The topic of religious trauma is such an inflammatory topic, and one that has harmed so many people, that I’m going to try and approach it as delicately as I can.

Religious trauma is pervasive and more widespread than I believe most people are aware of. After all, the foundation of most modern societies are based on religious ideals, whether you live in the east or west.

Do I think all religion is evil? Am I an anti-theist? No. Religion serves a valuable function in society by emphasizing social connectedness, support, values, and higher ideals. For many people, religion is what makes life worth living, and it has helped them in their darkest times.

Do I believe all religious people are horrible? No. In fact, many religious people are some of the kindest and most generous souls you’ll ever meet.

Do I “hate” Christianity? (The religion I was brought up in.) No, I don’t hate Christianity. I can see the value in this belief system, and I respect and admire figures such as Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary (who I still feel an affinity with).

But here’s the thing:

Religion, with all of its underlying value, can easily become something destructive, abusive, perverted, and traumatizing. 

In this article, I’m going to explore the dark side of religion as a religious trauma survivor, and also how to heal these wounds from a deeper perspective.

Please note: In the interests of keeping this a safe space, and to respect my own personal boundaries, any comments deemed abusive, harmful, or proselytizing will be removed. Thank you for respecting the healing journeys of others.

Also, this article is written from an ex-Christian perspective, but it applies to anyone from any religion. If your unique experiences of religious trauma aren’t mentioned here, I apologize – they are just as valid. I can only write from what I have personally experienced.

In the interests of being trauma-sensitive, if at any point you feel overwhelmed by reading this article, please stop, take a break, and return to this page later (you can always bookmark it). And be sure to share this article with anyone who you feel might benefit.

What is Religious Trauma?

Religious trauma refers to the deeply felt ongoing mental and emotional suffering one experiences at the hands of a religious belief system. Experiencing religious trauma can happen to anyone of any faith at any point in their lives – and it can be cumulative or sudden. In other words, religious trauma can slowly build through a person’s faith journey or it can occur as a sudden shock such as through a public display of humiliation, sexual abuse, or another unexpected painful incident.

My Experience With Religious Trauma

Religious trauma for me was a cumulative experience that reached its peak at the age of 19 when I decided to finally cut ties with the fundamentalist religion of my childhood (and unfortunately my blood family alongside it).

Since birth, I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church known as the Church of Christ who prided themselves on a strict adherence to biblical tenets. I was taught that the CoC was the “one true church,” that those who belonged to it were “special and chosen,” and that all other beliefs (including other Christian denominations) and belief systems were false – and that those believing in them would end up burning in hell for all eternity.

I was indoctrinated with purity culture ideals of staying a virgin until marriage – that a woman wasn’t allowed to speak in church, couldn’t be a leader or “elder,” or do anything other than be a good homemaker and “submit” to her husband. I wasn’t permitted to cut my hair, celebrate Christmas or Easter (or any other “non-biblical” holidays), or be overly “worldly” because I was taught to believe that “Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Imagine being taught, as a tiny little girl, that not only is the Devil always out to try and get you, but that if you’re “bad” in any way, you’ll suffer for all eternity in hellfire in the worst possible agony you could ever imagine? That’s a pretty fucked up thing to teach a young child.

Being indoctrinated at a very young age, for almost two decades with paranoid, bigoted, and fear-based beliefs about the world, it was no wonder that my mental health took a nosedive in my later adolescence. When I began to question why an “all-loving God” would send people to burn in hell forever if they didn’t “follow what He wanted,” my world began to crack apart. Just like in The Truman Show, my whole understanding of reality began to collapse and crumble beneath me. Reading the Bible three times over didn’t solve any of my problems either – it made the situation worse.

I remember sitting in church during a sermon one Sunday, feeling the deeply disturbing sensation that my soul was slowly dying. Sudden thoughts of murder-suicide would flash through my fragmented mind as disturbing bloody images of stabbing the preacher over and over again – and then killing myself – would burst into my awareness. (I later learned that these thoughts signalled the emergence of my heavily repressed and rejected Shadow Self.)

This drive toward self-harm and suicidal-ideation began as a teenager and continued until a little after I left the religion, but thankfully it never resulted in anything serious.

There’s a lot more that I could share about enduring physical abuse (aka., “biblical” punishment) with a horse whip, spiritual gaslighting, emotional manipulation, social isolation, learning that my favorite Christian friend was a child molester, and the other nuances of an immature and destructive belief system – but I’ll try to keep this simple.

I don’t blame my parents because I know that they were trying to do the best they could with the level of awareness they had. They’re good people deep down with admirable qualities. I’m sure religion felt like a soothing balm for them and they wanted to instil some kind of values into their children. My childhood wasn’t all bad and there were certainly good parts, and wonderful qualities my parents instilled into me (like creativity and a good work ethic). But religion for me was a horror show that I’m still overcoming to this very day.

Unfortunately, the result of freeing myself from this religious trauma, also meant that I had to become a black sheep and cut ties with my blood family, who were conditioned by their beliefs to see me as a “heathen,” “traitor to the faith,” “sinner,” and so on.

I didn’t leave in a perfect way. I wish I had said goodbye to my siblings early on that morning I grabbed my bags and left. I wish I could have been there to support my little sister and meet my third sister who was born a few years after I left. But returning to that environment would mean deep self-betrayal, threatening my mental, emotional, and spiritual sanity. Exposing myself to the very situation that caused such deep trauma in me to begin with is not something I’m willing to do again.

My story is certainly not the worst out there – there are so many others who have experienced far worse than I have. And while I am a victim, I refuse to stay as one. I’m a survivor and now a thriver. And this deep pain is perhaps the main reason why I’m drawn to the symbol of the wolf, writing for and running this website, and exploring the shadows that obscure our Inner Light.

Religion vs. Spirituality 

I just want to quickly clarify that this article is focused on religious trauma, not spiritual trauma. Religion and spirituality are two different paths. Here’s the difference, which I define in my article entitled Spirituality vs Religion:

Spirituality is connecting to the Divine through your own personal experience. It is primarily concerned with finding, experiencing, and embodying one’s true spiritual nature.

Religion is connecting to the Divine through someone else’s experience. It is primarily concerned with believing in, following, and obeying the rules created by a certain Deity or spiritual teacher.

23 Signs You’re Experiencing Religious Trauma

How do you know whether you’re experiencing religious trauma? Most likely, you’ll need to self-diagnose as this term isn’t listed in the DSM-5 (which is not saying that listing it as a mental disorder is actually always that helpful).

Trust in your own experience. These signs aren’t meant to “diagnose” you in any way (as I’m not a psychologist or mental health professional). But if you can relate to some of them, chances are that you do indeed suffer from religious trauma:

1. Chronic feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy

2. Persistent anxiety or panic

3. Existential depression or melancholy

4. Self-hatred or self-loathing

5. Perfectionism

6. Obsessive compulsive tendencies

7. Weak sense of self

8. Poor personal boundaries

9. Nightmares or sleep disturbance

10. Diminished social connections and loss of community

11. Difficulty maintaining friendships, relationships, etc.

12. Sexual dysfunction (excessive or under active sex drive)

13. Persistent loneliness and feelings of abandonment

14. Strong addictive tendencies

15. Fear of experiencing joy or pleasure

16. Difficulty with self-expression and speaking up

17. Intrusive thoughts

18. Rigid black-or-white thinking and troubles accepting alternative viewpoints

19. Hypervigilance and feeling like one is being constantly watched and judged

20. Inability to trust oneself and one’s gut instincts

21. Difficulty trusting in other people and the Divine

22. Struggles with being self-autonomous and making decisions

23. Deep-seated feelings of shame and guilt about normal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

This isn’t an exhaustive list of religious trauma signs, and if any others come up for you that aren’t listed, trust that they’re just as relevant as what I’ve shared above.

Examples of Religious Abuse

What about specific examples of religious abuse?

As I said at the start of this article, religious abuse can be both cumulative (aka., happen over a long period of time and in subtle/overt ways) or be sudden (due to a specific incident).

The examples of religious abuse below don’t cover all of the nuances of this complex beast, but I hope they give you a clearer idea of how religious abuse can appear:

• A woman is shamed for dressing a certain way and told that she’s sinning against God for displaying her body.

• A man is judged and ostracized by his religious community for his attraction toward other men.

• A family cuts off their child when the child leaves the religion.

• A person seeks help from their religious elders about marital abuse, only to be told that it’s their lack of faith that is the problem, not the other party’s sexual/physical/emotional abuse.

• A child is physically, mentally, or emotionally punished for doing or saying something that is perceived to be against the parent’s beliefs.

• A religious community pressures and coerces an older person to donate more money than they can afford to give to their evangelical efforts.

• A charismatic religious leader uses his/her position of power to gain sexual favors in the name of “God.”

• A person is publicly humiliated for a perceived “sin.”

• A child is raped and the parents and religious authorities don’t believe his or her word, pretending it didn’t happen.

• A person is emotionally blackmailed and gaslighted into questioning their sanity when bringing up reasonable questions about certain religious beliefs.

• A mother experiences control and intimidation tactics when she stops exposing her children to a belief system.

• A father’s mental health problems are minimized or ridiculed by religious leaders, and he undergoes inadequate treatment from an incompetent “religious counselor.”

• A religious leader uses scripture to justify sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, ableist, or otherwise violent and destructive viewpoints.

Can you think of any more examples? If so, share them in the comments!

Religious Trauma and Spiritual Awakening

Going through religious trauma is what led to my own Dark Night of the Soul and subsequent spiritual awakening – and if you’re going through this experience, you might be called to the same path as well.

Spiritual awakening is what happens when we begin questioning our beliefs, habits, social conditioning, and everything that feels fake or false in our lives. A deep hunger and longing begins to burn within us to find truth, freedom, relief from suffering, and inner peace. We may crave to find what the meaning of life is, what our purpose is, and ultimately, who we truly are on a primordial level (our True Nature).

In other words, spiritual awakening emerges as a deep inner call from the Soul, demanding that we “wake up,” walk our own paths, and listen to our Soul’s calling to find Home.

Not everyone is ready for or interested in spirituality after going through the horrible roller coaster of religious trauma. In fact, many people feel drawn to atheism, and that’s fine. Sometimes atheism is the most healing and empowering path for a person.

But if you’re like me and you feel a calling from the Soul to find truth, freedom, and love, pay attention. Listen to and trust that inner call. 

I recommend that you see the free Spiritual Awakening course we’ve created which can help to offer some grounded support and guidance during this tender and painful part of your life. You can also see my Soul searching article for more insight.

How to Heal From Religious Trauma

Healing from religious trauma is a process. I’m not going to give you some kind of gimmicky “7-steps-to-healing” shit because that’s not how it works.

Healing takes time, experimentation, vulnerability … and again, time.

What I offer below isn’t meant to be a map, just some helpful practices that have supported me in my own journey of healing religious trauma. Am I completely healed? No. I’m still healing to this very day. But I’ve learned a hell of a lot across the past decade. And I want to share that with you now:

(i) Journaling – simple but powerful

Undergoing religious trauma can be a lonely and isolating experience. Most people can’t understand or appreciate the intensity and complexity of how deeply harmful and disturbing to the psyche toxic religious conditioning can be.

One practice that helped me to keep some semblance of sanity during the darker parts of my religious journey was journaling. When I journaled, it felt like I was having a conversation with someone who actually understood what I was feeling – me.

There is a healthy and unhealthy way of journaling (aka., constructive vs. destructive), so be sure to read my article on How to Journal to learn how to journal in a beneficial way.

You can also check out this guided Self-Love Journal that I co-created a little while back, if you want some structured help.

(ii) Mindfulness and self-compassion

Mindfulness helps you to learn how to live in the present moment (instead of getting lost in thoughts about the past or future). And self-compassion helps you to learn how to be gentle, kind, and forgiving with yourself.

Self-compassion eventually leads into compassion for others, which is why it’s such a beautiful and healing practice.

The Self-Love Journal I mentioned above can help you develop more self-compassion. Otherwise, you can also check out the following resources:

• How to Practice Mindful Self-Compassion

• Self-Love: 23 Ways to Become a Doctor of the Soul

• Mindful Self-Compassion Printable Oracle

(iii) Spend lots of time in nature

Being in and amongst nature was the second practice that helped me tremendously when I was in the thick of religion and feeling slowly suffocated. Nature has helped me ever since.

The power of nature lies in how free, flowing, spontaneous, and open it is – qualities that, incidentally, mirror our Higher Self or True Nature (because in reality, we are nature).

Nature also teaches us in innumerable ways about the cycles of birth and death, light and darkness, and the essential non-dual nature of reality.

Researches on the benefits of time spent in nature have called this practice ecotherapy. So be sure to spend time watching, walking in, climbing, or engaging in nature in whatever way feels most enjoyable to you.

(iv) Make friends with your inner child

Before making friends with your inner child, I always recommend gaining some level of healthy self-worth because inner child work is an extremely tender and vulnerable practice. If you go into this practice hating yourself, your inner child will never feel safe enough to come out and be embraced. So remember, self-love precedes inner child work.

With that said, working with my inner child was (and is still) one of the most nourishing ways of reclaiming a sense of creativity, joy, adventure, and even long lost wisdom.

I recommend working with a trained trauma-informed therapist when learning how to heal your inner child – that helped me greatly. Journaling and mirror work also supported my journey of working with and reclaiming my inner child.

You can see the Inner Child Journal that I’ve co-authored if you’d like some support with this deep work (feel free to use it alongside therapy as well).

(v) Mindful shadow work

There are three main forms of inner work that I write about on this website, and they are:

• Self-Love

• Inner Child Work

• Shadow Work

Self-love comes first, then inner child work, and finally shadow work. So the same warning applies to shadow work as with inner child work: pleasure ensure that you have a stable sense of self-esteem before you embark on this work. Loathing yourself and then deciding to explore your shadows (or dark side) is a recipe for disaster and retraumatization. So take heed and proceed slowly and mindfully.

Shadow work is the practice of exploring anything that obscures your inner Light – that could be false beliefs, core wounds, old programs, lost inner parts, or any part of you that feels contracted or blocked.

What is so vital and powerful about shadow work is that it can help us at any point of our life journeys. No matter what degree of awakening we’ve experienced, we always need to be mindful of our shadows because the reality is that we are both human (aka., imperfect) and divine.

If you’d like to explore shadow work, I recommend checking out our highly rated Shadow Work Journal.

(vi) Internal family systems – or working with your inner parts

Internal family systems (IFS) is a form of psychotherapy which I love and highly recommend to those experiencing religious trauma.

IFS works on the premise that we are all composed of many different parts – happy, sad, angry, joyful, creative, sad, childlike, wise, and silly parts (and so on). At the center of our being is a wise and compassionate inner force known as the Self (capital ‘s’), which I love because it’s a form of therapy that welcomes the spiritual into the picture alongside psychological elements.

You can read more about IFS in my Internal Family Systems article. I also recommend looking into getting an IFS therapist if you’d like to go deeper into this work.

(vii) Non-duality – or seeing through the separate self

Non-duality is an eastern philosophical and spiritual teaching that suggests that everything is ultimately One, and that dualities such as “self/other,” “light/dark,” “subject/object,” are ultimately constructs of the mind.

Furthermore, the self that we take ourselves to be – the “I” – is actually an illusion based on a misunderstanding of who we truly are at a fundamental level.

I’m not saying that non-duality as a philosophy and path will be beneficial to you – but for me personally, it has helped me to see that the separate self, the ego, is at the root of suffering. And unlike religious teachings that divide the world into “us/them” “good/evil” and so on, non-duality encourages a non-judgmental approach to life in which we see the underlying unity and Oneness beneath all beings.

Non-duality is also a path that is said to open a doorway to freedom from suffering via Self-Realization or spiritual illumination.

If you’d like to explore this topic more, you can see my article on Non-Duality.

Other Practices That Have Helped:

• Meditation

• Artistic self-expression

• Exploring inner archetypes

• Balancing the root and sacral chakra

• Working with a trauma-informed therapist

• Learning basic self-care

• Learning how to set personal boundaries

• Prayer (it doesn’t have to be religious!)

There are many other practices (this whole website is a resource open for your benefit), but these are some that come to mind. And I hope they are of help to you.

***

Religious trauma is underrepresented and isn’t as explored or covered as I’d hope it to be – hence the need for this article.

I hope you know now that (1) religious trauma is valid, (2) what you’re experiencing is normal and you’re not alone, (3) there is a way through this pain, and (4) religious trauma can actually be a doorway to a deep inner path of spiritual awakening.

What has your experience with religious trauma been like? If you feel comfortable with sharing, you’re welcome to do so in the comments below.

Originally Published: wakeup-world.com

The post Religious Trauma: 23 Dark Signs and How to Heal appeared first on Table for Change.

Furthermore, the question itself is illogical. Creation is maya, delusion. As long as we are under the influence of maya, how can we expect to explain the illusion? The dreamer cannot explain the dream. He must first wake up. And when we wake up, the question loses all its importance. Then the universe will be seen as a mirage. It loses its significance; it is of no more account than a little mud puddle. He who knows the Truth becomes blissfulness itself. He finds all enjoyment in himself and not outside. The world holds no charm for him. Therefore, Vedanta says, do not stop to find out why and how you got this disease of ignorance; cure the disease, get rid of it and be happy. Answers to the questions who, how and why certainly lie beyond the universe, beyond maya. But being under maya’s sway, how then can we explain it? Can a hypnotized person explain how and why he is hypnotized? Certainly not, as long as he is under the hypnotic influence. Hence, instead of questioning we must try to throw off the hypnotic influence. This we can do in two ways: either by taking refuge in Bhagavan who is the great magician, or through self-analysis, meditation and discrimination.

These things are difficult to understand. Even the wise cannot understand them. Even they cannot grasp these divine mysteries, what to speak of fools!

Originally Published: www.hindu-blog.com

The post Why Creation Will Always Remain A Mystery? appeared first on Table for Change.

One could hardly grasp that the universes editing software for seamlessly splicing and pasting together the strip of film before us, is when we blink our eyes. If we are anything, even before human, we are quantum animals.

So, I’ll be covering the quantum field of timelines. What exactly is a timeline and how you can master being at the cause, and not the effect end of quantum mechanics therefore becoming a master of this reality.

And we can do this by first understanding that the quantum field is made up of pure potential that is expressed as waveforms our consciousness acts as an antenna that translates these waveforms, into what’s known as interference patterns and then once more into particles that make up everything in the physical world, including ourselves.

But providing the raw materials for reality is not where the magic of waveforms stop. They also shape an infinite number of past present and futures since they can accommodate all possibility. We call these past present and futures a timeline. For anyone who is familiar with the mandala effect that is one of the most common examples of memories being carried over from a prior timeline we were on, into the timeline we currently occupy. We are shifting timelines more often than not and many anomalies are left as the artifacts of this.

With the quantum field consisting of limitless potential, the way it even knows what timeline to activate and materialize is through a feedback loop. In fact, when you’re operating at this level of reality, it’s so ambiguous you will need a feedback loop to guide the output. And the guiding force that tells the feedback loop what to produce is the choices we make. The synergy of our thoughts, actions and feelings are what the feedback loop, and therefore reality is responding to.

To illustrate this, the field starts off as countless possibilities that begin to narrow into probabilities through the choices we make. These probabilities are like vibrational momentum building up much like an ocean wave. These probabilities continue to drop off and further narrow the more that we focus our choices until probability turns into actuality, which is what manifested. And this process happens every single moment.

So let’s say we choose to venture down a path of awakening our consciousness, the quantum field organizes a new trajectory with the full unfoldment of that choice containing all possibilities and all probabilities. The more conscious we become, the more we are reinforcing the timelines that reflect that choice. What this does is establish a feedback loop between us and all of the potential future versions of ourselves that we are aligning with. And through this feedback loop, the potential future versions of ourselves send us the resources we would require in order to actualize them. This is also reflected in the ancient wisdom, “You cannot travel the path until you become the path itself.”

Your choices now are already activating potential future versions of yourself.

There are multiple versions of reality on Earth, and we are constantly aligning-otherwise known as jumping-timelines whether we are conscious of it or not.

We can look at timelines a few different ways, we have personal timelines and collective timelines, there are events constantly happening that continuously alter these timelines again and again.

Our personal timelines consist of the past and present choices we make every day. They are impacted by our socioeconomic status, desires, karmic imprints, and belief systems. Depending on how much of our free will we are using, we either make predictable and established choices that we hope lead to a future we have envisioned, or we can implement more chance and uncertainty that would open up the timelines containing entirely different potential futures. If we are content on our current trajectory, the less likely we are to make radical choices that would lead to radical changes in direction. So it’s a matter of personal preference, however this is where fate comes into play.

We always here about free will and determinism either this is all the random creation of our own doing, or this is all predetermined, set-in stone from a higher level, and we are merely the figments that were hallucinated to play out those choices that were already made. This Either/Or mentality is the result of imbalance within the hemispheres of the mental body.

There is a degree of fate that is at work in our life. Just as there is a degree of free-will. Fate is the lessons we came into this life wanting to experience and free will is the journey of how those lessons are lived. Fate can and does intervene when it feels we are not as proactive as we could be. But what is not guaranteed is how well our outcomes come into fruition. That is all left up to our actions, discernment, and will power.

Now let’s focus on the collective timelines, imagine that there is already multiple versions of reality on Earth and in the past of one of these versions of reality, WW1 never happened. That would significantly alter the future of that reality, not to mention the ripples that would create. Now apply this same concept to any event that was devastating and could be traumatizing to our collective psyche. And you could see that although there is an infinite number of potential timelines, that it’s less likely we’d be able to access the ones that are prosperous and optimal if our collective psyche is continuously being directed into timelines that are disempowering.

As I mentioned, we shift collective timelines frequently but the wider the jump from our current reality the more awareness is required to do so. What this means is if we want to experience an optimal and prosperous timeline, we would need to stop feeding the official narratives that limit our true potential and start taking conscious actions that reflect the timeline we would want to call forth. This is how we step into our spiritual sovereignty. To give you an example of how much our environment effects the input to our feedback loop, let’s say the media for 6 months straight, on repeat, blast us with the message that celestial bodies were coming toward Earth at a rate that would accelerate our mitochondria function thereby creating a cascading effect that unlocks more of our DNA. We would all be flying around like superman in 6 months, that’s how powerful the input from our environment is to shaping our consensus reality.

As our consciousness transitions to a higher frequency, we start to experience the living reality of synchronicity. Even the universal law of cause and effect is more lenient when we are living a path that is in alignment with true order.

I say true order because waveforms are inherently chaotic which is why they represent the principle of chaos and when they stabilize into what has manifested this is what we call Order. For better or worse, it’s called order, even if it’s not technically order. And this is the true meaning of a new world order. It sounds scary because they want it to. But when you strip it down to its acoustics chaos is being generating intentionally so that they can use that to harness potential timelines into this realm to create a new order.

There’s always going to be a new order because change is constant, so don’t be intimidated by that term, instead know that you can also make a new world order as well, all we’re doing is turning chaos, which is the quantum field of pure potential, into the manifest, which is order. And we do this by healing the trauma held within the body/mind, becoming conscious as only conscious observers have the power to impact the field and by taking actions that reflect the timeline we would like to shift to.

And that’s what manifesting really is, it’s aligning with the timeline where that thing that’s wanting to be manifested is already occurring.

Timelines split all of the time, they split no different than the way a cell divides, we pulsate into and out of this reality every 10.44 cycles per second through a physics formula known as Fourier’s transform. Those who are making choices that align with timelines where there is an awakening are experiencing that feedback loop incrementally into a future with less external dissonance and that reflects the internal unity we have actualized through our healing journey. But you’re never going to see an actual split, even though it’s doing that as we speak. Instead, what you will see is the journey of the choices you made, and the really cool thing is the more you use your free will to make radical changes and empowered choices, your free will becomes a conduit to the higher order of this universe and the higher order of the universe is expressed as synchronicity aligning things to make it look like it was fate all along.

Originally Published: wakeup-world.com

The post How to Jump Timelines: Mastering Quantum Reality appeared first on Table for Change.

If people would be able to identify specific things that go “wrong” or “right” their lives, connecting them to specific things they did, they would change how they are acting in no time.

However, the highly-complex nature of the interconnected wholeness of consciousness is not that cut and dry. It can be ambiguous, so people go along, acting carelessly and not realizing what they think, say, and do will be matched and returned to them, in one of a trillion possibilities.

The basic tenet to understand is that the energy you project will become projected back at you. The way Reality is designed makes it so that everything spirals and loops around, given we live in an infinite Reality with no beginning and no end. All fields loop in a torus doughnut pattern, in a perpetual feedback loop. These are self-organizing processes that display an elegant order out of specific interactions between individual parts of a seemingly-chaotic system. Somehow, the Grand Design knows how to create order out of chaos.

It is thanks to the highly-complex nature of the universal design that we get what we put out into the fabric of Reality. When we see this as being how the dynamics of Reality operate, we can understand how our thoughts, words, and deeds have a profound impact on everything. Meditation, where we can quiet the mind, can help us see and be aware of this more clearly. As Hans Margolius said, “Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is there adequate perception of the world.”

Oneness, or as I like to call it, interconnected wholeness, is just the way things are. Once people take off the blinders, they wonder how they’ve missed it all this time. Yasutani Roshi put it really well by saying, “The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.”

You are another me. We all are fractals of one another. Sure, we differ in appearance, personality, and some fleeting sense of identity, but in the end, we are all reflections. Think of yourself as a cell in the Universal/Multiversal body. We are all made up of the same consciousness/energy, only differing because of the experiences we have had. We all were once without form and simply Source energy. Then at some point, form came out of formlessness, experiencing Reality from its own unique position. This created a unique identity, that become more and more reinforced…until it believed it was distinctly separate from everything else.

However, nobody is an island. We are all part of the same web of existence. If we saw all the unseen fields, webs, and energies outside of the narrow visible light spectrum, we would see that we are in an incredibly elaborate and busy matrix of interconnectedness. 

Treat everyone as if they were you living another life…because they are. No matter how far removed they seem to be from what you consider yourself to be. Yes, even that person who will remain nameless is you living in another life, meaning the Source consciousness experiencing itself through the lens of a difference perspective…no matter how seemingly deviated it has become from Source energy within it.

When we see others as versions of ourselves, we come to respect life more. This leads us to think, say, and do things that will inspire, help, and create. We become active Bodhisattvas, continuously pulsing our love and compassion to all sentient beings, no matter what individual masks of the Source consciousness they are wearing.

Originally Published: wakeup-world.com

The post You Are Another Me – The Benefit of Seeing Yourself in Others appeared first on Table for Change.

Animals and Astral Projection

You don’t even have to have a pet at home to know that animals have a very accurate sixth sense, which gives them an ability to detect many natural or spiritual phenomena. So, what keeps you from believing that astral projection is also possible for them?

Many people who practice astral projection report seeing their pets, like dogs and cats, and other animals when doing Projection active outside their bodies. Those who haven’t seen it have certainly seen their animals dreaming – and even barking or running while they slept. Well, lucid dreams and nightmares are also among your psychic capabilities.

I call animals “guardians of Being,” especially animals that live with humans. Because, for many humans, it’s through their contact with animals they get in touch with that level of being.

~ Eckhart Tolle

Are Animals Able to Have an Astral Projection?

Believe it or not, animals have souls. Not all of them have collective souls as some Ageless Wisdom teachings say, but many are beyond the beginning stages of soul individuation. Thus, they are capable of astral projection. But if you still have a question about this, ask yourself: How could animals be spiritual guides- teachers and Totems in so many cultures without having individualized souls?

Human spirit guides can use words to manifest themselves, while the animal’s spirit guides use images or concepts to communicate. It is much easier to learn to understand the “voice” of animals when we live with them. And once this connection is established, we can communicate with our pets just as we do with other humans.

Animals have dreams, fears, and they express love like us. See how your dog welcomes you after a day of work, or how your cat snuggles up on you when it realizes something is not well with you. The same applies to their projection of fear. If your cat hates the vacuum cleaner, just touch the appliance that the pet will most likely react by moving away.

But despite very similar reactions and emotions, they are still animals in our understanding, and somewhat we believe them to be below our species because they have a different level of consciousness than us.  But we must emphasize, expressed different levels of consciousness do not mean that animals are not sentient, just the opposite. There are many domestic animals, adapted through evolution and through centuries of living with humans that are able to express and perform many wondrous things, including in a way, astral projection.

Astral Projection in Domestic and Wild Animals

It is believed that the phenomenon of Astral Projection in wild animals or those undergoing transformation is rarer than in domestic animals. And all this for the sake of entropy, or energy to be utilized to produce the phenomenon.

A domestic pet has no need to go hunting, to fight for survival, or to obey its most primitive instincts. And as we all know, astral projection is a complex process that requires a good dose of energy in a potential state.

On the other hand, a wild animal’s life has no benefit of outside stewardship; they instinctively need to manage their energy reserves to the best of their ability. Although astral projection eventually happens because they are pure and spiritualized beings, but it may happen as an unintentional singularity and usually occurs on higher planes of spirituality.

Going back to the discussion about domestic animals and their experiences with astral projections, especially when they have a very deep relationship with their humans, they tend to be more receptive to psychic influences. If you have a pet and have tried to project yourself at home, you may have noticed that the animal was around (sometimes even with you in bed).

Thus, aligned with the fact that when animals have no need to hunt and be at all times in survival mode,  and they form a psychic bond with their humans, the animal will certainly become a constant traveler and will be delighted to meet humans on the astral plane.

Although possible, astral projection is also rare in domestic animals, and usually occurs on lower (dense) planes than the wild ones, precisely so that they can accompany their human friends, as their protectors and fellow travelers.

Movement in the Astral Plane

Animals, because of their levels of consciousness, purity, and innocence, tend to move quickly through the various levels of the astral world. Their lives on earth are relatively short compared to ours. But after the orientation period, they quickly leave the astral plane, joining the “animal soul group,” where they prepare to continue evolving. It is a program of evolution overseen by celestials’ beings created to be “spiritual” guardians of our pets and other animals. All animals have their own “caseworkers.”

Domestic animals, which are more individualized than wild ones, remain on the astral plane a little longer before “moving” on after death, to their own progression training way stations.

The animals certainly like to be close to humans, especially as humans go through the shift in consciousness.

~ Eckhart Tolle

Originally Published: omtimes.com

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The Blessings of the Goddess, the Lunar Consciousness

Since the dawn of time, humanity has believed that the moon and its phases are associated with the Goddess and been the rightful representative of the feminine principle, and the primordial source of life. In ancient times, in old stellar cults, the worship of the moon was universal. The earliest calendars were eminently lunar, based on the relationship between the phases of the moon, fertility, growth, births and menstrual cycles. This perspective solidified the association of our Earth satellite and the Feminine energy.

Put your thoughts to sleep, do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart.

~ Rumi

The moon, through its phases, reflects the same fluctuations that happen in the human emotional body and psyche. Throughout our lives, we experience the constant alternation between beginning and end, creation and dissolution, light and shadow, conscious and unconscious behaviors.

With the beginning of patriarchal societies, which replaced and eradicated matriarchal cultures, we began the overvaluation of the Sun and its qualities, such as logos, reason, conscious actions – prevailing over the values represented by the Moon, ruler of psychic energies, emotion, intuition, and the unconscious. Instead of the unity contained in the Goddess’s multifaceted essence, duality arose, and it is represented by the opposition of polarities and of the luminaries.

We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.

~ Khalil Gibran

With the separation between the Luminaries into beneficial light and evil shadow came the split of the being, the artificially created dichotomy of personality. The repression of lunar influences started, and those manifestations began to be considered as pernicious and dangerous but yet intrinsic to the female or the male psyche. This behavior led to the destructive expressions of shadow projections, and the misunderstanding of the concept of mutation, alchemy, and transformation. The existence of the dark phase of any cycle demonstrates the transition between the death of the old and the birth of the new.

In the alchemy of the soul, the Darkness represents a time of rest, withdrawal, healing, and preparation for a rebirth. Our psyche experiences dark periods when we are drawn into ourselves, and nothing seems to happen. In truth, the Dark phases or “empty” periods are the expression of gestation of the new, and it is through alternate of light and darkness that we learn most about ourselves. It is how the lessons of this planet work, and we may also say of the solar system; other planetary retrogradation is also a way to provide the solar system as a whole with an alternative to rebirth, revaluation, and revival.

Our great symbol for the Goddess is the moon, whose three aspects reflect the three stages in women’s lives and whose cycles of waxing and waning coincide with women’s menstrual cycles.

~ Carol P. Christ

It is through the moon that we have guidance on sleep and the dream world, as well as memories of the past. Basically, the moon on our astral chart, for instance, indicates, through the sign to which it belongs, what are our immediate reaction (instinct) to certain life situations.

Individually we live through the night darkness and the sleep as a lunar process, to awaken into a new day, renewed in the morning.

However, these “empty” periods often foreshadow creative, transformative, and life-expanding phases. By understanding the value of the Lunar darkness, we will relearn the ancient magic of feminine rituals or birth, growth, and transformation, and achieve the necessary renewal for the continuation of our lives, understanding every single one of the many stages of our transformation.

Originally Published: omtimes.com

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Part of learning to love ourselves is appreciating our own miraculous body, not just externally, but what is much more interesting and truly awesome to me, internally, as complex body chemistry generates internal messages that reach every necessary cell.

The things that I find exciting about the human body are what we can’t touch directly. We take our cars to body shops for repairs and perform maintenance every so many miles, but what keeps our body going? Why do some people go on for 100 years and others half that time? You can answer that it’s genetic, but why are the genes doing what they are doing? Who is giving the orders, and who or what is taking orders? Why is a touch significant; why do we need to sleep; and what is consciousness? Let me try and answer some of these questions.

You can see my problem isn’t about ego. Most people would base a book on the above, and I’m trying to answer in a page or so. When you think of the communication going on in the body, it all boils down to the cell membrane and what communicates with it. How we are touched by others, and how we reach out to touch others, creates an internal chemistry that speaks directly to every cell. There is memory and intelligence in every cell. It has a job to do and is equipped to do it, but it’s still following orders that integrate it into the needs of the body as a whole. Who or what is in charge and makes the decisions is beyond understanding as far as I am concerned.

We know from the stories of transplant recipients that organs carry memory. A painful life has its adverse effects when it leads one to not want to live. The will to live is not just about desire, but about the chemistry and internal messages which are being communicated to the cell. I know how I feel on my difficult days, and I pay attention to those feelings and internal messages—and respond to them.

Bacteria are capable of making intelligent genetic changes to become resistant to antibiotics, which upsets us. But instead, why not be pleased by the ability that exists within us to do the same thing to successfully survive. I know it is more difficult for us than the bacteria because of how simple their lives are compared to ours.

However, everyone with a gene for a disease doesn’t get it. I do know of identical twins who both develop the same disease, but I know of more identical twins who do not develop the same disease.

I believe their lifestyle, both physical and emotional, makes the difference. Again, this is not about blame, but about internal wisdom and messages.

Think of the great undifferentiated potential from which we all come. Now think of yourself as a circle within that circle with no circumference. You are touching it, separate from it and a part of it, all at the same time. You are aware and conscious of yourself and more. Our bodies may be present locally but consciousness goes beyond any physical limitations. I have had personal experiences with intuitives and mediums that have convinced me of our potential to communicate and see in ways that most of us are not taught even exist. The CIA uses these non-local abilities to spy on people.

I think a part of our brain requires rest, so that it can communicate in symbols while we sleep. Think about it. Why do we sleep when sleep is dangerous? Predators can pounce upon sleeping animals, so why do what is dangerous? I believe that sleep is necessary to restore and maintain the system upon which consciousness depends. It is true that we hear while we sleep to provide us the warning of noisy threats, but a good predator is quiet.

As a surgeon I am fascinated by sleep and anesthesia. We don’t know how anesthesia works, but we use it every day. My sense is that it works through the pathways that lead to sleep. We can lose consciousness, but still maintain all the other body functions—and even respond physiologically to verbal commands and touch while anesthetized. So consciousness exists during sleep and communicates what we need to know via symbols.

What happens to consciousness when the body dies? My opinion, from my experience, is that consciousness continues to exist without the need for the body. That great undifferentiated potential from which we are derived is conscious without form. We give it form so it can act and touch other living things. The touch that cannot be felt is a mystical or spiritual event that most people never experience.

My hope is that someday we will all experience both touches—the touch of other living things, be they our pets, family, or therapists, and also the touch of creation, so that we feel a part of something greater then we appear to be. I think when people feel this connection, their membranes get a very powerful live message and feel integrated into the process of creation and so we sing, ‘Touch me and know what happiness is.’

Remember you are the one who sets the limits as to how far you can reach and what you can touch in your lifetime. So make the sky your nonexistent limit.

Why am I sharing this? Why do I want you to have a sense of awe? So that each day will be a gift of wonder and not a burden. As a surgeon I need to be practical, just as you do, but to experience life and healing, one needs to reach beyond the practical, palpable things that fill our lives and live with a sense of wonder and awe.

I want you to achieve your potential. As Ernest Holmes said, “What if Jesus was the only normal person who ever lived?”  

Originally Published:  feedly.com

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Holi festival celebrates the victory of good over evil and this is clearly mentioned in stories associated with Holi festival, the festival of colours in India. Holi festival story brings out the unshakable devotion exhibited by Prahlad, which is an inspiration for children and devotees. The other holi story is that of Krishna and Radha and yet another story is that of Lord Shiva burning Kamdev.

Holi Story based on Prahlada and Demon Holika
Young Prahlada was a highly devoted devotee of Lord Vishnu but this was not liked by his arrogant father, Demon Hiranyakashipu, who was the king of the land. Hiranyakashipu wanted his son and all the people on his land to worship him and not Sri Hari Vishnu.

Fed up with his son’s defiance which he thought will be followed by his people, the egotistical father sought for ways to eliminate his son and each time he failed miserably. Lord Vishnu came to the rescue of the young Prahlad. But this only hardened his stance.

Now, Hiranyakashipu had a sister named Holika who had got a boon that she will not be affected by fire. So on orders from her brother, she took young Prahlada and entered into fire. But the fire could not touch the young ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Prahlada came out of the fire without any burns but Holika was consumed by the fire. Huge bonfires that are burnt on the day prior to Holi festival symbolize this event from Hindu scriptures which narrates the victory of good over evil and that there is no substitute intense devotion of Bhakti.

Holi Festival Story based on Krishna and Radha.

One of the popular stories of Holi festival is also associated with the evergreen love of Krishna and Radha. It is said that Lord Krishna was jealous of Radha’s fair color and asked mother Yashoda for the reason for Radha’s fair color.

Yashoda jokingly said if you are so jealous change her complexion by smearing color. Naughty young Krishna was waiting for an idea for a prank and did exactly as his mother suggested. He used to naturally found colors to darken the fair skinned Radha.

It is also believed that the festival is a sort of thanksgiving to nature – the fresh colors all around created by flowers, leaves and fruits create fresh energy in human beings. They wake up from the deep slumber of winter and starts life with renewed vigor.

For Krishna devotees, the festival is spread over two weeks. The most important events are held at Vrindavan, Mathura, Barsana and Nandgaon.

Holi Story based on Kamdev and Lord Shiva

Another important Holi story is associated with Kamdev, the god of love, and Lord Shiva. After the death of Sati, Lord Shiva took to severe meditation. The world was slowly turning unbalanced with Shiva entering into meditation and not fulfilling his role of destruction. Sati took rebirth as Parvati and tried to impress Lord Shiva so that he will return to the world.

When her feminine charms failed, she along with saints and devas took the help of Kamdev. Not knowing the seriousness of Lord Shiva’s meditation, Kamdev used his arrow of love on Shiva. The infuriated Shiva opened his third eye and turned Kamdev into ashes. This is believed to have happened on the Holi day.

Holi And Sage Vasishta Story

Legend has it that Sage Vasishta did intense penance and asked Brahma for a day in which all living beings will be happy and experience no pain. The boon Vasishta asked was Abhyadhan. It is said that Sage Vasishta wanted a day when people will live without ego.

Originally Published: hindu-blog.com

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Being capable to take duty for our affect on other people, admit and own our errors and defects, and restore trust and connection with the people close to us are all important aspects of living an accomplished life and creating healthy relationships.

Even so, many of us devaluate, contempt, and do harm to ourselves and those around us, by Apologising for who we are in a shame-based way – which generally comes from a place of shame (feeling as if we’re not good enough or there’s something inherently wrong with us).

Apologising genuinely is about accepting responsibility for our actions, our affect, or our answers, as an adult. This is addressed compunction – wishing we had not done or said something, and taking actions to address and amend the situation inside ourselves, with other people, or both.

Apologising for who we are is very much about us thinking or saying some adaptation of, “I’m bad, it’s my fault, or do not hate me,” like we are a baby looking for establishment or approval. This is a particular example of how shame comes on in our lives. And, regardless how much we might “apologize,” when it comes from this insatiate, shame-based place, we are never capable of shaking the feeling of something being wrong with who we are.

The more we acknowledge that we are apologizing for who we are, the more chance we have to look abstruser – acknowledge, experience, and carry our shame, and in the process begin to heal ourselves in a genuine way.

Stop Apologising for who you

While we all have “issues,” “blemishes,” and “challenges” in life – at the abstrusest level, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of us. Most of us, myself included, spend and waste way too much time adjudicating, criticising, and being mean to ourselves.

Treating ourselves in that decisive way never works – it does not help us convert to better people, it does not give us accession to more passion, power, or talent, it does not make us less committed to those around us who we would like to support – it simply keeps us stuck in a negative story about who we believe we are and what we believe needs to be “fixed” about us so we can then live the life we truly would like to live.

We must love ourselves in a reliable way, we should not look for approval. There is nothing wrong with who we are as long as we are responsible for what we do. Do you agree? Please take time to comment below and share it.

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Stephen Covey coined the term abundance mentality or abundance mindset in his 1989 best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He defined the term simply as ”a concept in which a person believes there are enough resources and successes to share with others.” He contrasts it with the scarcity mindset (i.e., destructive and unnecessary competition), which is founded on the idea that, if someone else wins or is successful in a situation, that means you lose; not considering the possibility of all parties winning (in some way or another) in a given situation.

Since that time, fostering an abundance mindset has become widely recognized as a beneficial endeavor in personal and spiritual development. The prevailing belief is that creating an abundance mindset allows you to:

*Live an unlimited, full, and satisfying life
*Exude happiness despite circumstance
*Give and receive affections and items of high value with ease
*Feel plentiful, creative, and inspired
*Take full advantage of and enjoy new opportunities that come your way
*Create memorable and meaningful life experiences
*Feel secure and confident in your life endeavors and create successful outcomes

Executive and Leadership Coach Katia Verresen gives some common examples of how to determine whether your mentality is one of scarcity or abundance in a helpful graph:

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By understanding the signs and signals of both an abundance and scarcity mindset, you can begin to build awareness about where you might be landing on the spectrum.

Here are 10 ways you can create an abundance mindset in your life today:

1. Recognize the Unlimited Possibilities

The enemy of abundance is a contracted awareness. One fun Harvard study found that when people focus intently on one particular thing, other possibilities right in front of them go completely unnoticed. It is vital to loosen the mind’s focus and create an expanded awareness that fosters the abundance mentality.

ACTION: Maintain a regular meditation practice or take a few minutes each day to be somewhere quiet and peaceful. Have the intention to clear your mind and allow new abundant possibilities to come to light.

2. Develop Mastery Experiences

The best way to create self-efficacy, which is the deep knowledge that you can create whatever you want in life and live abundantly, is to consciously create mastery experiences. Mastery experiences are past experiences of success that create mastery in one area. For example, if you get one percent better at something each day, then a year later you will be 365 percent better and will have created a mastery experience.

ACTION: Think of a big goal that you want to achieve. Now write a list of all the small actions you need to take to get there. Focus on the small, achievable steps in the process and soon you will have successfully reached your goal.

3. Become Aware of Your Thoughts

Cultivating mindfulness can help decipher when your thoughts are creating a mindset of scarcity or of abundance. By taking time to notice what type of thoughts are circulating in your head, you can begin to make a conscious effort to shift your thoughts towards abundance.

ACTION: If you find you are getting less than amazing results in any area of life, ask yourself, “Are my thoughts about this based in fear and scarcity?” If so, then ask, “What do I need to do to shift my mindset to abundance?” Write them down or share them with a friend for accountability.

4. Concentrate on Growth

The concept of a growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck and popularized in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dweck writes, “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” A growth mindset is directly related to an abundance mindset.

ACTION: Become curious about other people and their experiences. Have an intention to ask someone every day about their life, what their goals are, and how they plan to achieve them. Practice simply listening to their answers and learning from what they have to say instead of talking about your life or offering your own advice. Then, reflect on your own beliefs about your ability and the abilities of those around you to change and grow.

5. Focus on What Is Going Right

Humans have a tendency to notice what’s bad more easily than what’s good. It’s not your fault. Your brain is actually wired that way thanks to evolution. Ancestors who were quick to see threats were more likely to survive and pass along their DNA than those who weren’t. But optimists rely on an abundance mindset and lead better, longer lives.

ACTION: The next time you have a perceived problem or something doesn’t seem to be going right, look at the problem from a larger, more holistic perspective. Instead of focusing on what is going wrong and trying to fix the problem, focus instead on what is actually going right as it relates to the topic and brainstorm ways to support that even further.

6. Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude is one of the most powerful and widely recognized tools for creating abundance and happiness. There are numerous studies on the power of gratitude on well-being. According to Oprah Winfrey, “If you look at what you have in life, you will always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you will never have enough.” In the same vein, Tony Robbins is quoted for saying, “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”

ACTION: Keep a gratitude journal and write down what you are genuinely grateful for every day. Aim to record at least 10 items. If you get stuck, remember to list the simple things that often get overlooked such as the bed you sleep in, a hot shower, the clean air you breathe, or just the chance to live another day.

7. Create Abundance Affirmations

Research from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that the use of positive affirmations can improve your problem-solving skills and decrease signs of stress. Using affirmations can help to shift your mentality from scarcity to abundance.

ACTION: Make a list of any fears that you are having in regards to a particular problem or about life in general that may be coming from a scarcity mentality. Write down what you think is going to happen from your voice of fear and scarcity. Then, write down the opposite of what your fears are or what you deeply desire. Use the second list as your own personal list of daily affirmations.

While it may not be completely natural at first, anyone can begin to create an abundance mindset and live a meaningful and fulfilling life by taking consistent action. You can make the decision to start living a life of healthy abundance today, as you begin to expand your awareness and notice any scarcity mentality that might arise. Using these action steps, you will be well on your way toward creating an abundance mindset.

8. Think Like a Beginner

An abundance mentality craves learning and growth, requiring an underlying knowledge that you don’t know everything, even about topics you may have mastered. The beginner’s mindset is about having the ability to maintain an attitude of openness and enthusiasm, along with the willingness to override existing preconceptions (just as a true beginner would) no matter how learned or experienced you may be.

ACTION: Decide to learn something new that places you into an uncomfortable state of “not knowing.” It may be learning a new hobby, language, or even starting a passion project—anything that sounds interesting and forces you to learn.

9. Watch What You Say

The language you use, as well as what you tell yourself and others, shapes your reality. Are you telling stories of scarcity or stories of abundance?

ACTION: When you are engaged in conversation with a friend or the Universe, notice what you are saying about your experience and beliefs. When you find yourself talking about something you can’t have, be, or do—even though it’s what you actually desire—stop yourself and have the courage to say, “Thank you for listening to me, but I actually want to take that statement back because that is a scarcity mentality and I am creating an abundance mentality.” Then, say something that is possible from an abundance mentality.

10. Cultivate and Share Your Passions and Purpose

Understanding and creating confidence in the things you are both great at and love to do is an excellent way to foster belief in yourself. Learn how to share your gifts and provide value by serving those who would benefit most. Confidently share what you do through a personal brand presence online or in person.

ACTION: Download this free checklist that gives you the exact steps to creating an abundant personal brand. Take consistent action on the steps provided in order to share your unique value with the world.

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