Crystal Power

I went to church last night and our regular closed circle turned into a physical circle. The number attending were low, so we decided to do something different. It was a wonderful evening full of laughter and suprises. The question I ask, is everything really random? Things happen for a reason. I’m not talking about the bad stuff here. I’m talking about random events that take you down different pathways. I never thought I’d ever go to a spiritualist church. The thought I might see dead people scared the living daylights out of me. Yet, through a chain of events, I found myself regularly attending open circles. A place where you learn about spirit. Suddenly I wasn’t so afraid anymore. So fear is based on the unknown. As humans what we don’t understand, we fear.
Crystals. Some see them as pretty objects to be admired, while others see them as working tools. As a doctor see’s his stethoscope, a surgeon his scalpel. Do they have the power to heal? Huge ones are found below the earth. But did they grow randomly or are they the earth’s life force. A type of natural energy boost, which keeps the planet from falling to pieces.

I’d like your views on crystals. Have you used them. Would you?

Carrots, Egg & Coffee

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee...

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.
After twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, " Tell me what you see.""Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, wilt and become soft and lose your strength?
Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, you become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

May we all be coffee..............................

Beliefs

Belief is a tiny word with a huge meaning. If you look it up in the dictionary it will say it is the conviction of the mind, arising from evidence received, or from information derived, not from actual perception by our senses. In other words we need to have Faith. Again a small word, with a huge meaning.

Believing in ourselves allows us to expand, to try out new things, to move forward in our lives. To do this you need to have faith that you are right. Not many people can do this. I especially hold the golden crown for not believing in myself and what I can do.

So how do we achieve this blissful state? Only you can answer that one. I achieve it by releasing things that no longer nurture my spirit. Anything that takes me back to negativity is tying me down. Have faith and believe that what is in the past should stay there and that you and only you have the power to move forward in life. Take back that power which is lost to you. Hold it, nurture it. Believe it is there for you to use and then everything will fall into place. Everything will be as it should. Balance will be restored.

Keep your fork

Someone gave me this story a couple of years ago. It has really stuck in my mind, so I thought I'd share it.


There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. So as she was getting her things "in order," she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.

Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly.
"What's that?" came the pastor's reply.
"This is very important," the young woman continued."I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."
The pastor stood looking at the young woman, not knowing quite what to say.
"That surprises you, doesn't it?" the young woman asked.
"Well, to be honest, I'm puzzled by the request," said the pastor.
'In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork' It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming ... like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, and with substance!' So, I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder "What's with the fork?". Then I want you to tell them: "Keep your fork ... the best is yet to come."

At the funeral people were walking by the young woman's casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question "What's with the fork?" And over and over he smiled. During his message, the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the young woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her.
The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork and told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.
He was right.

So the next time you reach down for your fork, let it remind you ever so gently, that the best is yet to come.
Cherish the time you have with family and the memories you share . Being friends with someone is not an opportunity, but also a responsibility.

Intuition. What is it?

Let’s Talk about intuition.

Above the rational mind and below the soul realm is an intermediary plane of consciousness that I call the intuitional. It is very difficult to characterize this realm, because it transcends mental concepts but is still not a realm of being like the soul. The intuitional plane is the "highest" or most subtle and universal part of the created worlds. Although God and souls are the truly creative agents of the universe, we could say that the process of creating begins with the intuition and then moves to concepts, feeling responses, images and shapes, and finally physical manifestation. Thus intuition is a key to initiating creativity..

What exactly is this I hear you ask?
Well the only way I can explain it is that it’s the inner feelings that guide you in your life. Because the intuitional realm transcends the mind, it is often thought of as unconscious. This has nothing to do with emotional feelings that tell you what you feel regarding situations or relationships. Your emotions for example can be telling you that you are very attracted to someone, that you really like them and that you would really enjoy becoming involved and close to them while your intuition can be telling you NO WAY - BACK OFF. Intuitive feelings come from the larger, inner part of yourself.

Intuition does not consciously reason with logic in the mind, but rather directly perceives the vibrations of consciousness outside your own mind. Intuition does not just perceive on the intuitional level, it t can also discover things about the physical world, the astral plane, people's feelings and ideas by using psychic perception. Intuition can be flooded with creative inspiration directly from Spirit.

So now I know what it is, how can I develop it?
Many people are either not in touch with their intuition or are only partially in touch. Intuitive feelings are often subtle and fine, so if your life is very chaotic and busy, with no room for you to give yourself some quite quality time, then you will probably find your intuition difficult if not impossible to recognize.
The first thing you need to do is give yourself some time to relax. The second thing you need to do is learn to focus inwards. That is to become aware of what is happening inside of yourself. Most people don't do this. So, the first thing you must do is decide to get in touch with your inner you and find out what is happening there. Feel what you are feeling in different parts of your body, just breathe and BE. What are you feeling in your abdomen area? Your chest? Your upper legs? Is there tension, sadness, confusion? Is there nothing? Often there is nothing if you don't want to feel? So, then ask yourself why you don't want to feel?
This takes practice to do this and sometimes courage? I found books on meditation were a great help. Mediation puts you in touch with the inner you.

Where does intuition come from?
I believe (and it’s only MY belief, other people have their own) intuition initially comes from the soul. Now, as you are here with a particular agenda, then most of your intuition will be trying to keep you in alignment with this agenda, helping you to complete it.
Levels of Intuition.
1. You can be completely out of touch with your inner communication and have no intuition.
2. You can have intuition that comes from someone else. This focus could be from spiritual guidance and is for the most part may be driven by their agendas and affiliations and not your own.
3. Intuition that comes from you taking full responsibility for your path and your own decisions in forging that path. Here the primary focus is from yourself. Secondary focus will come from those YOU select as people who can support and help you in YOUR movement.
4. A deeper intuition arises as you integrate more and more with your soul. This happens concurrently as a deeper level of communion and wholeness arises within yourself.

Where does your intuition take you?
It will take you in alignment with the focus of what you want. If you don't particularly have a focus, or what you do have is not strong, then it may well be that your orientation comes from the higher spiritual guidance. I believe that people who blindly follow others have not done the basic growing necessary to make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves. In these cases the primary focus should be on becoming secure and confident.

Mediumship

Believe it or not, people have been able to communicate with the spirit world for thousands of years. There are references to mediumistic acts throughout the bible and other spiritual writings. Moses, Mary, Peter and many more people all had experiences which have been labelled as visions, angels appearing unto them or speaking in tongues. These can be classed as physical phenomena, with materialisation being just one form of physical phenomena that we as humans can experience when communicating with the spirit world.

Physical Mediumship really started in the mid 1800's. People have been using various methods to communicate with the spirit world. Spirit are trying all the time to communicate with us and will take every opportunity to do so through whatever means is available.

Let’s talk briefly about Ouija boards. Call them what you like, but they are not a good spirit tool. You have to remember not all spirits have good intentions; there are mischievous and negative spirits around. Like attracts like and if you are a depressed, negative or have mental health problems, this board can only bring you trouble.

Physical Mediumship It should only be practised in properly controlled environments with the correct supervision and safeguards in place to ensure the safety of the medium. It takes time and patience to practice. The conditions have to be right for spirit to appear in whatever form. The energy used by spirit is a lot greater in this form of communication than with mental mediumship. In most cases a medium goes into deep trance for the spirit to work through them. The medium is not possessed by the spirit and is in control at all times. The spirit person can communicate using the vocal chords of the medium to, or produce ectoplasm from various parts of the mediums body.

What is ectoplasm?
If you look up the word ectoplasm it will say it is a strange, visible, semi-fluid substance, that is believed to emanate from the body of a physical medium/spiritualistic medium. In fact one vital point is missed out. There has to be a certain chemical balance within the body of the medium that can mix with a certain energy sent by those in spirit. There are sadly too few mediums who have this chemical balance.
The term Ectoplasm was used by a French scientist named Charles Richet in 1894 a former president of the Society for Psychical Research. He was the first to use the term, to explain a third arm that allegedly appeared from a medium named Eusapia Palladino. Ectoplasm comes from the Greek words "ekto" and "plasma", meaning "exteriorized substance".
This type of spirit communication is very rare and should not be confused with ghosts or apparitions, as the spirit will use the energy built up in the room by those present to materialise.

Here are some other types of physical Mediumship.

Transfiguration. Here the face of a spirit person can be seen formed over the mediums face like a mask. I have witnessed, and also been used as the medium for this phenomena. It made me jump at first to see faces appearing, because it wasn't just one face, several appeared in succession. The faces can be very clear at times, with the mediums face completely disappearing. Often a mediums face will go completely dark as the spirit face builds. It feels very strange and I know that’s an inadequate word. The face tingles, feels likes it’s stretching and sometimes it itches like crazy. But it is a wonderful experience.

Direct Voice. Objects called trumpets are used for this type of communication. They are conical shaped objects with holes at both ends. The trumpet is placed in the centre of the circle of people present, when the atmosphere is right for spirit they will make the trumpet float in the air and use it for communication. This sounds hard to believe, but it does happen. The sound is created from an artificial throat box formed from ectoplasm and comes from the pointed end of the trumpet.

Trance. I’ve already touched on this on another page of my site.

Apports. This is a physical object bought through by spirit usually to the group of people sitting for communication. The objects can be almost anything from flowers, books, jewellery and even money. People do not usually sit for the purpose of bringing apports through, they just happen during a séance or closed circle if the spirit wishes to do so for what ever reason.

Something to make you think!

I never do the address in church. I leave that to the more experienced people. You're supposed to say something meaningful to the public, before the medium starts. I can never think of anything to say that would interest anyone. I found this story a while back and kept it just in case I was ever called up onto the rostrum to do an impromptu address. Read it and know, that sometimes everything isn't always as it seems!



A ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men
on it were able to swim to a small desert like island. The two
survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they have no
other recourse but to pray to God for help.

However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they decided
to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides
of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the
first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the island, and
he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land
remained barren.

After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for
a wife. The next day, there was another ship wreck, and the only
survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the island. On the
other side of the island, there still was nothing.

Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, and more food.
The next day, like magic, all of these things were given to him.
However, the second man still had nothing.

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife
could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked on
his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his
wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He
considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings,
since none of his prayers had been answered.

As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from
heaven boom-out, "Why are you leaving your companion on the
island?"

"My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for
them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered
and so he does not deserve anything."

"You are mistaken!" the voice rebuked him. "He had only one
prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have
received any of my blessings."

"Tell me," the first man asked the voice, "what did he pray for
that I should owe him anything?"

"He prayed that all your prayers would be answered."