and No Fear! First of all, I believe fear exists for a great reason. If we didn’t know what it was like to fear something, we would have no clue what it was like to live minus that feeling.

Fear serves as an excellent contrasting experience and it also clues us in when we are picking up forms of resistant thoughts and ideas which obstruct our natural flow. It’s an indicator which helps to inform us we are creating an imbalance and aren’t at one in our current state of focus. It also exists to prevent us from moving forward in our current state of mind.

About the whole “Pain is Fear Leaving Your Body” thing- I say it differently: Pain is fear’s way of rummaging around in our bodies. As long as we are feeling forms of pain we are not fully rid of fear, but that’s ok. We can observe it from a place of understanding its purpose and when we do that we cease to give it the power over us to cause suffering. Pain can be present, but the choice is up to us whether or not we choose to suffer with it and become its victim.

To move beyond my extreme fear I realized I needed to make a conscious decision to take a different approach. I decided to own it, but in a way that would break my cycle of the depression, stress and anxiety associated with it. I decided to own it in a manner that showed responsibility for it.

In other words, I had to find the feeling place which caused me to know I had created this entire experience. It was no one else’s fault. While it very well could be compounded by someone else’s actions, if I continued to lay the blame on them I wouldn’t break the cycle and would only continue giving my fears their own power; rendering me helpless in the process. Once I was able to find the place within my emotions which re-instated my feelings of power, I then devised the means for getting through the physical actions required. Now, each successful step I take towards doing this continues to reinforce my feelings of control over my fear.

While I used a very specific situation to highlight my journey through releasing the majority of my fear; I believe we can apply these strategies towards any fear we may be dealing with.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

Q & A: Why do we feel Negative Emotion?

John Wolfe — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 22:36:58 +0000

Question: I suffer from bouts of depression and you said you’ve experienced the same thing. I’ve tried working with my emotions and changing my thought processes to feel better, but I still find myself hitting rock bottom a lot. If we are God source energy, as you say, then why do we feel negative emotion?

Answer: I too occasionally have moments where I can feel myself slipping into that state of mind. I spent many years of habitually riding the rollercoaster of depression. I have to let myself off the hook on this subject, quite often, because I know I didn’t get into a routine of being a depressed person overnight. It took many years of thinking and feeling undesirable thoughts which stripped me of my power. These thoughts eventually developed into consistent responses within my brain, bringing on my states of depression even faster and more consistently.

There are tons of psychiatric based self help books addressing this subject; however the vast majority of them miss the underlying cause (in my opinion) for why people feel depressed. The field of psychiatry refuses to explore and acknowledge why human beings are even having the physical life experience in the first place.

They believe the entire array of emotions can be explained away by chemical responses and the firing or misfiring of neurons in the brain. Hence, the billion dollar industry of pharmaceutical drugs targeted at people with “emotional and psychological issues.” I’m not placing quotes around those terms to mock, but rather to illustrate more of the labels we place on people.

The feelings of depression and negative emotions, in general, are there for an excellent reason. The more we try to suppress those responses (via drugs or trying to ignore them) the more they come out in other ways. Negative emotions, such as depression, are letting us know what we are focusing upon and doing isn’t working.

When we defer to taking meds, we still continue many of the same patterns and routines, which elicited the depressed feelings; yet now we are performing them under a misty suppression of our true emotions. It’s little wonder many people take meds for these issues their entire lives. They never get around to addressing the cause because they’re too numb to feel for it.

Our emotions (and thoughts) are literally the language of the soul and serve as the tool for creating within the physical and non-physical Universes. They provide a constant link up between our human selves and the god source creative energy flowing through us. Yes, they have a chemical basis in the brain, but that’s not their only mechanism for functioning. Those chemicals are only the physical representation of our energy based feelings, just as our bodies are only the physical representation of our consciousness in this plane of existence. Feelings and emotions, like our consciousness go far beyond these bodies and brains.

When trying to understand why we experience negative emotion, beside the obvious answer- because we can; I always look to the explanation of one of my favorite teachers: Abraham-Hicks. They (Abraham) explain the cause of our negativity is because we are holding ourselves in a position our source energy will not simultaneously hold with us. Now you might be thinking, “wait a minute, he just said WE are god.”

We are god-source energy, but we also are these physical identities which function with human brains. The source energy which flows through us is only capable of experiencing love, joy, abundance, wellness, ecstasy etc. In other words, it only sees things from an ecstatic, thrilled emotional point of view.

When we, from our human perspective, feel anything less than desirable emotional states, we are receiving valuable communication from our “power” source. This communication is informing us we’re in the process of detaching from source’s point of view. We absolutely are god, but as we are a form of god that’s physically focused, we’re also commingling with these physical vehicles. It’s up to us how much of the full embodied god source point of view we choose to let through at any given time and our emotions are constantly clueing us in to this fact.

While I agree with Abraham’s teachings on this subject, I understand it may be extremely difficult for some people to absorb. An alternative option to looking at negative emotion from Abraham’s perspective is to understand that negative emotion is an unnatural state of being. This is why we feel uptight, anxious, stressed, scared, etc. when we are thinking negative thoughts.

Our body’s natural state is one of being relaxed and happy. This is where we function at our highest capacity. It’s all about finding anything (thoughts and activities) which brings us out of our negative or depressed states. Sometimes this won’t happen overnight. It’s a process of practicing and actively working with our emotions on a consistent basis.

The more consistently I’ve worked with this information, the better I’ve felt. While I still have rough days from time to time, I notice a lessening in the duration of my states of feeling upset or negative emotion. Prior to consciously working with my emotions, I would get into a funk for days on end. Now I’m able to turn something around within a few hours or even in just a few minutes.

From time to time, I also experience days of amazing joy. More extreme than anything I’ve ever felt before. The feeling is so intense I feel like I could burst wide open. It’s almost too intense to take. These are the days when I’ve caught glimpses of what it feels like to be completely in sync with the source that’s flowing through me. My goal is to continue working towards experiencing days like this all of the time.

The key is to be consistent in practicing to always feel for thoughts and emotions that help you feel just a little better incrementally. Remember, it took each of us a long time to pick up our negative distrustful thoughts. It takes practice, each and every day, to find something that feels better to think about or focus upon.

When you start having a bad day, let yourself off the hook for feeling that way. If you beat yourself up over it, you only continue to separate yourself further from your true power. It’s natural for everyone to have undesirable emotions from time to time, even people who are consciously aware of how important a role our emotions play in creating our life experience.

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to read my articles I’ve listed in the related posts below. All of these have fairly lengthy descriptions on the techniques I use and recommend for working with our emotions; along with ways to come into the full awareness of our source capabilities and power. If you still have more questions or need anything else, feel free to contact me anytime.

This will probably be my last post before the 25th, so Happy Holidays to all of my visitors and their loved ones.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

The Dark Side?

John Wolfe — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:04:53 +0000

Almost all films and novels, whether they’re dramatic, action, or suspense based feature villainous characters- it’s pretty much a rule of thumb. We love to see some sort of battle, be it psychological or physical, between good and evil. The horror movie genre is no different, except for the fact that evil triumphs most of the time, at least until the production company runs out of sequels in the series.

If you’ve got a good guy, you always have to have his polar opposite- the night to his day, black to his white, and on and on. It’s all symbolic of duality. Fiction typically mimics an aspect of human consciousness, be it sometimes an absurd or exaggerated translation. Movies and books aside, what about the notion of “evil” being motivated by the actions of some sort of overseer of darkness?

The concept of evil is based on belief and opinion. It’s a word we use after making up our minds that an event or action, which sits outside the boundaries of what any “good or decent” person would do, must be negative. An action or event is neither inherently positive nor negative, it simply is. Our opinions, judgments, and the emotions the action evokes are the only things that determine its worthiness or lack thereof, in our lives. The event and action will always remain neutral, but it’s our reaction to it that determines how affected we will be by it.

Reaction is exactly that, it is a re-acting to and sometimes re-acting of the circumstances (in our minds) over and over again. While this doesn’t mean we are impervious to the action’s outcome, it does mean we have an option for how we choose to let the outcome impact us; if we see ourselves as a victim and continue focusing upon it or if we choose to release the experience from our awareness. By discussing the concept of evil as more of an opinion and a reaction based response to an action or event, than an actual thing, which stands separate from our awareness, I feel we can start detaching ourselves from the idea that there is some concentrated force of darkness out there (metaphysical or otherwise).

I personally don’t believe there is a devil, Beelzebub, Satan or whatever other creative names exist to describe it. These terms are a means for people to plaster a face on their opinions and fears of all things they consider bad or evil. It’s much easier to say the devil made someone do it or to believe that evil does exist, than it is to clean up the way we view the events in our lives and how we react to them. Do “bad” things happen? Absolutely, but again, who’s making up the rules of what’s considered good and bad? Each one of us is doing it.

When fear is our dominant expectation and primary way of relating to our world, we are going to see certain things as horrible and evil. We may even believe there is something or someone out to get us. I’m not saying that each one of us doesn’t have the right to feel however we are feeling in the moment- we absolutely do and should. What I am saying is that there are options to taking on the protracted role of victim and to letting undesirable emotions rule our mindset for any prolonged period of time.

While it’s quite natural to initially react in a fearful manner to a scary or dangerous situation, it’s not beneficial to allow these emotions to become our primary way of interpreting life. When fear becomes the dominant filter for viewing reality, it’s easy to believe evil exists and bad things are always waiting to happen. As this develops into our predominant viewpoint, there is an unmistakable self fulfilling prophecy at work- what we consistently focus upon expands.

I’m a firm believer in personal empowerment, I feel it’s our right by birth, but because of the opposing beliefs most of us have picked up throughout our lives, we have to want it and work towards it. It’s easy to just look around and let our emotions run rampant, it’s much more work (initially) to take an active stance in directing our feelings and looking within, instead of externally, for the direction to take.

People that are consistently controlled by their emotions are constantly searching outside themselves for others to validate their experiences and to agree upon their interpretation of the circumstances and events that have transpired. Those in touch with themselves and their emotions do not need external verification.

While they may react initially in a fear based manner, they recognize it’s unhealthy and counterproductive to stay in that mode for any length of time. They immediately begin finding things, thoughts and emotions which feel better to focus upon. They may even recognize that their initial pronouncement of the event as being bad or evil is only a knee jerk response brought on by their past social conditioning.

It’s fine to feel the emotions we are feeling in any given moment, but if they are primarily fear based or undesirable, then it’s extremely important to take hold of the reigns before our thoughts and feelings build up a full head of steam, becoming our predominant way of being and viewing life.

I feel that the concept of evil and the devil are fear based mechanisms created and perpetuated by individuals who have lived primarily in a mode of fear. I don’t believe these are actual things that exist external from our own emotions and expectations. These views stem from conditioned responses and from prolonged ways of undesirably viewing the neutral events and circumstances of change that are a natural part of the life experience.

If this post has been helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others and/or making a donation. Thank you for supporting Wind of the Soul.

Connecting With the Mystical

John Wolfe — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:52:30 +0000

After writing my post pertaining to the film, Peaceful Warrior, I thought this would be a good time to elaborate a little further on my own journey towards connecting with the mystical. I don’t claim to have arrived by any stretch of the imagination. Life is an ever expanding process which I sometimes pursue fearfully and other times joyfully, but always as consciously and as aware as possible.

I don’t intend to offend anyone with this post, I only intend to be as open as necessary, to bring across the information. I have come to an understanding that there is value in all journeys, whether they are similar to my own or not. I don’t feel there is only one correct path to achieving a mystical/spiritual connection, but I do feel there is one which is incorrect- and that is anything that causes you to forsake your own feelings, emotions and inner guidance. When you tune out your own inner awareness, taking into consideration what others think and view, as being correct for your life, you have started down the path of losing touch with yourself.

The following resonates true for me, in the form of observations and conclusions that I’ve come to through my own emotions, experiences and the aid of great teachers (whom I’ll definitely be elaborating on in future posts). As I said, I by no means consider myself enlightened, but I am currently having a much more joyous life experience, than ever before in my adult life.

I seem to have amazing recall for events that occurred prior to age four. I can remember the entire layout of my parents’ apartment when I was two years old. I can recall my toys, my thoughts and my friends. I can remember what it felt like to go to the barbershop for the first time and my fascination with running my hand against the grain of my shortly cropped hair. I remember watching original episodes of “Mash,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and “The Bob Newhart Show”, well before they ever appeared on TV Land or Nick at Night.

I could spend an entire article describing a solid chunk of events from my life, prior to turning four years old, but what sticks out the most, for the purpose of this post, are the events that occurred in my bedroom, late at night. I remember having the feeling of a presence in the room with me, long after my parents put me to bed. This presence never caused fear or anxiety. I don’t remember ever crying or going into my parents’ room at that age. Those fitful nights came a few years later, but when I was a toddler, I only recall something serene interacting with me near bedtime.

I never had imaginary friends as a child, but I do remember carrying on conversations, either in my head or aloud with something “in the air.” These conversations took place prior to my understanding of the mainstream accepted concept of god, so I don’t believe they were prayers to a deity.

During these talks I can recall my body feeling extremely light and experiencing a great state of euphoria. I’m not sure where and when these conversations ended, but I believe they were occurring because doubt and cynicism had not yet crept into my awareness. I was at an age where I had not quite become conditioned by society, enough to fully cut off my connection with what we like to call god/soul/and the higher self.

As I grew a little older, I became enamored with the paranormal and ghostly entities. My Mom and I used to check out all sorts of books from the library that dealt with this subject matter- I probably knew what a poltergeist was before I entered the first grade. I appreciate those early readings sessions my Mom and I shared, because those books, along with my recall of the experiences when I was two, planted the seed for my interest in the metaphysical and the search for life’s meaning.

As an older child I never regularly attended church, but I used to spend every Sunday morning reading the bible with my parents. I never developed a typical relationship (for a child) with the god of the Christian bible, as I found myself questioning many of “his” decisions and rules, but I still believed in a form of the Christian definition of god and managed to pick up a little sprinkling of the dogma, which accompanied that belief, along the way.

Reflecting upon that time in my life, from this vantage point, I can see that many of my questions stemmed from a feeling that something was missing from the modern biblical texts. I do recall being fascinated by how Christ accomplished his miracles. However, I never felt like I wanted to worship him- rather, I felt like I wanted to learn how he was able to achieve the miraculous and mystical.

Throughout high school and my stint in college, I continued to question the bible and its accuracy. After many years of learning historical truths, as they pertain to most religions, I abandoned the bible as a valid tool for interpreting life and its meaning. This abandonment had far more to due with man’s interference in religion than it did with turning my back on god.

I was now an adult, accepting the average adult interpretations of existence, completely submersed in a world that seemed to have lost the majority of its magic. While I was still fascinated by the supernatural, I eventually went the way of the cynic on most subjects, and accepted that life was supposed to be an uphill battle, full of drudgery and woe.

I was working a dead end job and attending college courses on and off that I could care less about, all while fighting with major bouts of depression and other troublesome issues. I essentially had reached my wits end by the age of twenty four. My life lacked meaning, and for the first time I realized I didn’t believe, or better said- wasn’t sure if I believed in much of anything anymore.

Yet, there was still an underlying fear in fully confronting this revelation. While I had been living in this manner for a few years, I never consciously acknowledged it until a particularly rough stretch came along. I realized I had been battling myself over the knowledge I had obtained and the fear in actually confronting the realization that I was becoming agnostic.

Despite my doubt over the bible, I always wanted to believe there was still a creator in some shape or form. However, I had never been exposed to any teachings outside of religion that allowed an understanding of what that creator could be like. And I had long sense tuned out my own natural inner guidance (an awareness that is within us all), to embrace much of the majority of society’s ideas and beliefs.

To many people, becoming an agnostic would be too horrendous to contemplate. However, I would have to consider it a fantastic experience. It definitely was one of my most worthwhile choices- due to one simple fact: I was able to release a large chunk of fear and the feeling of lacking power. Despite my doubt about conventional religion, I had still held to my loosely based Christian idea of god.

Once I was able to fully release from that concept, I feel I achieved my first true victory in a psychological battle which had been raging (mostly on an unconscious level) for years. It may sound odd to hear someone say that straddling the fence with regards to their belief in god actually empowered them, but that’s exactly what happened. I felt like a large part of the slate had been wiped clean.

As I continued to live my life with this new devil may care attitude (no pun intended), I began to notice interesting occurrences. I started actually having experiences that were more in tune with my inner senses again. Amazing new books began finding their way into my life- books that I never would have considered reading, prior to my new stance. I also noticed more moments of serendipitous occurrences and huge coincidences taking place with events, the people I was interacting with and the way my life began to unfold. It was as if I had been living my life in a fog bank and when the fog lifted, I found there was an entire world around me which I never knew existed and couldn’t wait to explore.

Looking back I now realize it was all due to the act of consciously releasing. I never approached the agnostic attitude in an obnoxious manner. I didn’t carry it around like a chip on my shoulder or a banner to be waved. I was not doing it to rebel or to upset others. I did it for me, because it seemed logical.

After realizing my decision and letting it sink in for a while, I simply relaxed about it all and allowed my fears to release. It was through this allowing that I feel I’ve come full circle- back into contact with that warm presence in my bedroom, which made me feel so fantastic all those years ago, before I acquired cynicism, before my struggles, and before society’s input and social molding took hold. It’s through this allowing that I now feel I understand god/the human soul better than ever before, minus all the religious overtones.

The reason I feel my journey into agnosticism was so important was because it was a huge turning point in my life. Many people reach similar situations, but the straw that breaks the camel’s back for them may be about their job, marriage, finances, etc. Mine just happened to be more about religion.

Of course, I acknowledge there were a multitude of other events occurring in my life that also aided in my reaching the breaking point. Knocking down the dogmatic barriers was not about thumbing my nose at organized religion. It was more symbolic of my mind breaking free from society’s molding and standards, be it religious or otherwise. It was actually my first step in pulling back and re-examining the life experience I was living and the realization that there are infinite ways to interpret it. But it predominantly was a representation of releasing and going within, to where the only true source of knowledge resides for us all.

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Releasing Fear of Astral Projection

John Wolfe — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:10:10 +0000

The primary focus of this post is to help anyone who’s interested in, but somewhat fearful about, the process of having a deliberate out of body experience. While this article is intended to help soothe fears about astral projection, I don’t recommend that anyone, who has a major phobia surrounding the out of body state, pursue it until they can work through or release the majority of those fears.

It’s extremely difficult to experience astral projection if your primary emotion surrounding the subject is fear. Not to mention that when fear dominates your feelings (after projecting) you may have some rough experiences while on the astral plane. When I first started having spontaneous OBEs, I had my fair share of worrisome thoughts and trepidation that accompanied the process.

It was through further exploration, that I discovered most of these feelings stemmed from a misunderstanding or from preconceived ideas I had developed about the astral realm. Once I began reading about astral projection I started buying into many of the myths that seem to run rampant pertaining to out of body experiences.

Let’s go through a list of four of the biggest common concerns for somewhat experienced travelers and the uninitiated alike:

One of the first concerns many people have pertains to the concept of protecting one’s self from entities that inhabit the astral realm. Many seem to feel it’s important or necessary to go through a ritual of protection prior to projecting. If you’ve read my blog post: The Dark Side?, then you know I don’t personally believe there is a concentrated force of darkness or evil that is “out there” waiting to attack, in the earth environment or on the astral plane.

The beings you encounter and the interactions you have with them, in the nonphysical, are totally dependent upon your intentions and your interpretations. The key is to keep your focus upon that which you choose to experience. Just as you wouldn’t seek out an encounter with something you deem negative in your physical environment, you wouldn’t want to go looking for that on the astral plane either.

There is no place in which your intentions work faster than in a nonphysical realm such as the astral environment. In the astral there is no concept of time or anything resembling it that can slow the manifestation of your inner feelings. They have the ability to instantly manifest, similar to the dreamscape. This is why it’s extremely important to be vigilant in directing your thoughts and emotions while traversing the nonphysical landscape. On the other hand, if rituals help soothe your mind then feel free to perform them before you travel the astral, however I don’t believe they are truly necessary.

A second concern centers on the idea of possession and the physical body’s vulnerability while being away from it. I feel this is truly a non-issue. Our physical bodies are nothing more than a focal point for consciousness. I don’t believe our energy is even contained fully by the physical body. I feel that we merely “shadow” the body, or better said- we concentrate upon the body, but we definitely do not inhabit it in a manner equivalent to being locked up inside of it. Energy flows through the physical vehicle, but is not contained by it.

I believe consciousness can only stem from your energetic perspective, not from the physical body itself. So, I would say that there is no need to worry about your physical self being unwillingly overtaken by some other form of energy.

Even if we did house ourselves in the physical vehicle, I don’t believe out of body experiences literally take us out of our body. I believe they are a journey deeper into consciousness. Either way your body is not at risk for being possessed. Possession is most definitely another fear, which stems from the human perspective. It’s not a belief or concept that our higher self even considers.

Another area that seems to elicit fear is whether or not we can become lost from our physical body. I have had dozens of OBEs and have yet to experience any issue in becoming disoriented or unaware of how to remerge with my physical self. Our consciousness has, in a sense, already affixed a homing device to our body. No matter how far into the astral plane you travel (remember distance is an illusion since you are actually traveling deeper within your consciousness)- you only have to think about your body to make a speedy return to it.

Many people, when having an OBE, will see a silver cord trailing from their energetic body back to their physical one. They believe that if this cord were to become severed, they would pass away from physical existence. Personally I have never experienced the silver cord phenomenon. I tend to believe it’s a safety mechanism that we create out of worry over becoming lost or detached from our physical selves. Remember, on the astral plane your thoughts manifest instantly, whether they are conscious or residing just below the surface of your consciousness. The silver cord is only another one of those thoughts.

A fourth concern and question that some people ask is, “Will this experience change my beliefs about religion and/or god?” My answer to that is: quite possibly. I find that most people who have an OBE are never exactly the same again. Of course, I mean that in a good way. Usually they have discovered a broader way of looking at life and its meaning, rather than through simply relying on their physical experiences alone.

You absolutely will emerge a different person after the experience(s); however it doesn’t mean you will want to shun your religion. If anything you will discover the interconnectivity of all things and just how amazing the life experience is. You will come to better understand why we are here and how you can utilize the same tools that benefit you in the astral, here in the physical dimensions, to speed up whatever you are hoping to accomplish in your life.

I have heard others state that once the door to the astral has been opened it never truly closes. I agree with that statement, but it shouldn’t be taken as something treacherous or foreboding. I was on a path of questioning the meaning of my life many years before having OBEs, but nothing propelled me faster and farther down that path, or gave me more answers, than discovering the nonphysical realms of consciousness and my access to them.

I’d like to close this article with, what I feel, are some of the many benefits of exploring the astral plane:

To discover what lies beyond the physical environment

To explore subtler realms of consciousness

To better prepare one’s self for the inevitable death experience and to realize that death is actually quite an amazing journey further into pure consciousness

To see first hand proof of how our thoughts, motivated by our feelings, actually manifest and aid in the creation of our reality, both in the astral and on the earth plane of focus

To gain a broader perspective that aids in self empowerment

To attain a clearer connection to your spiritual self

To see firsthand how the physical Universe stems from within subtler planes of thought- as within, so without

To experience a shift in perspective and to gain a broader understanding that aids in living a more joyful physical life

To better understand the interconnectivity of all things and how nothing exists separate from anything else

To explore environments and activities that currently exist outside the realm of possibility on the earth plane, due to self imposed limitations set forth by the majority of humankind

To find the means for connecting with the consciousness of individuals that have passed on from physical existence

To open the door that can literally change your life and the way you view your reality

While there are many more experiences during astral projections, that have the potential to cause a fearful response, I wanted to cover some of the more obvious ones. If anyone has any questions or other fears they would like to see addressed in this article, or a future one, then please contact me.

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