been taught in my spiritual training and education that I did not have to succumb to the belief that I had to experience burnt skin. I had been taught that matter, as the modus operandi of this life of duality, is neutral. It has no power or reality, other than the thoughts one has about it.
So, for the entire day – when I wasn’t whingeing and whining to Ian, trying to convince him that the last five hundred temples looked so remarkably like the first five hundred that perhaps we could skip the remaining thousand – I watched my thought about sunburn. Every time it came to my mind, I mentally denied its reality or potential force. If Spirit is the Source of all power, the body must be value neutral, powerless to dictate the conditions of life. It has no ‘mind’ to decide whether it will be burned or not.
I remember that I felt no fear. I knew that the accepted effects of the laws of matter and physics were ultimately powerless, because they only exist in our minds in the first place. Thus the miracle of my protection was assured. All that was left to me was to eradicate all doubt in my mind, and leave the rest to the Divine.
Wayne Dyer makes the crucial point that, unlike the general belief in this world that we believe what we see, according to quantum physics we actually see what we believe. In this case, I intended to see matter manifest my belief that it had no power over me - either for good or bad. I never wavered from this conviction throughout the whole day - yes, a whole day on an unpadded bicycle seat!
When I got back to the hotel that night, though my skin was very red it was, remarkably, not sore. I went to bed knowing that this was evidence that the healing would be complete. Sure enough, when I woke up in the morning, my skin had returned to its normal pale colour and there was absolutely no evidence of sunburn.
In the world of physics, there is a hypothesis about matter called the ‘string theory.’ It is the mainstream scientific equivalent of the notion of parallel universes. I am no scientist, and I have no understanding of virtually any scientific theory, but this theory seems to be the physical corollary to the idea that life is not one experience for all, but rather a series of different options that we choose by our own thoughts, intentions and actions.
Whatever our thoughts and intentions, whatever emotions dominate our thoughts – whether they be fear and hatred, love and fearlessness, honesty or deceit, shame and blame or self-responsibility – this will determine the nature of our experience in the outer world. In other words, the outer world reflects our inner world, and not vice versa.
Human life is not a fixed notion. The life we experience is determined by our thoughts, expectations and intentions, and it can occur at either an unconscious or conscious level, depending on our level of awareness.
However, it is also important to understand that not everything that happens to us in this life is within our control. There are certain things that need to happen because of a larger picture that we are mostly unaware of in our conscious minds. But we are always able to control how we respond to the events of our lives, and the more adept we are at travelling in peace and love, the more power we have to minimise the difficulties that confront us.
One thing is sure: the more time, effort and intention directed at manifesting love in our lives, the greater the resilience and robustness we have to ride the waves of adversity. The more we are able to respond to events with confidence, and faith, in the power of Love, the more peace we will experience.
In this life it often seems that we continually face the same problems over and over, with each experience coming in a slightly different form, but always with the same effects. We can reduce the number of experiences sent to teach us peace simply by being peaceful. Whilst these experiences will still come, their only effect will be to lead us towards enlightenment.
I remember a story Ian told me about his family vacation in Italy when he was about 19. His younger sister, who was 12, was trying to climb the leaning Tower of Pisa. She thought the terraces that ringed the tower actually one terrace that spiralled up to the top. She started ‘climbing,’ with the intention of reaching the top of the tower. She went round and round and each time she saw Ian, who was on the ground watching her, she called out to him to for reassurance that she was nearing her goal. Ian, who realised her error, urged her on. All the while she thought she was progressing upward, she was in fact just circling around and around, getting nowhere.
This is a wonderful metaphor for spiritual progress. We will all continue to have challenging experiences, no matter where we are on the path to enlightenment. The point is whether we learn from our experiences so that we can move along the path, or whether we resist the lessons inherent in them and just go round and round, creating and recreating the same set of circumstances, and the lessons therein.
When we live in light, we are sure of the power of light to dispel darkness. If, however, we have only ever lived in darkness, then we have no understanding or experience of, or faith in, the ability of light to triumph over all threat of darkness. Darkness is the only reality we know. All endeavours to live in the light of love strengthen and uphold us so that when darkness threatens we are able to approach it fearlessly, bringing light to dispel the darkness.
The single most effective means of nurturing and fostering the seed of certainty in any challenge is forgiveness. Forgiveness arises naturally from an acknowledgement of our Oneness. It is the gift of Spirit, to enable us to travel the path of enlightenment, even when we cannot discern the route or the destination. At all times, and under all circumstances, the miracle of forgiveness, of both ourselves and others, plants our feet on sure ground and lifts our gaze to new vistas of possibility.
At first, there is much in this that seems not only abstract and difficult to understand, but also directly contradictory to established knowledge and thought. As I have said before, the main thing to remember is that it is not necessary to have full understanding of how miracles work, only a willingness to remain open to the possibilities.
It is helpful to understand the role of Spirit in this process, mainly because this aids in making the leap from the seemingly impossible to the possible. Spiritual guidance, or intuition, works to make Spiritual Reality more comprehensible and accessible to us. There are many things about the true nature of the Universe that we may never be able to understand whilst we are in a state of duality - the major one being the true nature of Love. However, there is much that we are potentially able to understand and know now.
The Three-In-One Principle of Creation
The Universe rests on a three-in-one principle. The Christian church’s nomenclature of this phenomenon – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost – is probably the best known. However, it is not the only way to describe the triunity of Divinity. More importantly, it is problematic if for no other reason than it denies the feminine aspect.
It seems an obvious question in modern thought that if God is only masculine, then where does the feminine in the human realm come from? Further, in mainstream Christianity the Son usually refers exclusively to Christ Jesus. So then, what about the rest of us? Where do we fit into this model? Perhaps the world is ready for an alternative to the traditional configuration.
Lee Carroll, who channels a spirit called Kryon, provides such a model. In the Carroll/Kryon matrix, it is the masculine ‘Father’ aspect of the Divine that provides the basic structure for all of life. This is somewhat like the traditional human father who provides the money to buy the house and supplies which keep the family safe, warm and fed. The children may not know or understand what it is their father does all day at work; they merely rest secure in their father’s ability to look after them and provide them with everything they need.
The
