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Archive for the ‘Mensa’ Category

Our physical body is our friend. Physical desires are good and sexual relationships are good. At least all of these things could be if we allowed ourselves to have them and enjoy them.

By believing there is good in everyone we confront the good in ourselves.

Positive thinking colors neutral events in a positive way. Negative thinking colors neutral events in a negative way. To color things in a positive way makes life more pleasant!

By now it should be clear that “all inputs are valid” doesn’t mean total acceptance of every harebrained idea that comes along. It means putting everything into its proper perspective. It means that everything belongs, not that everything is true.

If someone believes the world is flat, they will act as if the world is flat. If you want to deal effectively with this person you must take their beliefs into account because beliefs guide their actions, not reality.

You can live a spiritual life in a physical body and enjoy the full spectrum of what life has to offer! This is the path of the organic Gnostic! The true goal in life is the spiritualization of the physical. Manifest heaven here on earth!

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We are all part of each other at some level. We are all part of the human collective and on another level humanity is a single organism. Ultimately we cannot hurt someone else without hurting ourselves. But the opposite is just as true. The most powerful way that we can help others is to do what we are truly meant to do in this lifetime. When we do what we are meant to do, the entire world and all of humanity benefits. To be ourselves is the greatest gift that we can give another person and the entire world!

The same consideration holds true for allowing others to follow the still small voice of conscience and the Christ spirit that dwells within their hearts. So take joy in the advancement of your brothers and sisters. Think well of others and give them the benefit of the doubt. Be a good friend in times of need and they will be there for you when you need them.

We are not born for ourselves alone, our families require a share, our country requires a share, our friends require a share. Don’t set yourself above others. Don’t gossip about others, but share your own stories and listen to the stories of others.

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95% of communication is nonverbal and that doesn’t even include psychic abilities! Our bodies don’t know how to lie and if you’re serious about communicating honestly with others you need to understand body language. Now body language is a big subject and there are plenty of books about it, good books. I’m just going to mention a few things and then suggest some simple exercises that you can do with a trusted friend that you feel comfortable with.

There are some basic things to notice about other people:

Are their legs or arms crossed? Is there tension in the body? Crossing the arms and legs is a classic defensive position that walls the person off from other people.

Preening or patting the hair, smoothing the shirt or dress, straightening a tie are all nervous movements that tell a person isn’t quite comfortable with the situation.

Constant moving – can’t sit still, Ill at ease, doesn’t have your full attention. You can tell that they’re not really listening to you! This isn’t rocket science! You should be able to tell if someone’s listening to you or not.

Hand movements – what are their hands doing, are they clenched or open, in their pockets or hidden in any way?

Nervous movements – tapping a pencil, moving their leg or some other movement that shows the person is nervous or stressed.

Movement of a person toward or away from you is very revealing and we should all pay attention to this one!

Are they relaxed or tense? Ideally we should all be relaxed, open and honest in our communications with others. But that doesn’t always happen.

Okay now I’m going to list some things that I suggest you try with a person that you trust and with whom you are comfortable. The idea is simply to become more aware of body language and how powerful it really is. So as you do these exercises pay attention to the sensations that you feel so that you can recognize them and to begin to notice them in ordinary life.

Eye contact

One person tries to maintain eye contact and the other person tries to avoid eye contact. Take turns with this until both of you are familiar with the sensations of trying to avoid eye contact and trying to get the other person to make eye contact. Pay attention to your own movements, remember the goal of these exercises is self awareness.

Handshake

There are different kinds of handshakes. Try a few of the most common ones. Pay attention to how each one makes you feel and whether you like it or not.

The firm handshake

The finger handshake

The two-handed handshake

The limp handshake

Slumped Shoulders and Erect Posture

One person tries to maintain a slumped posture while talking and the other tries to maintain an erect posture. Notice how each posture makes you feel and also notice how it makes a difference in the other person’s communication. These are simple practices in self observation. Have a little fun with it.

Proximity Boundary

One person moves in too close to the other person deliberately while they are talking. Pay attention to your own emotions as you force yourself to get too close to the other person and as they get too close to you. What does it feel like?

Now reverse it and try the opposite. One person moves too far away from the other person deliberately while they are talking with each other. What does that do to the communication? Where is a comfortable spot?

Standing or Sitting at a Desk

One person is standing and the other person is sitting behind a desk. After trying this and recognizing the sensations that you feel switch places and experience the conversation from the other point of view. How does this make you feel?

Standing or Sitting

One person is standing and the other remains sitting in a chair. Take your time and really pay attention to your own feelings of comfort or discomfort and notice how the other person is feeling as well. Trade places and then compare notes.

Turned Away

One person remains turned 45° away from the other person. Notice how this feels. Is it disrespectful? Does it feel uncomfortable?

These are all very simple exercises that can stir up a lot of comfort and discomfort so pay attention to how they make you feel. Good communicators understand how to make other people feel comfortable and they understand how to be comfortable themselves. Again, have a little fun with this and share your experiences together.

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Merchant Souls
 
Oh how they love! How temperate they remain!
Only love does not make them richer!
How scrupulously they barter
And add little emotions to little emotions.
 
And here stands one, who with a thousand hands,
Wants to cast himself, like seed, into the universe
To complete his existence a thousand fold,
To renew his existence a thousand fold.
 
No, no, I pass on your ambition,
I cannot safely barter my heart!
Better to live with whores and gamble,
As heartily as you do making deals!

Richard Dehmal
translated by Joe Bandel

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Emotional crisis is painful. The worst experiences of my life have dealt with emotional pain and not physical pain. I’m sure others can relate to what I’m saying. On the flipside, emotional pleasure and satisfaction is what makes life worth living. Life without emotions would not be worth living. We take risks and experience the joy, pleasure and satisfaction that success brings.

We work hard and earn the rewards we receive. We are competent in life and enjoy competition. We enjoy the struggle and reward. We have no interest in getting something we have not earned through our own physical laborers. This is the viewpoint of a person that takes risks. Perhaps we risk by asking someone out for a date.

After many rejections we are accepted and dating someone we really like. Perhaps we even fall in love. Without the first risks and the first failures, chances are we would never have been successful. Emotional rejections are very painful but they are also instructive if we can learn from them.

The negative aspect of this stage is powerful. We are confronted or placed in situations where our feet feel like lead weights, our heart is in our throats and we can’t breathe. We feel fear to the point of being frozen. Despite this awkwardness of fear and discomfort we force ourselves to move forward, whether it be a task we fear or asking someone to marry us.

The important point is we do not allow our fear to prevent us from doing the things that we desire. I like to think of a hungry lion stalking its prey. It is crouching in the tall grass and lying very still. Suddenly there is a deafening roar. Will the prey freeze in terror and make an easy meal or will the terror cause the prey to bolt for safety with a life-saving burst of speed?

More to the point, what do we do with our terror? I once worked security at a place where an infant fell into a swimming pool and could not swim. The mother was frozen in terror and couldn’t do anything. Fortunately another security guard immediately jumped in the pool and rescued the infant.

Life places us in situations where we will feel terror. It might not happen often but it will happen and how we react will depend upon our past habits, training and activities. The military has proven time after time that when the brain shuts down the physical body reverts to training. We need to seriously think about what kind of training we have. Then we need to think about what kind of training we need.

By taking risks we develop the heart and will power to achieve in life. Working with emotional crisis develops what it takes to succeed in life.

We can only achieve joy, pleasure, and satisfaction by risking and acting in spite of personal fears and limitations. This is not being passive. In the first stage we were victims, in the second stage we learned from our mistakes. In this stage we deliberately go after what we want. We do this in spite of our inexperience, lack of knowledge and our fears.

We are clumsy and crude in our first attempts. We may or may not succeed but we have the heart and will power that allows us to eventually succeed. We believe in ourselves enough to overcome whatever obstacles may occur in time. It is our faith in ourselves and our connection to the master within that allows us to go forward into new and strange situations with confidence and determination. Our desire is stronger than our fear.

We begin as observers and gradually try things out for ourselves. We are observers simply because we don’t have any control of the situation or experience and we are stuck in it.

Think of the newborn baby that has no physical control over his or her body yet. All they can do is observe. Imagine the frustration young children feel when they can’t do something they want to do.

Our contact with the master within and our creative power started at the spiritual level and then transferred to the mental level. That is where we learned what we wanted to do. The emotional part comes when we try to act upon our desires.

Desire meets physical reality! What an exciting place to be if we can make it work!.

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Each person is given a unique perspective based upon past experiences and current beliefs. It is entirely possible to be right or correct in your own mind and dead wrong to someone else.

It is important to recognize the truth and validity in each individual’s viewpoint. Piece by piece we gather knowledge from others and add it to our own to develop a personal belief system.

Given our individual life circumstances, or personal backgrounds, and our past experiences, we are all trying to get through life the best we know how to do.

We all have blind spots, things that we just are not naturally aware of and other people can give us insight into those blind spots because they might not have those blind spots! By learning about our own blind spots we can improve our grasp of reality and become more effective in achieving our goals.

One way of doing this is by developing both the male and female perspectives within our conscious awareness. Males and females perceive the world in very different but equally valid ways. Accepting insight and perspective from the opposite sex will always enrich and balance our personal belief system.

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I’m going to share something that is not commonly understood about the nonphysical realities, the astral planes and magic in general. Events happen in the astral planes before they physically manifest. I’ve experienced this personally every day. This is not theory for me. We all have the ability to modify or alter events within the astral planes before they physically manifest if we are able to function within the astral planes.

The physical body generates energy! It is astounding how much energy the physical body can produce! That energy can be injected into the astral planes in a way that will influence events before they physically happen. This has been called magic in the past, but I’m just saying that it happens. Call it whatever you want.

But the astral planes are extremely elastic and they resist change. You can generate a lot of energy and it still might not be enough to overcome the elasticity of the astral planes. When this happens the energy you generated is simply dispersed without changing anything. It won’t change anything because the astral resists change! I can’t say this enough!

You need to generate an extreme amount of energy to break through the resistance and elasticity. I will use a graphic example. When an athlete or a runner gets their second wind they are injecting raw energy into the astral planes for the first time. But the energy that the athlete is injecting into the astral planes is not enough to overcome the elasticity that it will encounter! This injection of energy into the astral planes needs to happen at least twice a day! Otherwise it’s probably a wasted effort. Don’t get me wrong, the energy that you generate during the day always belongs to you and even though it gets dispersed within the astral planes it will accumulate until there is enough so that the lunar cycle may compress it enough to break through that elasticity and resistance. But its better if you can do it for yourself.

What I’m trying to share is the importance of living intensely and the importance of generating a lot of energy with your physical body no matter what kind of energy that is! You will know if you have generated enough energy when you have vivid and powerful or explosive dreams at night where that energy is discharged. If you’re not having at least three vivid and powerful dreams a week you’re not generating enough energy to move events in a creative way!

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When we see a person at work or on the street do we know if they act that way at home? Do we always know how our kids act away from home? Do we act differently at home and when we are away from home?

Each individual is very complex with many hobbies, interests and life experiences. Even if we know someone very well we can still be surprised at some of the things they do.

We use the limited knowledge we have about people to form images or stereotypes. We use these images to help us understand and deal with every person in our lives. Because of these images or stereotypes we are sometimes surprised when people don’t respond in the way we are expecting them to. We may even need to reevaluate others and treat them differently as we learn more about them.

One of the most powerful ways to achieve our goals and to experience the things we want in life is to act, dress, and live in a manner that will create the image or stereotype that is appropriate for achieving our goals. Through repeated exposure to the image we are projecting others will stereotype us in a manner that is consistent with our own goals and treat us the way we want to be treated. They will help support us in achieving our goal!

When people don’t recognize the image we project they will create one of their own and we probably won’t like it. Who wants to be labeled as a loser or a freak? We have to give people clues about how we want to be treated.

First we create a general image or stereotype that is recognizable to others. Then we can create a subcategory that is unique and individual that reveals more of our true inner self. We must be true to the stereotype that we project and at the same time remain true to ourselves. Remember an image or stereotype tends toward self-fulfillment because everyone else constantly reinforces it. It is up to us to choose what we want to be in life and let others know how to treat us.

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By a Mountain Streamlet

Stop, lusty runaway,
Give me your answer, short and fast,
Tell me, dearest streamlet,
Do you ever think of anything serious?
I would gladly exchange my wisdom,
For your light heartedness.
 
Look, how the little Wight laughs at that,
Sprays water drops into my face,
Then springs forth into the sunshine,
Is that your answer?

Mia Holm 1900
translation by Joe Bandel

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Crisis is an important aspect of development and natural competency. It is only through crisis that mastery can be developed in life situations. The more issues we confront and deal with successfully, the more competent we are in life.

Seen this way crisis is not something to be avoided but something to be confronted. Crisis is simply an inability to cope with an existing situation. In learning to cope with the existing situation we develop competency and develop personal power.

At this stage of working with mental energy we learn from past experiences and are able to mentally remain in the situation. Our awareness has enough power and flexibility to understand how our physical actions have brought us to where we are now. We understand our part in being responsible for what happened to us.

There is no longer the need to remove ourselves from the situation even if it is unpleasant for us. This is an important part of the law of cause and effect. Our every action brings some type of result and natural consequence. This is what most understand as mastery of life.

Our mental web of associated thoughts has become sophisticated enough that we adapt successfully to a wide variety of physical situations. We develop a lifestyle that appears to get us the things we want in life. Few people ever go beyond this stage. If it works, don’t fix it, seems to be the motto.

Increased contact with the master within and the voice of our conscience allows us to learn from our successes and our mistakes. In the beginning we can’t foresee or avoid mistakes but we can learn from the final outcome. Each failure brings greater knowledge and awareness of the issues involved and the realities behind them. Each attempt is the result of our dreams and desires as they confront physical reality. For things to manifest in life they must be in harmony with physical reality.

We understand the importance of risk-taking. If we do not take risks and try new things we remain where we are. Many people are afraid and only attempt things they have a proven ability to do. It is easy to play it safe except when nature or God decides to interfere in our placid, boring life and liven it up a bit. Both God and nature intend life to be an exploration and an adventure. This includes experiencing as many things as possible, both good and bad.

The struggle to adapt to new life conditions and the satisfaction of personal achievement is rewarded by both nature and physical life. The rewards go to those that take the risks and succeed.

The human condition will not accept unrelenting boredom and will create crisis just to make life interesting. Consider how important choosing an exciting and interesting life can be. Our days can be full of excitement, not crisis. To do this we must take the risks involved in making our dreams come true.

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