Steve and I had an hour long conversation, and set up the session for today… and I am writing this just a few minutes after having come out of the mental state of deep relaxation and focus… what a trip.

At the beginning I had difficulty breathing I was so scared of having to choose. I am not comfortable choosing. Choosing has never worked out for me. It feels forced, and I almost never make a good choice.

Finally, I was captivated by the image Steve asked me to put myself into, my favorite beach.

My favorite beach is a place where I was last 43 years ago. It was a time in my life where I was the happiest, the most confident: confidence of youth. I just had graduated from high school, and was accepted to architecture school where the overapplication ratio was 21 to 1. There were 96 spots, and over 2,000 applicants.

I aced all the exams, and I felt smart, powerful, beautiful (and I have pictures to prove that it was more than just a feeling).

So there I am, on this beach in Yugoslavia, sitting on a beach chair, half reclined, the water is green-blue, the sun is dancing on the gentle waves, the sounds of the water streaming down on the rocks is like crystal giggles, an occasional bird crying out. My mom is sitting to my right with a fishing rod, and across from the beach a small island with rich vegetation is beckoning. I see a storm hut there, and the beach there is sandy… The sun feels liquid, gently finding a way into every nook and cranny, a golden warm caress.

But, oh no, Steve is asking me to concentrate on the horizon. Where is the horizon? I see a little horizon to the right of the island, so I start to concentrate on that, it is far, it is vague, and it is not where I want to go. But that is what he asks me to go to, and he says a path arises from the water leading me there.

Hm. How about going to the island first, and maybe from there I will be able to see small islands, rocks, maybe pebbles that will call out to me to go to, and I can break up the “trip” to delicious and attractive bits… allow the path to choose me, instead of the dreaded heady choosing.

And in my imagination that is exactly what I do. As soon as I fully “own” and “love” my little island another one starts to beckon and love me away, choose me, and I am passed, loving hand to loving hand, all the way to heaven.

As far as I can see, this model that emerged from this hypnosis session is in harmony with my “human design,” with being a quick-start (conation), and with all the successful choices I have ever made in my life… choose to accept an invitation.

Thank you Steve. you are a master hypnotist, and I am very happy with my result. Thank you, thank you.

The book, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is a documentary thriller about viruses that come out of the African rain forests and kill people, like aids, like ebola and its different strains.

The book says that the viruses that are on the border of alive/not alive are millions or billions of years old parasites and that their behavior is entirely selfish and they come up as a reaction to the elimination of the rain forests and the overpopulation of the planet by human parasites.

I nodded as I read it. Human beings, like viruses, like parasites, only care about their host a little bit, but for the most part they only care about themselves. They use their environment to make more of themselves, whether that destroys the host or not.

I don’t have a TV, but from time to time, when I am forced to check my yahoo mail online, I am exposed to the “news.” I always regret that I watched any of it, it is all very depressing.

Jim Humble discovered a new use for an old substance, sodium chlorite, the cheap desinfector that has been used for ages to clean floors, walls, water, but after his unusual inspiration can be used to kill parasites, bad bacteria, fungus like candida albicans and viruses inside your body and even inside your cells. He calls his activated sodium chlorite the “miracle mineral supplement” because if he called it anything else, he would get killed. Literally. He is also forced to live out of the country.

So what the heck am I trying to say, and why is the title of this post “Freedom?”

Good question. Let’s get to it.

Freedom. Here is what the dictionary has to say

1: the quality or state of being free: as

a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence

c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous <freedom from care>

d: ease, facility <spoke the language with freedom>

e: the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken <answered with freedom>

f: improper familiarity g: boldness of conception or execution h: unrestricted use <gave him the freedom of their home> 2 a: a political right b: franchise, privilege

synonyms freedom, liberty, license mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion. freedom has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated <freedom of the press>. liberty suggests release from former restraint or compulsion <the released prisoner had difficulty adjusting to his new liberty>. license implies freedom specially granted or conceded and may connote an abuse of freedom <freedom without responsibility may degenerate into license>.

In my mind freedom is a lot less complicated. You can have or lack freedom from something, and you can have or lack freedom for something that you want.

One of human beings’ slavery is wanting and desiring for the self alone. In that regard we are a lot like the virus that has 7 protein molecules, no brain, no signs of aliveness without a host. I we talked and I told you that you behave like a virus: your whole life is about getting what you want and you don’t care about anyone else, you would be very offended. Right? But chances are that I would be right, very high percentage of the time, to a very high degree.

You see, I think that human beings evolved to have the three levels of brain, and free will, to be a lot more intelligent than we are at this point of human development. I have read that Kabbalah says that there is a need for only 10 human beings reach the level of consciousness concurrently (I mean living at the same time, arriving there and being there at the same time) for a critical mass where all of humanity suddenly evolves, in spite of themselves, to the higher consciousness where live isn’t about “what’s in it for me” but about “what’s in it for you”.

And in spite of the fact that hundreds of spiritual teachers, gurus, disciplines are around, there hasn’t been any time in human history that there were ten individuals at the same time who arrived to this level. Because this level is really like being pregnant: you can’t be a little bit pregnant, almost pregnant, somewhat pregnant. You are either pregnant or you aren’t.

But as long as human beings aren’t even interested in the “symptoms” of being a slave to selfishness, there is hardly any chance for us to get to that level.

According to Kabbalah we have some 240 years to straighten out our acts by out own volition, or method number two, the learning through suffering enters the picture, where you either learn or you perish.

Some 2,000 years ago there was a famous Kabbalist, Rabbi Akiva who had 25 thousand students. Many of those studies day and night, and were thought to be on a high level of connection, a high level of consciousness.

But when a deadly plague came, like the Black Plague, or the Aids epidemic, only five of them survived. Rabbi Akiva had a rude awakening: he realized that all the knowledge in the world doesn’t elevate you, unless you base your whole life on the basis of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Which is what’s missing… and with it freedom is missing, and slavery reigns “supreme.”

I had been hesitant: it must be just another scam to get my money. But finally I gave in, and bought it. It’s $42 a month.

There are daily lectures and the experience is phenomenal. I have experienced an immersion like never before.

I have learned stuff I didn’t even know I should ask, even though it was about something I experienced.

For example I have been, from time to time, experiencing extreme anxiety, pressure, restlessness, almost a physical pain. It has nothing to do with what ’s going on in my life, it has nothing to do with my health, obviously it is something non-physical. I decided that it was a good thing, but had no good explanation, why it would be a good thing.

I found out that the Light always wants to give you more than you want to receive. That creates a lack of vessel to receive the light. The pressure is an indication of that.

So what do I normally do when this happens? I play computer games, talk incessantly on the phone, all “satan” stuff, not in the right direction. OK? So what should I do to grow a vessel big enough to receive all the light that is coming to me?

I don’t quite have an answer, but one thing is sure: deflecting the light isn’t going to grow my vessel…

If you look at health advertisements, the main line is: take stuff to pile on the good.

What does this say to you? For most people that means, that is what they should do. Look at the proliferation of superfoods, acai, etc. and tell me if this isn’t so.

But “who” is directing the main line? Who’s voice is trumpeted through all media? The Light or the Opponent? Of course it is the Opponent, the darkness, the ego part. But why would the ego part be so interested in you thinking that all you need to do is add some more goodies to your life, and everything will be all right?

I am going to use a little story here to drive the answer home. Imagine a that 100 righteous men are locked up by 100 bandits. The bandits beat up the righteous men every night. The light of the righteous men is dimmer by the day. The world is getting darker by the minute. This is your life: your health, your wealth, your relationships… I am not talking about an imaginary scenario: this is your life!

You have a choice: will you send in troops to strengthen the righteous men or will you send in troops with weapons to get rid of the bandits? Will you try to offset all the bad stuff you do and think with some good acts, or will you kill off the bad stuff?

Eating superfoods is like trying to fatten the righteous men, they will die from the daily beatings anyway. But the sellers make an incredible profit in the meantime.

The smart answer is: decimate or kill off the bandits.  i.e. stop doing what is killing you and what supports the darkness.

And this is what Kabbalah teaches, exactly. Its whole foundation is to make choices, moment to moment, to stop feeding the ego and listen to the soul. You can’t do both. At any moment, you are either in light or in darkness.

When you are hurting others, indulge, or feel jealousy, greed, anger, however justified, your world is all dark. Every moment you share, your world is all light.

Just like stealing money and giving 10% of it to charity wouldn’t make your world light, overindulging in bad stuff and then taking a multi-vitamin is all dark. Superfood are great when you have already stopped what’s killing you.

You need to cut out the bad, like the bandits in our story.

I wish I had known this before. I am paying the price now.

But you see, it’s never too late. Killing the bandits takes a moment. Even if it is your last.

I spent 1-3 hours with a very negative person for seven months in the very near past. I hated about 60-70 percent of every conversation. My attitude was that there is an opportunity lurking there, and I’d find it. That attitude was encouraged by my teachers.

At the end of the seven months I noticed that my financial situation had started to go south when I started that relationship. I was now at a point when I was not going to be able to pay my rent…

In that moment of clarity I saw that in those seven months I had handed over the control over my thoughts and life to this person, and it was time to take it back.

I also noticed that it had been a pattern in my life. I could see that there was my desire to “lift up” other people, even if they weren’t particularly interested. I call that caretaking in another post of mine… (Studies show that when a higher vibration person tries to lift up the vibration of another person, instead of the desired outcome, the lowest common denominator wins. Other studies show that in sado-masochistic relationship the real control is in the hand of the masochist, not the sadist, like it seems on the surface.)

You notice that you are not energized by the relationship. You notice that your health, your energy level, your self-love, your connection with your purpose is getting weaker and harder to maintain.

In hindsight the same thing happened with my male cat. He wanted food, he wanted shelter (when he wanted it), but he didn’t want me. He didn’t choose me.

When I look at my relationships (male/female) I see the pattern: it begins with me relentlessly pursuing a stable and steady connection where I am the contributor/giver, thus I have the upper hand. They begrudgingly protecting their right to maintain independence. I increase the pressure. At some point we are best friends. I continue the domination with giving and giving and giving. At some point I catch myself, and break off the relationship.

That’s been the movie of my life. Quite disgusting, if you ask me. And makes for a lonely, unfulfilled life.

Luckily to me, this time I had my eyes open and my fingers pointing at myself. This time I have taken 100% responsibility for my part in this mess.

This fact, having taken responsibility for my role as a director/writer of this movie, I have given myself a chance to write and direct movies that are more fulfilling and satisfying than this repeated nightmarish ego-driven script.

Since the awakening and breakoff, my financial situation is looking up, I am more in touch with my soul’s desire and things unpredictable and delicious are starting to show up in my space.

Now that is a good news/bad news situation, if there has ever been one.

Because you create your reality, and you create it with your words (what you focus on) you can seriously mis-create.

Let’s take weight, for example.

I used to be skinny. I mean skinny!

I ate what I ate, and had no thoughts about my weight or the lack of it.

Then I heard about healthy eating, and started to concentrate on “healthy” food. Guess what happened? I started to pack the weight on, and went from 96 lbs to 165 lbs in a few weeks, no kidding.

It is like a fine tuned, well oiled machine. You can play with it. The Universe is exceptionally responsive. It’s easier to see on issues that are not pressing. Why?

Because all thoughts matter, not just your conscious thoughts. And you are only aware of 1%¹ of your thoughts, the others happen while you are busy with other things. Bummer, right? Serious bummer.

So when you experiment, do it with areas of not much consequence. Areas that you don’t fret about. I mostly think of people, and then they call. Or think of changing my attitude on the phone to be cheerful (I don’t unconsciusly think about that) and then the phone rings and I can practice my new cheerful attitude then and there.

The gratitude/appreciation exercise is designed to direct your focus.

If you focus on what you appreciate, you’ll get more of it.

Here’s how to take it further

create a growing list of 1000 things you’re grateful for. I have. It’s amazing how easy it becomes after a while. Once you train your focus, all it can see is things to be grateful for. Just like anything else… remember the reticular activator article a while back? Most of the things on that list: I’d completely ignored and taken them for granted before the exercise. But don’t stop… this is an exercise for life. The pull for negativity is tremendous! Don’t kid yourself.

Change Limiting Metaphors

Listen to the metaphors people use. It’s usually a window into the images in their mind. If someone says “I’m at the end of my rope,” they are creating an image in their mind and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if the image is there just for a split second, it’s there.

Avoid limiting images in your mind. Wake up and have a part of you, the witness part of you monitor everything that comes out of your mouth.

I used to have a teacher who lived that way (at least some of the time

Every time she thoughtlessly uttered something that created an image in her mind, she stopped and she canceled it. She said: “all speaking is committing” and what you do with commitments that you didn’t mean? You cancel them.

“I’m never at the end of my rope. I have a long rope. I never “burn the candle from both ends”. Instead, I “try to touch the sky’s ceiling…”. I’m not “drop dead exhausted”. I just need to “recharge my batteries”.”

Casual and thoughtless use of metaphors is dangerous to your future. Identify and catch the ones you use.  think of the state of mind and  future they bring about. If those futures and feelings aren’t useful, stop using them.

Find the Opportunity where it is least evident

There is a saying that you should do what you love to do. But that doesn’t mean that you should love what you do every moment of every day.  The truth is that some things you always hate to do, and some things you only hat to do some of the time, even if what you do (for a living, for example) is something you love.

So what should be your attitude with the stuff that you don’t like to do? Well, the exercise in finding the silver lining comes handy here: everything you do, every person you meet, ever obstacle you meet is the starting point for a new opportunity… if you are willing for them to show up like that.

Book-keeping is something a lot of people hate. But if you look at it as a way to know what’s going on with your money, you can see that it is an opportunity to greater clarity, growth, noticing your spending habits and changing them, and ultimately it can open up the opportunity to building wealth.

Lots of people hate learning new things. They think they shouldn’t have to. What they can’t see that knowing new things will be able to take them to places they would have never been able to get to with less knowledge…

Love challenges. Challenges give you the opportunity to grow, and to become more.

What is the practice I recommend? Before you start any task, even the ones that you love for their own sake, look and find (or invent) a juicy opportunity that will open up just because you are looking for it.

Create Congruency between your self image and your actions

A lot of people want to get rich. And almost that many have conflicting views about wealth. This is like driving a car with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake.

Some issues need to be settled when it comes to wealth. Will you be wealthy or will you be greedy? Will you love people and use money, or the opposite? What is the human cost you are willing to pay to become wealthy?

You will need to create a consistent world view before you can get wealthy. And make sure that you love the person with that world view, feel good about them, or you will lose it as fast as you got it…

When there is an internal conflict, you don’t feel well, so you won’t do well.

Is your mental image of yourself congruent with the actions you take?

Sit down and write down the actions that are congruent with the person you want to become, and make those actions your own.

If not, you’re going to be conflicted and you won’t do well. We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Footnotes:

1. Muscle testing has shown that only 1% of your thoughts are conscious and the 99% is totally unconscious. That is the area of what you don’t know you don’t know. Being able to influence your unconscious thoughts is the purpose of many self-improvement programs, meditation, hypnosis, different audio programs with hidden messages

I know, I know, talk is cheap. But is it?

I am not talking about boasting, false promising, buttering up, etc. I am talking about all the times when you “just” talk. When you think you are describing how it is. When you think you are telling the truth. When you do your darndest best to describe reality… I am talking about that talking.

The words you use, the pictures you paint do not describe anything. They, instead, create. For you and for others.

When you say “I want to lose weight” the picture of you running fast enough that the “weight” stays behind, but the moment you slow down so you can live, the weight catches up with you… have you noticed? If not in your life, in others?

When you say “I have to go to work” you are painting the picture of a prison with no joy, no freedom, no self-expression, no creativity… is this what you want half of your awake time to become? Oh, it already has? No wonder…

If you want to do well, you need to feel well. If you want to feel well, you need to use words that manifest that reality… remember parallel realities? Every word creates — or not — a parallel reality.

Most of us are stuck in a gloom and doom reality. There is a book title, Why you are sick, broke and dumb… or something like that. Can you see that a simple shift in the use of your words could take you to well, prosperous and gloriously bright?

You decide, and you are even motivated for a day, maybe even a week, then it goes away.

What’s the trick for staying motivated? In this and some coming blog posts I’ll give you a few practices you can use.

Practice #1: Schedule In Gratitude and Appreciation

Gratitude  for what? you say, and you shouldn’t be surprised, most of us have a real hard time finding anything to be grateful for. The weather is good, so what. The weather is bad, that’s bad. Consider that your creativity is half dead, and you are a walking dead yourself, like a zombie.

Start small. First start with something that you now take for granted, but you COULD be grateful for. Like someone smiling, even if it is not at you. The traffic light turning to green, even if it is supposed to. That the alarm functioned… even if it seems like that is the order of things. For the toilet flushing when you pull that lever… when you flip the switch and the light comes on. It is not that difficult, you’ll see that your world is full of things to be grateful for, full or miracles.

Your second stage will require more creativity,  but by that time you will have so much feel good energy in you, that it won’t be a big challenge.

The second stage is finding the silver lining in everything. It’s raining? It is great for the plants. It will clean the air. It will force you to wash your car. It allows you to get to that book that you have been putting off reading. Or even: goodie. I can look for the silver lining… yaay.

In addition of going through my day, I spend a few minutes in bed going through my day looking for accomplishments. I am always grateful and appreciative of myself and the opportunities. I sleep better, and I wake up with a lot more energy to keep on being grateful and appreciative.

The third stage is to put your gratitude on loudspeaker. We mostly talk about what’s wrong. That’s what sells newspapers, right? Well, it has also caused where you are today, or on a larger scale, where the world is today.

Break the habit, and talk only about what you are grateful for, what you appreciate, what you like, and the like.

It will be odd at first. People will look at you funny… but don’t let that discourage you.

Some 14 years ago I had an assignment to ask people in my life “What do you love about your life?”

Trust me, at that time, when I looked at people, I could not fathom that they had anything to love about their lives.

There was a sourpuss clerk at the mailbox that I tried to avoid every day lest his attitude would rub off on me. But homework needs to get done, so I asked him “What do you love about your life?”

He started to talk, and talk, and smile, and smile, and there was no end to what he had to say. He still smiles when he sees me. I remind him of what he loves about his life. Go figure…

I have run out of article… Go to the next practice

If you could never get “in touch” with the 99%, then you would still be left to your own devices.

The Law of Cause and Effect could be a great way to be guided, but, unfortunately, to preserve your free will, the cause (what you do) and the effect (what you get) are separated by time. Then they are scrambled.

You help someone, without ego. Brownie point for you. Next thing you know, you are hit with a negative effect. What gives?

Is there a way one could ask the 99% for advice?

Yes. There ARE ways. One of them is Kinesiology, which means you ask the 99% a yes or no question, and your muscles answer for the Devine. Or you could say, the Devine uses your muscle strength or the lack of it to answer the question.

There is the traditional way to ask in which there are two people, and that is troublesome sometimes.
I will show you a one-handed way to test.

Put your dominant hand lightly on the desk in front of you, palm down. Now, quickly, without hesitation, turn it over, without lifting it more than you need to clear the table-top.

You’ll see, that depending on your flexibility, you can probably easily turn it so that now the back of your hand is facing the table, and you are not experiencing any pain. Don’t force it, it will override the answer from the 99%.

This is how your “yes” answer looks.

Anything with lesser turn is a “no” anwer.

Now, formulate your question. For example: shall I be friends with X? Should I pursue buying that house? Shall I eat peas? etc.
It must be a question with a yes or no answer.

Now put your hand on the desk, ask your question and quickly turn your hand upside down. If the answer is yes, you know how far you could turn before… If it is no, your hand will turn MUCH LESS.

If you want to make sure, ask the opposite of the same question. If you get the opposite, you are good to go. If you get the same: it is either neutral, or you can’t trust yourself: your dark side is dominating at the moment.

Here is a video by Craig Brockie… He has interesting stuff, worth watching.

A few years ago, around 2003 I read the book “The Science of Getting Rich”

I loved it. The part I loved most is that The Light is seeking fuller and fuller expression of itself, and you and your actions are part of that expression. Your curiosity, your exploration, your learning new things, you playing with new toys and tools are all adding to the richness of The Light’s self expression and fullness.

Why do I love it so much? Because it adds an important layer of incentive to strive for more. My capacity for self love is not very strong, and therefore my desire for things for myself is not very strong.

But if what I desire enriches The Light, I can expect to get all the support I need, because WE get the result, The Light and me.

I think I have mentioned in another blog post that I love to play the solitaire computer game, called Freecell.
I think that you can have a personal conversation with the light (maybe it is the Shechina… i.e. surrounding light) and get a lot of guidance that way.

Take, for example, playing Freecell. It is a total waste of time, unless. Unless you do it consciously allowing The Light to play through you.

Unless you derive your pleasure and satisfaction from providing The Light with an outlet, becoming a hand with an opposing thumb to The Light.

I have been experimenting with that for two days now. The Light hasn’t lost a game yet.

…and an additional juicy bit: nurturing my relationship with The Light this way has netted me money, friendship, health, peace of mind. I mean it. When you learn to become like a chess figure in The Light’s hand, you are taken to decisions and places you would not think of going yourself. And guess what? That is where what you wanted all along is… in those unexpected, unvisited places.

What a surprise.