From The Archives - Do It Yourself - Part II

[First posted 7/12/10]


While watering the garden during yet another scorcher, Tim had a few words regarding the last post, and about being Risen and the subject of "non-dualism."

"Hey, August — what's all this piffle about 'lenses being the Risen experience'? It makes it sound like we go around making spectacles of ourselves!"

"Very amusing, Tim. As you often do, you're suggesting in your own witty way that I should lighten up, aren't you? I agree, as I often do with you — all that existential stuff was making me depressed. After I finish watering, and we get back to the house, why don't you elaborate a bit more, and I'll type as you talk."

"Ok, Tim, I'm ready. Take it away."

"Many/most people still in your terrestrial geography seem so hell-bent (pun intended) on "achieving non-duality" which they then seem to think will bring them to a "state of oneness" and that this is either necessary to happen before, during, or after their transition towards becoming Risen. "Risen" is just another way of saying "awakened" -- on a certain level. This level is usually (but not always) found on a non-corporeal level, but it could be on a terrestrial one. (Here "level means "conscious awareness ~ AG.) "Oneness" is not something we become, since we already are an integral, inseparable part of everything in creation, and so we already are – individually and collectively – "one." So if you feel you must strive, strive to awaken enough to become consciously aware of your inseparable state.

"But you don't need to strive.

"Even in the Risen state of awareness, there is what might be called duality, but without the ego's mind control. Just like in that little animation film you shared earlier, the sense of Oneness is being at rest. But if you want someone to play with, there must be duality. And guess what? Creator Source loves to rest, but it also loves to play.

"The terrestrial ego-mind is the one with the faulty vision and needing glasses! It can only see "this and/or that" — it sets up a dynamic that could be play, but instead is most often a battle of elimination — something that amounts to war games.

"The Risen mind can see "this and all that" — a multiplicity of existences, all simultaneously playing in the same place — while not competing for it.

"Duality, and so then multiplicity, is a gift, a ways and means to experience something beyond oneness . . . quite clever, isn't it? It allows for Primeval Joy to flow up and out, down and back again, the fountain of life. It moves, it enlivens, invigorates, refreshes, vibrates. This is vibration! The 'river of inner sensations flowing within, the eternal dance of the countless vibrations within every atom of the body' as quoted in your previous post."

What Is This Book About?

~ "Lochness Monster" by Marc Brinkerhoff ~
~ Our dear friend Marc's intense and exquisitely beautiful works were
recently gathered into an important book for the first time. ~

Thank you to everyone who have written and continue to write to us, sharing your experiences, strength, and hope. Thanks especially for helping others to find our work. Like Nessie in Marc's painting, there is a lot above and below the surface that may remain mysterious and elusive, and we encourage readers to contact us at any time -- we love your curious questions, brilliant insights, and embrace your tears and laughter. For those who are wondering, here is what this book is about.

From White Crow: Barriers to Spirit Communication

The Many Barriers to Spirit Communication - by Mike Tymn.

From the Archives: Restoring the Soul

[First posted 4/13/10]

"I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens."
— Woody Allen

While waiting with bated breath — or is it baited breath in this case? —for Tim or someone Risen to make the next move, life goes on . . . doesn't it? But I've decided to put it on pause for a week, having been working too hard, evidenced by my own personal signs of burnout in the past few days — places on my face twitching that shouldn't be moving on their own, underwear on backwards, migraines, making coffee without the coffee . . . things like that. Time for some restoration of the soul. So I canceled everything, told my patients I was moving to Bikini Bottom, and now get to stay up real late like a grownup and get up like a baby when I feel like it; even the cats are letting me sleep later, for a change. Actually maybe they think they've won and I've become like them now.

One special result of giving myself unlimited time was being able to spend the better part of a rare day this past weekend with my soul brother, Melvin Morse— who wrote the forward to our book (see his cute paragraph about it in his Links) — and his wife, my soul sister, Pauline, and adorable angel-kids Anna & Melody, and much of it at The Pond in Central Park, which was just bursting forth with everything Spring could spring on us — flowers, greenery, preening ducks, butterflies, happy people everywhere. Anna and Melody demonstrated the art of somersaulting down steep embankments without injury as only children can do. NYC is truly a magical land and filled with amazing magical people from many other lands, all able, somehow, to get along - which they do by helping each other. Melvin and his wife had several tales of how NYers had helped them get around that day without even being asked - which is not at all surprising to hear, as living in such a energetic, densely populated place demands only the best of considerate manners from all.

Sitting in the cool air but very warming sun with my miracle companions, and watching all the thousands of people moving peacefully together amongst the daffodils and tulips, I was reminded a bit of how it is in some of the most tranquil of Risen geographies, where each has gathered there because of the Principle of Affinity, and rests and moves in graceful postures, musical silence and joyful gratitude for just being alive in the fullest of fullest ways: as an immortal. As I leaned back against the grassy hill surrounded by other peaceful souls, I was reminded of the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. In lush meadows, he lays me down, beside tranquil waters, he leads me. He restores my soul.

In metaphysical language, when one sees "The Lord" in biblical texts, it is referring to the activity of the spiritual I Am as the ruling consciousness. This is the divine consciousness; the power of manifestation within us: Spiritual Man — or Authentic Self, as it's referred to in The Risen. When one resides in Authentic Self Consciousness, in god-consciousness, such realization is complete, and has no needs, no wants.

"Meadows," or fields have the spiritual meaning of a world outside god-consciousness, the worlds of manifestation that arise from the field of Reality that underlies everything. "Lush" indicates the over-abundance that is our divine gift of inheritance, merely for being alive. We manifest these worlds of abundance through our use of Mind. "Lay down" means to grow still and rest in that stillness.

"Water" symbolizes negativity, weakness, and lack of stability, as well as representing the great mass of thoughts that conform to environment. Every thought leaves its form in the consciousness, and all the weak, negative words gather in the underconscious as water gathers in holes. When we get discouraged, depressed, and give up, the undertow of these pools of negativity can sweep us away from the conscious awareness of Authentic Self.

When we are not at peace, disturbed by all the wants and needs of ego-mind, it is the return to Authentic Self Consciousness that leads us to a world of tranquility. It is Authentic Self — "The Lord" — that responds to our positive thoughts and words, able to do so without fear and with sanity — to decide how It wants "the world of 10,000 things" to appear: frightening and anxious, or safe and sound. When in Its Right Mind, It always chooses the only thing there really is. The waters become still and tranquil, no longer muddied and confusing. We know Who we are now.

"Soul" is our consciousness; our body is the expression of the soul; spirit is the individuality, the I Am.

Authentic Self restores our soul to its rightful place, the interior realm where we know who we really are. This orderly adjustment of divine ideas in our mind and body is also known as "the kingdom of heaven." "Divine" means "godly, or of the nature of God."

And what is God? Stop asking so many questions. Take two weeks off and don't call anyone in the morning.

From The Archives: Questioning Hash

[First posted 9/26/2010]

Worlds Within Worlds Within Worlds

[photograph by Macorlin]

It would not be surprising to hear from many readers that there are a thousand questions about what lies within The Risen book.  Neither would it be unexpected to hear that it's difficult to know where to begin on what to ask, or how. We welcome correspondence and any honest and appropriate sharing of ideas and feelings, and have so far had the pleasure of being introduced to several individuals of fine intelligence and sensitivity. 

Regarding the several radio broadcasts where The Risen has been discussed, it's notable that the majority of questions asked of us so far have fallen within a very narrow range of subjects and ideas — so narrow that it wouldn't be incorrect to classify them as regrettably cliché. This limited aspect reflects our suggestion that much of the current global discussion about the deeper, relevatory aspects and implications of contact with the Risen has been found lacking, and is, as Melvin Morse once remarked to August, "not much more than a rehashing of all the old new-agey hash." (And he wasn't referring to the Moroccan or Lebanese variety.) We appreciate that the limitations are probably inevitable with many people who have not had the chance to go much deeper into the subject and have relied instead on a steady and unquestioned diet of hash as prepared by the media and various ego-self-proclaimed gurus. (The poverty of salient questions also suggests that some interviewers have not actually read the material, or much of it.)

Indeed, the truth and implications of spiritual immortality and transition are directly reflected by the language of the day, yet they continue to be discussed and presented in language of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and so this also explains the limited mindset of many. The Risen aspires to initiate and introduce the beginning of a new language for the 21st century terrestrial mind, which is changing rapidly with fewer hindrances by the day, mainly due to advances in technology. Because of this speeding up of human affairs, we firmly believe that the minds of many are ready or near-ready for some particularly advanced spiritual movement.

Tim and The Risen Collective have made it clear that the depth and complexity of the material is such that it will take a great many readers and a great deal of reading to be able to extract the more important, exquisite and outstanding implications interwoven throughout this orchestration, manifested in the form of a book; or, as one phrase in it often reminds the reader, of  "worlds within worlds within worlds." This multi-world concept is also an example of the form of language emerging from quantum mechanics.

For example, much of the possibly unfamiliar language in The Risen begins with established and newer psychological notions — or theories — of human behavior, as dictated by human mental development and whether it evolves, mutates, or transmutates into higher vibrating forms of energy. But it won't do to stay comfortably fixated on the established ways and means; we are talking about revolution.  (Here, "transmutate" is used to indicate the transition of the terrestrial ways of utilizing thought into Risen ways of utilizing thought.) It would seem that transmutation can only happen after one makes the transition from Earth to a Risen location. So one question that might arise from this idea is, "Can one experience a change of one's constantly rising thoughts to a new form of Rising thought, before transitioning to a Risen geography?" The material indicates that the answer is determined by the quality of many factors, primarily between limiting and non-limiting approaches to one's use of Mind. In plainer language: yes, and as dictated from within; from Authentic Self. The Risen book seeks to help those so interested in achieving inspiration about which personal, creative directions toward which to move, as well as to stimulate psychotherapists and other healing professionals to begin to expand their own inner worlds to the point where they being to touch those of their patients with a clarity of conscious awareness previously unknown. 

Other questions of relevance will hopefully begin to emerge and center on how therapists can move in this direction. This will be the subject of another posting just over the horizon, and August will provide some examples of how he works within his own psychotherapy practice, as well as to introduce the idea of a "Standards of Care."

From The Archives: The Baby, The Bucket, and the Bathwater

[First Posted 9/18/2010]

After listening to the recent Coast To Coast Broadcast, our very dear friend, Dianne Arcangel, shared with us that she was especially touched by my (August) relating a childhood memory of my grandfather, who was the village's dowser. When somebody needed to find water, usually to drill a well, and sometimes to avoid costly digging into underground streams — my Granddad would be called upon to locate the water's source and movements, which he did with a forked stick. While many dowsers are known to rely on only a certain kind of tree for their dowsing stick, Granddad would take his from any tree on the site he was dowsing. It's my understanding that somehow the tree was connected to the water by virtue of its growing there, and gave Granddad a certain vibrational connection with the living energies of the water he was dowsing.

My particular memory goes terribly far back, perhaps one of my oldest, yet most vivid, perhaps because of its nature. It was a very hot, bright summer day, and I was at my grandparents' house with several cousins, who all lived nearby. Altogether, along with my brother, there were five of us. I would guess the oldest of us was maybe 6, and the youngest 3. I've no idea why, but Granddad took us all out to the field behind his house, and cut dowsing sticks for each of us from some tree that was growing next to the grapevine hedge. He then set out about half a dozen zinc buckets full of water at various spots throughout the field — which had just been mowed of its straw — and demonstrated to us what he wanted to do. Eyes closed, he seemed to wander randomly about the field at first but then suddenly walked straight up to a bucket of water, and the stick was bent downwards at the water. "Now you all do it! Close your eyes, no peeking!" I'm quite certain not a one of us was successful at finding water his way, other than walking into the buckets and knocking them over.

I remember feeling frustrated and kept insisting I would get the hang of it, but I never did. My abilities were of a different nature, which my Grandma recognized and supported in her own quiet ways. She came from a large family with many sisters, and they were all known for their special ways in the arts of country magic; I suppose they were considered witches but nobody used words like that; the people in those Appalachian mountains were very private and very reserved and respectful of any rare ability that was useful. It was in my grandparents' small dining room where I remember seeing Risen relatives sitting against the wall, watching us eat and talk, but never joining us. They were also rather solemn, but sometimes would wink or smile at me. There was often a realness to them that felt more comfortable, and well, more real, than the people who sat at the table eating.

And so then — and now — I've never felt alone or lonely in my entire life, the way I hear other people describe what being lonely is like. Well, that's not true -- maybe a few times, whenever I allowed myself to be cut off from the near-constant presence of the Risen who watched over me and kept me company. Usually it was some deep anger or resentment that I gathered and manifested into a temper tantrum or a "snit" (as my family called it) that made me feel disconnected from the greater Spirit Reality I normally felt part of. The deliberate unkindness of others towards me also made me feel cut off and horribly alone. The eventual descent into my own chosen hell of alcoholism also tore my spiritual connection asunder, piece by painful piece; it's no wonder I describe my instantaneous remission into sobriety as the greatest spiritual event of my life. But until then, I did get a sense of what others meant when they shared how awful loneliness was, and how they would (and did) go to any lengths to end it. I would rather not try to imagine what it must be like to feel this cut off from the all-loving and sustaining Universe all the time, as many people apparently feel. In fact, imagining or worrying about loneliness will begin the process of manifesting it. We must be ever-aware and watchful of the portals of our mind, which is the same Mind of Creator Source.

My initial grief over Tim's transition also cut me off in the same way, until he found his way — with Risen help — back to me, which triggered my "on switch" back from "off" . . . and awakened me back to the realization that he wasn't gone or far away, but actually closer than ever, because we could now truly share minds and finer, deeper spiritual senses and feelings. Once the grief was allowed to follow its own process, its own transition, I changed in spiritual ways; otherwise, staying and feeding the grief would have kept me stuck, unable to move through the pain.

This is what we wish for the readers of The Risen, that they somehow come to this same experiential understanding about Greater Reality, of which they are an inseparable part, just like the tree my Granddad used for his dowsing that was inseparable from the earth, water and sky around it; all are of the same Ground; all are connected; none are alone or lonely, and never need be. The baby, the bucket, and the bathwater may appear separate, but they are not separated — they are each part of It All.

Guardians in Spirit

[First posted 11/9/2010]

I share the same birthday with my great grandfather, Andrew, exactly 100 years apart. So it was with a mixture of emotions that I heard my father share recently at his 80th birthday celebration that I look just like his grandfather — something I never heard before, even though Andrew has been my primary Risen Guardian since I was born.

I first became aware of him in my early 20's, not long after I had moved to the big city. It was during the ill-fated era when many thousands of mentally ill people had been released onto the streets with nowhere to go, as agencies and benefits for them were eliminated. It was probably one such crazy-looking man who kept staring at me with what looked like a mixture of fear and rage one late night on a subway ride home, although it was hard to tell if he was really seeing me. He had one of those large "boom boxes" on his lap, and was playing loud music, much to everyone's annoyance.  But because the train was packed full of people (the city never sleeps) I wasn't very concerned and continued to stay engrossed in some book I was reading while trying to stay awake.

The next thing happened without warning. Time stood still but also seemed to be moving very fast; it's the only way I can describe this dual quality. I was aware of an intensely bright, yet very soft golden white light around me, blocking everyone else out. And out of nowhere, there was this very beautiful, young man with yellow-brown hair kneeling in front of me, one hand on my knee, the other on my shoulder, and he shook me slightly as he said in a very intense Irish lilt, but gentle, level voice, "Now, love, 'tis Andrew here, and do what I tell you – I want you to shut your eyes real quick, right now." He put his hand over my eyes so I would close them."I then  felt a kind of pressure on top of my head, as if the air was pushing down, and  heard an enormous BANG! and then felt very, very tired, as if I was either falling asleep or just waking up from a deep nap. I began to hear other noises before I opened my eyes, of people yelling and exclaiming, as I felt the train coming to a stop. When I opened my eyes, there were people gathered around me and shaking me and asking if I was ok, was I hurt? As I came to, the crazy person was storming away and out through the open train doors, yelling something that sounded like "Victory to the People!" It was then that I noticed one woman crying, another calling for the police, and that there were pieces of plastic everywhere, even on top of my head, and on my shoulders and lap, falling to the floor. It turned out that the crazy person had waited just until the train had come to a stop, and as the doors were opening, stepped across and brought his boom-box with total force down on top of my head, and then fled the train. The box shattered completely, but I had felt nothing but a little pressure and was hurt in no way. Everyone except me seemed to be in shock, and one man was so concerned he rode with me all the way home, although I insisted I was fine and not hurt, not a single scratch on me. That was my introduction to Andrew, who has been with me in conscious awareness ever since. He makes a brief appearance in The Risen.

This brings up the subject of our spirit guardians – whether they're Risen family and friends, like Andrew, or angels, or other assorted ETs, because one of the most frequent questions I get from people is "how do I know if I have a guardian spirit, and if I do, how do I find out who they are, and then communicate with them?" The answer is as variable and many as there are askers. There are many spiritual traditions, especially among the older cultures, that have ways and means for determining this, as well as affirming that everyone has guardians unseen and unheard.  

There is one method of communication that I find seems to transcend all the different cultures, even though it's considered the province of one particular culture, and that's with rune stones. Tim and I use them quite often when I'm too tired to talk to him - which is actually a state of altered consciousness in itself, and facilitates using the stones. They're simple, direct, and powerful. It's easy to find rune stones online these days, and I would recommend Ralph Blum's Book of Runes above all others for the most spiritual of all interpretation references. Although his book (as well as others) outlines various "layouts" of several stones for a multi-dimensional reading, I prefer to simply still my mind, and ask for the Universe to comment on my current circumstances. I then reach into the pouch for a stone with my left hand (activating the right brain and disengaging the left) and let the stone find my fingers. Like the tarot, rune interpretations include upright and reversed positions; there are others that have only one position. Regardless, I always read the interpretations for both upright and reversed, simply because one can't have white without black, left without right, up without down, wet without dry, while letting the emphasis fall on the position the symbol presented with.

The rune stones are also an excellent, no-nonsense way of communicating with a spirit guardian; simply ask  your spirit guardian to guide your fingers to a stone, and if you've ever had the opportunity to experience a communication via the orchestration abilities of someone Risen, (or angelic/fey/alien/etc.) you will still find their skill mind-boggling.  After you've digested what it says, put it back, and mentally or verbally reply to the sender, ask another question, whatever comes to mind, and then pick another stone. . .. and so on. If anyone tries this method of contacting a guardian in spirit, please let me know how it goes and if it can be shared here for the benefit of others.