Horizons Magazine
Andrea de Michaelis, Publisher
.
.
Hello and welcome to the September 2007 issue of Horizons Magazine. Oh! There are so many things going on this month! My friend John Strelecky, author of the international bestseller The Why Café has a new book just out, Life Safari (see
www.thelifesafari.com
) I was honored to contribute a blurb on the back cover, I wrote: ?Loved it! The adventure of the story makes you want to keep turning pages, and yet the wisdom of the messages cries out for moments of contemplation. Every once in a while you find that something special in a book: where your heart, your soul, and the story you are reading all link up in perfect harmony to take you on an amazing journey. This is one of those books. A tantalizing mix that makes this an absolute must read.?
So lately I?ve been talking to several new friends and coming to realize we have been talking apples and oranges all along. Interesting how we can convince ourselves we are being heard and understood, when that isn?t the case at all. Roy Eugene Davis is one of my all-time favorite authors and I?m thrilled to have him grace this month?s cover. You?ll notice in his article on page 9, that he begins by defining words that he will use in the writing to follow. Some of these seem to be simple words, but he does this to make sure the reader understands his intended meaning. He writes clearly, no nonsense, non denominational, actual practical advice on spiritual growth.
So when I talk with a friend who says they are using the ?law of attraction,? I immediately think ? hmmm, they are using my terminology, they must have the same understanding I do. Until they do something that shows me they have a different understanding, I will not explain the basic concepts to them along the way, thinking, ?oh, they must know that already, they know ?the basics?.? Only later, when misunderstandings occur do we both realize we each assumed the other had the same mindset on the topic as we did. When in fact all along we were talking apples and oranges and not communicating at all.
Here?s a good example of how life works. I was at a friend?s house when Walter Levine, the crystal guy, showed up like Johnny Appleseed with his Abraham-Hicks video. We all sat and watched and, 10 minutes into it, my concept of how the world worked was changing. I had one ?a-ha? after another, and Esther Hicks? words gave simple, concrete language to the abstract and esoteric concepts of manifestation I?d studied in the past.
I watched this video with my good buddy BB. She and I sat side by side, viewing the same video, listening to the same words. Afterward, I was excited about the new knowledge, which just had changed my concept of how the world worked and confirmed many things I somehow knew to be true. BB said she just didn?t get it. Now I had known BB for a few years and she was not unschooled in metaphysical thought. She already knew the value of instilling magickal properties to her products, so she already knew the concept that we somehow co-created in our reality. She knew to use sacred space, ritual and prayer to impart blessings for success and well being into the products for her clients. BB had a giftline of custom created products. As a practicing pagan in the solitary tradition, the terminology she used would be ?spell casting?. However, I participated in many rituals with her, and I know a prayer when I see one *smile* (See? Terminology again! What was your reaction to the words ?spell casting?? What was your reaction to the word ?prayer??)
So, although BB and I watched the video together for the first time, one of us was blown away by the new info and the other ?just didn?t get it.? I used to wonder, how can things like that happen?
We?re both hearing the same thing. We?re both in the same class at the same time. What I heard changed how I viewed my world and would foreverafter change how I interacted in that world. For BB, well, it sounded fanciful to her.
For me, I immediately began to view past life experiences in light of the new information. I saw time after time after time how I had consciously and unconsciously contributed to the experiences I had and the results I got. I began to see how I attracted everything into my life - everything - even the things like the mechanic making a costly mistake with my car, even the roofer who overcharged for substandard work. I saw where I had resistance I had not realized, where I had been uptight when I thought I was relaxed and laid back. I began recognizing how my unconscious attitudes had affected my experience and my outcomes. I spent weeks in mind boggling thought and reflection, reviewing my entire past, all incidents and relationships, for lessons I could glean from them in light of my new knowing.
For BB, however, life just went on as usual. I was anxious to begin experimenting with my new tools, to use the law of attraction to make things happen on purpose. I love to do experiments using the tools of prayer, visualization and altered states, and have learned it?s a scientific process. You do W, X, Y and the result is always Z. The trick being that W is the most essential step, because the success of the work depends entirely upon your ability to release resistance, visualize, feel and focus. When I get myself into the proper mindstate, the result is always predictable.
So I asked BB to participate in an experiment with me. For both of us, we were self employed and business had been slow. I wanted us to talk to each other a couple of times a day and talk about what our particular goal was ? to each increase our income for the coming month by 25%. I wanted us to make lists together of what we?d do with the money and make lists of the positive aspects of everything around us. This was an early Abraham process that I use to this day, and always with success. I wanted us to find evidence of people doing things we might like to do, and contemplate the incomes of people who earned what we wanted to earn. I wanted BB and I to agree to just 30 days of doing this to see what the result would be. We both had plenty of time on our hands, and nothing to lose.
But BB thought that ?sounded weird? and she ?didn?t want to do that.? She thought that doing ?stuff like that messes with destiny? and ?goes against the forces of nature.? BB loved to get into discussion about soul purpose and twin flames, and how destiny plays itself out. This however leaves no room for the concept that we have a hand in creating our own reality. ?But,? I asked her, ?how does prayer and spell casting and ritual fit in with destiny?? She explained that was done to gain the grace of the Creator. ?So how does gaining grace fit in with destiny?? I got the impression that prayers were answered or not at the whim of a gatekeeper that I needed to schmooze in order to gain favor with.
So the bottom line is that she did not participate in the experiment, so I did it on my own. I used my mom as a sounding board and as usual, she was the best, always encouraging and helpful. The results blew me away and gave me a feeling of power such as I?d never had before. I felt I could do anything, I felt that literally anything was possible for me now. I changed my daily routine to incorporate several sessions of writing down positive aspects, of writing down things I am grateful for. I began making lists of areas in my life where I would like change and, like NBC?s Earl, I began one by one going through them and checking them off. My income skyrocketed, my relationships improved, my creativity soared. My life was constantly being upgraded and everything began working synchronistically to a degree I?d never before experienced.
And I wouldn?t have known that was possible had I not tried it, had I not been open and given it a chance, had I not committed to experiment with it myself. Had I just thought, ?Well, I believe in destiny and I don?t think it?s possible that we have a hand in changing that, or in creating our own reality?, then I would have missed one of the biggest teachings in my life.
But for BB, well, she just didn?t think that sounded plausible and she didn?t want to mess with destiny or fall out of favor. At first I thought it was my job to make her ?get it?, to make her understand how the law of attraction worked because I knew her life could benefit by it. I knew her income and I knew her expenses and she was not an extravagant person. She was barely scraping by and to hear her tell her story, she had always managed to just barely scrape by and to the end, she just barely scraped by. Except by then she had moved out of state, back to the cold winters she always hated. Vibrational matching at work.
I hadn?t heard from BB for 8 or 9 years before she passed. We slowly began drifting apart, probably in no small part due to the fact that I began to inundate her with Abraham material ?for her own good? (smile). I in general became like a born-again, full of new enthusiasm to spread the good word, and not wanting to hear ?No? for an answer. ?Because if she did it my way, I knew she?d get what she wanted. Who doesn?t want to learn how to do that???
hahaha Well, I?ve grown up and gotten over myself since then. Now I know it?s not my job to do that unless they ask.
The fact was that we were no longer vibrating in harmony with each other, and the way that played itself out was that we slowly stopped talking. I was a computer person and she wasn?t. My life got busy and it was easier to keep in touch with friends who had email than to keep in touch with those who didn?t. It began to feel easier and more fun to be with friends who thought as I did and were also interested in the Abraham material. The conversations with those who were NOT into the material were not as satisfying to me as conversations with those who were. Relationships and activities with friends who were NOT into the material were not as fulfilling as they were with those who were. My circle of friends began to change. Like it or not, some longtime friends I loved, but with whom I no longer shared common interests, just slowly moved or dropped away. In their place arrived a new group of lively, enthusiastic like-minded others.
It?s happened to all of us. For many reasons we can sit side by side with our best friend and hear the same speaker and come away with two completely different experiences. One isn?t interested and the other?s world changes forevermore. I felt as though I found the ladder to heaven and couldn?t entice her up there with me.
And nothing I could say changed her mind. No evidence I presented was sufficient to sway her. She was not a skeptic, because a skeptic keeps an open mind. She had made up her mind in advance that destiny was the only way. So any info that came to her contrary to the concept of destiny just wasn?t available to her. She couldn?t see the evidence in front of her and she couldn?t hear what the speakers were saying.
It would be like shining a light into the eyes of a blind man, or shouting into the ear of a deaf woman. The signal is being sent out, but their receivers are not tuned to receive it. We tune our receiver to receive the signal by staying relaxed and open minded. If I think I know the answer to something and can?t be swayed, then I am not open minded on that topic. That means there is a veil in place, a filter, an illusion. That means I can?t trust my guidance on that topic. That means I am not clear on that topic, that I don?t understand it accurately.
If I don?t understand something, I can?t use it to enhance my life. If I don?t know how to use my tools, it doesn?t matter how many of them I have in my collection. For instance, if I don?t understand what everyone now is calling the law of allowing, I can?t effectively use that law to my advantage. I can?t use that law to create a happier, more fulfilling life for myself and for those I care about unless I really understand how it works and have tried it myself and know what I?m talking about.
Even knowing what I know, it?s frustrating to have friends I love and enjoy and watch them fall away from my life. It?s not as simple as I want to hang around those who ?get it? and whoever doesn?t ?get it? is kicked out of the inner circle. It is to realize we no longer share mutual interests or our visions have changed, that we are no longer vibrationally in tune with each other, realizing our time together is limited.
It is to realize when a good buddy doesn?t recognize how their pessimistic attitude or constant criticism affects you wanting to share time with them or not. It is realizing it is just easier to be with people who are NOT like that; with whom everything is NOT a struggle or a concern, where ups and downs are NOT tied to the news or the stock market. To be with people who know that anything is possible and anyone can do it. To be with people who are interested in enhancing their life via evolution of consciousness and are not satisfied with what the mainstream media has to offer. To be with people who share my vision, to spur each other on to higher thought and service.
I know the departure of old friends always signals the arrival of new friends and new lessons to be learned.
Gratefully, I have come to learn change is always an upgrade for me. It may be that I learn how to use a rice cooker, it may be I learn to speak Spanish, it may be I discover Indian and Asian cuisine. It may be that I release a fear, it may be that I learn relationship skills, it may be I learn a new software program, it may be that I change my dietary routine, it may be that I revise my understanding of the right wing conservative view, it may be that I discover I love to swim in the ocean and ride a motorcycle. It?s always an upgrade.
I can?t make someone else ?get it?. If their mind is made up, I am not speaking a language they understand. Since we are speaking apples and oranges, I don?t have the right words to make them understand. Nor is it my job to make them understand, nor do they have to understand. They are right where they need to be, doing what they need to do.
You don?t pull a fish out of water to show him how much fun hiking can be. If you want to play with the fish, you do so on his turf and you conform to his rules. When that stops being fun, when it becomes a drag to have to hold your breath for so long to keep up with your fishy friend underwater, you may make a new decision to return to dry land where you can relax and breathe easy with friends who do the same.
Enjoy our offering this month.
Life is good! Hari Om
Also, Esther & Jerry Hicks have a new book out, The Astonishing Power of Emotions, and we?ve got an excerpt for you. on page 8. This is good stuff! By the way, have you seen The Secret Behind The Secret yet? Don?t miss it. More about Abraham in a few minutes?
I?ve been having a recent spell of misjudging my audience, with sometimes comical results. My most notable example was several years ago when I had walked into a metaphysical class at the last minute. It was a class I?d not been to before, although I knew many of the people in it. I came in and took the only available seat next to the facilitator, just as they were beginning to go around the circle and give names. The question we were all to answer was ?name one thing you would change about your body.? Inexplicably, they began with me, the newcomer. But I was glad for the question because I?d given it some thought just that morning! I said I?d like to be able to extend my arms out so they were 2-3 times as long, to enable me to accomplish tasks that needed long arms. Either that or I?d like a tail, a prehensile tail that I could use to grip things with. You could hear a pin drop. They thought I was kidding. The next woman to speak introduced herself and said she?d like to weigh 20 pounds less. The next one never liked her hair and so she?d make it straighter and finer. A few didn?t like their noses and they wanted to change that. Thighs and wrinkles were other changes mentioned. I was stunned. It didn?t take long to realize I had taken for granted that I was in a different level class than I was actually in. Here I was, in a class of people I know to be metaphysical students for years, and these were their sincere responses? I was stunned into silence.
I?ve been having a recent spell of misjudging my audience, with sometimes comical results. My most notable example was several years ago when I had walked into a metaphysical class at the last minute. It was a class I?d not been to before, although I knew many of the people in it. I came in and took the only available seat next to the facilitator, just as they were beginning to go around the circle and give names. The question we were all to answer was ?name one thing you would change about your body.? Inexplicably, they began with me, the newcomer. But I was glad for the question because I?d given it some thought just that morning! I said I?d like to be able to extend my arms out so they were 2-3 times as long, to enable me to accomplish tasks that needed long arms. Either that or I?d like a tail, a prehensile tail that I could use to grip things with. You could hear a pin drop. They thought I was kidding. The next woman to speak introduced herself and said she?d like to weigh 20 pounds less. The next one never liked her hair and so she?d make it straighter and finer. A few didn?t like their noses and they wanted to change that. Thighs and wrinkles were other changes mentioned. I was stunned. It didn?t take long to realize I had taken for granted that I was in a different level class than I was actually in. Here I was, in a class of people I know to be metaphysical students for years, and these were their sincere responses? I was stunned into silence.
So lately I?ve been talking to several new friends and coming to realize we have been talking apples and oranges all along. Interesting how we can convince ourselves we are being heard and understood, when that isn?t the case at all. Roy Eugene Davis is one of my all-time favorite authors and I?m thrilled to have him grace this month?s cover. You?ll notice in his article on page 9, that he begins by defining words that he will use in the writing to follow. Some of these seem to be simple words, but he does this to make sure the reader understands his intended meaning. He writes clearly, no nonsense, non denominational, actual practical advice on spiritual growth.
So when I talk with a friend who says they are using the ?law of attraction,? I immediately think ? hmmm, they are using my terminology, they must have the same understanding I do. Until they do something that shows me they have a different understanding, I will not explain the basic concepts to them along the way, thinking, ?oh, they must know that already, they know ?the basics?.? Only later, when misunderstandings occur do we both realize we each assumed the other had the same mindset on the topic as we did. When in fact all along we were talking apples and oranges and not communicating at all.
PREDESTINY OR LAW OF ATTRACTION?
I used to think everything was predestined. It was a comforting thought, that meant I didn?t really have to do much on my own. But when I began reading the early teaching of Theosophy (Besant, Blavatsky, Bailey, Leadbeater) is when I heard the concept that physical 3-D reality was malleable and that I could direct and orchestrate what came into my life by the power of my conscious thought. In the early 1990?s when I discovered Abraham-Hicks, they said it more clearly that I?d ever heard before and I ?got? it during the viewing of their first video. It was like everything just clicked into place upon hearing their words.
I used to think everything was predestined. It was a comforting thought, that meant I didn?t really have to do much on my own. But when I began reading the early teaching of Theosophy (Besant, Blavatsky, Bailey, Leadbeater) is when I heard the concept that physical 3-D reality was malleable and that I could direct and orchestrate what came into my life by the power of my conscious thought. In the early 1990?s when I discovered Abraham-Hicks, they said it more clearly that I?d ever heard before and I ?got? it during the viewing of their first video. It was like everything just clicked into place upon hearing their words.
Here?s a good example of how life works. I was at a friend?s house when Walter Levine, the crystal guy, showed up like Johnny Appleseed with his Abraham-Hicks video. We all sat and watched and, 10 minutes into it, my concept of how the world worked was changing. I had one ?a-ha? after another, and Esther Hicks? words gave simple, concrete language to the abstract and esoteric concepts of manifestation I?d studied in the past.
I watched this video with my good buddy BB. She and I sat side by side, viewing the same video, listening to the same words. Afterward, I was excited about the new knowledge, which just had changed my concept of how the world worked and confirmed many things I somehow knew to be true. BB said she just didn?t get it. Now I had known BB for a few years and she was not unschooled in metaphysical thought. She already knew the value of instilling magickal properties to her products, so she already knew the concept that we somehow co-created in our reality. She knew to use sacred space, ritual and prayer to impart blessings for success and well being into the products for her clients. BB had a giftline of custom created products. As a practicing pagan in the solitary tradition, the terminology she used would be ?spell casting?. However, I participated in many rituals with her, and I know a prayer when I see one *smile* (See? Terminology again! What was your reaction to the words ?spell casting?? What was your reaction to the word ?prayer??)
So, although BB and I watched the video together for the first time, one of us was blown away by the new info and the other ?just didn?t get it.? I used to wonder, how can things like that happen?
We?re both hearing the same thing. We?re both in the same class at the same time. What I heard changed how I viewed my world and would foreverafter change how I interacted in that world. For BB, well, it sounded fanciful to her.
For me, I immediately began to view past life experiences in light of the new information. I saw time after time after time how I had consciously and unconsciously contributed to the experiences I had and the results I got. I began to see how I attracted everything into my life - everything - even the things like the mechanic making a costly mistake with my car, even the roofer who overcharged for substandard work. I saw where I had resistance I had not realized, where I had been uptight when I thought I was relaxed and laid back. I began recognizing how my unconscious attitudes had affected my experience and my outcomes. I spent weeks in mind boggling thought and reflection, reviewing my entire past, all incidents and relationships, for lessons I could glean from them in light of my new knowing.
For BB, however, life just went on as usual. I was anxious to begin experimenting with my new tools, to use the law of attraction to make things happen on purpose. I love to do experiments using the tools of prayer, visualization and altered states, and have learned it?s a scientific process. You do W, X, Y and the result is always Z. The trick being that W is the most essential step, because the success of the work depends entirely upon your ability to release resistance, visualize, feel and focus. When I get myself into the proper mindstate, the result is always predictable.
So I asked BB to participate in an experiment with me. For both of us, we were self employed and business had been slow. I wanted us to talk to each other a couple of times a day and talk about what our particular goal was ? to each increase our income for the coming month by 25%. I wanted us to make lists together of what we?d do with the money and make lists of the positive aspects of everything around us. This was an early Abraham process that I use to this day, and always with success. I wanted us to find evidence of people doing things we might like to do, and contemplate the incomes of people who earned what we wanted to earn. I wanted BB and I to agree to just 30 days of doing this to see what the result would be. We both had plenty of time on our hands, and nothing to lose.
But BB thought that ?sounded weird? and she ?didn?t want to do that.? She thought that doing ?stuff like that messes with destiny? and ?goes against the forces of nature.? BB loved to get into discussion about soul purpose and twin flames, and how destiny plays itself out. This however leaves no room for the concept that we have a hand in creating our own reality. ?But,? I asked her, ?how does prayer and spell casting and ritual fit in with destiny?? She explained that was done to gain the grace of the Creator. ?So how does gaining grace fit in with destiny?? I got the impression that prayers were answered or not at the whim of a gatekeeper that I needed to schmooze in order to gain favor with.
So the bottom line is that she did not participate in the experiment, so I did it on my own. I used my mom as a sounding board and as usual, she was the best, always encouraging and helpful. The results blew me away and gave me a feeling of power such as I?d never had before. I felt I could do anything, I felt that literally anything was possible for me now. I changed my daily routine to incorporate several sessions of writing down positive aspects, of writing down things I am grateful for. I began making lists of areas in my life where I would like change and, like NBC?s Earl, I began one by one going through them and checking them off. My income skyrocketed, my relationships improved, my creativity soared. My life was constantly being upgraded and everything began working synchronistically to a degree I?d never before experienced.
And I wouldn?t have known that was possible had I not tried it, had I not been open and given it a chance, had I not committed to experiment with it myself. Had I just thought, ?Well, I believe in destiny and I don?t think it?s possible that we have a hand in changing that, or in creating our own reality?, then I would have missed one of the biggest teachings in my life.
But for BB, well, she just didn?t think that sounded plausible and she didn?t want to mess with destiny or fall out of favor. At first I thought it was my job to make her ?get it?, to make her understand how the law of attraction worked because I knew her life could benefit by it. I knew her income and I knew her expenses and she was not an extravagant person. She was barely scraping by and to hear her tell her story, she had always managed to just barely scrape by and to the end, she just barely scraped by. Except by then she had moved out of state, back to the cold winters she always hated. Vibrational matching at work.
I hadn?t heard from BB for 8 or 9 years before she passed. We slowly began drifting apart, probably in no small part due to the fact that I began to inundate her with Abraham material ?for her own good? (smile). I in general became like a born-again, full of new enthusiasm to spread the good word, and not wanting to hear ?No? for an answer. ?Because if she did it my way, I knew she?d get what she wanted. Who doesn?t want to learn how to do that???
hahaha Well, I?ve grown up and gotten over myself since then. Now I know it?s not my job to do that unless they ask.
The fact was that we were no longer vibrating in harmony with each other, and the way that played itself out was that we slowly stopped talking. I was a computer person and she wasn?t. My life got busy and it was easier to keep in touch with friends who had email than to keep in touch with those who didn?t. It began to feel easier and more fun to be with friends who thought as I did and were also interested in the Abraham material. The conversations with those who were NOT into the material were not as satisfying to me as conversations with those who were. Relationships and activities with friends who were NOT into the material were not as fulfilling as they were with those who were. My circle of friends began to change. Like it or not, some longtime friends I loved, but with whom I no longer shared common interests, just slowly moved or dropped away. In their place arrived a new group of lively, enthusiastic like-minded others.
It?s happened to all of us. For many reasons we can sit side by side with our best friend and hear the same speaker and come away with two completely different experiences. One isn?t interested and the other?s world changes forevermore. I felt as though I found the ladder to heaven and couldn?t entice her up there with me.
And nothing I could say changed her mind. No evidence I presented was sufficient to sway her. She was not a skeptic, because a skeptic keeps an open mind. She had made up her mind in advance that destiny was the only way. So any info that came to her contrary to the concept of destiny just wasn?t available to her. She couldn?t see the evidence in front of her and she couldn?t hear what the speakers were saying.
It would be like shining a light into the eyes of a blind man, or shouting into the ear of a deaf woman. The signal is being sent out, but their receivers are not tuned to receive it. We tune our receiver to receive the signal by staying relaxed and open minded. If I think I know the answer to something and can?t be swayed, then I am not open minded on that topic. That means there is a veil in place, a filter, an illusion. That means I can?t trust my guidance on that topic. That means I am not clear on that topic, that I don?t understand it accurately.
If I don?t understand something, I can?t use it to enhance my life. If I don?t know how to use my tools, it doesn?t matter how many of them I have in my collection. For instance, if I don?t understand what everyone now is calling the law of allowing, I can?t effectively use that law to my advantage. I can?t use that law to create a happier, more fulfilling life for myself and for those I care about unless I really understand how it works and have tried it myself and know what I?m talking about.
Even knowing what I know, it?s frustrating to have friends I love and enjoy and watch them fall away from my life. It?s not as simple as I want to hang around those who ?get it? and whoever doesn?t ?get it? is kicked out of the inner circle. It is to realize we no longer share mutual interests or our visions have changed, that we are no longer vibrationally in tune with each other, realizing our time together is limited.
It is to realize when a good buddy doesn?t recognize how their pessimistic attitude or constant criticism affects you wanting to share time with them or not. It is realizing it is just easier to be with people who are NOT like that; with whom everything is NOT a struggle or a concern, where ups and downs are NOT tied to the news or the stock market. To be with people who know that anything is possible and anyone can do it. To be with people who are interested in enhancing their life via evolution of consciousness and are not satisfied with what the mainstream media has to offer. To be with people who share my vision, to spur each other on to higher thought and service.
I know the departure of old friends always signals the arrival of new friends and new lessons to be learned.
Gratefully, I have come to learn change is always an upgrade for me. It may be that I learn how to use a rice cooker, it may be I learn to speak Spanish, it may be I discover Indian and Asian cuisine. It may be that I release a fear, it may be that I learn relationship skills, it may be I learn a new software program, it may be that I change my dietary routine, it may be that I revise my understanding of the right wing conservative view, it may be that I discover I love to swim in the ocean and ride a motorcycle. It?s always an upgrade.
I can?t make someone else ?get it?. If their mind is made up, I am not speaking a language they understand. Since we are speaking apples and oranges, I don?t have the right words to make them understand. Nor is it my job to make them understand, nor do they have to understand. They are right where they need to be, doing what they need to do.
You don?t pull a fish out of water to show him how much fun hiking can be. If you want to play with the fish, you do so on his turf and you conform to his rules. When that stops being fun, when it becomes a drag to have to hold your breath for so long to keep up with your fishy friend underwater, you may make a new decision to return to dry land where you can relax and breathe easy with friends who do the same.
Enjoy our offering this month.
Life is good! Hari Om
September 2007
