January 8 through January 22, 2015
I awaken this morning with a prayer of thanks upon my lips and in my heart. A beautiful orange dawning greets my sleep-encrusted eyes, coloring the skies as my Sun King rises. My sleep was peaceful, undisturbed by cares or shadows and I greet the day with becalmed heart, quiet mind, a soul fully open to recognize and worship My Beloved in whichever guise he comes upon me. When cloaked in words, He speaks of truth and joy and His playful banter gentles and coaxes, teasing out the truth in me. When robed in images, He awaits the beholding, visions of unspeakable beauty, the soft touch of pencil or brush, demonstrating that becoming is all. From base materials of simplest construction, He emerges, the alchemy of transformation complete in Him. In joy, He visits me and I marvel again and again at his beauty. A song of praise arises from my pen, from the page in front of me and my cup runneth over with the sweetest nectar, wine so intoxicating that a droplet at the meeting of His lips is enough to fill my days with its sweetness, his tongue, sweeping it away, my nights with longing for the merest taste. Love, increase my poor capacity. Beauty, visit me within my walls and stretch them to clothe your form with ever-expanding radiance. This is my humble prayer.
Waxing poetic this morning, are we? [Michael laughs.]
Oh, Shazbat, Baby! I about jumped out of my skin!
I know! I love that! You are so much fun to sneak up on! I love that feeling of excitement … of never knowing what’s going to happen next. It’s MAGIC!
Yeah … well MAGIC or not … I am so glad you are here. I have so much to talk with you about!
Okay, then we better get started or we’ll never get finished. What did you want to talk to me about?
Well, do you remember our previous discussions about “virtual realities?” [Reference Installment 82, November 21, 2014 as well as Installments 85, 86 and 87. We kinda talked about this concept a LOT, so much so that I didn’t think there could be anything more to say about it … or anything more to be learned from it.]
Yes, I remember. And that was your first mistake. There is always more to be learned from a concept and always more to discuss.
So I’m discovering! Recently, I’ve gotten kind of a whole new slant about this topic that is so in line with what you told me during those discussions that it just floored me. To recap for newer readers, in November, 2014, I spent about a month experiencing, reading about and creating a kinda personal “virtual reality” environment based on Neverland Valley Ranch. Several books, I was reading at the time (The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits by Gregg Braden, The Way of the Wizard by Deepak Chopra and Wishes Fulfilled by Wayne W. Dyer among them) had supported and described the “virtual reality” concept and I had initiated Library Hour, during which I read aloud to you from books I found fascinating, as well as daily afternoon visits to Neverland Valley Ranch (as often as life permitted) aided by a CD of nature sounds. These hour-long visits became wonderful teaching aids, increasing my understanding of how many of my childhood experiences had come about, how they had influenced my later life and how I could release them with forgiveness for the people involved and stop carrying all that ‘wounded child’ baggage around with me any further. As a result of those participatory therapeutic sessions, I have experienced a much less resentful, more expansive sense of who I am and my purpose in this life and that ‘wounded child’ hiding within the adult me has become more cherished and nurtured. However, in addition, I find my visits extremely refreshing, relaxing and restorative.
Very recently, I have been introduced to The Teachings of Abraham, a non-physical collective entity as channeled by Esther Hicks through viewing a YouTube video of a conversation between Wayne W. Dyer (who has always been one of my favorite authors) and Abraham and reading the transcript, Co-Creating at Its Best. Being curious, I immediately looked up books and downloaded several, including Ask and It Is Given, The Law of Attraction Collection and The Vortex. I began reading the first almost immediately and found it profoundly instructive, giving as it does, very down-to-earth, practical advice on the Law of Attraction we all hear about all the time and how it works as well as why and how we sometimes perceive it is not working for us and how we can remedy that situation.
The second part of Ask and It is Given describes several “processes” or “games” which are recommended to help raise the individual’s “vibrational frequency” to more closely harmonize with the objects of his/her desires and to speed the manifestation process or facilitate the Law of Attraction. In the words of Abraham:
We use the words process, technique and game interchangeably because, while these are powerful processes that will assist you in achieving anything that you desire, if you will take a playful approach to them, you will hold far less resistance than if you see them as tools to fix something that is broken. The key to the success that you will find in these processes actually hinges upon your ability to release resistance, and the more playful you are, the less resistance you will hold.
Yes, as I told you during our discussions of focus, a playful, child-like approach is always helpful. Make a game of it! Play around! You take yourself way to seriously most of the time; bringing a spirit of play and curiosity makes anything … even the most mundane of everyday tasks … fun and adventurous and mysterious.
Well, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I read the following in Ask and It is Given:
Process #4 – Virtual Reality
Remember you live in a vibrational universe and all things are managed by the Law of Attraction. And you get what you think about, whether you want it or not, because whenever you achieve vibrational harmony with something because you are giving it your attention, the vibrational essence of it will, in some way, begin to show up in your life experience.
So you could say that the universe responds to your vibrational offering, to your point of attraction, to the thoughts you think, and to the way you feel. The universe is not responding to what has manifested in your experience, but, instead, to the vibration you are now offering. The universe makes no distinction between your actually having a million dollars or your giving thought to having a million dollars. Your point of attraction is about your thoughts, not about your manifestations.
The Virtual Reality Process is not about your trying to fix something that is broken. It is one where you deliberately activate a scene in your own mind that causes you to offer a vibration that matches the scene you have activated — and as you practice visualizing pleasant scenes in your mind, these good-feeling vibrations can then become your new set-point.
and
When you are focused on or praying for something you really want or need, often you are not a vibrational match to the thing you want. Instead you are a vibrational match to the absence of it.
and
Virtual Reality is a process where you get to choose everything about this moment in time, just like the director of a movie would do … The purpose of this Virtual Reality Process is to cause you to activate vibrations within you that put you in the place of allowing your Well-Being … In your Virtual Reality you can make it be precisely the way you want it to be.
[Michael laughs.] Did you fall off your chair?
No, but it was a near thing!
I hope you also noticed the importance the above quote places on another concept we have talked about repeatedly: FOCUS! What are you paying attention to? The lack of something … or the joy and fulfillment its presence will give you? If you are focusing on your resentment because you don’t have something … money … time … health … whatever … or you are bemoaning your lack with questions of “Why me?” … you will create more of that resesentment and lack because you don’t have what you want. However, if you are focusing on how good it will feel to have or be or do whatever you desire, picturing the attainment of all you wish and dream of and allowing those thoughts to flow into and inform your emotional state, you will manifest those dreams more immediately in your reality.
Yes, my Dear One, I did notice that! And I always marvel when I notice that the thoughts you have expressed in these Conversations is so profoundly aligned with those I am reading in spiritual or scientific experts’ testimonies. You constantly amaze and delight. In Installment 87, you said:
Your emotions, however, are all about MAGIC! And for those few seconds in which you observe the illusion, the MAGIC takes precedence and evokes an emotion of joy … or wonder … or ‘how the heck did that happen?’ … or ‘did I just see what I thought I saw?’
It’s also like your afternoon visits to Neverland. Of course, you are aware that you are sitting in your room with your headphones on, listening to the water and bird ‘symphony’ of your Neverland CD, but in your mind you are wandering among the flower beds, lakes and meadows of Neverland Valley Ranch, swinging on rope swings and splashing in the water and playing with me.
For that hour in the afternoon, your emotions of joy and bliss take precedence. Your body doesn’t care that it is an illusion. The healing chemicals that accompany joy and fun and play and love that are released into your bio-chemical systems don’t differentiate between ‘reality’ and ‘unreality’ … and here’s the thing … neither does the field of all possibilities where the reality you are living is created. The emotions elicited by your ‘presence’ in an illusion are the same as if they were experienced in conjunction with what you label ‘real’ events … and they have the same effect on your body and your mind as well as on that field where reality gestates and is born. That’s why our visualizations for the trial of Conrad Murray … removing the negative atmosphere in the courthouse and replacing it with an atmosphere in which Truth and Love could thrive … worked so well. It’s why prayer works. For those few moments with me, your emotions are communicating with the field and you are consciously creating the reality in which you want to participate (as opposed to creating it unconsciously by default.) One hour of conscious creation trumps twenty-four hours of default reaction any day.
To me, the Virtual Reality Process of Abraham and my afternoons spent in Neverland with you are the same thing using different words.
Of course, they’re the same thing. Truth is truth and ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ as Shakespeare wrote. The Law of Attraction … the field of all possibilities … virtual reality, imaginary interlude or power nap … dream, visitation, out-of-body experience, astral travel. Names and labels don’t mean anything; they’re just words by which your society has taught you to evaluate your experience. What’s important is the essence.
What you are doing is occupying a play within a play, and in this play you are playing the lead role. You build the sets, direct the action and interact with the characters in your imagination. You set the tone (what I call emotion and your book calls vibration) and your emotions become engaged in the process. You can’t usually just sit down and say, “Okay, I am going to be joyful now,” and experience that emotion on demand just as I couldn’t sit at the piano and say, “Okay, now I am going to write the best song ever created.” You have to create a ‘receiving’ attitude … step into the flow …
People ask me how I make music. I tell them I
just step into it. It’s like stepping into a river
and joining the flow. Every moment in the river has
its song. So I stay in the moment and listen.
What I hear is never the same. A walk
through the woods brings a light, crackling
song: leaves rustle in the wind, birds chatter
and squirrels scold, twigs crunch underfoot, and
the beat of my heart holds it all together. When
you join the flow, the music is inside and outside,
and both are the same. As long as I can listen to
the moment, I’ll always have music.
So, that’s what you meant by “stepping into it.”
Of course! What did you think I meant? [Michael giggles.] To do this, you have to step out of your ego; you have to acknowledge that you are receiving a gift not of your own creation … a gift that comes from another source. That’s what you’re doing with your afternoon power naps; you are stepping out of the ego’s ‘reality’ and creating for a few moments your own, using the most powerful tools in your toolbox … your imagination … and your focus. You are expanding your reality to include what your ego tells you is a ‘waste of time’ … or ‘not really productive’ … or ‘impossible’ … or ‘naive.’ You are stepping into the flow of love and joy and bliss by imagining yourself in Neverland, playing with me, surrounded by the natural beauty of the valley. And your emotions are responding to those scenes by becoming joyful and full of bliss. It may be your most valuable use of time; your most productive; your most realistic.
In the book you’re reading, it’s called “raising your vibrational frequency to more closely align with the objects of your desires” but it’s the same thing. You are opening yourself to ‘receive’ from the universe. Children do this so easily; it’s so natural to them, but we adults are reluctant to give up our illusory ‘control’ over our ‘reality’ … our cares and worries and stresses … and egos … and become so vulnerable and open. This is one of the things we need to learn from our children … that innocence, purity, openness and wonder. It is not ‘childish’ … it is consciously creating the world we want to inhabit … instead of unconsciously reacting to the ‘reality’ we don’t want … defending indefensible positions or supporting insupportable apathy or maintaining the status quo.
Well, I am so hearing your words as I read Abraham’s profoundly practical steps to a more joyous life. Many of the processes or games recommended felt very attractive to me and, according to Abraham, the enthusiasm or attraction one feels for the processes described indicates those to which the individual should pay particular attention because the attraction or enthusiasm one feels is an indication that the particular process resonates strongly with the vibration in which he or she is currently in harmony. I was very enthusiastic about The Virtual Reality game (for obvious reasons), but several of the others also caught my attention: The Rampage of Appreciation, The Magical Creation Box and The Creative Workshop processes … or games … also fascinated me for different reasons.
The Rampage of Appreciation process reminds me so much of what I experienced almost entirely through the months of November and December of this past year … after I had cleaned up my new art studio. I sat and just enjoyed (read appreciated) everything about this new space: the light coming in the windows on bright, sunny days and how it changed on cloudy days or at dusk or sunset; the squirrels and woodpeckers I could watch playing in the tree branches outside the windows; the meditation altar and my drawings scattered around the room; bringing in comfortable chairs and pillows and scents; and bringing your voice in to fill the room with your presence (a process I described in detail in our last Conversation, Installment 90.) I thought I was just ‘wasting time’ … being ‘lazy’ … ‘playing around.’ But when I read the description of this process, I was just dumbfounded that there was a name for what I was doing. I was, somehow, tuned into this Rampage of Appreciation process.
You need to stop thinking of ‘playing around’ as lacking in responsibility or laziness. Playing around is how you learn; we’ve talked about this before. I ‘played around’ in the dance studio all the time, seeing different ways to hold and move my body and incorporating those that worked into dance routines. It’s experimentation … seeing what works and what doesn’t work … and giving yourself the freedom to make mistakes.
Mr. Magic
That reminds me of a card a friend sent to me several months ago that contained a quote from Pablo Picasso. It read: “Creativity is the freedom to allow yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Exactly! I’ve told you, you judge yourself too harshly all the time. This is just another example in a long list of examples of that. Instinctively, you tuned into the fact that your new space needed to be cleaned up … spiritually as well as physically. Of course, our visualization process with the courthouse in Los Angeles helped pave the way for that realization, but you employed it … almost automatically … to this new space … which is something that I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Do you remember when we started the visualizations to clear out the negative emotional climate of the courthouse?
Yes, I remember.
At the time, you told me you had difficulty visualizing and doubted my assertion that the process would ever become second nature to you, didn’t you?
Yes, I did.
Look at you now! You are spending an hour with me in Neverland on an almost daily basis and employing that process almost automatically as you live your everyday life. You are applying those principles as a matter of course with barely a thought. I don’t know about you, but I am smiling … HUGELY … and I know you better be! As Eddie Murphy once said to me, “I wanna see GUMS!”
[Jan laughs out loud.] Okay, my Beautiful One … gums … just for you!
Good! That’s better! Now tell me about this Magical Creation Box! It sounds fascinating!
Okay, to explain this, I’m going to use a quote from another book … a book written by your friend, Frank Cascio, called My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man. Chapter 8 of Frank’s book is entitled Mind Maps and describes a road trip he took with you in Scotland during a break between the Dangerous and HIStory World Tours… and I quote:
Before we got in the bus Michael had chartered for the trip (what, you thought we were gonna be doing this in a VW bug?), he and I went shopping for supplies. He said, “We’re going to make a mind map.” Now, growing up in Michael’s sphere meant absorbing his one-of-a-kind philosophy. I may not have been a straight-A student, but we all learn in different ways, and I had a rare and inspired teacher. A mind map, as I learned that day, was a book in which we would paste pictures of things that inspired us — places, people, images of what we liked and what we hoped to achieve. Materials required: piles of magazines full of photos, blank notebooks, glue, and scissors. Purchases made, we boarded a big luxury tour bus outfitted with comfortable couches and beds, and soon we were departing London en route to Lock Lomond.
A driver and two security guards accompanied us. Michael and I had the bedroom at the back of the bus. When we weren’t taking in the scenery, we were in that back room, making our mind maps. Making mind maps was new to me, but it wasn’t the first exercise Michael had given me that had to do with how I conceived of and planned my future. Michael had already given me some of his favorite books about success: The Greatest Salesman in the World, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Creative Visualization, and many, many others along these lines. Now, while we worked on our mind maps, he helped me see that the opportunities were endless. There was no limit to what one could achieve…
As the gorgeous landscape rolled by, Michael lay on the bed, and I sat on the floor of the bus, both of us paging through magazines, ripping out images, snipping around thought-provoking words and phrases, talking about which castles Michael wanted to own, which girls he wanted to date (Princess Diana was top of his list), which hotels and resorts I fantasized about owning, the Academy Awards and Grammy Awards I hoped to win. I was about to turn sixteen, and the world seemed limitless. It was easy for me to hear Michael say he wanted a castle and to reply, “Yeah! I want a castle, too!” It was the perfect time and the perfect place to entertain outsized fantasies and ponder the meaning of life.
Endquote! The reason that I pulled this quote from Frank’s book is that the Magical Creation Box is a carbon copy of your mind map, Michael, except you place the images, people, inspiring words and phrases in a box instead of pasting them in a notebook. The box has the words, “Whatever is contained within this box — IS!” taped on the lid and, as you put an image, word, phrase or object into it, it is recommended that you repeat that mantra. It is also recommended that you have fun and enjoy the entire process because your emotions … the fun and playfulness and joy with which you imbue the game … facilitates the manifestation of your desires (as is indicated in the quote from Abraham above.) How in the world did you get so doggone smart?
[Michael laughs shyly.] I read! I read a LOT! I so enjoyed learning and knowledge and I was so grateful to Mrs. Fine for insisting on us reading when we were on tour … learning about the different cultures we visited and the people and their beliefs. It was the greatest education in the world.
Well, when I first read the quote above in Frank’s book, I was totally impressed with the process and the way you had encouraged his curiosity with this game, but when I read the description of the Magical Creation Box in Ask and It is Given, I thought, “Shazbat! This man was light years ahead of us poor mortals!”
[Michael laughs again.] Awww! I love you MORE, ya know! This was a fun game that Mrs. Fine made up to keep us interested and occupied in all those countless motel rooms all over the world. She would have us cut out photos of the architecture and history and cultural treasures from all the different countries we visited on tour and paste them in scrapbooks as momentoes of our visits. Then, later, she would have us cut things out BEFORE we got there and read up about them. When we arrived, she would make sure we got to see as much as we could of those things we had put in our scrapbooks up close and personal. It passed a lot of hours enjoyably and encouraged us to read. She was an excellent teacher … at least, for me. My older brothers loved her dearly, but I think she made more of an impression on me.
It was also during this road trip that you taught Frank how to meditate. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for these outstanding lessons in life.
We talked about that in earlier Conversations, too. Now, tell me about the Creative Workshop game.
Okay, well, in this game one takes the major areas of one’s life … body, relationships/family, home and work … and focus in minutely and specifically on what you want to experience in those areas … and why. You write each of the major areas on a piece of paper and make a list of what you want to experience. For example, under body one might write “I want to be my ideal weight … I want to enjoy perfect health, etc.” Then, under each of the points on the list, you write WHY you want to experience that … “because I felt good when I weighed [blank] … because I was healthier … because I looked good … etc.”
The main point of this game is to pinpoint exactly what one wants, because so often, we don’t know what we want except in very vague terms … or we know that we don’t want what we are experiencing so we know what we want in negative terms. With the use of this game, we clarify our desires and it is recommended that we review the lists of desires for a few minutes on a daily basis in a spirit of joy and expectation so that we facilitate their manifestation.
Yes, this is kinda like what I did with writing my goals on little scraps of paper and mirrors where I could see them all the time and remind myself of what I wanted to achieve. I always felt that goals were very important because they help solidify your dreams and keep you on track to achieving them. Then, you practice, practice, practice … until you get it right. And then you practice some more until you get it beautiful. It’s what you’re doing with your art. You wanted to draw and paint … that was your goal … and you set about practicing with different mediums and ‘playing around’ with different subjects (mostly me) … and you are learning in a child-like attitude of experimentation and slowly building toward achieving your goal. When you have achieved one goal, you set a new goal and work at achieving that one in the same way. I wonder if we will ever get you playing that beautiful harp that is sitting in the corner at the foot of your bed?
Oh, Baby, that would take a miracle!
Yeah … I thought you would say that … but don’t worry. We will work on it together. That’s what you said about your hatred of Tom Sneddon …
Oh! Shoot! I forgot to tell you! Tom Sneddon has died!
Yeah, I know … I wondered when we were going to get around to this. How do you feel about that?
Well, at first, I was a bit disappointed that he had transitioned without admitting his crimes against you, but my disappointment did not distract me from my usual activities. It was a minor blip on my radar and I was able to feel some sympathy for his family and pray that his transition would be an event that would ultimately contribute to your legacy.
Wow! That is progress! May I remind you that, once again, you doubted that we would ever get you to that level?
Of course, you may remind me and my gratitude knows no bounds.
Touch
At the touch of your love, I blossom, a bashful, blushing rose
opening herself, petal by petal, to the heat of the sun
in perfect trust, allowing its penetration
even to the tenderest of her shoots at the very heart of her core.
At the touch of your fingers, I flyer higher and higher,
my most secret dreams sprout wings of iridescent beauty
and gossamer delicacy,
invisible, yet strong
they lift me ever closer to your waiting arms.
At the touch of your lips, I am swept away,
a tiny, insignificant grain of sand
captured by the tide’s inescapable pull
and yet
submitting to its thundering eagerness
at rejoining its ebbing swells.
The hollow reed awaits your breath, your song,
anticipating its beauty, its harmony
the blank purity of the canvas, your brush
with its colors leaving form in its wake
the veined marble, your chisel
driven by vision
as the husk awaits the kernel
the acorn, the mighty oak
with faith
unwavering
unconquerable
unshakable
inevitable.
Thank you.
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