Upgrading God

 Upgrading God ©2021 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

Last weekend I was at a conference where a white judge from Texas (not acting in his professional capacity but using his legal expertise to manipulate our voting system) wanted to enforce a rigid and antiquated interpretation of the group's guidelines. It excludes the experience of a large number of participants. He did something like this last year, which led to 12 months of discord and contention within the organization.

This year the majority of attendees expressed a desire to be inclusive. He managed to get the last word in before the first gathering was ending, with an attempt to back up his claims using gender specific terms for God.

His viewpoint is that if we expand our interpretation, the organization will die.

What's actually dying, is old paradigms of power, old paradigms of gender, old paradigms of privilege and exclusivity. It's his version of reality that is dying. His attempt to exert control, if successful, would lead to the death of the organization.

But that's not going to happen, because the majority of members are committed to growth and clarity.

I'm working with a mentee who was raised in a conservative religious cult, and the male gendered version of God was actually preventing her spiritual growth. I suggested calling God "she", and it completely expanded her worldview. She uses "Goddess" in her prayers and feels more trusting that it's a benevolent Universe.

A few years ago, I went through yet another frigging upgrade from the 5D one I already went through in 2006. I'd already experienced the Universe being benevolent. I liked that version of spiritual software. But in 2016, my version of God expanded. As a child I was raised Presbyterian, with the old man with a beard God who was also punishing, non-forgiving, and withholding. In my early twenties, it changed to the Universe, that I could call on ("Hey, U"!) any time and feel everything surrounding me become sharper and brighter. When I went to Findhorn times in my late thirties, I experienced being enveloped in Love, and when I studied with David Spangler in my early forties, I experienced that same Love again, falling into it fearing I would lose myself and yet finding myself more clearly defined within it.

But then it became Consciousness, and I Am Consciousness, both encompassing and within. And it wasn't just accessing God Within, it was Consciousness within and the absolute knowing that I Am Consciousness.

And that really tripped me up. It was so foreign to the belief that God is a power greater than you, an intelligence greater than myself, something to surrender to, turn my will and my life over to the care of...

How do I do that when it's me? Consciousness doesn't have a heirarchy. There's no more than or less than. You don't give up space to it. It doesn't make sense to. 

So I spent a good four years arm wrestling with it, feeling almost atheist. 

And now it's turning around. I Am Consciousness and the part of me that is arm wrestling myself is my body personality, my horse. When I operate as Consciousness, everything lines up and manifests easily and effortlessly.

Consciousness is greater than the Hologram. It's greater than the avatar playing in the hologram. And yet it is the life force within every cell that makes up the character that is me and the seemingly solid objects within the hologram.

There is no power in the hologram and to try to shadow box with it will make you feel powerless.

Drop the fight and more possibilities open up. 

But I also realize that this experience of Consciousness is not fixed. It expands, it contracts. Because it's Earth the opposite will feel true. 

We're all going through a Consciousness upgrade. For some of us we've gone to our general settings and clicked "Install now".  For some of us it's going to happen while we sleep and when we wake up we'll discover half of our apps no longer work.

In my experience, it's a lot more pleasant to click 'Install now" and be in agreement with the expansion than to remain unconscious.

What do you want to do?

NSV God

NRSV God ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb

I was chatting with a Christian lay minister the other day and trying to explain my expanded awareness of Consciousness and she said, ‘Oh, you have a new version of God!’

I laughed because, years ago when I read such things, my favorite version of the Bible was the New Standard Version. According to her, I have a NRSV God.

Many people don’t realize how many versions of the Bible there are. So many interpretations and translations. And yet they claim every word in it is true. But will pull out a piece of scripture to justify a behavior that isn’t very “Christian”.

We view the world through our personal lenses, our ‘slides’ or transparencies of our beliefs about reality rather than what really is.

There is an Essence of truth in all religious writing, but many distortions as well. And we each have an essence of truth in awareness of God, but many distortions as well.

The old, Charlton Heston in the Sky, version of God that I grew up with, no longer works for me. I don't use the word God any more, it feels too limiting. That went away a couple of decades ago when I shifted to an awareness of Spirit, the invisible energy beyond, that I’d call Universe when I was talking to it. “Hey, U.!” I’d say.

This awareness was not personified, and characterized by a heightened clarity of vision. My surroundings would look brighter and crystal clear when attuned to Spirit.

I’ve had some profound spiritual awakenings, several times being enveloped in Love. Amazing experiences of falling into this energy and yet become more fully my Self.

I used to describe this as Essence, and explain it to people as the Essence of who You are.

Yet all of these still placed it as something outside of myself. And my evolution is pulling me towards  this source as being within me, and as the real ‘me’.

More recently, I’ve been calling this Consciousness which seems to many people as simply ‘awareness’ or being conscious (as in being deliberate).

When I shift my focus to Consciousness, it’s a more embodied feeling than when I used to talk to the Universe. The Universe was still above me. Consciousness integrated.

As Consciousness, I have no sense of specific directions, in or out, so I realize that it doesn’t make sense to define it as inside or above. But the difference for me is the identification. Language isn’t adequate for this experience.

You are Consciousness, and have a body-personality that you’re experiencing the world through. I am the same Consciousness, with a different body-personality. It’s all the same Consciousness, just a different vehicle.

We want to superimpose our body limitations on this, saying we are all One, and that you are a reflection of me.  You could say that One is all we, and we are all emanations (rather than reflections). Except Consciousness isn't One, it doesn't have numbers.

And even as Consciousness has no directions, it's still useful to be in touch within your physical form. Because as Consciousness you created this reality and you created the body that you're in to experience it with.

We get to be individuals as well as Consciousness. Which makes me realize that our purpose for being here is about creating, experiencing and feeling. How we each do that is up to us.

Most people view themselves as a personality, or even as a soul with a divinity that is outside or separate. When you shift your identification to that as Consciousness, it shifts your perception of everything as well.

Life becomes so much easier with a broader viewpoint. You're no longer caught up in the roller coaster ride of human drama. There's greater freedom, greater joy, greater love and appreciation.

I invite you to try it this week, shifting your awareness to being Consciousness in form, and see what transforms!

A New Definition of God

A New Definition of God ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I’m not that familiar with non-monotheistic religions, but the stories all have examples of Godly abilities and human frailties. They tend to place their Gods remotely, up in the sky or down below in the underworld. There are differing interactions with humans, and it seems to me extreme power struggles.

I’m more familiar with Christianity from a mystical perspective. If you broadly look at the Old Testament, God was this jealous, vengeful and angry guy way up in the sky, who threw frogs and plagues at them. He demanded sacrifices, whether goats or first born sons. People were like ants compared to God.

New Testament God was parental, compassionate, loving. You could have a conversation with “Him”.  It was a new definition of God that was very radical. Even today, people confuse the two.

This new definition came at a radical, evolutionary shift in Consciousness. And we‘re at another shift yet again.

There’s a new definition of God emerging, and from our antiquated viewpoint, we describe it as God within. An Inner Being.

I invite you to a different perspective of all of this.

Think of this world as a marvellous creation of Consciousness. It’s a manifestation experiment that played with different forms to physically embody. Dinosaurs were the beta version, they didn’t quite work out.

(Now, Consciousness creates all of this, thus Consciousness is in all of this. But each form provides a different experience and comprehension)

If you shift your perspective to that of Consciousness, that is, *you* are Consciousness, you can see the evolution simply being You coming more into form.

As Consciousness, you've been tweaking with the form design since before dinosaurs, fine tuning it to fit into.

What we are experiencing now is greater Consciousness coming into form, a higher vibration embodying the density of the physical, Our bodies have been redesigned to accept this increased energy. When a higher frequency comes into form, denser aspects disintegrate. We’re seeing this as egoic states breaking down.

Egoic states don’t like this. They think of themselves as separate entities. They don’t wanna disintegrate. Their existence is threatened.

The personality level views things in black and white terms. It interprets things as life and death issues. It doesn't see this evolution as a good thing. It sees it as an invasion, an assimilation.

As Consciousness, it’s exciting. It’s a birth into a new collective form. When you shift your perspective to You as Consciousness coming into form more, you feel joyous and happy.

All it requires is adjusting your perspective and the rest will come. Notice in the moment if you’re viewing your life as if things are happening to you, or as if You are creating all of it as Consciousness.

At first it may seem difficult, because you’re changing your habitual thinking. But it quickly creates a profound paradigm shift.

There's no confusion from this viewpoint. There’s only love, emanating inward and around, and outward. And that love is You.

God Has No Personality and What Pain Has To Do With It.

God Has No Personality ©2015 Joan M Newcomb

I try to talk about spiritual subjects without using religious references.  I even try not to use the word spiritual. I've been talking a lot about Consciousness lately because, to me, it's a more accurate description of who we are, both individually and collectively.

I was raised in a religious family. We said prayers at every meal, at bedtime, and went to Church every Sunday. For my mother it was an internal experience, and she lived her faith. My father did his best to show our religion externally.

"God" by Moyan Brenn on Flickr

My own definition of God went through many incarnations, peeling away the layers to what Essence felt like.  My biggest stumbling block was the Christian 'God The Father' which, in my experience was not compassionate nor benevolent. My biggest breakthrough was calling it Universe. My prayers were conversations while driving.  I always began with 'hey, U'!

For years I'd also journal my conversations, writing my questions and then scribing what I perceived was the response.  The replies weren't verbal, but more impressions. It was frustrating because I'd list all my complaints and the answers would be very benign. I realized that my grievances were like standing in front of a tree with my face pressed into the bark, and God was showing me a forest, with many pathways.

At some point, the Universe itself became a feeling, an impression. When I shifted my attention, the world around me changed. Colors became brighter, everything came into sharp focus.

There's been several spiritual awakenings, when I'd be enveloped in Love. In Love with the Universe, with my life, with myself. I'd still have the same problems, but I knew all would be very, very well. No matter what drama was going on, I remain centered. The longest this lasted was for nine months.  It would be wonderful to tip over into it again permanently.

One time I was struggling, and resisting the concept of an external God. After all, I AM Spirit, I AM my Inner Being. The answer came to me that it doesn't matter how you interact with the Divine. You can have God the Father, God the Authority, God outside of yourself, God inside, many Gods, and no God/s at all. It's all go(o)d.

So now I dance with Consciousness. With the awareness of my Self as Consciousness, knowing this is all a creation of Consciousness.  And this morning, my journaling started to veer off into personality level narrative. Painful emotions arose.  I shifted my perspective, and felt Consciousness flow through my body. Pain dissipated.

This stayed with me as I walked my dog. What I noticed was an impassive appreciation for the world.  We created this reality to experience the opposite of who we really are. Emotions are part of that experience. Bodies are our vehicles to feeling this reality. Personality is what we create in order to be visible to others and distinguishable by others.

If it has emotions and a personality, it's a physical level projection.

Consciousness has no personality. Consciousness feels immense, and clear. The body delights in Consciousness, there's an absence of pain when fully embodied. And yet pain comes up in the process of embodiment. As we come into form, we feel more. When you shine more light into a place, it reveals emotions and physical sensations. I am now finding that pain disappears when fully Conscious.

What does pain have to do with it? Pain makes the body feel real. Pain is a physical reaction. We've used pain to anchor us here. Pain is a reminder to focus within. When your fully focused within, pain goes away. Or, your definition of pain shifts, and it doesn't feel painful, or bother you any more.  It's not denying, resisting, or ignoring it. It's bringing full awareness to it.

Becoming fully conscious requires anchoring into the body. You miss the point of being here by leaving the body or going outside it in order to be more spiritual. You're already Spirit, you don't need to be more so. You just need to be more here.

You can get there by focusing inward, by connecting to to 'anchor points' within form. You can anchor in the lower abdomen. You can anchor in your solar plexus. You can anchor deep into your heart. You can anchor in the center of your brain. You will find, as you bring your full attention into any or all of these places, that it's quite spacious inside you. These anchor points aren't fixed, they go on and on, deeper and deeper. You are still here, and also there.

Play with all of this for the next 7 days and see what happens!

Involution and Evolution

Involution and Evolution (c)2015 Joan M Newcomb

What direction are you headed? Are you looking for answers? Trying to get spiritual?
Do you feel like the answers are "out there"? That to access Consciousness, you have to go Up?
Do you need to accelerate, or try harder, to become more aware?

It's popular to say we are in the midst of an evolution of Consciousness, but in actuality it may be an involution of Consciousness.

Bodies evolve (I personally believe that dinosaurs were 'beta tests').  Physical bodies are vehicles for Consciousness. Human bodies have evolved over time, to be able to handle more of the higher vibration of Consciousness.

The denser the body, the more distant it feels from Consciousness.


Consciousness has been described as God, but even that is a disconnected view point.

Imagine yourself as Consciousness.  You create this planet of form, with your own focus.  You are life force, and your energy focuses into everything.

Every thousand years or so, your human body creations go through a growth spurt, and you're able to feel through them a bit more.

Three thousand years ago they perceived you as far away, and projected their fears and vengefulness at you.  Two thousand years ago there was a 'consciousness shift' that, from their perception, brought you closer.  You became a parental figure.

There's been another shift, and they're able to feel you within.  It's blowing their minds.

For you, it's a not exactly a coming inward, but a more focused concentration. 

In body, it feels like being enveloped in love.  Make that Love, with a capital L.  The body tingles.  Pain disappears.  It feels expansive.  It feels incredibly clear.  There's incredible gratitude, incredible appreciation, and an inner sense of Knowing.

How do you get there? How do you feel this more?

It's all about navigation.  If it feels negative or limiting, it's turning away.  If it feels joyous or expansive, it's turning towards.  Yet sometimes, body/personality has been hunched down for so long, it feels fearful about standing up, opening up.  Sometimes it's about breaking through, or breaking open.

It's more than just choosing your thoughts or redirecting your thinking. 

It's a simple as imagining.  Imagining You are Consciousness, focusing inward.  Uncomfortable thoughts or feelings come up, turn your full focus as Consciousness upon them.  Light dissolves shadow.

It takes practice, but it doesn't take very long. 

Take time every day to do this, be mindful of this throughout the day, and you will very shortly be transformed beyond your wildest dreams!

Growing up!

(c) 2010 Joan Newcomb

All this talk of 2012 and the expansion of Consciousness really means that we are growing up.  We're no longer powerless little minions at the mercy of a jealous and vengeful God.  However, we are also no longer beloved children of a benevolent Father.  Both of those phases were how we as personalities with physical forms perceived our relationship with Consciousness.

This planet is a wonderful playground and Consciousness has been experimenting with it's vehicles and it's terrains for millennia.  I imagine the dinosaurs as early bumpo cars, and our current bodies as computerized racers.

It's easier for Consciousness to embody our present forms, which is why we've made such strides in both technological creations and in societal awareness.  More and more people are 'getting it', little sparks of light are turning on all over the world.  Old interactions, wars and conflicts between nations, are giving away to a global economy, an interconnectedness between us all. 

Technology is just our physical attempts to replicate Spirit.  Flight, because as Spirit we can go places quickly (actually be everywhere at once), phone/email/im replicates telepathy.  The internet mimics the akashic records.  And social media is getting pretty close to unity consciousness. 

So if God isn't throwing frogs and hurricanes at us, and our Father isn't mad at us because we're so bad and sinful, what's really going on?

We're at the new stage of awareness, where God isn't outside us, but within us.  This has been talked about for centuries but now the majority of us are 'getting it'.  We don't have to go down to the corner store to use their phone by cranking a handle and talking to an operator, and we don't have even stay at home to make a call.  We all have an inner modem/cell phone to connect with Consciousness.  God is inside us.  God *is* Us.

Growing up requires us to step up in responsibility.  We can't blame what's happening in our reality to outer circumstances, because We are the Creators.  However, that doesn't mean blaming ourselves.  That means blame isn't even in the picture. 

Growing up requires a change of perspective.  It's not that it's easier for Consciousness to embody us.  It's easier for Us to embody form.  We are Consciousness, and we created our body/personality forms to manifest through.

We're not the bumpo car nor the racer, nor the computer nor the cell phone.  We're the Internet, the energy that makes them go, the information that runs them.

How does that change your reality, when you look at your life that way?  You are a lot bigger than your problems, You are a lot bigger than your individual life!

One of thing things that's been happening as people lose their jobs and their life savings, is they're losing huge chunks of their identities. We're all feeling aspects of ourselves falling away, and it's really uncomfortable. But that's because we're expanding beyond our self-images to our Greater Self.

This week, start looking at your life as Consciousness instead of your small self. How does this change your perspective of your problems? How does Consciousness perceive your finances? Your relationships? Your career choices?

As Consciousness, suddenly the economy is no big deal.  It's just an amusing challenge.  Death and illness, pain and struggle, aren't so miserable from Consciousness point of view.  It's all really quite exciting. 

As Consicousness, there aren't limitations, there are options and opportunities.  And there aren't other people giving you a hard time, there are actors you have cast to enhance your story!

There's tremendous freedom when you view Yourself as Consciousness.  There are no mistakes, they're all experiences.  You can start thinking outside the box, improvising off the script. 

Try this for a week and see how your life transforms!

You Are God - Are You?

(c)2009 Joan M. Newcomb

This is a big topic (as big as God) which can be approached from many angles... I'm just going to dive in and see what emerges.

I'm going to start biblically. If you look at the Old and New Testament version of God, you can see a clue as to the evolution of mankind, or the embodiment of Consciousness in form.

The Old Testament God is vengeful, jealous, but basically one that is very far away or removed from the people that he's pelting with frogs or locusts. It's a God that feels distant, yet also imbued with human characteristics. It's as if the little, antlike people are projecting their negative emotions onto God. Oh, and they have God be both nameless and formless yet have God be a Him. And be very mysterious and hard to understand. The perfect dysfunctional authority figure!

The New Testament God as introduced by Jesus, is a closer relationship, a father figure you can talk to, one who loves you and cares for you. Yet lets you die on the cross, because He loves you. And still is pretty persnickety when it comes to Sin. Oh, wait, some of that is leftover distortion from the Old Testament and some of that is continued distortion from the centuries of mis-translations.

[A side note - "sin" in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, actually is an archery term that means 'missing the mark'. Think about how the tenor of the teachings change when you de-energize sin into a simple 'oops']

If you look at both from perspective of Consciousness evolution, you see that Consciousness created these forms, which have personality, with the intention of manifesting in and through them. In the Old Testament, these forms were still new (but not experimental, like Dinosaurs and Neanderthals, which got scrapped like early versions of the automobile). Vibrationally dense, Consciousness wasn't fully embodied into them. Hence the interpretation of God (=Consciousness) being 'far away'.

In the New Testament there was a mass Consciousness shift, where more of the energy could come through. A closer relationship was considered, a parental one, an identification (we were made in God's own form), but still God was outside. My Mystery School training, which was based on first century Christianity, said that only about 20% of Spirit could manifest into form. Even that's a distortion, because it emphasizes the dichotomy between Spiritual energy and Body energy (I've been away from that training for 15 years now, and I'm still letting go of some key elements of it).

What I see with the present Consciousness Shift is that Humanity is bringing the awareness within - to know the God within, the God Self, an inner identification with God. We weren't made in God's form - God doesn't have arms and legs or genitals. We are God's Essence manifesting form. So many changes are coming about because of this new awareness. For example traditional therapy, where the professional has more information than you, diagnoses you with what's 'wrong' with you, and can provide you with the answers or solution, is transitioning to Life Coaching. Life Coaches hold that you're the expert in your life, and are trained to ask empowering questions that draw your own Inner Wisdom out.

I've had my own adjustments with this shift. I wasn't comfortable with the concept of God Within, because I had a fear of the Ego. Having had a long term relationship with a cocaine addict, an up-close experience of the Addict's ego-personality, I didn't think it was safe to give that idea any power!

Of course, as our collective vibration raises, the denser aspects of ourselves fall away, including this distortion called Ego. Another way of looking at it is, as our collective vibration gets lighter, it brings to the surface the dark stuff that needs to be cleared. (Doesn't that explain the last 8+ years)?

However even as I write this, I'm aware of yet another step those of us on the leading edge are sliding into. That we don't have a God Within, but that we Are God. Robert Scheinfeld expresses it this way, 'the Power and Presence of God, creating this experience of reality down to the smallest detail'.

My experience is that we are Spirit, creating this physical reality down to the smallest detail. Spirit, singular, creating each physical form to manifest through. I Am Spirit, you are Spirit, too. The forms look different, but that's what's so fun about this place (to Spirit).

And, my most recent experience/revelation is that nothing is linear, nothing is dense to diffuse, dark to light, self to other. It is Spirit (I AM Spirit), instantaneously creating this awareness, more effortlessly than a programmer creating an internet game or Disney creating a theme park. As I allow this awareness and identification to become clear, things pop into and out of my hologram without logic or reason. Although I could create a story to try to make sense of things, they don't.

There isn't a leading edge here, either. Because that's a linear concept - if there's a lead, there's stuff lagging behind.

It's uncomfortable and exhilarating at the same time. Because I'm very attached to my core beliefs of things making sense, there being gravity and the center of the earth, and life having purpose. It's exhilarating because core limitations no longer have to exist. Karma, sin, working through lessons, being stuck, mistakes, all evaporate when viewed as Source. Source doesn't need to learn anything - It *invented* this game, and this vehicle. Source is just riding this particular ride, the way Jay Leno decides on which car he's going to take for a spin. Spirit *is* Perfection, so what's fun is experiencing imperfection!

So I'm still 'reclaiming power' from the old belief that others are separate, that Density is real (along with gravity). But as I do, my heart expands - which is an illusion also, but the heart feeling is real. As I identify myself *as* Source, *as* Spirit, I feel the expansiveness of it all. It's Love beyond love, and Joy beyond joy.

Since you're reading this, You must have wanted to receive this information. I invite you to take this in baby steps, to let the ideas germinate in your heart and head. Notice where *you* are in your awareness. Watch how your consciousness is shifting. If you need any more information, turn within and connect to Consciousness (I like the idea of having an internal modem and we're on-line to the Cosmic Internet 24/7... except with my new awareness, I *am* the Internet).

And see what blossoms as a result!

Guidance and Prayer

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb

I just completed a submission to the Oprah Show on Prayer and Healing (see it on my Mystic Musings blog ) which inspired me to write more on the subject of prayer.

I don't pray, at least in the way I assume people pray, although I do enjoy standard prayers such as St. Francis' and the Serenity Prayer. I have a metaphysical approach to prayer (of course). I see it as focusing energy more than communication with the Divine. For instance, the Lord's Prayer from a mystical viewpoint actually helps one run energy through your chakras!

My communication with God or the Universe is more casual, and usually starts with my saying "Hey U"! I don't ask for anything, although sometimes I request clarity on things.

The other day I was in a meeting and we were reading a story where the person prayed for guidance for her marriage. What a great idea! So me, being me, closed my eyes and shifted my focus, intending on prayer for guidance, too, and instead found myself relaxing into a greater awareness of the energy in the room. Things became brighter and sharper and clearer. Which is how I feel when I'm connected to Source.

What kept running through my head was the phrase 'sought through prayer and meditation to increase our conscious contact with God, prayer only for God's will for us and the guidance to carry it out'. I thought that was an interesting response to a request for guidance for one's marriage.

Except that I have been aware of wanting to focus more on my partnership with Source, in which case it was a pretty clear answer.

Then I felt a little resistance to praying for God's will for me, but that's because of the language. Any time I've aligned my will with Source, the higher Will, I've felt much better and in agreement with whatever is going on at the time.

I thought about 'the power to carry it out' and how it was similar to the Serenity Prayer's 'Courage to change the things I can' (which I've always considered to be me). Courage and power. When I'm aligned with Source, my energy feels clear, I feel empowered (inwardly, rather than dominantly powerful).

Writing this I recognize my resistance was my little ego wanting to run the show. It's a chihuahua thinking it's a mastiff. It's a mini-will with a Napoleon complex.

My current growth phase concerns de-energizing patterns in the morphic field that have been blocking my experience as Spirit. My little will thinks they're real, so I end up battling with windmills. (Don't you love how I'm mixing metaphors today)? Which only solidifies them, or brings more experiences that reinforces them.

So, without formally going down on my knees, I'm coming to see that my prayer is being answered. I was wanting navigational tips, but the guidance I'm getting is to focus on my inner connection with Source. It feels like what to do is to turn within and the patterns will naturally evaporate from lack of attention.

Notice that my experience with prayer is more empathic and unstructured. It's intuitive rather than intellectual, I feel it more than think it. Notice what your natural tendency is; are you visual rather than verbal? Maybe your form of prayer is in drawing, and your guidance comes through mental images rather than words. Are you musical? Perhaps your connection with the Divine is in playing some good tunes. And when a song goes through your head, the lyrics could be communication from Source.

Have fun with this, and see what happens!

One Big Thirdstep

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb
I've been working with Eileen Murray, www.thelivingconnection.com who does Akashic Records readings. As I was consulting with her about the changes in my life she kept repeating the message (and I paraphrase) to surrender into the Transcendence. And it reminded me of two slogans:

Turn It Over
and
Let Go and Let God

I've always said that nothing ever happens to you that you ultimately can't handle, but sometimes something occurs that feels overwhelming. That's when it's comforting to know that you can rely on an intelligence greater than yourself (although I'm coming to believe it really is my Expanded Self).

She led me through a meditation that helped me open up and feel this Transpersonal Love flow into me; I felt it coming in behind me, into my upper back and head. Wrapped in it, I felt all the strong emotions fade away and knew that everything was going to be all right.

I spent the remainder of the day with a sense of inner clarity. Although the future is uncertain, resting into this energy reassures me that all is very, very well.

Today I'm noticing the old feelings surfacing, but I realize that they're not mine. It's sad to see people who don't have this connection, especially at this time. They feel lost and fearful. They take the prevalent reality as real. Their only option is to suffer or rage or be depressed. It's too bad, because regardless of the economy, global warming, the war or whatever else is in the headlines, serenity is possible. Peace is just a turnaround thought away.

Whenever faced with a crisis (which really isn't a crisis but just another life event) I've found help in the first three Twelve Steps. Which are, basically, "I can't, God (or whatever you define as God) can, I think I'll let God". It helps to slow down and focus on the next indicated thing. Since I can't control the outer circumstances, or other people, I'll just work on myself. I'll respond to whatever requires responding, but I also know I often wait 24 hours before I do.

Anyway, the big lesson for me is to strengthen my partnership with Spirit/Source/whatever you'd like to call It. When I'm in agreement with It, then all things fall into place. Which leads me to the Serenity Prayer -
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (everything outside of myself). The courage to change the things I can (me). And the wisdom to know the difference.

I'm not big on prayer, although I do have favorites (The Serenity Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis are among them), I usually just have conversations with the Universe, whom I like to call 'Hey U'. But prayer does have the powerful energy of invocation, so can be helpful at times when a normal connection with the Infinite
isn't possible. We each have a inner cellular connection, but sometimes there's emotional interference. It's helpful to know the Other Party can hear us, even if we can't hear Them.

At those times, you just have to go forward, one moment at a time. That's what Faith is, trusting in the unseen, trusting in the unknown, and knowing that, ultimately, all is very, very well.

No limits, no restrictions

©2008 Joan M Newcomb

My focus recently has been creating a 13 week experience called Journey To The Infinite. It's based on a new "Busting Loose" product by Robert Scheinfeld, about living life with no limits, no restrictions. At first I was going to play it safe and only offer it to a few people who I knew would be on the same 'wavelength'.

In talking with someone in New Mexico offering similar experiences ("Busting Loose From The Money Game" and "Busting Loose From The Emotions Game) it became apparent that I was being way too limited in my thinking!

So I emailed *everyone* on my local lists about it. And then I put up posters in town. Which is a lot more publicity than I do for my classes!

I also decided that people can bring anyone they like to sit in on the groups for one evening or more - no expectations to begin at the beginning and go through to the end! Even though the series does build, I feel that whoever comes at any stage of the sessions will get exactly what they need to hear.

It's started me looking at how limited and restricted I've been in other parts of my life. I've been living 'under the radar' or 'playing it small' most of the time. Partly because I'm psychic, so naturally sensitive to energies. Partly because my dad was a spy - growing up, we were his 'cover', and it was dangerous to do anything to call attention to ourselves. As an adult, you couldn't excel at something without being attacked in some way. This influenced my relationship with God/Universe/Source/Higher Power feeling that it was not something to trust or rely on and definitely did not have my best interests at heart!

I've called this my 'Plexiglass wall' - the invisible barrier to playing a bigger part in the world.

In "Journey To The Infinite" terms, this is a marvelous creation by an Infinite Being to convince It that It's the opposite of Itself. It's an opportunity to reclaim power from the illusion of an unsafe world and an unsupportive God.

As I've been stepping out from behind the Plexiglass Wall, all sorts of surprises have been happening. An unexpected number of people showing up at meetings, "chance" encounters and serendipitous situations have begun happening.

Scheinfeld calls these "cookies" that the Universe gives you as encouragement, validation that you're breaking through the cloud cover and getting closer to the sunlight of Source.

What are your limits and restrictions that make up your Plexiglass Wall? What would it be like if it wasn't there? How would you feel? Who would you be without it?

Imagine! And little, by little, it will be so!