Simply put...if you're expecting or adopting...you need one of these! This isn't a nice extra...this is practically a neccesity. I don't know how parents survived without them. They are amazing!
There are a a few things that when I was shopping for and registering for my daughter that I didn't know I should get. A lot of the lists that are online are completely bogus and just written to please advertisers. By chance a co-worker gave me one of these because her son had grown out of it. She said that he loved it and I wasn't sure what to think. I didn't know if I was going to use it but thank goodness I had it on hand! I have to say this is one of those must-haves for infants. When we brought my daughter home she did not want to sleep in the pack and play that we bought for her (cribs are far more expensive and seem to be unneccesary) or the bassinet. I get why, neither of them feel very comforting or secure even with a swaddle me or a sleep sack on. They are little better then sleeping on the floor thanks to all of the precautions we have to take for SIDS. My daughter would squirm one way because she was uncomfortable. Eventually, she would cry until we picked her up. This Sleeper, however, has been absolutely amazing. The Rocker vibrates so it puts her to sleep really quickly. I can tell she's comfortable and feels secure. I love that it's easy to move too. Since I couldn't lift things as I recovered from a c-section I just scoot her around in this little rocker. I can slide it into the kitchen as I'm fixing myself something to eat so I can talk to her as I work. I slide her to my laptop so that she can be right there sleeping as I work on a blog or slide it over to the chair where I'm sitting as I watch a movie, listen to a podacst or one of my favorite YouTube vidoes or I'm reading to her (usually my metaphysical books). This thing can pretty much go wherever I want to go with ease! Since it's light weight but sturdy I can slide it anywhere I want to go. The only challenge are the stairs but I have a work around for that one. Finally, the pediatrician complimented my husband and I on the fact our daughters head is so round. This is partly because of tummy time and the sleeper. In a crib she would have to be moved often and adjusted so one side didn't become flat I highly recommend buying one of these or having one of these on your baby registry. Out of all of the products that I have for my daughter this one has proven to be the most important and useful.
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Strange title...I know.
Yet, this adequately describes what has happened in my life. I had realized at some point in the past year that there was something blocking my abundance. I was becoming more abundant but it was very touch and go. Sometimes things worked out and sometimes they went sideways. I usually felt there was a lot of effort involved and I couldn't figure out why because based on my research that shouldn't be the case. Things should have been effortless. I'm reminded of the dream vision I had of Yeshua. Where he came to visit me in the garage- that represented my projects- and the trailer was taken out. That trailer had looked like it was filled with party goers but when it was pulled out and emerged from the garage they were all soldiers in full regalia. I didn't know what that meant at the time. Well, now and it turns out I was blocking my own abundance. Making Demands On The Universe I know from research that if you try to dictate how the universe does things it delays manifestation. I just never considered that there were more then one way to dictate what we think the universe should do...and that I was trying to do just that! I wanted to continue to work after Michelle Annmarie was born...well, the independent part of me that wanted a life outside of my family wanted me to continue to work. I wanted to continue to have all of the things that I had developed when I was independent- primarily my 2016 Ford Ranger that was impractical and my dog Angel. I knew that Ross had wanted me to get rid of that truck for a long time. I had resisted for 9 years. He wanted me to get rid of the truck because it was not gas friendly and not family friendly. He had a truck too, but he bought one that the entire family could fit in, but I didn't understand why I had to make the sacrfice and he didn't. After all, I had bought that truck off the lot and I had paid it off (some of which occurred after I married Ross but not long after). So, here I wanted a family but Iu wasn't willing to bend in order to have one. I still wanted my independnece...and I was effectively blocking Ross off from what he desired (aside from his music, he's always been able to buy whatever he wanted for his music). Focusing On The Negative I knew, based on my research, that expecting bad things to happen makes them happen. This has been clincally proven by psychology. They call it the self-fulfilling prophecy. In metaphysics it's called the Law of Attraction. I don't know if I was raised to expect the worse or if it was something left over from a past life. I just know that since I was little that was always my expectation...that the worse case scenario would occur. Training myself not to focus on the negative has been a huge undertaking. I've really had to transform my entire process of analyzing a situation. In a lot of ways, it's as simple of learning to let go of an outcome. I put forth the best effort I can towards the positive goal that I desire (called setting an intention...and yes, it does require you to make some sort of effort even if it's printing or cutting out images from a magazine to put on a dream board) and then I let it go. This is not the easiest thing to do if you are used to dwelling on the negative and used to focusing on the worse. Seeing The Dirt My mom was a clean freak when I was growing up. She spent 99% of her day cleaning our house in detail. She had a system. Bathrooms were deep cleaned on a specific day of the week, the kitchen was deep cleaned on a specific day, floors detailed cleaned on a certain day, etc. You get my point. Yet, my father always found the dirt in the house and demanded what my mom had been doing all day. He didn't care if it was a bathroom day...if there was dust on the mantle it meant my mom hadn't done anything. This was completely subconscious behavior on his part...if you ask him about this today he won't remember that he was like that back then and completely deny this behavior. Yet, this behavior set a precedent in my mind. I started seeing only the dirt when I went places. I couldn't appreciate the decorations, the environment I was in or anything...as long as there was dirt I felt disappointed/disgusted. I had a district manager for Starbucks come in one day to the location I used to work at in Big Bear Lake California. I was the highest authority there since my store manager liked to flake out and I was the acting assitant manager...which means I had all of the stress and responsibility without the pay or the title. Anyways, I had to deal with this guy because there was no one else. He pointed out that there were dirts in the ducts that ran along the vaulted ceiling...then he explained that the reason he was promoted was because he could see that dust when no one else could. I admit, it's a flaw of mine not to look up when I'm at places. Sometimes, such as riding The Pirates of the Carribian that's a good thing...it ruins the illusion if you look up on that ride. In fact, most of the time it's a good thing...but on that day I learned what it felt like to deal with someone who only sees dirt. He didn't offer any positive feedback...be just pointed out the one random thing I had never thought to clean because it was out of my line of sight. Yet, perhaps that is why he got promoted...or he was really good at selling that the trait of noticing the dirt was desireable to his potential employers. Life is like that...if you focus only on seeing the bad in a situation you miss out on all of the good parts and there are always good...even in the worst situations. Personally, I've learned Ineed to focus on teh good and not the bad. Sometimes It Takes Time Recently a friend of mine who was leagally blind but under went surgery stated he was giving up on driving. HIs dream is to drive because he's been denied for so long. Yet, it's difficult for him I told him that if he throws in the towel so easily it is clearly not something he really wants. Then I explained that if I had believed what the experts had told me about whether or not I could carry a child...Michelle wouldn't be here today. What you want may not come to you automatically. Often, we have a lesson to learn if it's blocked. That's how Spirit works...it's the old bait and carrot trick. If you want something you need to learn how to perform the trick. You see the potential to get the object you desire but sometimes it takes discipline to attain it...and that discipline and persistance are both very valuable qualities to develop. Of course, lessons from Spirit always contain a positive...but we just need to develop the eyes to see the positive lesson in every experience that we have. Recently I've had a lot of experienecs people would define as 'negative' and I could have sat here texting my old friend about how much life sucks and how disappointed that this or that happened or how unsupported I was...but...out of those negative experienecs really positive things happened. Yes, some of it was delayed (because I was delaying myself by being on the Negative Thought Train)...but all of it worked out. I just had to develop the eyes to see the positive and be thankful for what had originally appeared as negative experiences holding onto the idea that somehow they held a kernal of good that was neccesary on the path of self-development. Ryukhar My husband started watching a guy on YouTube named Ryukhar. At first, I did mock my husband for it...I prefer to play videogames to watching someone else play them. Yet, after watching a few videos I enjoy it as much as he does...and I see the value. Ryu, as he goes by as well, is a very personable and likeable guy. I've mentoned Ryukhar before but I've learned a very valuable perspective from watching his videos. He plays these insanely hard games and levels on Mario Maker. Now, if it were me I would probably be so frustrated by how many times I had to play a level in order to win it that I would give up. I'd thrown the controller. Sometimes he'll use 60+ lives just on one level of Mario Maker Expert because it is so difficult and requires a precise trick. I have a lot of paiteience but I don't have that much. Yet, his perspective and philosophy is what sets him apart from other people. My husband and I have checked out other people who broadcast themselves playing Mario Maker or other games...and they're just not as captivating. First, Ryukhar is emotive...you can always tell what he is thinking by his reactions. That makes moments where he is surprised absolutely hilarious. That transparency is part of what makes him so likeable and root for him. The experiene is like watching a Super Hero be victorious over their enemies...you were rooting for them the entire time and it makes you happy to see him succeed and set new records. Other gamers tend to be stoic and because they lack that emotional connectability...they're boring. Since they don't appear to care why should we? Second, no matter how frustrating a level is Ryu will give it his best effort in an attempt to beat it. Even if he just goes to the next screen or next section of the level...he calls it progress. Instead of dwelling on what is not working...or how many times he's died...or how frustrated he is...he chooses to focus on the positive. He celebrates even the smallest amount of progress or getting a particular trick right consistantly. This is refreshing and you can't help but celebrate with him. Others sit there and complain and cuss out the game. That's just not attractive. That makes me want to see them lose because no one wants to see a poor loser rewarded. Personally I find it so annoying I'll change to a different video. I don't find hateful people entertaining. My point is that Ryu has taught me to celebrate even the smallest progress. This is a fantastic skill to learn and I am very thankful for the fact that my husband began to watch Ryukahr as a form of entertainment. This is just one of those examples that you can come across people in the most interesting places that can teach you a valueable lesson. Complaining/Venting This is where I was blocking my abundance. I thought Venting/Complaining was healthy. That's what therapists teach...they listen to people vent in a safe place. What I learned is that this was a misuse of energy and actually caused me to block my abundance. Venting only enabled me to continue to focus on and create more negative experiences. Venting/Complaining or telling stories takes a lot of energy. I already explained in other blogs how I had a mystical experiene where I was instructed to 'accept the deal' of ending a friendship. At the time I didn't understand why this was so important or why it was happening. I probably would have resisted letting go of that friendship without this communication. I know part of why I had stayed in the relationship was the martyr complex I've had since I was little that I completley blame on the interpertation of Yeshua that churchs perpetuate. I was willing to sacrfice myself in order to help buttress her up during a time of extreme trial that she had unwittingly created by making self-serving decisions. I thought that by being there for her I could help her...almst Unfortunately, I was channeling a lot of my energy into her and neglecting the areas of my life- such as my husband and unborn daughter- where that energy should have been spent. Sacrificing myself energentically for her was just utterly wrong. In that relationship I was venting/complaining about my husband. This was driving a wedge between myself and Ross. He felt, just as he did after we lost Lilith-Ann, that he was carrying the full burden of this pregnancy. As a result, I was draining him of his energy. He even developed a problem with his cholestrol (it was off the charts high) as a result of the stress from the sales job he never wanted (that was not orginally part of the employment agreement but they never specified the job duties in writing) and trying to take care of everything while I was on bed rest. Compaling about our lives and husband was all that my old friend and I had in common anymore...we realized we had drastically different approaches to life and spirituality. She was very insulted when I suggested she had chosen her parents to learn particular life lessons..while she had been somewhat open minded when I met her...her mind was completely closed to any ideas other then fundamentalist Christianity by the end of our friendship. The only thing we really discussed was what was going wrong in our lives and the relationship had become spritually draining. Speech is important...what you focus on is what you get. By focusing on only how much I disliked certain situations and how I felt powerless...I created more of those experiences. That's what was preventing me from manifesting abundance...there was a trickle of abundance that leaked past this barrier...but it was very uneven and unbalanced...just as I was uneven and unbalanced because of the relationship I had with her. That relationship had been psychologically draining because I took on the suffering that she was experiencing...I was accepting that burden which was not mine to bear. Further, it made me frustrated because I couldn't change things...she would make a poor decision and it was torture watching her pay for it because I only wanted the best for her and she wouldn't listen to me when I said there was another way to conduct her life. What I realized once the friendship ended is that I could spend the same amount of time and energy I had focusing on her problems and talking about mine...solving the problems I had complained about with her...and to my amazement my husband, Ross, has gone along with the fixes I've come up with. My energy level has shot through the roof without having the drain of trying to psycholigically support her (yeah, I realize now I was enabling and empowering her poor decisions). Instead of wasting a lot of time and attention on conveying my sadness or disappointment or frustration...I used my time and energy to solve the problems. I didn't ask permission...I just started doing things and all of it has worked out. I started setting my intentions, investigating how to meet them...and boom they were delivered. Almost all of the things I've set my gaze on recently have instantly manifested. I just had to learn to be more flexible...and apply what I learned at work in my personal life. This has taken the load off of my husband's back...and all of a sudden I've been super abundant...and so has he...it's like a dam has been removed and things are just flowing naturally for the better equipping both of us to attain our greatest dreams in a very natural effortless way. The Husband Changing Jobs Now, this is one of those situations where the something bad happens but something incredibly good came out of it (this has happeend a lot recently) almost instantly (that's new!). My husband couldn't take California paternity leave because the company that he works for processes his taxes through a different state. He was not a happy camper and so he chose to leave the company. That job had promised insurance but it never came through. Thankfully my husband had a lot of choices including going back to the company he had left. The great news is that the job provides medical at a decent price. Even better is that they matched the pay he was making and was automatically given two weeks of vacation. Also, when he went in for the interview his former boss not only hired him as a manager but offered to pay for a Bachelors degree in Engineering...he just has to pick the online school he wants to go to! This 'bad event' turned into an opportunity that is beyond my husband's wildest dreams! Becoming A Housewife I was really trying to hold onto my job. I felt obligated to return...and that I would be a terrible person if I went out on leave and didn't come back. I love being a barista, I didn't want to lose my seniority, my indepdence and I think Albertson's is a great place to retire from. I also love the people there. I felt that working gave me value and I couldn't see how it was possible for me to quit. I felt like being a housewife would be a free loader and that my husband would resent me. With the extra time to myself and Michelle going to the Neonatal Intenseive Care Unit in a manner that was very similar to her older sister that passed away...my life was put into perspective. My precious time with Michelle Annmarie was also put into perspective. Right now, in life, the most important job I have is being the very best mommy possible for my Little One and the Best Wife ever for my hard working husband that is finally receiveing what he has earned thanks to his dedication and hard work. With all of this in mind and my new opitmistic energetic mindset... I had a sudden realization. From a pratical point of view I didn't have to work because my husband makes an income that can easily pay for our basic needs and I was mostly at work for the super cheap insurance. I realized, that in September I was going on Cobra. That's a California program that allows a person to keep their insurance for a year after they leave a job or they are on a leave of absence. That means I can keep that price of insurance for the next year. The price isn't as cheap as when I was working because the company isn't contirbuting their part but it's not as expensive as getting independent coverage. I don't want to leave Michelle. I feel as though I almost lost her when she went to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit...and I want to take care of my husband. Breast feeding while working is just not realistic. My work doesn't have a dedicated room and breast pumping in the break room even covered with a shawl I will do a review on....would be awkward. Further, pumping every two hours while at work is not going to be possible. The rushs are unpredictable and I might be about to go pump and get stuck on the bar for another hour because we get slammed. That just won't work. My daughter and her health is the most important to me, however, so I have decided not to go back to work. I will be a house wife which will be humbling but I see that all of the things that represented my independence are now gone...and I am now focused on the commual family experience. I have completely switched gears and it's time for me to let go of working and focus on the two people who matter the most. Further, it wouldn't be conducive if I did go back to work because I'd have to pray I got enough hours for insurance, but not 8 hours a day which would cost too much in babysitting. I also would have to pray that I hit the amount of hours I need in the next year for FMLA so that next August I could go out again when we try for another child. I had to do that the last year I worked since the surgery I had on my Uterus to remove the septum...and it was so stressful! I had to count hours every week to make sure that they gave me enough for both my insurance and for the FMLA. Sometimes they gave me twice as much as I needed and sometimes the were short an hour and I had to have them fix the scehdule. Further, I was a litle worried that I might have to give up writing my blog and making my YouTube Videos...as a housewife that will no longer be an issue. Trying For Number Two We've decided that we will try for a second child starting in August of 2019 for two reasons. First, both of us wanted two children and, aside frome the NICU experience and being on bed rest for so long the pregnancy with Michelle was pristine. We shouldn't have any issues with number two. I've had two unrelated people that were practically strangers tell me it was God's Will. Direct messages from Spirit on such issues are rare and I'm not one to ignore them. Conclusion Letting go of my independence has been tough. Everything I let go of were things that I did solely for myself. I find that fascinating. Not that I don't think taking care of Michelle is something for me, she is- afterall- the heart and soul of my deepest desire. I've always wanted children. I always wanted to be a stay at home mom. Yet, I convinced myself it was not possible and undersireable for various reasons. Now that my dream has come true...in many ways Ross' dreams have also come true. His heart has always been at Gale Banks Engineering. That's just where he's meant to be and the fact that they are going to pay for him to get his Bachelors in Enginnering is an even greter dream. You see, Ross' Dad helped pay for Ross' sister to get her Doctrate using money from an aunt or grandmother that had passed away. He wouldn't pay for Ross to go to school be Ross didn't do well in high school. That was a major dilemma in Ross' life. By working through my own issues...I've helped him too. To see things work out on such a huge level is amazing. That's proof that if you work on yourself you will lift up others.
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I've never been drawn to the charecter Alita. I always felt like sh was a shallow derivative of Ghost In A Shell. So, I'm not a fan of the anime which I think was just a copy of Ghost In A Shell...kind of like a fan fiction.
I didn't want to see this movie because I was sick of seeing the trailers for over a year. I knew that they were over selling the movie and that Alita clearly faced trouble in production. My husband saw and read good reviews so we went. For fans of the anime I'm sure this was awesome. As a non-fan this movie had almost nothing to offer. I give this movie a solid D. I didn't walk out of the movie feeling inspired in anyway...in fact, I felt the ending was very anti-climatic. I'm really glad I don't have to watch the trailers in the movie theaters anymore. Now, theaters just need to get rid of the secret agent M&M advertisement where they tell you not to use your cell phone. I'm so sick of that one too. What I Liked The one thing I liked in the movie was the sound effects. I saw the movie in IMAX 3D and it was amazing to feel the entire theater shake when Alita slammed her fist down breaking concrete or punched one of the bad guys. That was probably one of the best new sound effects I've experienced in the movies for a long time. A new way of doing sound effects where it has a physical effect was awesome. What I Didn't Like Now, there were a lot of reasons I didn't like the movie. First, as I expected the CG for Alita's face was way too distracting.. While it was beautiful it was distracting and didn't convey believable human emotion. I foud myself thinking about how the CG artists created the effect instead of relating to the charecter. Second, there were just too many subplots: 1. Where the body the doctor used to rebuild her came from.. 2. Her relationship with Hugo. 3. The murder of cyborg women leading to the revelation of the doctor being a bounty hunter. 4. The little dog. 5. The Motorball game 6. Hugo's friends. 7. The war with Mars 8. Alita having to put herself in danger to remember. 9. The bounty hunter Zapan 10. The Mars ship 11. The storyline about how/why the doctor puts Alita into the Mars beserker body. 12. Her motorball tryout where everyone is really trying to kill her. 13. Zapan's hunting down Hugo to get back at Alita for shaming him. 14. Hugo's short time as a cyborg. 15. Chirin's sub plot. 16. Alita taking Zapan's sword. 17. The promise of a better life in the sky city 18. The real main bad guy at the end who's name I can't remember. That's a lot of subplots. I'm sure there were more. Yet, they were all superficial action and there were a lot of questions unanswered. How and why was her head/spine dumped in the scrap yard three hundred years after the war she fought? How is her brain only 15 years old even though she was clearly a cyborg created three hundred years prior. Third, I never liked Alita. Her face was only part of the problem. The idea that someone could 'innocently' like the Motorball game (think the 1970's movie Rollerball that was a flop for a reason) where people are murdered in terrible ways while "playing" the game. Yeah, she's an elite beserker cyborg soldier weapon from a war that Earth lost...but that really means that she's *not* innocent at all and the entire concept of her charecter loses all charm. Her charecter comes of creepy and stoic. Maybe that goes with being a cyborg but her entire charecter didn't work for me. Fourth, all of the charecters had back stories but the acting was terrible. I really didn't like any of them except Zapan and he was extremely minor. I blame this on the directer, James Cameron, but I'll explain that in the conclusion. Fifth, the amount of violence in this movie was ridiculous. I can't believe it just had a PG13 rating. Alita is torn apart at one point...she's justa torso dragging herself along by one arm. Charecters are torn apart in the Motorball game in disgusting ways. Zapan's face is cut off and his tongue was wagging in his metal skull. I guess the lack of blood and the fact that it was cyborgs that were being dismembered meant that it wasn't 'violent'. Conclusion I don't like James Cameron as a director. I feel this way about all of the old directors- Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Cameron. They're out of touch with reality and to disconnected from the average person's life to present a good film. Cameron in particular has depended on cutting edge technology to define his movies. I didn't like the movie Titanic either. Yet, that was a technological triumph for how they digitally and 'historically' recreated the ill fated pleasure ship. Then there was Avatar which I did like but I think that was despite Cameron. The beautiful idyllic 3D world was a first and only in the theater (3D is just a gimmick with hardly any movies truly utilizing the function). Plus, there were two phemomenal female actress that gave their charecters more depth then the director required- Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. Alita was nothing special. I found it to be a long boring drawn out movie with a lot of action and no substance. The idea that the berzerkr body is just a 'shell' and Alita determines what she does with it was mentioned once. I didn't like the world. I'm really sick of dystopian future stories.Whether it's Ready Player One or Alita...I don't want to visit those worlds. I don't find any value in revisiting that story line of human's being the plague of the Earth and all of that...it's been done. Ghost In A Shell is just a far more loveable, likeable and philosophical story. I would want to be in that world. Even though it's a rough place it's also beautiful. I felt the same way about the world of Blade Runner 2049. Both of those were cyborg stories that had something to offer to the audiance. Alita Battle Angel is just an action fest with a lot of poster charecters. They look cool but they have no real substance. Now, this all came about because I started investigating the Swan because of the reading we did and I looked up what Goddess was born from an egg out of curiousity.
The answer was Helen. Then I came across the fact that Greece went through a Helenistic age and I was curious...why would they call themselves Helen? Ancient Name of Greece- Hella Yeah, that's why I put Hella from Thor Ragnarok as the main picture of this post. Greece just keeps coming up in things and I was just curious about it. I mean, everyone goes back to the Greek pantheon. That's one of the predominate pantheon's that peple look to when they are studying ancient gods or goddesses. However, what's even more interesting is that might have this name because of a female Goddess. Even though Zeus is their main God...could they have identified themselves mor witha Goddess? The reason for the name they give themselves...much like ancient Egypt (Khemet) has been lost. Helen and Cygunus The Goddess that was born from an Egg was Leda- a Aetolian princess that became a Spartan Queen. Interestingly, the story goes that Zeus- in the from of a Swan- flew into her arms to escape from a Hawk. As a result she became pregnant and laid two eggs. Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. Zeus, when Helen was born, commemorated the event by placing Cygunus...the swan...in the sky. Helen Of Troy Edgar Cacye Reading Yup, Helen of Troy showed up in an Edgar Cacye reading. 136-1 Apparently, in the life that she was given the reading she was married to the man who had been Achielles. That is so interesting that they had both been considered demi-gods in the previous life and were then married in the next two lives! Conclusion As I said, this was just an odd set of coincidences that I uncoverd as I was looking up which Goddess was born from an egg. I never knew Helen was considered a Goddess. She was known as the worlds most beautiful woman. I don't think this history is included in the Odyssey. Again, I find it hilarious that in the Marvel Thor: Ragnarok the Goddess of Death is Hella. Greek did choose to plealse Artemis, Goddess of War, in order to reach Troy...which might as well be the Goddess of Death. Just a really weird coincedence that adds to that weird Greek Enigma. First, and foremost, I highly recommend all Christians read this book.
This book is great for helping Christians start to branch out into the systems of 7. This would be a fantastic book to introduce Chrstians to ideas that are not normally in their paradigm. I was so exicted about this book hoping it would help illluminate the mystery of the Chrsitian concept of the Heart that Yeshua talked about and another system of 7. That said, as I said in my February 13th post this book as almost painful to read because of the poisonous Chrstian Dogma it contains. Second, I suggest if your more of an open minded inclusive person like myself that is open to studying all of the systems...don't read this book. This book will only confuse you. The dialect and terms are strictly Christian. While I can see correlations, and I will go over those when I write the YouTube series on Teresa of Avila's 7 mansions sometime next year (hopefully), they are buried deep in this book behind a lot of fundamentalist Christian ideas that I think are poisonous and don't have a biblical foundation (it was just dogma created and taught but Rome that all of the branches that rejected Rome kept for some reason or based on Paul the Roman's nonsense...check out the blog I published on February 13th). That said there was as lot of good in this book too. I have 33 markers in the book and I stopped there because I ran out of markers. This book continued the trend about Spiritual Maturity. I was shocked to see a Christian admit that most Christians and most Churchs are not spiritually mature...that they only focus on people doing missionary work and church work without the emphasis on a personal relationship with Yeshua. We could go very deeply into that debate but this book doesn't go into that at all so it would be inapproriate in this blog. I'm not going to quote a lot of this book but there is a section in chapter 12 named "Your Unique Journey" that I just want to touch upon. Here are some quote from that chapter including the list of 'the process of discvoery' that Ashbrook provides: "Although most, if not all, of us grow in self-knowledge over the years, few are really intentional about it. We have all known people who go to their grave, tragically still living with major delusions about themselves and the people around them...It is vital for us to understand what drives us, where our needs come from, and the helpful and unhelpful ways in which we attempt to navigate life...The unfortunate process of hitting the walls of our misperceptions can bring significant insight to thos who are willing to lear, but it is possible fo rus to be intentional in our disvoery process..." pg 226 "Biblical Perspective: The world around us attempts to define as normal a life that is broken and dying, estranged from God. Only in Scripture can we gain the real perspective to honestly see ourselves as sinners, in the light of God's love, forgiveness and reconcilliation." (Isn't it strange that they say scripture is the way but they never study Jewish tradition?) Authentic Spiritual Friendships: Most of what we know about ourselves, truth or falsehood, has been reflected back to us from others. Christian Community: Individual relationships are important, but we truly come to understand ourselves in teh context of a safe, loving, and honest Christian communty. (Group work is important but not neccesarily limited to just Christian churchs). Spiritual direction, coacthinig and counseling: The rare many times when it is helpfu to have the assistance of a person trainted to listen to our experience with God, and help ut it into context and give guidance where needed. Journaling: Often iit is easier to understand that what we are feeling when we put words to it. Solitude: The busyness of daily life often obscures self-knoweldge because we don't take time to be reflective" So, that's just some of the concepts covered in the book. Although, I don't neccesairly agree with all of the ideas exactly they do capture the spirit of the type of work that the Seeker on any Path follows. I found this book funny in some ways. There is an entire section lamenting that meditation has been 'given up' to just the Eastern philosophies and New Age. Yet, the author couldn't bring himself to call it meditation throughout the book..instead it's "Abiding prayer." Much of what this author has to say does, as I said before, correlate well with the other systems of 7. However, the issue is that it is so bogged down he(Group work is important but not neccesarily limited to just Christian churchs)and so distorted by really poinsonous beliefs that it's almost lost. That's why I'll probably pick up Teresa Avila's actual book and another book on the subject. I'm curious to see just how lost Teresa's message was in the religious rhetoric of her time or if she was actualy a Kabbalist who hid it from the church with flowerly dogmatic language. As I said in my blog on February 13th...this book was very hard for me to read after reading so many straightforward books. Even the text book on Qigong that I'm currently reading is easier for me to understand because it is more straightforward and has far less paranoid concepts. Chrstianity is probaby one of the most psycholgoically unhealthy religions on the planet. I 100% believe in Yeshua but if he read a good deal of the New Testament and heard the dogma being preached in his name I'm sure he'd grit his teeth and demand accountability of those who spread these negative lies. As long as Christianity still holds onto the psychologically poinsonous ideas- such as Outside Forces putting thoughts in their heads and possessing them, fear of pornography and that they are required to suffer in this life in order to go to heaven- our society in the Untied States will continue to be sick. SInce this dogma saturates every form of entertainment there is no doubt in my mind why there is so much Anxiety, Depressioni and people with Panic Attacks in our society. This religion breeds people like that by teaching them they are unworthy, that they must be terrified and that they must suffer. That's a guranteed recipe to ensure that our society never experiences joy. In the coming months I will start sharing product reviews on this blog as well. I like that this blog is kind of a one-stop type of place where I share everything. While I could make a seperate blog just to review products that seems way too complicated. I like to keep things simple.
To start off I will mostly reviewing baby products. There are a few other products I want to thrown in as well but the baby products are the ones I really feel are important and can help other people. However, I want to explain why it's so important that you write product reviews...and share them on the website where you bought the item. All of this is natural for me...after all I do movie reviews and book reviews. Those two types of reviews are the most common that people write. Your Opionion Matters! When I was buying baby products I went online and did detailed searches. I googled the different products and lists of products people wrote were 'essential' baby gear. Then I went through website by website checked the consumer reviews. Often the lists I encountered held products that the website was pushing because of marketing. The ads on the side matched the list of goods that the website said was 'neccesary.' As it turned out, most of those lists were nonsense. Yet, when I went to look at reviews on the seller websites these items got horrible user reviews. That let me know that those companies on those lists had paid for their item to be included. This is the problem with modern journalisim and many of the articles I find on the web...usually they are click bait with little substance or information just to get people to buy certain things. You might not take the time to write a review- in fact, you're more likely to write a complaint than a positive review if you have a negative experience to 'warn others'- but it's an invaluable service. Help Small Companies Product reviews can make or break a small company. I am all for Mom and Pop companies. I understand that large omnopolies (monopolies that keep the name of businesses they buy out so you don't realize that one company dominates a particular field- in other words the monopolies that FDR put out of business are back with a vegence but have become smarter) are something that's not going to go away any time soon. They help to keep costs down in a lot of ways and provide better quality jobs because they have major bargaining powers thanks to the fact that they have more employees. I realize that it's not always possible to buy items from small companies. Small grocery stores, for example, are not something you can find in metropolitan or suburban settings. You have to go to a large retail chain. Yet, in a truly free market there needs to be competition. That's why I go out of my way to support as many small companies as I can. Positive Product Reviews can help small companies survive. By buying the products for these smaller companies and writing reviews for them you can make a difference in our econonmy. This is a service you can provide that doesn't just help the owners of these small companies...but in the bigger picture helps a thriving equal economy and therefore your country. Mavens If you write a lot of reviews you'll become a Maven. A maven is an expert or connoisseur. I learned about this concept when I was pursuing my Masters in Business Administration. Literally, companies track what these people say and write. You could start up a blog where all you do is review products and if there is enough traffic to your website or enough interest companies will start to pay attention to your website. While companies may have test groups for their products those people are usually biased...they usually like the company or desire the product. Further, companies will give perks or even pay some people to try their product in order to get feedback. Independent reviewers, on the other hand, don't require any out of the pocket expense from the companies who's products they are reviewing (or even the company itself) and they are less likely to be biased. This sort of pure feedback is invaluable to companies. Often times they are studying why one product seems to meet a need but another doesn't. They can use the honest critical feedback from mavens to help them create better and more successful products. Conclusion Writing reviews is very important. Your opinion does matter and sharing your opinion has many positive effects. Not only will you help companies improve their products and possibly inspire them to make products that they haven't imagined before...but you can positively effect the economy and the country. By focusing on small mom and pop retail companies you can help those companies succeed in the market place. Further, every time you help a smaller company compete with bigger companies you help improve the diversity and competition of the workplace which strengthen's the economy. So, don't just review products or give feedback because you have a bad experience. Review them when you have a good experience too and make suggestions. Believe me, it's worth your time and it will make this world a better place.
I didn't realize when I made this last YouTube video that this title would be so correct.
A combination of crazy weird life circumstances has led me to take a long break from YouTube. More than likely it will be at least two years. As you can tell by this YouTube video it's pretty much impossible for me to make video's right now. The ones with the slides take even more time then the ones where I just use my phone or laptop. My husband doesn't have the time he wants to play his music or do band practice right now so asking for a weekend to work on YouTube vidoes is just not on the table...not to mention he and I have huge relationship issues right now (he doesn't watch my videos or read my blog). I knew that I was going into a hermit phase in my life but I didn't expect it to become so extreme. I've quit Facebook, no more YouTube vidoes and even this blog is going on the back burner. I do intend to continue to cover the other systems of 7 in blogs scheduled for Saturdays in the future. Right now, though, I don't have a time to sit down and study. I'm not sure how long I will be gone from the blog. There are blogs scheduled on Monday and Wednesday through April...although, I admit some of them are just product reviews for baby items. I will be writing a blog on that subject...I want to explain what was helpful for me and what wasn't when it comes to products I purchased. Goodness knows, having 0% support or help with my first baby from anyone with experience has taught me a lot. I also didn't have a baby shower (which I think was a blessing). The learning curve was huge and I give props to any single mothers who go through something similar. I have a lot to sort out in my personal life and just arranging my house...not only the nursery but also Michelle's actual room as we intend to start trying for a second baby in August. Which might be very timely because I might be going through menopause. There are even deeper issues between my husband and myself that need to be sorted out. I discovered a whole mess of lies that he told and screwed up priorities on his part- all of it about money and his music for the most part. However, it was when he started to get into the hobby of shooting that I drew the line. I have no problem with people owning guns for home protection. He took it alot further by buying guns and hiding them from me...and a lot of ammo...he spent thousands of dollars. He scheduled an event with some friends and people from work...on the same day that I had planned for months for some of his extended family members to visit to meet Michelle. The lies involved in that- from claiming someon else brought his favorite Carne Asada from Baja Ranch to who was there-that I finally confronted him. His response was disturbing. Not only did he admit to spending, lying and manipuulating me so that he could buy things that were only for him from the start of our relationship (9 years)...to even saying, "Oh thank god, I was afraid you were going to accuse me of cheating which I can't disprove." So, more then likely he was also cheating within the last year while I was on bed rest while pregnant and taking care of our daughter. He claims he was going through an entire existential crisis (he says it's from the death of our eldest daughter Lilith-Ann but his initial response seems to nullify that claim) admitting he was a shop-a-holic to "fill the hole" her death had created. The entire story is complicated and involved- very much an open wound I'm not ready to explore in blog form yet. I have forgiven him (which is shocking even to me but both my parents spport me staying in this relationship...it's just the right thing) but it still makes me sick to my stomach to think about how incredibly selfish and damn close to evil. I have no idea how I forgave him but when I married him I decided this was the final relationship I will ever attempt. I really like the life we've built together even if as he stated," it was for the wrong reasons." Don't ask me what those reasons are because he didn't share them. He is, for the most part, trying to change. Unforntuately, once trust is broken on such an extreme level it's really hard to gain back. He's still very arrogant and egoic...and realistically likely to revert to his previous behavior. So, there is a lot of reasons my life is very complicated. I hope you can understand why I'm taking off from everything and everyone. As someone with a lot of empathy and a pretty extreme introvert just the role of being a mother can be super draining. I have a whole lot to process at once and a list of things I want to get done in the next 6 months thatis ridiculous. Other then those things...my life is good. My daughter is fantastic and incredible. She is so good natured and happy. I can't even express how awesome it is to be her mother. This week this person kept coming up this week (1/25/19).
So, I will share what I know and you can see how it dovetsils with everything else. Who was Alexander The Great and why is he important? The Wikipedia Summary Alexander the Great was the King of Macedonia. Yeah, Macedonia doesn't mean anything to me either. Strangely, this topic is in the News. A state in Northern Greece wants to be called Macedonia but that identity invokes the identity of Alexander the Great's kingdom and may lead to territory disputes. Mecedonia, for those of us who are lay people not involved in the dispute...is Greece. ToAlexander the Great was Greek. His Empire was Greek. For some reason, this is a huge topic of confusion. Part of his Empire was Syria. Which will tie into the next subject that I'm going to bring up. Zechiriah Stitchin In history Alexander The Great was mentioned but nothing seemed important aout him. He was just another conqueror that wanted to rule the world like so many others. Yet, he turned up when I was reading Zechiriah Stitchin's book, "End Of Days." "Alexanders astounding victories and the resulting subjugation of the Ancient East to Western (Greek) domination have been told and retold by historians- starting with some who accompanied Alexander- and need to repetition here. What does need to be described are the personal reasons for Aleander's foray into Asia and Africa. For, apart from all geopolitical or economic reasons for the Greek-Persian great war, there was Alexander's true father, having come to the queen, Olymias, disguised as a man. WIth a Greek pantheon that derived from across the Mediterranean Sea and head (like the Sumerian twelve) by twelve Olympians, and with tales of teh gods ("myths") that emulated the Near Eastern tales of the gods, the appearance of one such god in teh Macedonian court was not deemed an impossibility. With court shenanigans that involved a young Egyptian misteress of the king and marital strife that included divorce and murders, the "rumors" were believed- first and foremost by Alexander himself. A visit by Alexander to the oracle in Delphi to find out whether he was indeed the son of a god and therefore immortal only intensified the mystery; he was advised to seek an answer at an Egyptian sacred site. It was thus that as soon as the Persians were beaten in the first battle, Alexander, rather than pursuing them, left his main army and rused to the oasis of Siwa in Egypt. There the priests assured him that he was a demigod, the son of the ram-god Amon. In celebration, Alexander issued silver coins showing him with ram's horns. But what about the immortality? While the course of the resumed warfeare and Alexander's conquests have been documented by his campaign historian Callisthenese and other historians, his personal quest for Immortality is mostly known from sources deemed to be pseudo-callisthemes, or "Alexander Romances" that embellished fact with legend. As detailed in the Stairway to Heaven, the Egyptian preists directed Alexander from Siwat to Thebes. There, on the Nile River's western shore, he could see the funerary templed built by Hatshepsut the inscription attesting to her being fathered by the god Amon when he came to her mother disgused as the royal husband- exactly like the tale of Alexander's demigod conception. In the great temple of Ra-Amon in Thebes, in the Holy of Holies, Alexander was crowned as a Pharaoh. Then, following the direction given to Siwa, he entered subterranean tunnels in the Sinai Penninsula, and finally e went to where Amon-Ra, alias Marduk, was- to Babylon. Resuming teh battles with the Persians, Alexander reached babylon in 331 B.C. and entered the city riding in his chariot. In the sacred precinct he rushed to the Esagil ziggurat temple tograspthe hands of Marduk as conquerers before him had done. But the great god was dead." A Few Notes About The Above First, I don't agree with Stitchin on a lot of things. I think that he, like so many, took the ideas too literally. He was very biased. That said, he had something going for him...and that was the fact he was thinking outside of the box. Unfortunately, what he wrote caused a great deal of fear and a great deal of confusion. An entire elabroate fear based conspiracy thing has come up around the Annunaki with people thinking that news casters and others are literally lizards. Part of that was helped along by David Icke who, unfortunately, went into the fear based interperation of the idea. That's caused by overly intellectualizing the idea and fear. However, there is other evidence that Alexander the Great thougth he was a demigod...or at least wanted to be one. Alexander The Great And The Emerald Tablet Yes, the Emerald Tablet that contains the 'recipe' for Alchemy. When we studied Alchemy we studied it more as a farming method of a Garden. The way it is written is more towards the creation, germination and growth of seeds. Yeah, like I said this guy just kept showing up this week. Next Anyexte who I follow on Facebook because he did an interview with Larid Scranton and I liked him...wrote an article disclosing his research on the Emerald Tablet...the fakes and where they came from...and the real one. You can read the article here: https://adeptinitiates.com/emerald-tablets-thoth-emerald-tablet-definitive-guide In the article Anyexte explains how he knows D.W. Hauck (one of the sources we used for our Alchemy studies and is the only authentic Alchemist- as well as an incredible scholar- out there) : "He believes the tablet was translated into Greek by Alexandrian scholars around 330 B.C. After that, it was reportedly buried by Alexander the Great, somewhere on the Giza Plateau. " Troy: The Fall Of A City Now, this is just an unrelated coincidence. The charecter, known as Paris when he's a shepard in this story...is called Alexander when his true parentage is known. That was just one of those weird things that came up. This is a known thing and it's even mentioned in the wikiepedia. There Was Another I don't remember where this source was from but I also read this week that Aristotle was Alexander The Great's teacher. He knew that Alexander was inspired by Homer's Iliad and so he gave him a copy that he always kept with him. So, it is like Alexander was inspired by the concept of Achielles that he was a demi god. The Connection To Gilgamesh Gilgamesh also went looking for confirmation of his kingliness by outside means. Of course, in that case he went North across the sea...possibly to Skara Brae to meet Noah. Yet, there is this old process of the Ancients to have this bizarre ritual to have their Kingship confirmed by these powerful beings. Edgar Cacye And Alexander The Great One of the reasons that I wanted to become a Member of the Edgar Cacye A.R.E. was the fact that you can search the Cacye readings in regard to anything you might be looking. Now, this is the first time I've used this tool but I did find a reference to Alexander the Great. He came up as one of three past lives for a child. Those three lives consisted of- The Sons of Baal on Atlantis who fell in love with a Daughter of the Law of One. The second was Alexander the Great. The third was as Thomas Jefferson! The reading is 1208- 1 . Appaently, the dude was married three times. Conclusion Finally, it's intersting that after Alexander The Great's reign the Greek time period is called Hellenistic. I'm not sure why Alexander the Great kept coming up this week really. I thought it was very odd. That's just one of those things that happens sometimes. What's interesting is that he did have a similar dream of the Cosmic Child type thing (similar to that awful cosmic child at the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey) similar to the Two Placenta dream I had. I'm hoping by dismissing this whole Demi-god idea from my system by writing about it the imbalance goes away. Writing about these things lets me release them from my mind. Which is a nice way to purge! I've recently been struggling to read the 7 Mansions of Spiritual Growth by Thomas Ashbrook. I even took a break so I could read Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander. I will be publishing the review on Ashbrook's book in the next blog.
The thing is that the book is not long. Thomas Campbell's My Big Toe series was far longer and far more complex. I didn't struggle to read that one. This book isn't hard to read...it's very simple English (for the most part) and it's not very complicated. Ashbrook dedicates a chapter to each of the 7 mansions. I picked up this book to be one of the resources I will cite when I cover the 7 Manisons of Teresa of Avila. The material is good, the lay out is good...and I'm sure when I break down each mansion for my YouTube series that the format and presentation will make that easier. The problem is I realized that I am defintely not a Protestant Christian (Ashbrook appears to be one even though he doesn't out right state it) and that the language and ideas promoted by most Modern Christians are fundementally psychologically toxic. There are good reasons for why church attendance is down and atheisim just makes far more sense then anything that Modern Christians can provide. I may dislike the Catholic Church because they did so much damage to Yeshua's message...but they were trying to rule the world through their Empire and unite everyone through group think inducing dogma by claiming to be the intermediary between The One Creator and humanity...so it was to be expected. That's what a religious government does (which is why we seperated church from the government in the United States). Modern Christianity has no excuse. I know that some people might really dislike what I'm about to write. They might feel attacked for their beliefs. I respect everyone and the spritiual beliefs that they hold but I would be extremely negligent if I ignored how psychologically unhealthy Modern Christianity is... After reading so many Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Dogon, Egyptian, and Indegionous Amercan books that are psychologically healthy interperations of this 7 path system...reading the extremely twisted distorted Christian version of the Path almost made me physically ill. I realized why so many people in the United States are psychologically sick at their core and why they seek relief in illegal drugs, alchohol and other addicitons. I never realized how fear inducing and fear based the dogmatic Modern Christian teachings are...yes, the Catholic Church is partially at fault but for about 600 years people who are not Catholic have continued to teach this distortion and that's far too long to be forgiven any time soon. Somehwere, someone in the last 600 years should have stepped up and thrown these ideas out. So here are the things that distracted me so much while reading that I had a trouble focusing on the contents of the book and found my mind writing this blog in my head instead... Spiritual Warfare This is one of the ideas that no matter what way you look at it...it's unhealthy. Paul talks about the armor of god in Epheseians 6:10-18. I find a lot of things that Paul the Roman wrote to be absolutely toxic. Yeshua said he didn't come to bring peace but a sword...a likely reference to Geburah on the Kabbalah Tree of Life. That has to do with discernment by understanding duality- not with actual war. Those who project or justify their desire for war upon others based on this quote only show that they are psychologically at war in their mind. The Devil as the Christians know it is NOT a Hebrew concept. There is nothing in Judasim that even remotely evokes the superstitious idea of the devil promoted by Christianity. The mere idea that the 'Enemey' can place thoughts into people's heads is...beyond wrong and unhealthy it's sad. No wonder we have schizophrenia. Not to mention, when someone has thoughts that they label as 'bad' because the church told them it was bad...they feel as though they are being 'spiritually attacked.' As I've worked through this toxic belief I came to understand that the Devil is nothing more than a whacked out interpertation of the Ego. Just like the Egyptian of old, that represented the 7 Rays or forces that help form and organize the cosmos, mistsakingly starting worshipping those forces/gods so that they worshipped a pantheon and not the One Creator...so too have Christians created 4 God's in their pantheon (The Devil -sometimes construed as being as powerful or more powerful than the One Creator, Yeshua, the Holy Spirit and finally God.) This is just plain unhealthy on whatever level you look at it! That people truly believe this nonsense even though Yeshua didn't teach it and the 'demons' he cast out of people were actually negative beliefs by being a courageous example or pattern for other people to follow...makes me down right sick. Most people who honestly believe this unhealthy belief act like they are crazy and they drive people away from them...because believing that a being outside of you can place thoughts in your head is mentally insane...hearing voices in your head is schizophrenia. Just beause you say it's the devil putting those thoughts in your head..it's still scizophrenia and, at least, paranoia. You still believe you're hearing voices in your head and that something outside of you can control you (it can't because there is nothing 'outside of you' since we are all One...but that can be confusing). The concept of a devil that tricks people into doing bad things eliminates an individual's resposibility for any 'impure' thoughts. They really don't think that way, they tell themselves, they are good god fearing people...it's just the devil corrupting their mind. With that type of mentality there is no way that someone can overcome their inner dialogue. People who are stuck in this way of thinking are thinking in terms of duality I don't think there is much hope that they are capable of waking up in this lifetime. Further, it make everything in life 'black and white' or 'of the devil or not of the devil' making it really hard for them to be open minded. This is the perfect example of a type of circular logic that just reinforces a terrible and even tortuous paradigm. The spiritual Warfare idea is a mentally iron clad paranoia...anyone who tries to debunk it is automatically the enemy that must be hated and destroyed at all cost. This type of elitist point of view only contributes to the misery of the world. Sin The main reason so many in the United States feel unworthy. The Christian Original Sin concept (this is not a concept found in the bible...but purely dogma) comes 100% from the Catholic Church. You are a misearable worm because of the Fall of Adam and Eve. You are automatically evil with no redemption unless you become a member of the Catholic Church. Everyone who is not a member of the Church is condemned an eternity of being tortured in Hell. Hell, by the way, as we see it depicted in media and most churchs...is also not in the Bible. Yes, there is a lake of burning fire in Revelation but that has to do with something far different then a place where mortals go to be eternally tortured because they failed to redeem themselves from Orginal Sin by being good little boys or girls. While this concept of a place peple go to be tortured is not in the bible it IS in Roman and Greek mythology. The Hebrew concept of Sheol, translated into English as hell, is quite different. Here is a link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol Why the heck did this remain in Christianity after the Protestant Movement? Did no one question this idea and where it came from once they read the bible and Original Sin wasn't in there? Did the church reformers just keep it to scare people and drive them into church out of fear for their soul? Sin in Hebrew, as I've discussed many times...simply means to 'miss the mark'...or to make an error. This is forgivable by any sane person. All of us make mistakes...in fact, it's when we make mistakes that we learn the most which is essentially why some people chose to come to the Earth Experience...although it 'fell' because of an error it ended up being a tremendous fast paced learning environment for souls. Suffering This one really makes me sick. The idea that we *HAVE* to suffer because Yeshua was crucified is so wrong. Yes, I get crucifying the flesh so that we are "Not of this World" but the concept of that idea held by the majority of Christians is a huge error/distortion. More or less 'crucifying the flesh' is detachment from the worldly desires...which is taught in Buddhisim in a far healthier manner. No wonder most Christians don't experiene Joy in their life...they won't allow themselves to feel joy! The only thing they are allowed to do is be fearful and suffer. If they feel joy, they are told, they are not truly Christians. Somehow, in Christianity, we are taught that if we suffer in this life we will be rewarded in heaven. As though sutffering on Earth is required in order to gain passage to heaven. Yes, suffering is the name of the game on planet Earth, the Buddha acknowledged that, but with the Buddha's 8 fold path you learn how to change yourself so that you can experience joy in even the most profoundly terrible situations. To sit there and insist that you must suffer is nothing more then a form of martyrdom which I am still not convinced the One Creator requires to be in order to reach heaven. The martyr-complex is actually a very toxic psychological state of being. If you look Jesus never once says we must suffer. He does say- on about 15 occasions- that we should be joyful. Where did Christians lose that perspective? As I have stated many times- whether it's the Hebrew word Pei which suggests that speech is incredibly important because it helps create our reality...or the self-fulfilling prophecy of psychology... If your internal dialogue insists that you must suffer in this life to reach heaven...you will make that happen. That idea is compltely erronous and probably something the Catholic Church cooked up for it's poorer citizens to make them feel better about their poverty and to justify not spending more money on helping/educating the poor instead of spending a lot of money on accomplished artists decorating their chapels/churchs. Sex Is Bad Again, you don't find this in the bible at all. In the Old Testament, in fact, you find that that a lot of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Hebrew religion 'knew' each other (the term for having sex). Yeshua never says outright, "Sex is bad." There is no call for the apostles to take a vow of chasity. Again, we see this in the Catholic Church. The vow of chastity was required of the priesthood. The church made a huge thing about how having children out of wedlock is a sin (requiring those who were out of wedlock to get married) and as we have seen in modern times is very much against birth control (something else the bible doesn't mention in any form, although, I'm sure they were aware of herbs back in the day that could cause a miscarriage so if it was a sin the Hebrews would have included it in the Torah). I always found it sad that the Catholic Church said that you could kill people of other relgions- most notably the Muslims- and that's not murder forbidden by the Ten Commandments but birth control is murder. Rabbis, the Hebrew religious leaders, are allowed to get married. There is a deep respect for the sanctity of marriage in the Jewish tradition. So, again, another non-biblical belief left over from the Catholic government trying to control the population and sexually transmitted diseases of it's citizens that has continued into non-Catholic modern Chrisianity. Once again, this distortion has completely and utterly mucked up the people of the United States. One of the funniest things about this book I'm reading is how often Pornography is mentioned as a dangerous addiction...the porn addiction is mentioned more often than any other. Why are people in the modern church so afraid of people watching porn? All I can say is get over the entire 'sex is evil' concept. Paul The Roman I admit there is a good portion of the New Testament Canon that I dismiss. Everything even slightly connected with Paul the Roman is thrown out the window in my book. I have hinted at this before but I really don't like those books of the Bible Canon. I often wonder if Paul was a made up charecter created by the Roman Catholic Church so that they could write how they wanted to interpert the bible and include it in the New Testament. The main reason I don't like Paul The Roman is because most of the poisionous ideas I'm listing int his blog come from him. Since he was not Jewish he projected all of his Roman/Greek beliefs onto the new religion. None of which are approriate. The difference between Judaisim and Roman/Greek mythology is huge. The Roman and Greek mythology, like that of Egypt, are based on pantheons that completely distorted the original concept behind the 'god'. Further, the Roman Emperor was considered the 'son of God' and demanded to be worshipped as much. Today's pople is not much better because the pope 'represents Jesus on Earth until his return'...basically, that means the pope is the 'acting son of God' which means the name changed from Emperor to Pope but the meaning remained the same. For Paul to go from being indoctrinated in those compeltely erronous teachings to Chrsitianity and get it right was impossible. Hence why we now have a Trio of God's instead of the One Creator...Yeshua was a Jew and he didn't believe in a Trio of God's. This attempt to explain the unexplainable as a trio has lead to a great deal of grief. Further, like all Romans, Paul had to bring in the concept of war. Yeshua was about peace...even though he did say he didn't come to bring peace but a sword...in reference to dividing families and friends because of the teachings he brought into the world of unity (Matthew 10:34) there are 7 quotes where he says he does bring peace: "I have told you these things so you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!" John 16:33 This last quote suggests that there might not be peace in the outer world...but peace within the inner world of the Follower. This is because Yeshua taught the inward path and not the outward one. The meaning of these two verses, although they might appear to be contradictory and form a paradox...make absolute sense and compliment each other in the right context. The problem is that the bible is often taken out of context and Paul the Roman interperted Yeshua's teachings in weird ways (they were, after all, second hand knowledge because he never knew Yeshua himself and we know that the apostles really didn't completely comprehend Yeshua). So, that's why I completely dismiss everything attributed to Paul the Roman. At best his information is like the end result of playing the Telephone game in school...it might hold the seed of what Yeshua taught but it's very different from the original message. At worse, that charecter was nothing more then Rome's way of writing books to help create a religion that would brainwash and frighten it's citizens into behaving by purposefully spreading toxic concepts. Missionary Service Another concept that Yeshua never taught. Of course, this was important to the Catholic Church and was emphasized by the church. Each time they 'converted' another country it became a part of their Empire. This is how they conquered and grew bigger. Their missionaries went out and convinced people that their way of life was better. Yeshua never forced his religion on anyone. He never forced the idea that he was the Messiah. He was far from the doomsday preachers on sidewalks...Yeshua only helped and taught those who asked. He taught people to lead by example...not to force people to join a group. Only after his resurrection and ascent to heaven was a 'church' established. If he really wanted a church established in his name why didn't he create it himself? Why did it only happen after his death? Once again, we have to consider that the bible was altered and parts of it written by the Roman Catholic Church to support their government and condition people to follow/join them...not to help people psycholigically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally. Conclusion There is much wrong in Modern and Catholic Christianity. When we look at our society much of our more deviant members can be traced back to these fear based negative concepts. Whether it's the sexually twisted, a result of repressing a normal human drive, or nearly schizophrenic people who think the Devil is putting thoughts in their heads...these deviant ideas come from these false beliefs that have no biblical foundation. Leaving the church to explore other religions is far healthier then remaining a superstiious Christian afraid of their own Ego and Subconscious Shadow because they think anything that doesn't comform to the religious condtioning is the Devil planting thoughts into their heads. To focus so much on Outside Forces and not turn within leads to bitterness and disappointment. Remember how I said Ashworth points out one flaw in his book It's been a theme for me recently...he acknwoeldges that the way the Chruchs are currently run cayses the majoirty of Christians to be spiritually immature. I can only imagine that the people who are Catholic are Spiritual Infants. I will cover that in my reveiw of his book. I've watched a few YouTube videos of Eben Alexander talking about his Near Death Experience. Strangely, my husband said that if it could be proven that Eben had experienced something close to brain death that he would believe in the afterlife.
I picked up the book mostly for that reason. The book doesn't cost much but watching one of Eben Alexander's videos will give you enough information that you don't have to read the book. That said, the book was well written and riveting. I finished it in two days. I don't normally pick up books on NDE's because they are pretty boring and usually repeat the same stuff. The experience that a person has when they cross into Spirit temporarily is usually subjective. When they come back they filter it through their religious beliefs which make them even less interesting. What set's Eben Alexanders Near Deat Experience apart is: 1.) The doctors were over 90% certain that he was going to die. 2.) He shuld have become a human vegetable after having menegitis but he fully recovered (he does have some odd neurlogical twitches and speech patterns based on the video's I've seen...but that's far from being a human vegetable). 3.) His description of what he experienced is unique in that he didn't remember who he was and he described three levels that agree with the Kabbalah Tree of Life. 4.) He accurately describes the type of telepathic communication I've experienced in OBE's. That is the only reason why I picked up this book. I've read other NDE books at my in-laws (my father-in-law is currently obsessed with the description of the afterlife)...and been very disappointed. Too often the people describing their NDE's have to relay their entire life story. Usually, just like with Eben Alexander...there is an element of unworthiness. In order to explain the story of their NDE and why it was so personally meaningful these people have to tell their entire life story...which is fascinating to them, I'm sure, but when you read enough of them they become so predictable that it's almost a routine. As I said, skeptics who experiences these things usually end up being the best witnesses and correlate more directly with the systems that make sense. That's because they aren't projecting or interperting the experiene based on biased beliefs afterwards...they are taken by surprise and so describe exactly what they said without projection. The last chapter, in particular, where a doctor that was at the hospital and a colleague of Eben Alexander that witnessed everything wrote a testimonial that Eben's story was true. That can be very powerful stuff. I will give that to my husband and see if he thinks it's valid enough to beleive in an afterlife. Maybe it will make him think twice or maybe he will just dismiss it because he needs to see an actual medical report. I doubt he'll read the entire book (I haven't seen him pick up and read an entire book in the 9 years I've been with him...he's just too busy with work, playing music, yard and house work). Maybe, when we get older he'll pick up the book...either way, I'll have it and I think it belongs in most people's libraries. The Earth-Worm point of view that Eben describes as being our level of existence and being like 'the roots of a tree' correlates directly with Malkuth. The level that was moved by a melody (an accurate description of the breath of life or the music of the spheres that Bashar describes that I have heard as well and also used to visit the upper reallms in OBE's) and the level of light spheres above it correlate well with Netzach and Hod. The inky black level with the circular light at the center perfectly correlates with the Binah (the inky black womb) and Chockmah (the light sphere). For someone who wasn't a mystic or (from what I understand) never will and never has studied the Kabbalah...that's a startling bit of evidence that the Kabbalah Tree of Life is an accurate description of the structure of the cosmos. **On an entertaining note I have a tatoo from 1997 that is the same blue butterfly as the one depicted on the front cover. My mom and dad went with me to get it and paid for it on my 16th birthday. As far as I know I was the only student in my high school with a tatoo! |
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
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