Celebrating the New Year with Intention

Recently I was asked for a Chakra clearing exercise. Over the years I have experienced a number of such and believe that this time of the year, to end one and begin another, is an opportune time to perform this clearing with ritual. I recommend that some time be spent meditating and talking over with friends and loved ones what the intentions for the coming cycle would be. Remembering to address these intentions with "The Law of Attraction." Believe and move into Trust and Love and it shall be.

I offer in this entry two exercises that can be found on my web-site at the following URL. http://scottlsherman.com/frameset.html

The first piece has to do with our "Energy Anatomy"ADVANCED ENERGY ANATOMY as Carolyn Myss elucidates in her book by that name. My piece is named in my URL as "Know your Energy Centers." Our Chakra's or energy centers, our bio-computers can be cleared, empowered and linked to each other in such a way that our human magnificence can truly be realized.

The second in my web-site is labeled "The Healing Visualization." It has to do with both "intention" and our Chakras.

The ritual I intend to perform sometime on this day, 12/31/2010 is as follows:

• Spend some time reviewing the past year and talking about intentions for the future with friends and loved ones.
• Form the intentions with positive and probable affirmations. The Healing Visualization paper helps with this piece.
• Find a place and setting to meditate.
• Take several nice and easy breaths after exhaling all of the old stale air.
• Attend to being fully in the moment by focusing on being fully present with sensations.
• Focus intention on Crown Chakra, initially, and visualize clear light entering your anatomy via the far reaches of the Universe. As it enters your Crown Chakra (pineal gland) imagine the energy of the Universe energizing the center and moving the energy into a vortex. The vortex of flowing energy transforms old, stuck and blocked energy into beautiful color and form. The color is primarily heliotrope and it helps to visualize this color.
• Move through each Chakra in a descending fashion using web-site entry on Energy Centers for inspiration on color, location, etc.
• Then visualize the energy flowing through your whole body, a white light connecting the ends of the Universe through each of your Chakras and into the Earth.
• Next, connect through the Earth to the opposite ends of the Universe.
• The imagine and experience a flowing, washing exchange of energy from Heaven to Earth, into and through the Earth, to the opposite ends of the Universe and back again. As the wave sent with intention and visualization from you goes through the Earth (taking old stuff out of you) it gives love and life to the Earth and connects all of creation. Then as that energy bounces or flows returning through the Earth and back through your body and Chakras it also brings healing, beauty, magic, transformative realization, etc.
• Then, feeling this divine interconnectedness and at one with all of creation remember your clear and probable affirmation and remembering it visualize sending it throughout the Universe. 

Know then that each Energy Center has been tuned to your own individual prayer for healing, transformation for the New Year and that you have contributed greatly to "The Healing Story."

Thanks for visiting my blog and may each and every one of you and your loved ones find greater health, peace and interconnectedness with all of Creation. May you walk in Trust and Love and forever remember that the single most revolutionary act any of us can ever commit is to refuse to spend any unnecessary time in fear and anxiety.

Submitted with Great Gratitude,

Scott

The Mother Wound

The Mother Wound

The abandonment and betrayals of “fathers” has the corollary of “mothers” not protecting us or providing our nurturance. It is the mother not stepping in like a grizzly bear,  subduing the predator wanting to harm the cub. It is the mother who denies that her child has been abused by the father or father figure (betrayers). 

This wound is felt within one as a profound sense of unworthiness. “I must not be loved; how could something like that happen if I were truly loved?” 

“The trail of tears” has brought whole civilizations to this point. The Father-land abusing, the Great Mother, not protecting. Father go off to work or war and come home abused, corrupted, and toxically shamed. Our collective ignorance and our natural innate healing process (repetition compulsion) allowing no choice but to pass the wounding on . . . even to our own loved ones. Wives, lovers and children.

The story is told of the father who on leaving work in the morning is hugged and encouraged to have good luck when he asks for a raise at work. Times are hard!

Returning his family expectantly greet him at the door only to be met with a scowl and angry retort. The smell of beer for-warned that all did not go well. When asked how it went he angrily retorts that he not only didn’t get the raise; he was fired. Brushing her aside their son pulls on her skirt and she shooes him aside. The boy hits the girl who kicks the dog who chases the cat who knocks over the lamp: Bedlam!

Had the father not “nursed” his wounds with alcohol; instead coming straight home to the warmth and comfort of the hearth where the couple could have figured out their next move: Had the mother stopped him at the door and expected decorum and love the bedlam could have been avoided.

A tall order.

In the indigenous world there are transition stages for when one leaves and enters the village, for the world outside the village is problematically toxic. Our homes can have the same. And, to a strong degree they need to be even more intentional, lacking the extended family and social network. No sweat lodge or men’s or women’s lodge to detoxify.

The mother wound has its roots in the deeper sense of the “Wounds of the ancestors.” Our female ancestors had witnessed and experienced their own wounding. No structure or means for processing, the wounds went under-ground; soul parts splitting off. Enabling, paralysis, denial of one sort or another then creates the repetition compulsion process.

This leads to our setting each other up to once again experience a wounding. Most often this wounding is felt in the same area of our bodies and the scenes and actors are mirroring past wounds. Our over-soul hoping if not expecting that we will wake up! That we will do our own internal work and heal!

Perhaps the very world itself is actively setting us up to “remember.” Remember, ”We are all one.” Remember, “What goes around, comes around.” Remember, “To repeat the cycle is to perpetuate the cycle.” Until we wake up and take a different path.

HBO's special on War Torn from 1860-2010 is an incredibly painful awakening for us. It is estimated that 100 % of soldiers return with PTSD. And yet, we continue to pour most of our fortunes into war games, weapons and create awful damages and destruction. THE PAIN GOES ON.

Radical Forgiveness works and has worked. It can start with each one of us. Think of one who has wronged you. Feel the pain or discomfort in your body. Breathe into it with gratitude for it's positive intent to get you to do something different. Thank that feeling and the resulting loosening of the tightness. Release that pain into prayer for healing for all involved. Visualize the outcome that is collectively healing.

Beyond this there is a need to strengthen the social bonds and protections such that one can heal. Support groups, mens, women's and gender groups that intentionally indulge in deep grieving and release work. Where is the support for finding strength to not wound and to protect children and the helpless (animals, trees, fish, insects, the waters, the very soil, on-and-on) from being wounded again and again and again. 

Straying from the theme of mother wound, or have I? The succorance and nurturing of the home and hearth allow for our hearts to be open. And, the mother is not just in women, it is the Divine Feminine. 


A mature male is one who is clear, firm, and nurturing.

The Father Wound

It has long been my generalized belief that men are more wounded then women.

I believe this has to do with the absence of dad's as healthy role models. One kind of addictive disorder or another tends to get in the way. Work, war. alcohol, sex, affairs, sports, depression or some other kind of escapism takes dads away from their sons.

At the same time most men I have known and worked with have "lost" their childhood at a very early age. Most men stopped crying at about 4 years of age.

How much of this is genetic and how much conditioning is hard to know.

Also, in this country or in all of Modernity, men tend to be raised by women. Moms and teachers teach us how to be a man. Men are too busy or detained from be present for their sons.

It seems this has been the pattern for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Joseph Weir Perry has written extensively ( Lord of the Four Quarters: The Mythology of Kingship (Jung and Spirituality Series) ) and how this has effected our very mythologies. His argument is that Feminine Goddess mythologies began to take a back seat to Storm God mythologies from 5 to 10 thousand years ago.

This was also the time of the rapid growth of City-States and expansion of territories. Kings formed armies to gain more land and slaves to increase the productivity of the State to provide for the people.
Rape, pillage and plunder abounded.

The Trail of Tears truly began thousands of years ago.

No wonder boys and men have their tears dried up. What toxic shame we are saddled with.

You may say, "Not me!" and to some degree I agree with you. However we can't not all be affected by this historical process.

This happening is "of our ancestors" and effects the very fabric of our lives, culture, recreational activities, stories, where our resources go, etc.

OUCH!

What can and does change all of this is for men to learn to process our wounded-ness, to be responsible for our own interactions. To do so means to find support for our troubled relationships and to not take on more than is our due.

In the indigenous world there were universally men's and women's lodges. In those cultures individuals could go for support and release of pent up emotions.

Increasingly individuals are finding and creating such supports in this time.

Without such support we turn to our escapes which take us from staying present with our loved ones.

The wounding carries on. The wounding is "An Accident of History." The corruption necessary for us to survive has generated a compounding of errors.

True we have gained incredible knowledge in our left-brained dominance of reality. Now, in this Age of Aquarius our feminine and masculine selves can unite, merge and women can learn to "fix" things and men to "process." This merging is, indeed the process of "The Healing Story."

Our Green Movements are all indicative that we can heal and bring about healing on a larger scale.

And, what about The Mother Wound. Tune in.

Dreaming/Envisioning

Few of us make the best use of our dreaming realities; not to mention our "envisioning." Yet, these are profoundly powerful and wonderful arenas for us to process our worldly and other-worldly experiences. To increasingly spend intentional time in our dream world is to move more freely in our corporal world.

In Carlos Casteneda's book (The Art of Dreaming) he describes an experience where he went to sleep and woke up from that dream into another dream. In that second dream he fell asleep and woke up again, into a third dream. In that third dream he experienced a corporal reality. His book Separate Reality describes in some detail moving in and out of different realities.

My own dreaming experiences, while not so "powerful" have non-the-less served as guides for personal growth, for changing my course of direction in life,  for entertaining and for relationship building.

For example, from the dream world instructions were given for me to cultivate more receptivity from others. To be open to "receiving" as well as giving. This came about through a lucid dreaming experience. (A classic book in this realm is Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge.)

While I do not practice lucid dreaming with much intentionality my dreams often are spontaneously lucid. Several have been "big dreams": Dreams that are emotionally powerful and portend change in ones life course. Good to pay attention to such dreams! The following words describe one such big dream.

My right hand moved up and on it a white angel was dancing. I was astonished and delighted. Then my left hand rose up and out of the ether appeared a second angel. It began dancing in my left palm. In my growing astonishment and delight I explained "Look, I have Angels dancing on my palms." An audience then appeared in my dream. Angels were dancing on their palms.

I woke up from that dream into a second dream and explained, again, "Look, Angels are dancing on my palms." The audience in that dream also then experienced Angels dancing.

I woke up again into my own bed and shared that dream with my wife, Joanne. She said, "How wonderful. Your left hand is the hand of receiving. You give generously with your right hand but don't often allow yourself to receive."

Impact!

Since that time, maybe as much as a year ago, I have been more mindful of openly receiving the gifts of the Universe, from complements to agates on the beach. From that experience I received a deeper awareness of the Feng Shui of giving and receiving. The awareness that too easily and readily receive is to have even more energy and potency in giving! Reiki The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui!

This dream was cultivated by me as I had been working on open, active and intentionally receptive listening; both in my life and in my practice. The dream emphasized to me the physiological state of my left hand and right brain being more open and less blocked to being fully present in the moment. I have been paying more attention to the awareness of moving energy from the Universe through my being with my left palm (chakra) being a major receptive channel.

This awareness leads me to express the importance of intentionality in dreaming. In Laberge's book he describes (in my words) the mantra, "Tonight I am going to sleep, and when I sleep I am going to dream. When I dream I can be aware of my dream and learn to enter into it." One may need to practice this for weeks before being able to "enter" into dreams. In the mean time the act of intentionality encourages more dreaming. Also, taking any piece, image, vingette from the dream and entering it into art, writing, speaking, poetry or whatever, will prime one for bigger and bigger pieces of future dreams. Eventually, whole stories can be remembered, with characters, emotion, color and plot. These can become "life course" guidances.

Holding intentionality to remembering dreams and to entering into them as one falls asleep guarantees more exchanges between waking and dreaming.

In the mean time there are guides as to how to use dreams. One of the most celebrated dream workers and teachers is Jeremy Taylor (The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap into Your Unconscious and Transform Your Life). His book is full of excellent guidance. One of his beliefs which I subscribe to is that dreams always serve health and wholeness.

In my dream sharing I have learned to pay special attention to the feeling state upon waking. This can guide one into dream interpretation.

Also, there are no "bad" dreams. Being chased by a dragon or beast or mad person is suggesting one look at what is pursuing. Learning to turn around and face the "beast" with the open question of "What do you have to teach me" transforms the energy from terror and fear to lightness and love.

And, as with all of life, remember that "gratitude" is the elixir.

All Roads Lead to Nirvana

Along with "We can't not evolve to higher consciousness (blog entry 3/28/10)" comes the awareness that no matter what we do we are headed in the right direction.

Even experiencing terrible things can be part of that path:  They provoke us to make changes. The changes are in our belief systems, our life style and our choice of friends and even families.

Mindfulness, meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, soul retrieval, wilderness experiences: all of these and many others can be paths to becoming fully conscious.

"Presence," becoming fully present, standing in one's own center and not being set off by anyone or anything in terms of that state of consciousness is a primary attribute of obtaining Nirvana.

For most of us the attainment is not instantaneous or occurring at birth. For most of us it is a gradual process in which we are working towards "Full Presence," "Enlightenment" or however we may see it. We do so by many means.

One of the most frequently used and under utilized paths is via our significant relationships. Most certainly with our chosen life mate and/or children.

For those of you who have been following this blog you will know my belief system and the process I profess for utilizing the path of working relationships to evolve to higher consciousness (See entry 4/15/10).

We are tremendously gifted at this time in history, especially those of us living in certain areas in the US.
We have role models, teachers, comforts, challenges and movements to keep us headed in the right direction.

Buddha, Christ, the various world religions and their precepts taught all point us in the right direction. Esther Hicks (The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships) and the Abraham Law, Echart Tolle and his works, Seth Speaks, Ruth Montgomery, Burke (Cosmic Consciousness (A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind), Zen The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment, Sufi (The Sufis), Taoism Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics),Ken Keyes (Handbook to Higher Consciousness (Keyes, Jr, Ken) and many many others all point out the way. These few are among my readings and studies following a life long interest in spirituality, healing and enlightenment.

What becomes very clear after considering these various approaches is that the paths are many; and, there is not one "right" path but many.

These various paths and which one works best for you are determined by many variables.

Of real importance is ones clear intention. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, in my field, psychotherapy what seems to work is not diagnosis or medication but: 1. The clients determination to heal, 2. The therapists belief in themselves; and 3. The clients belief in the therapist.

It is my belief that the same findings can be applied to the decision to obtain higher consciousness.

What works for you? What speaks to you?

What comes across your path after you make the decision to heal or to become a higher conscious being, a more loving or helpful and productive prosperous soul?

Don Juan in Carlos Castenada's work (I believe it was in Journey to Ixtlan, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan) talks about omens and confirmation from the Universe. After we make some clear decision and start on a path we will be given omens. When we note those omens as omens yet have some questions about whether or not they are such; we will be given confirmation from the universe.
According the shamanic wisdom, our power animals or familiars will appear in one form or another, in a book, in real life, in our dreams or wherever. Attending to what we have been thinking, believing and realizing puts it all together for us. It strengthens our belief and motivation to continue to move in the direction in which we have been going.

The obverse of this is that when we are not committed or decisive then we are often besieged by contradictory omens and confirmations. When we are clear, the Universe responds to us with decisive clarity! This provokes us to become more decisive and change. Shades of The Law of Attraction!

In Consideration of "Response"

When we take a deeper look at "react" it doesn't take much to break it into "re" and "act." To once again act! This awareness reminds me of the "repetition compulsion" that I make much of. It is an underlying process that moves us to higher consciousness. The compulsion to repeat actions so that we can learn even more about those acts.

But, what about "respond?" Wikepedia has much to say about "response" in the context we are using it  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight-or-flight_response ). It also talks about response in several different senses as "call and response" in Liturgy as well as physiological responses to external stimuli.

We see "re" again but what does "sponse" mean. It is not even an English word. A deeper research links it to "spondere" and indicates "pledge" and "promise" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/respond. So respond would be to "once again" pledge or promise. This older understanding of response helps me in my argument that to respond via quietly finding, speaking and staying with one's truth has a certain sacred aspect to its meaning! There is a certain imperative that compels us to connect and re-connect with our significant others. It is a matter not just of survival but of thriving.

It is interesting to me that inside of respond is the word "pond". A quiet still pond for reflection. Taking "time out" suggests finding a calm place to reflect on what is happening. It suggests meditation and "pondering". My own personal practice and recommendation after some challenging exchange is to get centered, form an intention and then go into a meditative or mindfulness space. After a period of time "Right Action" becomes apparent!

All of that is very "heady." And, as one of my mentors, Malidome Some Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (Compass) challenges us to live by this African folklore: "Knowledge is in the head, Wisdom in the body; and, when the two meet in the heart, Truth is know!"

To find Presence through "quiet" allows us to connect the dots to get out of our heads, into our bodies and to speak our truths.

My Truth is: Finding Presence is our First Priority!

So much for now!

Back to Time Outs: Learning to Respond vs. React

Along with "The purpose of my life is to become fully integrated!" comes the idea of becoming "present." See Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order; Biography of Joseph Campbell.

When we are present we are fully aware of what is going on and of where we are. Much too often as Westerners we are "In our heads!" We are thinking more than we are realizing. We are not engaging in conversation with others but arguing and reasoning independently by spending more time with internal dialogue than with external dialogue. This usually happens with some kind of perceived threat. Most often to our egos and not to our bodies.

Frequently those moments lead to distancing between people. Especially in families. That leads to hurt and feelings of abandonment and disrespect. In my work with couples one of most critical tasks is to help them learn to be active and reflective listeners. With couples just entering into the process of learning to take time outs and be reflective it is often the case that as one person talks the other's eyes are roving around or they are looking down. These mannerisms are reflections of their internal arguing, excusing, or accusing. Blanking out is usually indicated by a blank staring quality.

At this point I begin to direct the interactions so that both parties can know when they are engaging in conversation and not deflecting into fighting, escaping or freezing.

Frequently for them to get back to being with each other one person or both must engage in the process of taking some time to themselves.

Here is what I teach; and, use almost daily in my own life:

Find a quiet place or, if not possible just go to a quiet place inside yourself.  Take several deep breaths, and come into paying attention to your senses.

• What do you feel in your body? Take some time to do an inventory of major physiological experiences.

• What do you hear? Near and far away. What qualities of sound? (Usually by this time I am very much into awareness and not thinking.

• What do you see? Near and far away. What qualities of sight?

• When you are very much aware turn your thoughts to the dialogue that brought about the reaction and ponder: At what point did you "split off" from presence to reaction and thinking? Was it critical to your health and welfare? If so than find a new way to interact (more on this later). What kinds of feelings were you experiencing; particularly in your core? Regardless, what are your memories and reflections on when else you had similar feelings and experiences? What did that dynamic of interaction remind you of in your personal history? (This process leads to feelings as portals through which personal integration is facilitated!)

• Notice that when you revisit some memories the feelings get stronger! Again, take some time out such that you can come back into the moment. Stay with that until you are feeling calm and secure.

Often the past is very much alive in our present.

When that happens it is indicative of where some personal work needs to happen; either by yourself with calm personal reassurances to yourself or with others, professional or good friends. Both are capable of enabling you to return to fixating on the rightness or wrongness of what has happened; and, not healing. This process teaches watching your own internal dialogue when your working out past problematic areas.

Know that the Time Out Process is critical to our advancement emotionally, spiritually and as a species. Coming back to center is healing and allows for clarification and expansion of our awareness of our connectiveness to all of creation. It is in this space that we are able to flow with those grander energies and not fight the currents or truths that want and need to be honored.

Time Outs, Turkey and the Wisdom of Rumi!

Near a month has passed!

It can be said that I took a prolonged "Time Out" to work on some of my issues. It can more honestly be said that I "followed a leader" and "let things go!"

Three weeks to Istanbul, on the Turkish coast line of the Mediterranean sailing in an 80 foot sail boat and then touring on the Silk Road in Central Turkey. I was with family, a group of 13 of us guided by a superb professional who works for OAT, Overseas Adventure Tours.

One highlight for me was visiting Rumi's home Mosque and his Tomb. Then to witness a Whirling Dervish Ceremony in a historical Carevanserai. One of the hundreds of safe havens built over a century ago to protect the caravans along the Silk Road.

Some Widom for Rumi!

Seven Advices of Mevlana (Rumi's Sufi or Islamic name)

1. In generosity and helping others be like a river . . .
2. In compassion and grace be like the sun . . .
3. In concealing others'faults be like night . . .
4. In anger and fury be like dead . . .
5. In modesty and humility be like earth . . .
6. In tolerance be like a sea . . .
7. Either exist as you are or be as you look . . .

While one hears and reads about the violence of the Muslims what we all experienced was more of the above nature of the Turkish peoples. Very considerate and caring. Even in the Bazaars! When in Egypt we were accosted by others to purchase items. In Turkey we were engaged in conversations with interest and patience.

Needless to say most all of us experienced a revisiting of our stereotypes of the Islamic Culture.

Apparently the radical Islamic population are extensively only in the Eastern Provinces of Turkey. The Western and Central regions evidenced the wisdom and culture of Rumi!

When we visited his tomb in the Mevlana Museum in the city of Konya I was impressed with the large crowds of Muslims who came to visit his tomb, to make a point to rub some of the stonework and the, in a word, worship his brand of Islam.

Speaking of stonework; I have been to Italy and Egypt, Peru and other areas where ancient ruins of stone existed. Never have I seen so many layers of stonework ruins. Turkey, of course, with Istanbul is at the cross-roads of so many cultures. Not only the Turks, Romans and Grecians but also the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians and others, going back to 5000 BC. We visited ruins where existed evidence of all of those cultural influences. The earliest stonework, torn down by invaders, earthquakes or floods were used to become the foundations of the next culture to establish itself along the Coastal areas or along The Silk Road.

Now, how was that for a "time out" experience!

What I learned more than anything was the temporal nature of my attitudes and behaviors. The proverbial spot on the eye of the gnat of the Universe! Can't take myself as seriously as I used to.

And yet, what a profound influence one person can have on a whole world! Rumi!

Makes me consider and re-consider Sufism!

The Relationship Cauldron: The gift of interpersonal conflicts!

All that we experience is a gift. Even pain is a gift! Anytime we get information that creates uncomfortable sensations in our body it has to do with alerting our conscious mind to look at choices and to make those that serve us more holistically.

What facilitates this work happening expediantly are the “tools” (http://scottlsherman.com/frameset.html)  that have been developed over centuries and which I have gathered, added to and expanded upon.

Most often when I suggest that conflict is a gift; that relationships are a kind of cauldron I am met with incredulous comments. How can such hurt and pain be a gift?

Referring to other blog entries helps to understand what this is about.

Once people get the idea that when conflict occurs it allows for rapid personal integration and consciousness expansion it is possible to adapt the understanding and belief of conflict being a gift.

The work has to do with learning to look inward, to our sensations and how they connect us with aspects of ourself. The vision is to remove the prescriptive blocks and allow the flow of energy and information between sensations and thoughts.

As that work happens it gets easier and easier. The hardest part is grasping that changing self is a whole lot easier than trying to change anyone else’s behavior or thoughts.

When both (or the set as with groups) adopt that understanding and belief then change towards health and happiness, balance and harmony, becomes even easier.

The work can become faster or slower by moderation of the temperature of the heat under the cauldron. Both individuals (or all) meditating and working to calm inner-turmoil increases the cooling. That can optimise the change process or prevent it from happening. Too much cooling can lead to a response similar to the proverbial “Saint in the Monastery”, who upon re-joining society finds themselves back in the Jeckyl and Hyde pattern.

Learning to modulate inner turmoil stimulated by “other” allows for a faster and deeper connection between neuro-cortex and body. Mind and Body become more closely linked and the transition from reactive to responsive increases. What used to take years or months to work through and regain “presence” or “center” can be reduced to days or even hours or minutes.

Practicing and agreeing to take time outs to re-center and then returning to process the interactions increases the rate of turn-around time. That tends to increase and stimulate our neuro-cortex, the newest part of our brain. Our third-eye is stimulated, self-awareness increases and our ability to change in the now is augmented.

I believe that the process of taking time outs is critical to our work. How about if I focus on that in my next entry?

What is Shamanic Vision Psychotherapy?

Okay, if you havn't figured it out by now you are not alone. I am still figuring it out!

It is all a gift! I have been talking and writing about Shamanic Psychotherapy as a way to broaden my and other therapists perspective on the field. When I typed in shamanicpsychotherapy for my blog title I was clued in that title has been taken (probably by me in another life-time: That is another story) and one of the choices Google gave me was the current title with "vision" included. Immediately I experienced a warm flowing energy and knew that to be right!

The "shamanic" aspect has to do with bringing into the therapy the concept of a much bigger Universe; one that includes upper worlds, lower worlds, other worlds; and, in short, alternative realities. Psychotherapy deals with "dissociation" but has not stretched the concept of just where soul parts go when one is traumatized and dissociates. As a matter of fact most psychotherapy does not give a whole lot of consideration to "soul". It seems that is in the realm of Ministers or Reverends to consider. Not so!

This blog is in the business of "stretching".

"Trauma", itself, needs to be considered in more detail. We are traumatized in many more ways then most consider. Most focus is on big trauma's like rape and war. We are also traumatized by repeated shaming or blaming messages. And, also by self corruption: Choices to act outside of our personal code of honor and/or our family or communities values.

When the trauma occurs immediately or a little bit over time our Soul becomes very uncomfortable in  Body. "We are a Soul; we have a Body; and, we have a Higher Self! It is the Higher Selfs job to make sure the Body is a safe container for the Soul." A safe container is one where we are walking and talking with integrity. As Joseph Campbell alludes to with his motto: "The purpose of my life is to become fully integrated."

When we are doing what we are supposed to be doing our Soul (think many pieces) are more comfortable and rejoin our body. Some, severely traumatized stay out of our bodies and are somewhere out in non-ordinary reality! Wow! How to find them . . . how to heal? No worry; our wounded soul parts in conjunction with our Over-Soul (Damion) will conspire to set us up to be "worked" in our day-to-day relations. They do this mostly via our interactions with significant others (think Relationship Cauldron) to provoke us to heal!

Here comes Vision! The work requires someone to be "in the field of love"; to leave their body and go into non-ordinary reality to seek out wounded and lost soul parts. Shamans have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years. Mystics and psychics do this. The arts provide images through paintings, poetry and music, to name a few.

A Shamanic Vison Therapist does so by guiding clients into their own non-ordinary reality!  We each have our own non-ordinary reality. What I experience as the lower or upper world can be vastly different from what you would experience. How can that be? We are each the center of the Universe. It is our combined co-creativeness that brings order or chaos into our worlds. While we can get closer and closer to approximating other's reality (order) we can never fully step into or be at one with all others.

The parameters of that last statement have yet to be fully comprehended. Maybe the only way to get back to the Garden of Eden is for us to merge realities 100%.

Vision work, envisioning is critical. Many people are stymied and not able to let go of the concrete reality, prescribed by Self, Family, Society and World. We all have the capacity to envision our own healing. We do so by honoring our experiences and the challenges we face, with gratitude; and then going through the gate-ways or portals of our holographic experiential body into non-ordinary reality to access the particular sensate specific soul part. However, many of us have limitations in our ability to access our envisioning skills due to heredity, specific personality attributes, beliefs, conditioning, etc. In some cases the practitioner may need to do the psycho-navigation. That is skilled work and problematic. Best to train clients or one's self to access our own soul parts.

To expedite envisioning is worthy of a separate blog entry and will be forthcoming.

Another future blog entry will have to do with finding healing via shamanic visioning vs. finding healing via meditation and attitudinal shifting.

 They all work.

What works best for "full personal integration"?

That is the operative question!

Holographic Awareness as Portals for Healing!

Understanding our unconscious sensations with holographic awareness offers many ways of healing.

One of my favorites from the shamanic perspective is to realize that the holographic sensations serve as portals through which we can psycho-navigate into non-ordinary reality to access wounded selves. Doing so requires that we know how to stay present in our adult and responsible selves, connected to Source. It requires that we have a clear sense of our boundaries between "reality" and "non-ordinary reality." Soul parts when experiencing trauma are often found "hidden" in non-ordinary reality yet the threads of connectivity between those parts and our holographic memories are there for us to follow!

We can also intentionally work with the sensations and their holographic hold on us by transforming the qualities to something more pleasant. For example a deep, dark bottom-less hole that sucks energy can be given a bottom. A huge sphere of dark, cold energy can be given warmth and light! We do this through manipulations based on our polar universe and creative imaginations. Where there is dark, there is light. And, there is also a middle path.

I find in my work with self and clients that when an uncomfortable physiological sensation is matched with a polar opposite sensation we then are considering a continuum. Blending the two extremes as an alchemist would can then create a third and centered state of consciousness that our soul parts find more pleasant. This can be another way of reassuring and re-educating the often immature, pure and innocent and somewhat ignorant soul parts. Give them some comfort base in our bodies to attach themselves to and they will. It is there want, and ours, to be United!

Our holographic awarenesses can also be the fertility leading to expressiveness via thought, word and deed! This leads me to state: Where imagination and intention go; there also goes energy! This awareness goes hand in hand with "Be careful what you ask for as you might have to experience it!"
Beings as how this is mostly so where we walk "in the field of love" or in a state of grace one doesn't need to worry too much about that fear. Yet, why waste the time when we can engender great energy and activity towards healing and manifestation of "our hearts desire" by harnessing the energy that we experience in and around our holographic portals.


Defusing a trigger or button (and our holographic sensations are, indeed, often just that) can then free up an abundance of energy. We no longer need to keep ourselves connected to lost soul parts. They have re-joined us and we have more energy and fewer detractions. Channeling that energy and focus into our desires is greatly beneficial.


Considering the above. I challenge you to find a quietness within yourselves and between yourself and the world and then enter into one of the scary places via breath, relaxation and remembering. Go into that territory with breath, gratitude and an adult, responsible caring self and invite a dialogue with a wounded part of yourself. Be open to hearing and experiencing what that "other" has to share with you. Stay present with breath, relaxation and clear boundaries about who is responsible and invite that part to join you. Reassure it that you can hold the center while it processes. You can comfort it back into the now and welcome home a vital part of yourself.


Questions? Let me know!

It's all about: What You Are Experiencing Inside!

Our cultural way of training each other is primarily through "shame" and "blame."

We now know that the most effective way to train towards self-realization is via "acknowledgement" and "encouragement".

However, because so many of us learned what we learned and know what we know via shame and blame we have skewed our awareness to a very intellectual plane. It is easier and not so scary to spend time in our heads. It also is not as productive or "healing"!

Here is the gest (interesting that "gest" is so similar to "jest", isn't it?) of what that is about. Our thoughts are mostly linear: our feelings and sensations are holographic. The hologram contains tons more information than linear awareness; and, as that is so, it is very easy to get overwhelmed with our holographic sensational awareness. This is the realm of the poet, musician and artist. It wants us to become expressive and there-in is perhaps the rub. Our very expressiveness in life is what so often brings about the shaming and blaming messages which has led to our wariness of un-bridled expressiveness.

My experience, personal and professional, is that having some clear and respectful boundaries not just between self and other but also, and maybe most importantly, between self and selves!

Without these boundaries we get flooded! Overwhelmed and "put-upon." We loose our sense of place and direction. With them we can more easily function along our own paths paying attention to our own agenda.

Learning to explore our holographic awarenesses is incredibly exciting and engenders wonderful productivity. It has to do with breath, relaxation, focus of awareness on what we are experiencing "in-the-now" and basking in our own creative awareness. An operative question is: If what you are experiencing right now were an object in your body what would it be like? What in our world could create the sensations you are now experiencing?

It continues to fascinate me as to what people experience when they go to that place with curiosity and creative imagination. Depression can be a huge sphere, dark and cold and bigger than the room. It can also be experienced as a deep hole that sucks energy. Love can be a warm glow that is rainbow hued and vast. Clarity can be a bright light flowing from a crystal. The experiences are infinite and very dependent on personal experiences and beliefs.

A fully developed holographic sensation would have shape, size, color, form, texture, temperature, weight, energy, etc. Imagine how creative expression can stem from these ponderings!

Imagine, also how some sensations, connected to past experiences or feared consequences can be all consuming in a frightening way. When connected with past experiences which have not been resolved they can assume the portions of terror or abject loss! Deep and toxic shame or overwhelming guilt.

Such potential experiences are why we must enter such territory with great and careful approach of boundary setting; gratitude, breath and a sense of our ability to "Stay Present in The Moment!" Without that we can too easily regress into our reptillian brain stem, fear, anxiety, terror, etc.

What do you think?

Pathways to Personal Integration: Life's Purpose!

Wow, did I in my last blog suggest that I could provide some guidance towards personal integration?

That is a tall order: Yet, why not? When we are all collectively pursuing just that (whether or not we know it) and are cooperatively co-creating ways towards integration! The paths are many and they all lead to becoming One!

So what I have to offer is not for everyone and many of my readers and potential readers are already well on the path of intentional integration and healing.

Today is a tight schedule for me so I will take this as an opportunity to give a brief outline and a link: http://scottlsherman.com/ Yeah, the link takes you to my web-site. It's okay though as one only needs to pay attention to the first piece under "Tools".

There are a few simple steps that do take some practice. They are very effective. I have been working them and been worked by them for the past 15 to 20 years. My changes are marked with greater peace, health and happiness.

Many say it is all in the breath and to a great degree that is so. The "signal breath" reminds us that we are not literally in danger of loosing our life: We don't need to hang out in our reptilian brain stem. And, the single most revolutionary act any of us can ever commit is to refuse to stay in fear! Blow the air out; take several deep full breaths with belly swelling and remind self that we (our collective selves) are safe! 


Then turn your attention not to what is happening outside of self but inside! Notice where there is tension or stress or discomfort. Breathe into that complex with gratitude and notice what happens. This process establishes a link between higher self, adult responsible mind (neuro-complex) and body. That link allows us to practice intentional breath and healing.

That complex of sensations is the gate-way! It is a holographic complexity that links us to our issues or wounds. And, gratitude allows us to work with the issues in such a way as to not flood us with memories or emotions. It is where the work needs to happen and can happen. Regardless of our path for healing!

See you later!

Dissociation and Non-ordinary Reality

Psychotherapy and common-sense experience has it that we dissociate at different times in our day-to-day realities. Could be just "day-dreaming" or might be in response to some kind of trauma.

Beyond talking about dissociation in the sense that "we leave our bodies" there is not too much written or commonly understood in the psychotherapy field that has to do with a sense of expanded definitions of the phenomena.

What I love about the shamanic world view is that it has a great amount of information to share with us about what happens to our soul when we dissociate.

First is that, as a rule our whole soul does not leave our bodies. Just a time-slice. And, what tends to leave us is a sense of our purity and innocence. Perhaps our will-power or our self-protective self. Maybe even our imagination or creative self. The list goes on!

Where do these "pieces" of ourselves go?

The shamanic world view has it that they go somewhere into non-ordinary reality. Not in this space and time but somewhere into the past, the future, the upper world, the lower world and perhaps even into an alternate reality. The Universe is vast and our souls have been around for a long time. The soul parts know where to go where they will be safe. When we are unable or un-wise in our living choices and set ourselves up for more self abuse or corruption a piece of us splits off. Sometimes it is our better sense. When we regain our sense of self-care then we come back into some semblance of integration although perhaps with less of an intact personality.

One can see how easy it is over time to become less integrated. All it takes is some kind of high stress or high wantonness to lead us down the paths of paring ourselves down!

Our job as individuals and as healers is to find and cultivate "presence" and to then explore the territories of non-ordinary reality in such a way as to locate and retrieve soul parts so that they can return into our bodies and merge with our greater sense of soul-self.

Joseph Campbell's motto was "The purpose of my life is to become fully integrated!" I adopt that motto as one worthy of immolation. To become fully integrated is to become the seeker and healer for one's own personhood. To do so means that we need be able to find a safe place in this reality to intentionally leave our bodies and "psycho-navigate" into unchartered territories to locate, reassure, re-educate and otherwise comfort wounded or lost soul parts back into our bodies.

Energy follows intention! And, when our intention is to heal and we find a place in our lives where we can feel safe and loved then the intention to heal can create a reality where we find ourselves healing. We connect with people who resonate with us in such a way as to allow or provoke us to find our lost soul parts.

Now that the shamanic world view has returned out of the shadows (where it was perhaps hidden by the great-white-fathers) we can conceive of our healing in a totally greater holistic sense. Our imaginations and creative selves, our awareness of micro and macro realities, and our practicing mind-full-ness and radical forgiveness for self and others excites the wounded soul parts such that they seek us out. In a way they set us up to compel us to find them. And, we now know how and where to look.

How wonderful. We can't not heal or become enlightened because the purpose of our lives is to become fully integrated.

I have heard that in quantum physics there is a concept that once any particle has touched it will touch once-again. And, as we intend for our soul particles to re-unite they will be attracted to each other with a greater sense of compelling need. And our intentionality works with us to facilitate the seeking and finding as well as the merging and healing.

This can and will be problematic. What it takes is firm nurturance and clear boundary setting . . . even for our own soul parts. To have them all become attracted at once results in our being emotionally flooded. Establishing a contract with them to heal will set up conditions where they will return in a manner that allows us to increasingly and gracefully heal. So maybe it takes ten years. What is that in terms of countless life-times?

How to do that?

Check in with me next blog!

Where Angels Fear to Tread!

April 1, 2010

The Day of the Fool: Fools step in where angels fear to tread!

What is this about the fool? And, we relegate one day a year to honoring foolishness, which when one thinks about it is hardly enough!

In the indigenous world the “contrary” plays the part of the fool. The role is to make fun of others that they not take themselves too seriously. The persons usually portrayed are the leaders (chief, medicine man, etc.).

To be foolish is, simply put to do things differently than others.

This provides a meaningful contrast to our “seriousness” and “proprieties”. It gives us the opportunity to compare by and move in the direction of compromise or balance.

Only a fool would “re-invent the wheel.” Good thing there are lots of fools throughout history or we would be driving around on stone wheels, or wheels made of sticks.

Being a person blessed/cursed with ADHD many of my actions have appeared to others as “foolish”. Indeed many have been. And yet much of who I am and how it comes about that I am "re-inventing" psychotherapy is because "standard" psychotherapy just doesn't make much sense to me.

Take the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)! Who devised that way of sense making out of human behavior? Appears to me to have been designed by people who felt more comfortable judging others and finding a simplistic way of dealing with them. Drug companies love the DSM and so do people who prescribe medications. The DSM provides a crutch for practitioners to label and "fix". It does not help us to figure out how to give people tools and self-concepts for change. Once labeled one tends to be stigmatized. The placebo effect then generates more dysfunctional behavior!

Another approach is more along the lines of "symptom management"!

That helps but it is not enough.

The quasi-spiritual approach considering that our souls are not fully integrated and that our lifestyles tend to disintegrate who we are seems to me to explain more and to allow us to create models of Soul Integration.

And, that is what this blog is about!

We can't not evolve to higher consciousness!

It is in our very DNA. Our history documents evolutionary transitions.

Our repetition compulsions and relationship cauldron experiences provoke us to continue to grow and transform. Our soul conspires with Source to hook us up with those who will most encourage, support or provoke our changes. We get to choose!

When we choose to gain higher consciousness we choose to practice meditation, mindfulness, right living and right attitudes. We limit our addictions to those that are mostly beneficial. We upgrade our addictions to professions. We become more intentional in our efforts and relationships.

Problematic relationships happen mostly because we are focused on changing the other person or perceiving that the problem lies with them. Or, we expect them to work on their issues and change.

Adapting the attitude that when someone provokes me I have an opportunity to practice presence; not just in-spite of their actions but even joyfully allows me to gain ground in my higher consciousness pursuit. A most difficult task.

The goal here can be to regain presence more rapidly. Instead of years, make it months. Instead of months, weeks. When we can notice that we are reacting and not responding it is possible to then take a breath, relax and come back into presence. Back to where we are aware of our own perceptions and sensations and not taking the other's behavior personally. Increasingly the time to re-group can be hours and even minutes. How spectacular is that!

Watching self is of primary importance and when we "split-off" catching our self and using the signal breath of a long exhale and several deep breaths at the same time as focusing on sensations and not thoughts makes this easier. It helps at these times to consciously remind ourselves that our lives are not in danger, only our egos. We can choose to move out of a reptillian brain stem mode of being to a limbic or even neo-cortex mode.

An added benefit is that we become less stressed out. We live longer.

Choosing to "work" our issues increases our ability and facility of higher consciousness development.

It does get easier and easier; even without our "working" at it. Of course, some of this might just be aging! Ha! It is no accident that the elders are regarded as the keepers of Wisdom.

Love ya!

How Awesome and what a responsibility to be Human!

Just a short note today. To beautiful to spend much time on the computer or with words.

Lately I have been so impressed with people as individuals and in groups. The more I study and work with self and others the more I appreciate our "unlimited" abilities and potentials. We are truly awesome works of nature . . . of Source!

Consider our energy anatomy (see Carolyn Myss' work: Energy Anatomy http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Anatomy-Caroline-Myss/dp/1564558800/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UT) and how each Chakra or energy center is connected with all of the resources in the universe that have to do with the work of that center. And, that as we develop our abilities of self-awareness and then connection of higher self and source to program and reprogram each center (moving away from faulty programing or training to intentional and optimal programing) we increasingly become procreative with Source in the direction of self and world realization.

For now, know that there are many tools for accomplishing this. One of the realizations is that there are no accidents. Indeed every time we experience failure of one kind or another a myriad of doors open for transformation towards our intention.

Curious? Well, my intention is to clearly address this awesome nature of being human and how each of us can capitalize on this work to fully come into our own manifestations of purpose!

Check in with me tomorrow. Ask questions and we can co-create the responses!

In and out of (The Field of) Love!

We have all fallen into love; and out of, as well. Not just of others but of "stuff;" books, Guru's, ideas, beliefs, homes, things, etc. Sometimes the process is instantly "into" and years "out of."

One of my beliefs, and it has to do with our can't not evolve-ness, is this facility for transition has to do with our evolving to higher consciousness. It teaches us through the processes of the repetition compulsion how to move from one state of consciousness to another. As with Buddha's teachings, "All suffering comes from attachment" humans have learned how to exercise "detachment" and "coming into Now" over and over again. Some of have learned to do this very successfully: Perhaps too successfully.

There are advantages and disadvantages in our exercising these abilities. For sake of not experiencing emotional pain we often miss the lesson; and, the healing.

When I go into my "stuff" I am after a while able to make a connection with how it came about that I have that particular stuff. In our soul mate interactions or just interactions with others our stuff gets activated by "triggers" or "buttons". Initially our tendency is to blame the others for our bad feelings or our mis-behavior, which usually comes after our feeling bad (all addictions come from a profound sense of emptiness). As we mature and develop more interpersonal tools we realize that our feelings, thought and actions are our responsibility. In a way, when activated bad feelings are gifts. We do need to know how to appreciate them with gratitude. We do need to meditate on when and where we first encountered these bad feelings. We can recover wounded soul parts.

No question about it, being in Love is the greatest feeling. It is not necessarily the best field for growth and personal integration work to happen. As Angeles Ariens teaches about the Appalacian's greeting of each other "What is working you?", we have the option of taking a closer and deeper look into ourselves and our history for healing to happen. On the other hand, getting stuck in our emotions (whether happy or sad) is not the most productive way to go about the business of healing.

Fortunately we now have a whole set of tools for consciously entering into Love and when we slip out of mining the experience effectively and expediently for maximum growth. What used to take me years, then months now only takes days or even hours to get through.

The process is to watch self (develop the third eye through meditation, mindfulness and clean living), catch self either obsessing about feelings or thoughts, give self the signal breath (blow all the air out and take several deep breaths), move back into awareness of sensations (what feel, hear, see, taste, smell and know "in the moment") and regain "presence." Then take some time to scan body and note where the locus of the physiological upset or tightness is. After that wonder when else you have had such feelings.
(See: http://scottlsherman.com/frameset.html)

The sensations where we get triggered are also the links to our wounded soul parts. The sensations can be experienced as portals or gate-ways through which we can most easily and readily contact our soul parts, champion them back into our bodies and become more fully integrated!

Let's dialogue about this process. This is the territory where we find the gold. This is where we gain health and longevity as well as wisdom.

To celebrate the process of falling in and out of love; of consciously working the falling out of the field of love is to truly exercise our great and wonderful human-ness.

Love, Gratitude and Blessing for All of Creation.

Our use of language limits or empowers manifestations!

When I studied Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) I learned a whole new concept about our use of language.

The concept was the tense "future probability." Later I reasoned that that concept is akin to Prayers of Ascension: Thanking the powers that be for granting that which we don't have while in the "field of love." Knowing that we will have! Belief!

How different than our common uses of "try", "hope", "want", "need", etc. All of these and others come from a position of insecurity or anxiety. They imply that what we desire we are not experiencing and maybe even won't experience. "Will" is a stronger term. Yet, it often meets from within with resistance. It goes hand in hand with "must", "have to", "better" (as in "You better do that!") "should", etc.

The French Hypnotherapist, Émile Coué in the late 1800's made a name for himself and advanced our usage of language when he taught, with great success, his clients to use the concept of future probability by teaching the this affirmation: "Everyday in every way I  am getting better and better." He would have them on going to bed repeat that affirmation with visualizations 20 times. And, on waking to do the same. Keeping the sense going that it is happening.

This formula gets to a powerful realization. Our conscious rational mind deals with reality on one level while our unconscious visual (holographic) mind-set may well have a very different agenda. Realizing this we can use affirmations such as Coué suggested and custom fit them to our own reality. For example my favorite affirmation is, "Every day in every way I am becoming whole, wholesome and holy!" Or, when working with some one that has a particular illness or imbalance teaching, "Everyday in every way I am becoming healthier and experiencing more integrity and balance."

The use of the repetition brings about more congruence between our conscious and unconscious belief systems.

When we use this formula along with our entering into our experiential body states with gratitude and establish dialogues between our various states of consciousness (animal, instinctual self, heart center, higher self) than we can progress quite nicely in the direction we intend.

And, remembering that energy follows intention we can continue to clarify our intentions and energize our manifestations while in the field of love.

Believe, Trust and Love!

Gratitude is the Elixir!

Moving in and out of The Field of Love and non-ordinary reality Gratitude gives us flexibility and mobility. Try it! Go to that place in your life where there is not much good going on. Where you feel anxiety, fear, disgust, anger, etc. When you find the experience pay attention to the sensations in your body. Where are they, what shape, size, color, temperature, etc.?

When found breathe into the sensations and go to them with gratitude. Here we thank the positive intent of the pain and not the pain itself or the circumstances of the pain. As a rule the discomfort diminishes. 


We have now established a link between our higher consciousness or self-awareness center and our body. 


There are now several choices we can make, with the grace of gratitude.


1. We can reassure or re-educate the sensations (they are basically unconscious holograms designed for our survival). Is our life in danger in this moment or simply our ego based issues?
2. We can use the link between higher conscious and body to psycho-navigate: to go through the sensations into non-ordinary reality and access our wounded self, where we learned to have the discomfortable hologram. When we do a memory will surface; or, a collection of memories about past assaults on our self or ego. Again, we can re-educate or re-program. Saying in effect, "I know how to work with that experience, I have been through everything you will have to go through and can guide you back into my consciousness. I want and need you to be with me such that I can experience greater integration. 
3. We can simply move into The Now with our breath and gratitude.


Gratitude allows us to also access the ancestors, power animals, master teachers, greater sense of self, higher self, etc. To come into sync with All of Creation.


These experiences, practiced, allow us to strengthen our usage of "Intent." Energy follows intention; and when we move out of fear and anxiety into The Field of Love with the help of Gratitude then we can formulate a clear and positive intention. The Law of Attraction will then bring to us what it is we are intending. Less work, more effective and more fun!

To maximize these experiences it is important for us to take a closer look at our use of words; the structure of the English language!

Being in The Field of Love

To be human is to experience being awesome. We have already evolved to a point where our imaginations can take us anywhere. And, where imagination goes, energy follows and creation occurs.

Why is it then that so many of us live in states of emotional, intellectual, psychological and material poverty?

Gets back to soul loss and being stuck in old dysfunctional paradigms. When we experience trauma our genetic and energetic bodies become fixed. The memories are stored in our very cells. That has to do with our learning from the experience either in the Now or eventually. Processing the experience goes into our collective data-banks.

Knowing how to move our energy through our various mind-sets can greatly facilitate our growth towards higher consciousness: Which is our destiny!

Simply put there are three states of consciousness that we abide in: The field of fear and anxiety, the field of Love and the field of thought and awareness! Think reptillian, limbic and neocortex.

The quest and realization of so many of you readers has to do with learning how to move freely from one state of consciousness to the next; and, just accidentally getting there and not knowing how or why that happened. A characteristic that I can say marked my life for decades.

Learning how to meditate and experiencing un-conditional love allowed and provoked me to actively learn how to move back into that field when I slipped out or was pushed out.

The incredible power and nature of Now. Buddha's great teachings. Ram Dass (Be Here Now), Meher Baba, Kristnamerti, Eckart Tolle, etc. all taught us how to get there and the benefits of being there.

Why is it so hard to stay "In the Field of Love?"

I am learning and teaching that when we slip out that can be a gift. We slip out when we are set up by our or other's wounded soul parts. That slippage creates the need and opportunity for more growth towards higher consciousness. Towards fully celebrating the New Aquarian Age of Man and Women walking hand in hand; and not one being subjugated by the other.

Learning to find gratitude for all is the elixir. Gratitude is the elixir!

Find and be in Gratitude!

The Law of Attraction, Repetition Compulsion and Relationship Cauldron

We have been paying lots of attention lately to The Law of Attraction, Abraham's Teachings as conveyed by Ester Hicks. The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships Seems that law has been working us for some long time.

Witness the Repetition Compulsion! Alice Miller, Jungian Analyst and author describes how our bodies do not forget and compel us to "try again." For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence What is it that has us repeating the same dumb mistakes in our thoughts, feelings and actions . . . over and over again? And, what does that have to do with relationships and "cauldron?"

Well, we are attracted to each other and not just because of our scent, looks, charm, personality, money, etc. Most importantly we are attracted to each other to work out our issues!

I like the idea of a "cauldron". It conveys a certain metaphysical, alchemical quality. Add some sacred water, a few drops of dragon blood, some newt's eye-balls, some amanita muscaria, a few dandelion leafs, some Sucanet and whatever else goes into the pot and stuff starts to happen. Could just as well talk about adding some love, some PTSD, a bit of cheating or lying, some drugs, a bit of spinach, Sucanet and we might end up with pretty much the same potion! The potion is to agitate us to heal!

It all has to do with our evolution to higher consciousness. The deal is not, no not at all, "And they lived happily ever-after!" More it is about "You can't always get what you wa-annt. No you can't always get what you wa-annt. But if you try, you might find . . . you get what you neeed!" Or something like that. There is a deep need for us to evolve. It has to do with our very genetic underpinnings. We can't not evolve as a species: have been doing so for all of creation.

This is how it works. When our soul, ego or body is traumatized by self or other it hurts so much that a piece of us leaves our body. Sometimes it gets stuck out in non-ordinary reality (if the hurt is great enough). Sometimes it comes and goes depending on our life-style; on how much we are dipping in and out of negative thoughts, feelings and actions! (For more information on this subject please refer to: Sandra Ingerman Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation; and, Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman.)

Anytime a piece of  us is not where it belongs we are out of integrity. We are in so many words "not then working with a full deck of cards."

As one of the Universal Laws appears to be evolution towards higher consciousness (I certainly believe this is the case!) we tend to set ourselves up to have to continually face up to our wounded-ness. The best way to do this is in relationship. The most beneficial kind of relationship for this work to happen is in a couple.

One of the ways in which, by default if in no other way, we "work" our recovery of soul is by joining in relationship with others who have some kind of mirror issue to our own. The pot gets stirred over and over again and we repeatedly have the necessity and opportunity of seeing ourselves in our wounded-ness.

Often we miss the chance to experience any kind of recovery and advancement of consciousness or integration of self. Instead we argue, excuse, deny, hide, get angry, freeze, rationalize, or in countless other ways side-step the issue. We miss the opportunity to gain some wisdom. That's ok. The issue will come up again for further consideration. It can't not!

My understanding of why this is so has to do with our having some pretty limited frames of reference and language usages.

Our thinking is mostly that we either have soul or we don't. Well, how about having varying degrees of soul depending on what is going on. We are not just a soul. We are degrees of soul integration depending on our degree of actively recovering our soul from times of ignorance, accident, abuse, abandonment, betrayal, etc. We are degrees of soul integration depending on our ability to relax, stay present, meditate, be mindful and be at One-ness with self.

It is possible for us to have great soul loss and not heal! We can do this by playing at being calm and cool. We can meditate, become so focused on our path that our issues don't come to the surface, lay low,   be in such a state of denial that others avoid us, and probably many other acts of limitation. And it is important that we know that we can take such time outs. My own preference is for the "Time Outs" to be institutionalized as a way to calm down and then come back into the relationship to talk it out.

Why not work at healing and get on with evolving!

Once the time out has been taken and we have had a chance to come back into "presence," into a greater sense of personal integration, then what helps is to speak our truth. Truth speaking has five parts to it:

1. What our perceptions are. Just what did we see, hear or feel? 
2. How exactly did our bodies respond; or, usually, react to that perception?
3. What emotions, thoughts and feelings came out of the bodily response? What "churning" of thoughts and feelings then came about? 
4. And, what memories of similar events came to the surface? 
5. What then can we ask for from our partner in terms of wants or needs to help us stay present in similar situations?

Breaking our communications down in such a fashion allows us to be clear about how the "other" impacts us. And, how that impact effected us when we were pure and innocent.

Such dialogue can bring about a working relationship where we can assist our partners to evolve more readily, smoothly and effectively.

I mentioned, earlier, our use of language and how it, too, limits us. Take the word "try!" It only makes sense in the past tense. To say, "I am trying" is to say "I am not doing." Our unconscious minds take such things literally. 

To say, "I will do something" again puts the action off. 

The prayer of ascension thanks the powers for granting us that which we aspire to have! The law of Attraction has it that if we believe we are receiving we will receive. It is "present tense!" I am blessed, I am loved, I am successful, etc. Not I someday will or I will try. Those are moving in the right direction but far better to actually be In the field of love!

Introduction to the Future

Hello and thanks for visiting this web-site!

Are you, too, interested in figuring out how to live a life of integrity, balance, sustainability, nurturing and caring for all of creation; and, at the same time being happy, healthy, prosperous and loving? My long time search for solutions has led me to what can be called "soul-lutions!" To be able to experience this most effectively it is important to adopt a shamanic world view.

The Trail of Tears is 10000 years old and has not ended. It began when we began to manipulate our environment with most notably the Agricultural Revolution. At that time our Goddess Mythologies became over-shadowed by the Storm God Mythologies . . . all around the world. (Please check out John Weir Perry's The Lord of the Four Quarters. Lord of the Four Quarters: The Mythology of Kingship (Jung and Spirituality Series)) The advent of monotheistic and patriachal religions began about these times and with them the subjection of the feminine and the raping, pillaging and plundering of the indigenous. Look here for an understanding of the mythological underpinnings of our addictions to War!

Oh, that is not to say that these things did not occur before then; just that around that time things escalated into wholesale destruction! It, interestingly, was also the time we began to cultivate wheat, experience glucose intolerance, get new kinds of sickness (St. Vitas Dance) and reduce our plant based food intake from hundreds of varied species to twenty or so! Is it no wonder that our life expectancy has dropped.

Well, the Future is Now. The new Paradigm is upon us! And, to help it along:

• Eat a broad spectrum of fruits, vegetables and berries: grown close to home and vine ripened! Grow your Own!
• Create a daily practice of Meditation and Mindfulness
• Strengthen your immediate neighborhood by getting to know everyone who lives around you and develop caring and sharing activities.
• Practice Truth Speaking and staying with your truth! (see my web-site under "Tools" http://scottlsherman.com/frameset.html

Find and stay in "Integrity." (see: The Four Agreements: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book)