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Posted by on Mar 28, 2013 in LP Advanced, LP Mentor | 1 comment

Entheogens versus drugs – a critical distinction

In this article I want to take a brief look at the issue of entheogens. At the outset let me say that this articles should not be seen as advocating illegal activities, or even encouraging shamanic use of entheogens. This article simply is an LP Advanced discussion piece designed to raise awareness and encourage discussion of what, despite social and political paranoia, is an otherwise very important topic when it comes to spiritual awakening and empowerment.

Now, as you will know if you have read the SpiritWiki article on entheogens (ref), entheogens are basically substances that facilitate crown chakra activation. Entheogens include things like marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, other forms of what “stoners” from the sixties would have called (for lack of a better name) “psychedelic” drugs. Entheogens are to be distinguished from drugs like cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco by their non-addictive and primarily therapeutic operation. Drugs like cocaine, heroin, and alcohol operate on neurotransmitters and are primarily addictive because of the easy way they may manipulate the feelings of the physical unit. Alcohol is a depressant and facilitates repression, cocaine brings good feelings of power and energy, and so on. Psychedelics (a.k.a. crown chakra activators) are not, generally, addictive (ref), have long been recognized for their therapeutic benefits (see SpiritWiki article), and are more and more coming into the modern scientific spotlight for their healing and therapeutic benefit! (ref)

Entheogens may be identified by the way they enhance the central nervous system sensitivity of the individual who ingests them. Entheogens are, basically, “short cuts.” Entheogens speed up neural processes. It is as if entheogens pour oxygen on the tiny little candle flame of your normal consciousness. The “rate” at which the oxygen is released, and the “time span” over which the release occurs, is determined by the type of entheogens ingested. LSD is a “hard” entheogen, releases a lot of oxygen, and lasts a long time. Marijuana is a “soft” entheogen releasing smaller (and easier to manipulate and control) doses of oxygen, for shorter periods of time.

It is worthwhile pausing and considering what has just been said. Societal fears and elite propaganda paint all drugs (except those that generate profit) with the same black brush, but entheogens are important. Because of the way entheogens facilitate controlled crown chakra activation, entheogens are implicated in the healing and awakening of the individual unit, and this planet.

Now I realize the above statement is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable, fearful, and maybe even itchy to find the exit door. The truth is, there is a lot of fear in the collective mind when it comes to the existence and usage of entheogens. If this is you, you should know that these fears are often rooted in bad adolescent experiences with entheogens. In this context it is important to be aware that bad adolescent experiences are not “normal” entheogen experiences. Early entheogen experiences are typically facilitated by ignorance, inexperience, and lack of adult supervision and discussion. Because the kids themselves don’t understand the full nature of what they are getting into, because they have inexperience with the fine art of “controlling the oxygen flow,” and because many parents would rather (because of their own fear and prevalent “anti-entheogen” propaganda) remain blissfully unaware, nobody talks, nobody (except the drug “pushers” guide), and early experiences are often unnecessarily ugly and disturbing.

To that all I can say is…

GET HELP AND GET OVER IT.

As scientists, as a society, as parents, and as individuals we need to be able to discuss entheogens and learn about their usage so that we can heal our own spiritual trauma and guide our young people. And besides, the Lightning Path (Core and Intermediate) is all about overcoming fear and resolving buried issues long enough to confront issues, overcome blockages, and enhance energetic flow of physical. If you are getting blocked from a discussion of entheogens by fear (of a plant, mind you), your Core and Intermediate work is not complete. With that in mind we can now turn to brief examination of the function and operation of entheogens.

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Awareness and Connection

As noted above, entheogens primarily operate to expand awareness and connection (to The Fabric). If the consciousness of your physical brain is like a candle, entheogens pour oxygen on that candle. How much awareness and connection results from an entheogen experience (i.e. the effectiveness of the experience), how much oxygen is poured on the brain, depends on several factors including dosage, environment, and psychological state. We shall look at each of these in turn, starting with dosage.

Dosage is perhaps the easiest factor to control. Dosage basically comes down to the type of entheogen infested, (i.e. whether it is hard or soft), and the quantity ingested. Ingesting hard entheogens like LSD pour large amounts of oxygen on the brain for long periods of time. Softer entheogens like marijuana pour small, easy to control doses over the brain that last for short (i.e. usually about an hour) periods of time.

When relying on softer entheogens, dosage is fairly easy to control. What is not so easy to control is environment. Environment includes everything around you from the dust on the floor to the pictures on the wall to the people that sit around you (or, at higher levels of awareness and connection, that enter into your consciousness). This is not rocket science. Remember, entheogens increases awareness and as awareness increases you become, well, aware. You become aware of paintings, aware of dust, aware of emotions, aware of your dog, aware of negativity in the people around you, and so on. Be aware that levels of awareness can be controlled by manipulating dosage.

Finally, the psychological state of the individual has an important impact . The psychological state of an individual is determined historically, by socialization experiences, and currently, as a result of extant environmental and social conditions. Toxicity, indoctrination, abuse, etc. in the childhood experiences, experiences in the womb, etc. create a negative psychological state. Poverty, exploitation, relationship abuse, creates a negative psychological state. Negative psychological states are characterized by low self esteem, lack of self-efficacy, and feelings of powerlessness (often accompanied by intense needs to control the environment) and these characteristics lower the efficacy of all forms of spiritual practice, including entheogen usage.

General Guidance

There is a lot to say about use the of entheogens in therapy, healing, and strengthening connections to The Fabric I’m not going to cover it all here. For more information and discussion you can check out the forums and also investigate mentor materials and case studies. Here I just want to offer some general guidance. This guidance is not to be considered endorsement but rather information to you help understand adolescent experiences, make informed decisions, and to possibly help others who do not understand what is happening to them, or need basic guidance. This applies especially if you are a parent since despite anything you might say, many adolescents will try entheogens in negative and unguided situations. Best to accept reality and work with that, rather than stick your head in the sand and pretend it doesnt’ happen.

Now your first task should be to take a closer look at the Lightning Path. You can, if you wish, consider the Lightning Path written with entheogens in mind. Well, that’s not quite true. I didn’t set out to write the LP with entheogens in mind, but the LP is about rapid awakening and that’s exactly what entheogens facilitate. So whether your approach to rapid awakening is off the natural and organic variety, or whether you use entheogens to move even faster, the LP provides guidance on making this experience as productive and pleasant as possible. Therefore consider all LP activities, meditations, and guidance as applicable. It doesn’t matter how you remove The Blindfold, only that you do as quickly and safely as possible.

Second, in all cases I recommend guided usage. This is applicable to everyone, including individual who may have partaken for extended periods of time. Ingestion of entheogens is no guarantee of spiritual awakening or empowerment. If it was than this world would have awakened and empowered years ago. Entheogens often lead to psychological and physical healing, but under current archetypal conditions they do not often lead to fully connections and awareness. The problem lies in the basic function of entheogens which is to amplify mental processes. The bottom line is you can amplify anything from vacuous psychedelic experience to egoic dysfunction. Unguided use or use that occurs within the influence of old world power, can lead to amplification of pathology and disjuncture and not awakening and empowerment.

If you do choose to get guidance (and what you are reading now qualifies as guidance, if you are paying attention) then it should go without saying that you should get guidance from people who demonstrate awakening and empowerment, and who have pure intent (i.e. who are not there to profit off you, manipulate you, or co-opt you into the power systems of this world). The Rocket Scientists’ Guide to Discernment and Rocket Scientists’ Guide to Authentic Inequality, available on the Navigation->Resources->LP Books page provides a lot of good guidance in this regard. The short of it is that you want somebody who is authentic, who displays pure intent, and

Third, in general, stay away from hard entheogens. Work conducted by psychologists in the late 50s and 60s lends legitimacy to the idea that hard entheogens may be useful in psychologically and spiritually sophisticated therapeutic settings, but their length of operation and the intensify of the experience makes them less than idea. Even though we do want to encourage rapid awakening and empowerment, there are limits on how much a somnabulistic physical unit can process, and how much emotional and psychological work can be conducted productively, in very short periods of time. In other words the stipulation at the outset applies here. This is not a race. Take your time, go slow, process, get guidance. As long as your intent stays pure, and you remain committed to forward movement, you’ll be just fine.

Four, as much as possible, control the environment. You don’t have to be anally retentive about it, but clean, tidy and beautiful is best. Even motes of dust can be a distraction, especially when you haven’t establishedmental control. Also, consider the people that are around you part of the environment as well. Stay away from people you do not know. Also, regardless of their relationship to you, stay away from people you cannot cannot trust, people operating from broken bodily ego, people only interested in taking from you, and so on. Awakening of all varieties (whether led by intent and The Great Invocation or entheogens) makes you more sensitive to everything and that includes the negativity of others. You want to avoid that as much as possible in “normal” life, and avoid it like the plague as you increase consciousness and sensitivity (i.e. awaken), and until you gather enough strength to stand without support.

Five, control the ideas in your brain. This control refers both to the ability to control the ideas in your brain momemt by moment, but it also, and more importantly, includes control of the archetypes in your brain. The more consciousness that is entered into the physical unit, the more important this is. In this regard the Halo/Sharp archetype is an essential aspect of the Lightning path since it provides complete exposure of old world archetypes, and a completely specified, and wholly positive, alternative.

Six, pay careful attention to dosage. The level of connection and awareness you aspire to in any given moment should be relation to your ability to understand and control that level of consciousness. In other words, tip off the blindfold slow at first, then a little bit more, then a little bit more. Also, never treat entheogens with disrespect by getting “blasted.” Just as excess usage of alchohol is a sign of mental disturbance and dependence, so is excessive use of entheogens. Despite the fact that soft entheogens are generally not considered addictive by knowledgeable professionals, “stoners” are in the same boat as alcoholics and should seek treatment as addicts.

Seven, keep in mind the possibility of therapy. Many of you reading this will be aware that even simple use of The Great Invocation will bring up issues and fears and that these issues and fears have to be processed and cleared. This sometimes requires mentor or therapeutic intervention. The same goes for those who use entheogens, only multiplied by a factor of ten or more. Entheogens dramatically raise awareness of internal issues at the same time that they undermine the body’s ability to repress. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental illness due to either aborted spiritual awakening or unguided use of entheogens, point them in the direction of spiritually sophisticated psychological counseling (for example).

And that’s about all I have to say on the topic, here. As noted, this article can function only as an introduction to the issue of entheogen facilitated awakening. An extended discussion may be found on the forums, and additional content and case study audio will be provided to LP mentors interested in operating as guides. In closing let me just say that LP guidance on spiritual awakening, whether facilitated by The Great Invocation or accelerated by entheogens, can be summed by the LP stipulation to strive for Right Thought, Right Action, and Right Environment. Striving for right thought, action, and environment enhances control of self and environment, reduces disjuncture, increases alignment at all levels (emotional, physical, and intellectual), and facilitates the expansion of consciousness into the body.

 

Further Reading

Additional reading and discussion, case studies, provided in mentor training module. : http://mentor.thelightningpath.com/in-depth/entheogens

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Posted by on Feb 4, 2013 in LP Advanced, LP Mentor | 0 comments

Ego Explosion

 

1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. Revelations 9:1-7

Has your [bodily] ego exploded?

Greetings and welcome, my name is Michael Sharp

You know, it would be an understatement to say there is a lot of misconception about spiritual awakening out there. It is often a case of the blindfolded leading the blindfolded (Parable of the Blindfold). I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if it was just misconception, but unfortunately it is not just misconception we are dealing with. The truth is, a lot of things can go wrong in the awakening and empowerment process, especially when you start to get into advanced practice, and especially when you actually start “touching” the Fabric of Consciousness.1 The reality is, if you haven’t done the ground work you can run into a lot of trouble. You can lose grounding, float off into ethereal realms, get lost in the astral planes, and even get dumped into spiritual psychosis. The reasons for these difficulties are highly technical and going into detail about those in this little lesson is impossible. If you want to learn all about it, look to Lightning Path spiritual training. Here today I simply want to contextualize the difficulties you might encounter, and give you some things to think about should you, or someone you know, ever run into difficulties. In particular today, I want to talk about what I’d like to call egoic explosion.

And just what is ego explosion?

Well, ego explosion is the collapse and/or short circuiting of the mental structures of the physical unit, specifically the ego. Ego explosion is basically what happens when the boundaries of a damaged, weak, or simply unprepared bodily ego contact the authentic power of higher consciousness. Ego explosions happen when consciousness expands into the body, the body’s circuitry is overwhelmed by the “locusts” of confusion, misdirection, fear and misconception, and the boundaries of reality (boundaries normally strictly maintained inside the dense synaptic matter of the body’s brain and nervous system) explode into tinseled shards of disjointed, and often delusional, disarray.

Does this sound dramatic, maybe even a little scarey?

Well, good. I tell you truthfully, the power of consciousness (the power of spirit) is nothing to sniff at.

The Bodily Ego

Now if this is all a little abstract and ungrounded, think of it like this. Imagine a candle flame, perched on top of a tall stool, located in the middle of a large, square room. There are no doors to this room, no additional furniture, and no other contents except for masses of crumpled up newspaper. The candle sits on the tall stool, and the newsprint fills the room to just an inch or two below the flame.

The candle in the room represents your body’s awareness (i.e. the mental “I” that you believe to be you).

The candle, the room, and the walls of the room represent your bodily ego.

The crumpled up newspaper represents the contents of your bodily consciousness; that is all the ideas, concepts, archetypes, memories, emotional imprints, etc., that your ego swims in every day.2

Now that you have the image of the ego/room in your head, imagine consciousness, your true divinity, your true essence, the divinity within you, is like the oxygen in the room. The oxygen is orderless and invisible so your bodily ego is not “normally” aware that it is there, but it is because if it wasn’t, the candle couldn’t burn. The truth is, the flame of your body’s consciousness absolutely needs the oxygen of true consciousness to burn. If true consciousness withdraws from your physical unit right now, the flame of your little ego burns out, poof, and your body ceases to function.

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Anyway, understand that right now, as you read these words, the oxygen in your room is at “normal levels” and so probably the candle is burning as expected, with a gentle undulating flame, in a safe, controlled, and non-explosive manner. But “normal” bodily consciousness isn’t the only state of consciousness that can occur. Now imagine that just outside the ego box is the pure oxygen of divine consciousness. Under “normal” conditions, the pure oxygen, the pure consciousness, the “Holy Spirit,” God with a big “G”,3 or whatever you want to call it, is kept outside the room by the strict boundaries of the four walls. Under normal conditions, only small amounts of oxygen make it into the room, and this is a very good thing, especially considering all the crumpled up newsprint in the room. We all know what happens when oxygen feeds a flame after all. When oxygen feeds an open flame, the flame burns bright and hot. In a clean room, with everything in order, and all the newsprint put into proper files, removing the walls and letting the oxygen flow wouldn’t be an issue. However, flood a newsprint filled ego with pure oxygen and the flame is going to burn bright, the paper is going to catch fire (and become not unlike horrible mental locusts), and, depending on how much oxygen gets in the room, how much paper burns, and what’s written on the paper, the entire ego-room could go boom, boom, boom. The result could be anything from temporary emotional and psychological distress and disorientation to total emotional, psychological, and spiritual disaster. Depending on what is written on the newsprint, ego explosion could result in anything from fear and anxiety, to paranoia and delusions of grandeur, to psychosis and long term mental illness like schizophrenia, to violent and deadly machine gun fueled outbursts. It is hard to underestimate the damage that can be caused by an out of control ego explosion.

Egoic explosion/implosion

Which isn’t to say that you should never let oxygen into the room.

In fact, exactly opposite. Letting oxygen into the room and expanding your bodily-ego beyond the limitations of “normal” is exactly what spiritual practice is all about, and exactly what you want to do. Indeed, I’m here today to tell you that The Shift4 is underway, walls are crumbling, consciousness is descending, and oxygen is going to enter the room. Sooner or later, and whether you like it or not, Consciousness/Spirit/God/Krishna (or whatever you want to call the pure oxygen of consciousness outside the walls of your little bodily ego) is coming down. As I say in The Book of Life: Ascension and the Divine World Order, like it or not, it’s happening and if you don’t believe me, look around you. You’ll see the the big and little explosions, the buzzing of mental locusts, and (in some cases) the out of control explosions caused by collapsing egoic walls, more and more in your life, the life of your loved ones, and in the general social fabric. So my advice to you is, if you want to avoid an uncontrolled and potentially damaging ego-explosion, start getting ready right now because if you don’t then sooner or later, and before you know it, boom, boom, boom will be in your room, room, room.

Now, having dropped this spiritual bomb in your lap I suppose the question at this point is, what can you do to get ready? Unfortunately, teaching you what you need to do to get ready involves a lot more than I can squeeze into the final few words of this article, but metaphorically it can be summarized like this, clean up the newsprint before the bursting flame of your bodily ego lights it all on fire.

Are there fears written on those little pieces of paper?

Then clean those up before the bursting flame brings them to terrifying awareness?

Is anger written on the paper?

Then deal with the causes of that anger before the bursting flame destroys your heart beyond easy repair.

Are the walls damaged by violence in your childhood?

Then get competent spiritual/psychological help and heal and repair before the walls come crumbling down.

Does the ideology, misconception, lie and deception of decades of living within The System5 clutter the room?

Then correct the misconception and clean up the mess before the room explodes and you are left with the disjointed and delusional shards of your own annihilated bodily ego.

I know it sounds dramatic and even dangerous, but unfortunately that’s the reality we’re all going to be dealing with in the next couple of decades. So get off your proverbial ass and get with the proverbial program before the walls collapse, oxygen floods the room, the flame burns oh so powerful and bright, and you’re left standing discombobulated, disoriented, and confused.

 

I am Michael Sharp

 

Welcome home

 

Additional Reading

Advanced Commentary

I wrote this article for two reasons. One, I know what ego explosion is all about and two, because of my position in this life, I see people try and deal with it all the time. I experienced my own big and little ego explosions as part of my own spiritual awakening process, and I’ve seen others go through remarkably similar explosions over the years. If the explosions are small then it is generally easy to cope with the fallout. However, if the explosion is big, serious negative consequences can occur. I’ve seen people literally lose their anchor in reality and descend into egoic delusion, fear, and paranoia as a result. And that’s a major problem not only because it represents serious emotional, psychological, spiritual, and energetic trauma, but because profound egoic explosion can be very difficult to come back from for at least three reasons.

Reason One – Panic. A person who descends into fear is literally drowning in a sea of consciousness, and like a lot of drowning people, they are:

  1. too agitated, overwhelmed, or even panicked to get a good picture of the situation they are in,
  2. too agitated, overwhelmed, or even panicked to respond in a rationale and directed fashion (for example reaching out for help).

What’s more, getting too close to them to give them the help they need can actually be dangerous. As any qualified life guard will tell you, a drowning person can take down even the strongest swimmer. This makes getting help to a drowning person very difficult, and potentially dangerous. Likewise, somebody in the middle of an ego explosion is in a precarious position not because they can’t be “saved,” but because their confusion, thrashing, and paranoia make them a) hard to reach and b) a potential danger to themselves and others.

Reason Two – Paranoia. Speaking of paranoia, a second reason that helping a person caught in the middle of a big ego explosion can be difficult is paranoia. Sadly, paranoia is a likely possibility in the early stages of spiritual awakening not because it is necessarily a feature of spiritual awakening, but because of

  1. the horrible and violent socialization we experience and,
  2. the weird (and often dangerous) spiritual ideas we often come into contact with.

Our negative experiences make us deeply distrustful of other people (how can we trust the world when even our parents abuse us?) and ideological impositions (gnostic teachings that impose maze like structures in our consciousness, archetypes of judgment, punishment, and damnation, etc.) make us susceptible to confusion and paranoia.

If paranoia hits, the danger and difficulty is enhanced. It is hard to talk rationally to a paranoid person and it is hard to offer advice to someone who thinks you are “out to get them” or that you are Satan incarnated. In conditions of paranoia, they just aren’t listening, and it is simple as that.

Paranoia of course typically dissipates as oxygen levels in the ego-room drop, but the negative impact may linger on long after the experience is over. In fact, even after the experience people may:

  1. not wish to talk about their paranoia because of confusion, anxiety, or fear.
  2. may talk to people but get negative vibes (i.e. people think they are crazy).
  3. may talk to people but get bad, spiritually unsophisticated guidance.

The unwillingness to talk about their experience, and the negative feedback and bad advice people get if they do talk, may lead to further misunderstanding and confusion regarding the experience. This may in turn shut people down and lead them to build thicker ego walls, thus working hard against oxygen ever entering the room again. Obviously a negative outcome like this has profound implications for the individual who may, as a result of the bad experience, bad advice, bad ideology, and bad vibes, become permanently turned off of authentic spiritual practice.

Reason Three: Delusions of Omnipotent Grandeur. A third reason that helping a person caught in the middle of a big ego explosion can be difficult is the delusions of omnipotent grandeur that often accompany the explosion. These delusions occur typically:

  1. in individuals with very low self esteem (and where the individual is thus desperate for some sense of significance and importance) and
  2. in individuals who come from very violent childhoods where the ego walls are already seriously damaged.

In cases like this the bodily ego may attach itself not to newsprint ideas grounded in the reality of this life time, but in newsprint ideas that inflate its sense of ability and importance. Not that some degree of ego inflation should not be expected. In a healthy individual with healthy ego boundaries, healthy self image, and positive and truthful archetypes, bringing oxygen into the room should result in a certain degree of ego inflation as the individual realizes their true power and embraces their true divinity. However without intact walls to control oxygen flow, and with unmet and/or damaged needs for self esteem and self worth (which have led to negative COEX systems and negative ideological valence), the natural inflation of the bodily ego becomes pathological as the ego desperately tries to fill psychic holes left by a toxic socialization. It fills the holes by sucking in ideas that prove its own natural superiority and cosmic greatness. The result is a psychotic sense of personal grandeur.

As with paranoid delusions, the person caught in delusions of grandeur can be very difficult to reach. Touching The Fabric leads them to feel they are smarter, wiser, more in touch, more enlightened, or more whatever, than those around them. Ideas of “being chosen” or being part of some kind of cosmic elite (the “white” brotherhood, the “Ashtar command”, etc) put them “above and beyond” the pale of mere mortality. In such a condition their thinking is corrupted and their ego is deluded. It becomes impossible to try and tell then anything because they simply won’t be listening to the mere mortal trying to reach them. Indeed, the very last thing that somebody who thinks they know it all does is listen to guidance and advice from another.

Panic, paranoia, and delusion of omnipotent grandeur as the possible outcome of bad ego explosions is nothing to sniff at. The psychosis that arises can be so profound that anti-psychotic drugs are the only way to bring the individual back down to earth. Anti-psychotic drugs, while effective, should be considered only as a last resort since these highlight the negative character of the experience and may reinforce “permanent” anti-consciousness/anti-christ sentiment in the individual.

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Endnotes

1Or when you are “in spirit” as John says, Revelation 1:10-11.

2Esoteric note: The “newsprint in your head” “normally” only comes from your personal experiences, the books you’ve read, the television shows that you’ve watched, the discussions that you’ve had, and so on. As long as the walls of the room are intact, the newsprint and everything written on it comes from the memories and experiences of your current physical genetic line (basically your current life). If you disassemble the walls, or put windows in and open those windows from time to time, then paper can blow in from the outside, in which case some of the newsprint in your head may not belong to you at all but in fact may be sourced from anywhere outside your box. That this can occur is highly significant, something to be aspired towards (who wants to live a life confined inside the tiny egoic box of normal existence after all), but fraught with pitfalls and dangers. That this can occur is also a major challenge to “modern” psychological understanding of the physical unit, and worthy of extended spiritual study. But that is another story, and another lesson. For now, back to the room.

3See my Book of Light: The Nature of God, the Structure of Consciousness, and the Universe Within You for detail on God with a big “G” (and god with a little “g”) for that matter.

4http://www.michaelsharp.org/the-shift/

5http://www.thespiritwiki.com/index.php/The_System

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Posted by on Nov 30, 2012 in Advanced, Featured, LP Advanced | 1 comment

Mickey Mouse Spirituality

I recently had a conversation with a fellow, a “reading” actually, where, at the conclusion, the fellow expressed a bit of disappointment. It wasn’t that he was unsatisfied with the reading, it is just that he was hoping to get magical, mystical advice on removing energetic blockages, and all I told him to do was to pay attention to the emotions of his body a bit more, so that he could get in touch with his feelings. I told him this because I could “read” a heart chakra blockage in him and it was a primary obstacle towards full bodily activation.

He agreed.

There was an obstacle, and feelings weren’t something he was typically too interested in processing.

I asked him how he felt about this advice and after a few moments he said, disappointed.

I asked “Why?”

He said “I don’t know.”

I said “where you expecting wands and starry robes and pointed magical hats?”

“Yes,” he admitted, “that’s kinda how I see you, and its kinda what I expected.”

Now I’d like to say that I was surprised by this, but honestly I wasn’t. This wasn’t the first time some body expected something like that. The first time was a decade ago when I met a physicist from India who invited me over to his home for a coffee, sat me down with his traditionally clothed wife, and waited for me to utter words of deep spiritual wisdom. It was a bit uncomfortable I have to say and when all I did was engage in small talk he thanked me, showed me to the door, and I never heard from him again.

Or then there was that trip to South Africa. I’m sure I disappointed a lot of people there. They even said that. Apparently I didn’t act like they expected a wise spiritual guru to act. It was funny, in a sad sort of way, but it kinda highlights a very important point — people have certain expectations about what “high level” mystical spirituality is supposed to be like. They have this idea that people like me (i.e. mystics) should be wearing magical robes, waving magical wands, and weaving magical incantations. Collectively we have this image of mystics and spiritual teachers as magicians or mysterious gurus, all floaty and full of wisdom, and always “different” and outside the box of normal. Apparently I should be a little less like who I am, and a little more like Eckhart Tolle, or Mahatma Ghandi, or maybe the magical Mickey Mouse.

Now, I’m not saying this to be rude. I mean, I get why there are these expectations. India has a “guru” culture and people there have been so indoctrinated into it that even high level PhD physicists can fall into it. As for us in the West, we can thank Hollywood and the media for our misconceptions. They present an image of what people like me should be like (i.e. ungrounded, vaguely psychotic, largely unintelligible, and a little fruit loopy) and then, people like me are supposed to fit into the performance mold like all the others out there who don the mantle of spiritual authority.

If I don’t, questions are immediately raised in the minds

Expectations are not being met!

Something must be wrong.

Perhaps I am not not legit.

Honestly though, wizard and wand stuff has nothing to do with spirituality or empowerment or even mystical connection to The Fabric. That is, at best, the childhish fantasy creation of an undeveloped or atrophied right brain, or at worst propaganda pure and simple. It’s reality control stuff really, and intended not only for you, but for people like me as well, for “gurus” as well.

Think “as above in consciousness, so below in matter here.”

Think Parable of the Canvas.

Your will and intent has an impact on our collective reality, and even my individual one.

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Your expectations about what I should be like may not force me to act a certain way, but they do put pressure on.

It works like this.

Hollywood propaganda gives you a set of expectations about what a spiritual person should look like, these expectations get translated to will and intent, and this will and intent impacts reality, putting pressure on me to live up to collecive expectations.

I’ll feel it as peer pressure, or guilt, or maybe a desire to please (esp. If my ego is damaged).

You’ll feel it as happiness and satisfaction that I am living up to your expectations,

If I want to release the pressure, I’ll have to change.

I’ll have to be different.

And if I’m not?

If I don’t give in?

Well then I run the risk of being seen as illegitimate.

If I don’t wear the right robes…

If I don’t utter words of guru like wisdom…

If I don’t live up to appearances, if I don’t meet up with your expectations, if I don’t fit into the box provided, then I lose legitimacy and impact.

It is a very subtle, and very powerful, form of reality control and it puts your average spiritual teacher in a bit of a quandary.

We must either perform according to expectations, or risk being made irrelevant, un-viable, and not popular.

It is a problem, I admit, but not primarily for me, primarily for you. In fact, especially for you because frankly I don’t care what your expectations of me might and I’m not about to give into them just to fit into the box provided. In fact, I gaurantee you I’ll work against that mould (like I’m doing now) because I want to break your expectations so that together we can smash the invisible ideological force field that surrounds your mind and keeps it tucked safely away from authentic spiritual insight and growth.

Bottom line, my concern isn’t being popular, my concern is making sure that your path forward is as clear, grounded, rationale, and effective as possible, and I can’t do that if I follow Hollywood’s fantastical guidelines, or India’s guru expectations (like some others have done in the past).

And I won’t.

So, given my resistance to “fitting in” to your expectations, the problem with the expectations is primarily yours, and no where is this more apparent than at the “advanced” level of spiritual study where you will begin to apply your Hollywood expectations about mystical magic to yourself, and you will likely come up short.

You’ll get to the advanced level and you’ll wonder, where are the starry robes an the pointed hats?

You will ask yourself, shouldn’t I be having profound visions and magical experiences?

Shouldn’t I be channeling the lord high command of the intergalactic “white brotherhood” (a euphemism for freemasonry if ever there as one) by now?

Oh sure, by the advanced level of LP study your health will probably have improved, your self esteem and ego may be healed (or healing), your relationships (those that remain anyway) may be better than they have ever been, your understanding of spiritual concepts might be off the scale, and you may even be having “gentle” insights, ideas, and visions, but the moon and the stars, the personality disorder, and the borderline schizophrenia that you see in some lizard obsessed spiritual authors, will missing.

But because your expectations might suggest they should be there, you’ll be wondering, “did I do something wrong” or “is there something wrong with me?”

You’ll wonder if you’ve wasted your time, and your money.

“This can’t be right,” you’ll think.

“Shouldn’t I be floating off into hyperspace by now?”

Well, the categorical answer to that is no, you shouldn’t, because all that stuff is spiritual pathology. Like Hollywood expectations, or the guru culture, it is about social control and nothing more. In fact, if you want my opinion, healthy spirituality is represented by the simple things like improved health (of the physical unit), improved relationships, greater sense of well being, healthy self esteem, increased power to make changes in your life, and so on. It is not about robes, pointy hats, psychedelic colors, or mystical incantations, it is about awarekness, empowerment, efficacy, and health (mental, emotional, spiritual).

If your health has improved at the LP advanced level, if your personal care and relationships are better, and if your understanding of spiritual concepts is off the scale, then you have done everything right. The spiritual journey itself should NEVER lead to paranoia, ungrounded ideation, fear, anger, hatred, confusion, or even dramatic mystical revelations or profound and sweeping visions. Healthy and authentic spirituality should be grounded, healthy, normal, and without fireworks. The goal isn’t to be different, special, dramatic, deep, mystical, or whatever, that’s just your bodily ego talking to you, the goal is calm centered spirituality of the type that blends into the world in a gently insistent, but powerfully transformative, way.

When the body and mind are healthy, when you have established right thought, and right environment, when you engage in right action, and when insights and glimmerings come to you as you walk barefoot in the park, or sit quietly in a chair with a tea and a biscuit, then my job is done and you are where you are supposed to be.

Now, having said this, does this mean that you won’t have grand visions, mystical experiences, or body rocking kunadlini activations?

No.

You can have these things.

In fact, you can work towards them by healing chakras (including the heart charka, and especially when it is “blocked”) and doing the kundalini visualizations provided in the Book of the Triumph of Spirit. At the advanced level, and once you’ve gone through ALL the LP intermediate materials (esp. the stuff on archetypes), you can even jump start the process with entheogens if you like (though this should be done with care and guidance). Either way is fine and either way should be safe so long as you have done your LP intermediate study, have dealt with fears and misconceptions, have processed and integrated new archetypes, have healed bodily ego, and grounded firmly in the 3D reality that you live in.

Now, we’ll explore the more “mystical” side of spirituality going forward at the advanced level of study. Next time we’ll start that discussion by talking briefly about the idea of shortcuts, and by that I mean there are none. Although the LP is billed as a fast route forward, it is so because the foundations are solid, and the pathways well layed out. It is the difference between walking though a thick forest with no path, and a yellow brick road towards the emereld city. In both cases you got to walk The Path, only in the former case it will take longer and be a lot harder.

Now before closing I hav one more comment. If my sugestion of entheogens bothers you, keep an open mind. Entheogens have been a part of the sacred canopy of this planet ever since the human brain was developed enough to respond to them. You could say they are part of the “tool kit.” Altough I have to say they are misued about 99.9 percent of time, when treated with the proper care and respect they can be powerful enhancements towards creative, artistic, even mystical experience. It is really no different than drinking coffee or tea, eating greens for the nutritional value, or ingesting the seeds or lentils that your body needs as nutritional fuel and gastrointestinal fibre. It’s natural, its herbal/fungal, and it Gaia’s gift to you. So consider. Although I will say this in closing, stay away from acidic psychedelic stuff because it is too easy to lose your footing (especially if you don’t discriminate your information source), don’t do anything illegal (always look for legal options in your area), and if there is a history of abuse, boundary violations, bad relationships, and old energy archetypes, step slowly and with guidance. The biggest danger in jumpstarting the mystical side of things is a damaged bodily ego. Be careful, go close, and follow the oft repeated advice to get help if you seem to be losing your ground and getting loose into fear, confusion, shock and awe, or just plain egoic stupidity.

Until next time I am Michael Sharp,

 

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