Merry Christmas!

~ Sophie's Tree ~

"Truth is the Greatest Good
and
Love is the Highest Truth"



Wishing You and Yours a Joyful Christmas and Holiday Season!

Soul, Heart, and Body One Morning

There is a morning
where presence comes over you,
and you sing
like a rooster in your earth-colored shape.


Your heart hears and,
no longer frantic,
begins to dance.


At that moment
soul reaches total emptiness.

~ Rumi

May the Light of this season unceasingly radiate through you and yours.


~ Love and Blessings ~

Birth of the Christ

~ Detail: "Creativity" by Laura Basha

"Soul receives
Only from soul
Its secrets,

Not from
Any book

Or
Eloquence

Nothing else,

Nothing
You can ever hear

Or ever do.

~ Rumi

Our Eternal Connection to Source

"You knew then, before your physical birth, that you were "Source Energy"
specifically focused in this physical body,
and you knew that the physical person you would become could never be separated from
that which you came from.
You understood then, your eternal connection to that Source Energy."


You said, 'I will love pouring myself into this physical body, into physical time-space-reality,
for that environment will cause me to focus the powerful Energy that is me
into something more specific.

And in the specifics of that focus, there will be powerful motion forward - and
joy.' "

~ Abraham

Quotes: The Language of Symbol

"The language of symbol is of the felt senses of the body, of the numinous, of the spirit, and of the heart's yearning.

It transmits meaning in a way that touches us deeply, and leads us to wisdom.

When we are drawn to a particular symbol, it often signals a transition we are about to undergo, announcing its arrival and preparing us for it, and directing us toward the inner work that can help us change, deepen, grow."

~ Angeles Arrien, The Second Half of Life

Bummer of a Birthmark ...

In a conversation I was having this week, I was struck by the thought of someone who is claiming themselves to be the source of something, the vision-holder of something, someone who is looking for the stops, the places that block progress. I know from my work as an organizational psychologist that when an organizational culture actually begins to shift towards actualizing the vision it says it is, that the blocks that have kept it from being that vision begin to get revealed.

A true change agent is an effective business consultant and more. A true change agent has to hold the vision of the organization in the midst of the organization's fight to preserve the status quo. The organization will attack the change agent hoping to label her as an outlier and thus expel her from the system.

This basically means you get fired.

The art of it though is to manage to stay in the system while holding the vision, with just enough rapport with the old game so as not to raise too much suspicion and so be able to stay in the system.

Cultivating anonymity is an artform. Withstanding the pressure the system exerts to maintain the status quo and get rid of you, requires some know how in not taking things personally.

This has a lot in common with being responsible for creating something. Being the responsible source of something also taunts one's defense system, provoking it with the possibility of authenticity, which is tantamount to giving one's ego the black spot for extermination. To ego, possibility is a gauntlet thrown.

Years ago I wrote a paper while in graduate school on Being a Change Agent. On the title page I put a copy of a Far Side comic. Two mooses are standing upright facing one another. One has a bull's eye painted on his chest. The other is speaking to him.
The caption is: "Bummer of a Birthmark, Hal".*

So as vision holders, it's true, we can all responsibly say: "I am the one".

Bummer.

* Gary Larson

On the Wisdom of Our Elders

"The second half of life is the ultimate initiation. In it, we encounter those new, unexpected, unfamiliar, and unknowable moments that remind us that we are a sacred mystery made manifest. If we truly understand what is required of us at this stage, we are blessed with an enormous opportunity to develop and embody wisdom and character. We enjoy limitless possibilities to restore, renew, and heal ourselves. And because of our increased longevity, for the first time in history we also have the opportunity to create a map of spiritual maturity for future generations to use as they enter their own later years.


... The more challenging our world, the more we need our elders with us to share the lessons they have learned, to lend us their problem-solving skills, and to enhance our lives by imparting their unique gifts."

~ from The Second Half of Life, by Angeles Arrien

The Down Side of Looking Good ...

"As long as I did newspaper work and had to go to different parts of Europe on assignment it was necessary to have one presentable suit, go to the barber, and have one pair of respectable shoes. These were a liability when I was trying to write because they made it possible to leave your own side of the river and go over to the right bank to see your friends there ,go to the races and do all the things that were fun and that you could not afford or that got you into trouble. I found out very quickly that the best way to avoid going over to the right bank and get involved in all the pleasant things that I could not afford and that left me with, at least, gastric remorse was not to get a haircut. You could not go over to the right bank with your hair cut like one of those wonderful looking Japanese noblemen painters who were friends of Ezra's. That would have been ideal and would have limited you to your own side of the river completely and kept you working. You were never free of assignments long enough for that sort of mane to grow but in two months you would look like something left over from the American Civil War and unacceptable. After three months you would have a good start on the sort of haircut Ezra's wonderful Japanese friends had and your right bank friends would think of you as damned. I never knew just what it was that you were supposed to be damned to but after four months or so you were considered damned to something worse. I enjoyed being considered damned and my wife and I enjoyed being considered damned together."

~ Ernest Hemingway, from A Moveable Feast

Vision

"It is possible for people to see what has been obscured from their awareness.
It is possible to step from the invisible to the visible.


We are so afraid that we cannot be what we dream ourselves to be,
that we stay hidden inside of a persona that we ourselves created ...


... Bring the invisible to Light so that you can begin to see your own
Beauty and claim your wholeness and your true voice.


When what has been obscured is illuminated,
you remember who you truly are."

~ Laura Basha

~from "Vision" page, www.whitebirdrising.com, © 2011

Sacred Discipline

Morning Moonset over the Golden Gate Bridge




"Discipline is remembering what you want."

~ the Reverend Kathryn Jarvis

I rose at 5:30am this morning, getting up early enough to take the breathtaking picture above, as well as to do my morning practices. Without those morning practices my day simply does not go as well.

While in Vienna this past summer, we visited one of the apartments in which Mozart and his family lived, a charming three floor residence in a beautiful old Viennese building in the heart of the city. There were several letters available to read, one in particular that caught my attention was a letter he had written to his sister Nannerl about his schedule while living in Paris.

He rose at 6am and attended to his morning routine. He then wrote music from 7am until 9am, at which time he saw students until 1pm. At 1pm he took his lunch, either with friends or clients, and spent the afternoon visiting or doing one thing and another as he found he couldn't write again until 5pm. He wrote from 5pm until 9pm, unless he was conducting or performing or traveling to do either. That, he said, was his routine every day.

As we all know, Mozart's music is still transcendently moving. What struck me was this ordinary routine which he carried out with exceptional discipline, the result of which was a life artistically fulfilled that left a legacy of music which continues to uplift humanity centuries later.

What if I could cultivate an affinity to that kind of discipline? It seems to me that I often feel as though I am missing out on things if I don't attend to this or that or the other. Yet, I experience fulfillment when I practice the discipline of what is important to me.


"Discipline is remembering what you want."

So, what do I want?
And what disciplined practices are needed for me to manifest it?

Good thoughts to ponder ...

© 2011 Laura Basha, PhD

Fearlessly Free from the Inside Out

~ "Priestess", detail from the dyptich "Transformation" by Laura Basha, 2007

In Buddhism, "taking refuge" means that "... we are willing to spend our life reconnecting with the quality of being continually awake.

Everytime we feel like 'taking refuge' in [the midst of] a habitual means of escape, we take off more armor, undoing all the stuff that covers over our wisdom and our gentleness and our awake quality. We're not trying to be something we aren't; rather, we're reconnecting with who we are. So when we say, 'I take refuge in the Buddha', that means I take refuge in the courage and the potential of fearlessness, of removing all the armor that covers this awakeness of mine. I am awake; I will spend my life taking this armor off. Nobody else can take it off because nobody else knows where all the little locks are, nobody else knows where it's sewed up tight, where it's going to take a lot of work to get that particular iron thread untied.

You have to do it alone.

The basic instruction is simple: Start taking off that armor. That's all anyone can tell you. No one can tell you how to do it because you're the only one who knows how you locked yourself in there to start with."

~ From Comfortable with Uncertainty, by Pema Chodron

Hemingway, Beethoven, and You

~ Statue of Beethoven outside Vienna in the garden where he wrote the 9th Symphony ~

"Back at the hotel that night when we were dressing for dinner, Ernest said, 'I'm working out a new novel. Or it's working itself out, really, ...' His eyes were bright, and the enthusiasm in his voice was unmistakable. ... 'You have to write it.' 'Yes', he said, and although we left and had a long and delicious dinner with several bottles of wine between us, he was already with the book, inside of it. Over the coming days, his thinking grew deeper. He began to write in intense spurts, in the cafes early in the mornings, and in the hotel very late at night, when I could hear the aggressive scratching of his pencil ... he'd filled two thick notebooks, two hundred hand written pages in fewer than ten days, but he wasn't happy with the opening anymore."

~ From The Paris Wife: A Novel, by Paula McLain

I have often wondered what it was like for Beethoven to write the most exquisite music, deafness to the outer world shutting him off from much of human interaction and yet opening doors to a kind of silence that perhaps allowed him to hear the celestial soul that still illumines today, reminding us of our magnificence and allowing us to forget the countless attachments that keep our focus on the very noise that creates what we are trying to dissolve.

The creative process unfolds us and as we work, listening to its wisdom, the work molds and then allows us to become the vessel for its expression. "I'm working out a new novel. Or it's working itself out, really ..."

Perhaps we are much more related to the genius of Hemingway and Beethoven and Mozart and Tintoretto, Freud and Einstein, Gertrude Stein and Twyla Tharp and whomever your creative hero/ine is, than we think. Perhaps it's simply the willingness to withstand the pressure of the molding process that elevates us to the realm of creative genius, and it's just that we hold too narrow a vista which keeps us locked in our safe familiarity, finally unexpressed and unfulfilled.

Cultivating a capacity for gracefulness in the face of anxst: a pragmatic strategy. What could deafness allow for? And to what could we turn a deaf ear? Einstein flunked math. Tintoretto never had formal training yet became the one true Venetian painter.

The integrity of a clear vision has strong roots.
What strength can fear have when Grace shows up?

"Access to Magnificence"

"A satisfied woman is a gift to her family, her friends, her co-workers and, frankly, to the world. A satisfied woman emits an energy field of love, play, power and well-being. Around her, other people have access to their own magnificence, their own genius, their own joy. Being committed to being satisfied is an act of courage and generosity."

~ Alison Armstrong

I have been waking up with feelings of overwhelm for some time. It seems to be a particularly familiar default setting when I feel overbooked. I really wanted to get to the bottom of this anxious feeling so I could let it go, because, honestly, I have a beautiful life of abundance in all areas.

So why did I feel like I didn't have what I wanted?

I was in a conversation this last weekend, and got some insight into the answer. So simple. I realized that I make these promises to myself, and then I don't keep them. Not exactly front page news, but, what occurred as an epiphany was the impact on me that not keeping my promises with myself had. What I saw was that when I make a promise: "I will begin the final edit on my book this Friday", and then I don't do it, very insidiously in the background a refrain of invalidating statements plays like a tape loop, and even though I may not be consciously aware of the noise of the tape, I am listening nonetheless, and the feeling is much more obvious to me: anxiety, frustration, dissatisfaction.

Of course I have often attributed this dissatisfaction to other issues in my life: family demands that could not be avoided, too tired, loneliness, etc. But what I saw was that there were no reasons for my dissatisfaction save the broken promises to keep my word with myself, which were always promises made in areas in which I really wanted to accomplish or participate. So simple ... Put it in my schedule and then actually do it! A great feeling of freedom and joy expands within even as I think of it.

So when I read Alison's quote this morning, I thought, the impact isn't simply on me, the impact is in and on my entire world. And I am committed to the ideal that all people are free from the past and generating lives of authentic self-expression and joy! Who knew the fulfillment of that seeming impossibility would be continually generated out of me eating well, sleeping enough, exercising and, oh yes - editing that book!

I am committed to being satisfied. How about you?
Onward!

A Visual Feast

Don Orione Artigianelli ... a restored ancient monastery resonating in the heart of Venice.



Just returning from a three week stay in Europe, begun by a ten day artist's retreat in this most inspiring of settings for the arts, Venice, and staying those ten days at the above cultural centre, has left a myriad of impressions that will take the weeks ahead to assimilate fully.

Beauty everywhere, endless reminders of It's timelessness ... as my fellow creative colleague Hunter joyfully blurted after days of visiting masterpiece after masterpiece, and as we walked an early morning walk hoping to get lost and found again before breakfast, "... they painted whatever they wanted! ... there was no wondering about would someone like it ..."

It freed us to remember that the great leaders, the breakthrough contributors in any field never turn around to see if anyone is following ...

So good to travel. Important. Sorting through what others in other cultures hold dear, reflecting on what one finds dear one's self, what is truly authentic self-expression.

Leaving the familiar to travel ... it's a powerful way to find home.

For the Benefit of All Concerned

It seems to me that the greatest gift we can give to one another is really listening for the best in each other, our perfection, our beauty, our differing perceptions, and through listening for the best in each other, eliciting the best from ourselves. We could call this being “Source” for each other. It is not for me to say what another's best might be, yet it seems to have very similar characteristics from one person to another, namely: joy, relatedness, confidence, love, self-expression, all in a uniquely expressed freedom of expression that catalyzes other's Joy. Seeing the best, looking for the best, catalyzes the best and all involved are uplifted and see possibility.

This is the type of “Sourcing the best”, if you will, or simply “Sourcing”, which one experiences when with extraordinary leaders, meaning to say, people who have done the work to allow Source to express through them. My own mentors have been such people, and their “teaching” from this awareness has been what has empowered me to, through my own continual growth process, transmute and distinguish my understanding of my own false personality, such that authenticity has a chance to emerge: powerful, happy, free. This transformation then hopefully allows me to resonate Source into my world, in other words, empowers me to have the best chance to make a difference, and then others are catalyzed and resonate into their world, etc.

I don't think "I" actually "Source" anyone or anything, rather reflecting on Source as a possibility allows It – Source, Absolute, God, whatever name we choose to call It - to make Itself known through me, use me as a conduit, and when I'm truly present, let it express through me to the extent that I have the capacity and understanding to align with It, surrender to It, catalyzing me and hopefully others toward what they have to contribute to the world.

“To give is to receive”. It has to come through us first to be expressed, so we experience the gift of It’s Peace before we can bring it to our worlds.

May we all continue to grow and learn and have compassion for ourselves and others, for the benefit of all concerned.

Stillness

"No one can see their reflection in running water.
It is only in still water that we can see."

~ Taoist Proverb

A friend asked me this week, "How do you get to inner stillness?" I thought it was an interesting question, since stillness isn't actually a place to get to, but rather a whole eternal internal infinite dimension out of which our life experience and the third dimension arises.

Taking our attention off of the cacophony of the external world, taking our attention off of the noise of the daily routine, taking our attention off of the drama of everyday life and the incessant inner monologue of the intellect, returns us to stillness.

So many of us love to be in nature. Being in nature elicits stillness from us, because nature reverberates Stillness, and, like a tuning fork, if we stop and listen to the quietness of nature, whether in our backyard or, taking in the beauty and quietness of a vista view like the one above, the reverberation of nature catalyzes that Stillness realm within through the tuning fork of its own Stillness. Stillness is not static, it is alive and pulsing with the music of beauty and joy.

Take time to be awed. Take in the perfection of beauty - it is everywhere - in the hummingbird hovering in front of you and then disappearing like a bullet of rainbow, or in the common daisy flower or in the countenance of your dear friend or in the timber of the voice of your beloved.

The great saint Muktananda was asked by a disciple, "Master, there are so many books that teach ways to meditate! Which way is the best?" Muktananda replied, "Close your eyes."

How about giving it a try?

Stop.
Sit down.
Close your eyes.
And listen for the Silence of Stillness.

The Power of Love Expressed as Listening

Not-Knowing: The Power of Love Expressed as Listening

One of my ongoing questions is: "What am I not seeing?" Whenever I enter into a dialogue with a client, or put myself in a seminar series or a course for ongoing growth and development, I forget what I know in a sense, so that I can hear newly. I practice “getting amnesia” regarding my intellect and memory and then I do my best to listen from the place of “not-knowing”. From this vantage point I always get a fresh perspective, and I am then open to other’s points of view, am willing to be a neophyte, and so I always "see" a new way of considering a previously well-rooted and oftentimes well-grounded concept. With high intention to get an insight about one issue or another, I find that pretty much anywhere I look will do if I am listening for what I don't know.

One of the obvious conversations I have been exploring and reflecting on, is the commitment many of us have to positive global transformation. Global transformation inherently implies a need for listening to the logic of other cultures, a deep respect for the different points of view of others. Given the way each of us views life, given our varied pasts and what we have made them mean, given our years of education and whatever cultural exposures we each uniquely have had, each one of us is in effect, a different culture.

What would happen to communication if we actually listened to one another as if we were each a different culture, replete with our own values and ways of operating that were grounded in a logic perhaps distinct to ourselves, but nevertheless valid and understandable? Communication would have the possibility of effortlessly becoming dialogue: more listening than speaking.

... Now, what if we were to listen to our own intellect and acquired knowledge in the same way? What if we were to listen to the inner silence of what we don’t know, the inner wisdom of “not knowing”, with nothing on our minds but a complete curiosity for what we haven’t been hearing? It is as if we have been listening to the cacophony of our own thinking with such an enamored fascination that the flute music of inspiration has been essentially drowned out. Yet when we can turn our attention away from that educated inner monologue, what can emerge from the stillness is a distinct resonance of wisdom. Implicit in this resonance is an answer to the question that has been raised, an emergence of a solution to the problem, a new realm of possibility that is equally-everywhere-present but which has been obscured by our own attachment to what we know. …

In the early 1990’s I was a member of SIETAR, the Society for International Education, Training, and Research, created by the founders of the Peace Corps. The strategy utilized by the most effective interculturalists of the day was the strategy of entering into a culture with no expectations or assumptions, but rather with reverence and a listening for what the culture was speaking not just verbally, but non-verbally. In this way the most effective of the interculturalists were the most malleable, open to assimilating into the culture due to the capacity they had developed within themselves to suspend their own knowledge and ways of behaving. They aligned with the resonance of the new culture much as an instrument allows its own vibrational rate to be catalyzed by a tuning fork.

Being catalyzes Being.

So, listening for what we don’t know could be a universal strategy, a globally transformative strategy, because the very nature of not-knowing calls for one to be present in the moment with no attention paid to one’s personal thinking from the past: beginner’s mind. …

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D, (excerpted from the award-winning paper:

"The Creative Process: A Portal to ‘Not-Knowing’, the Non-Verbal Language of Transformation", published in the 2010 Journal of The Conference for Global Transformation)

Beauty & Grace

"Take time to be awed."

~ The Reverend Kathryn Jarvis

Kathryn Jarvis was my spiritual teacher for over 15 years. She dropped her body and made her transition in the early 1990's. She embodied Enlightenment, Grace, Beauty, and a depth of understanding of Truth that awakened any who were seeking It. Such understanding allows for simple and brief phrases to speak tombs.

This past few weeks have been fairly stressful; all good, yet demanding. As I was thinking about them and the next few, which promise to be equally demanding, the above quote popped into my mind. Such a simple statement, yet as I came across the above photo of our youngest grand daughter, I was instantly reminded of the joy and freedom inherent in the exhilarating soaring of a ride on a swing, and the emptying of any other thought in one's head aside from the grace of being present.

My head cleared, and the demands of the week seem like the next things to do, things to be grateful for: mostly, they are nice problems to have!

I was sitting on my deck a couple of weeks ago, and a hummingbird came out of nowhere, as they are want to do, and hovered about 6 inches from my face for about one minute, then took off like the feathered flying roadrunner that it is.

When you have a minute, look up, find that beautiful and graceful thing that is close at hand, and take a minute to be awed. It could be awed by you, too.

The Fragrance of the Silence

Listening within the Silence is like
standing in a quiet room that has
a simple bottle of perfume in it.

Lifting the glass stopper of the perfume flask and waiting,
eventually the entire room is
infused with the perfume's fragrance.



What if we were to listen to the inner silence of what we don't know, the inner wisdom of "not knowing", with nothing on our minds but a complete curiosity for what we haven't been hearing? It is as if we have been listening to the cacophony of our own thinking with such an enamored fascination that the flute music of inspiration has been essentially drowned out. Yet when we can turn our attention away from that educated inner monologue, what can emerge from the stillness is a distinct resonance of wisdom.

Implicit in this resonance is an answer to the question that has been raised, an emergence of a solution to the problem, a new realm of possibility that is equally-everywhere-present but which has been obscured by our own attachment to what we know.

This is the attentiveness of the creative mind. Practicing listening to the Silence begins to cultivate a familiarity with the beautiful and brilliant fragrance of our own wisdom.

© 2011 Laura Basha, Ph.D.

"Is stillness just the absence
of noise and content?
No, it is intelligence itself,
the underlying consciousness
out of which every form is born.
And could that be separate
from who you are?
It is the essence of all galaxies
and blades of grass;
of all flowers, trees, birds,
and all other forms."

~ Eckhart Tolle

Growth Mindset

“Be fascinated, seduced, terrified and compelled

by transformation, creativity, and authentic self expression.

Freedom for the human spirit and human psyche is

our collective aspiration

as well as our birthright,

and is inherent in the evolution of consciousness.”

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D.,

from “Artist’s Statement”, Gallery, www.whitebirdrising.com

A growth mindset is not something to get.

It is a vantage point to come from.

Growth is a realm. It is the realm of Power.

“Standing” in this realm is standing in the Source of Creativity and

listening for what you don’t know;

listening for what’s available from the Source of Infinite Intelligence.

There is nothing to do to get a growth mindset.

There is no where to go to get a growth mindset.

There is being willing to listen for what you don’t know

in the midst of the cacophony of what you think.

Growth is a realm.

It is the realm of Power.

There is no gauntlet being thrown down eliciting defensiveness.

There is only the cultivating of a listening for a challenge to your certainty

without feeling challenged.

To cultivate a growth mindset is to stand in the certainty

of what you are committed to,

grounded in your own integrity,

without being threatened by a different perspective.

The realm of Growth is the realm of Power and

it is the safest and most creative place to listen from

because it is not personal.

In the realm of Growth,

there is only awakening to what you are interested in,

and a willingness to experience insight,

resulting in the cultivation of a growth mindset.

© 2011 Laura Basha, Ph.D.

All Is Chosen ...

This thing we do...

This separation which we perceive...

This experience of life or lunacy which we create and which has no existence without our permission...

Or, closer to Truth - without our choice it could not be ...

Why choose it at all?

Why have to choose it?

We have to choose it if we wish to continue to forget who we are ...

And so we keep choosing the illusion as reality

Until it gets so loud - the illusion, that is - that we can’t stand the noise and so scream to ourselves:

“Turn that blasted thing OFF!!”

And then the intellect is quiet for a moment.

So we have a glimpse of Reality and It is so quiet, so infinitely No Thing, so peaceful, so full of Peace...

And we remember for a flash Who/What we are.

And that is why we have to choose it.

Separation.

So we can finally consciously see who/what we aren’t, so that we can begin to consciously see Who/What we ARE.

Perfect beings.

Our perfection is our only stumbling block.

For we are perfect with or without our self’s permission, or awareness.

We are all Masters in our own universe.

We are either conscious of this Mastery or not, and this is the essential difference.

So it behooves us to become conscious of our Mastery so we can consciously choose the direction of the play instead of endlessly unconsciously scripting it and acting it out.

It isn’t a requirement to become conscious. There is free will.

But then ... there is Destiny.

It is simply a matter of being Home vibrantly Free or coming Home in the waking sleep.

What is it like, waking up?

Sometimes I have dreamed, and realized I was dreaming, and wanted to wake up,

And yet all my screams were silent, and all my attempts were futile as I wrestled with all my being to wake myself up from this falseness and re-align with my consciousness and body and then, suddenly

I would find myself back in this reality,

Confused but present.

And what had I been wrestling with anyway?

For from here, it looked like nothing,

An invisible kind of membrane from which I had to de-enmesh myself,

Like exhaustively wrestling with the angel and then to see there is no one there ...

Like Bert and Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life wrestling with Clarence in the snow in the dark.

That’s what it’s like sometimes.

And sometimes, it’s like noticing the moth on the window.

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D., © 2011

Psychokinesis and All Possibility

Well, this is a bit of a departure from my other blogs, and also shows you another side of me, but this is titled "Blogs/Musings", so I muse ...

In the 90's as part of my doctoral studies, I had the privilege of studying with some extraordinary professors in the fields of psychology: transpersonal, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, spiritual, as well as parapsychology. My current interest concerns how we create our own experience of reality, what is conscious choice, and how to access realms of creativity, all possibility, and authentic self-expression, so, to at least be open to what's possible is essential to
one's capacity to effect positive change.

I came across this letter I wrote in 1998 to one of my professors, the brilliant and delightful Dr. Jon Klimo*, widely regarded as the world's leading authority on channeling, from whom I was taking a required course in parapsychology, part of which was the study of psychokinesis, or "PK". I include this in my musings because I thought you might enjoy it, because I found it enlightening as I re-read it, and also because in re-reading it I was reminded how myopic is our vision of our capacities as human beings, and how I, like others, feel it is essential that we continue to stretch our thinking to bring about a positive shift in human consciousness.

BTW, the above photo is of the very same item of mine that I mentioned in the following letter.
But heh, you'll have to take my word for it ...

Dear Jon,

Just a note:

I went to my first "PK" party a couple of weeks ago - actually, the night of our meeting at The Egg Shoppe. I didn't know it was a PK party, although I probably should've known, since it was at Virginia's house. Anyway, I met a friend of yours there, Randy, who does research on color. You told us about him and his kind of virtual-altered-state-light-gear in the parapsych class. We had a pretty interesting discussion. Anyway, Virginia comes out with a fistful of silverware and announces to everyone that we're going to "BEND SPOONS!!!".

"Oh, God", I thought, "I can't do this".

Here I am in front of all these alien-friendly, altered-state-doctoral-buff, I-eat-lucid-dreams-for-breakfast types, and I'm going to fail miserably. (Attached to my performance level much?) Not that bending silverware has ever been a goal or anything, and I will say that Randy was impressed that I had had a synethesia experience without the assistance of mind-altering drugs. In any case, even though I may have had a smattering of ASC experiences, in this group I considered myself pretty much of a parapsych priss.

Well, I was wrong. Much to my surprise, as I was chatting with another pk novice, but also focusing on softening the metal, the darn thing turned into putty and effortlessy twisted itself into a tight double coil under my slight pressure. The twisted part became so hot I couldn't touch it. I didn't yell, "BEND! BEND!BEND!" like the others did later. Just quietly massaged the neck of the spoon!

Well, I am now the proud owner of a bent spoon that curls nicely over the finger pull on my kitchen window. And for one brief shining moment my teenagers looked at me with absolute respect and awe. That, of course, was worth the whole evening. If you're looking for ways to have the field accept parapsych, think of integrating psychokenesis into parenting classes. I'm also thinking auto-body work could be next for me.

Take it slow,

- Laura

19 May, 1998

*

http://www.jonklimo.com/about.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Fxu-gniIA

How Clearly Do You See?

Anything you do in the healing relationship is multi-dimensional.



The healing relationship is like a dream.



It's not about the content but the metaphysical significance of the content.







Whatever happens to the coach is what's happening to the client. Never sensor your feelings, but don't take them as real.

The coaching interaction at its best is truly a therapeutic interaction. To be able to see that whatever happens in that interaction is a metaphor for what's happening in the client's life and for how the client deals with life experience, allows us as coaches to become more sleuths than mentors.

Basically the client comes to us saying, "Look, I've lost my way. Here are the clues as to what has gone awry. Here are the knots, the tangles, the hurts, and the survival techniques I have used.

But they have taken over, and in my earnest attempt to maintain my natural health, I have become enamored of my survival techniques so much so that I can't remember who I truly am.
Do you have the clarity of vision to help me remember?"

This is the task and the gift of the self-actualized coach.

~ © Laura Basha, Ph.D., excerpted from Clinical Case paper, November, 1994

Loving An Old Warrior on Father's Day

FOR BERT on FATHER’S DAY

Bert

1951- 2001

Father of my children, old warrior, mystic.

We love you still, and thank you for

Your brilliance,

Your music,

Your way with water and stars,

Your gift of humor.

Thinking of you always,

Thinking of you on

Father’s Day.

Paradise

by Bruce Springsteen

Where the river runs to black
I take the schoolbooks from your pack
Plastics, wire and your kiss
The breath of eternity on your lips

In the crowded marketplace
I drift from face to face
I hold my breath and close my eyes
I hold my breath and close my eyes
And I wait for paradise
And I wait for paradise

The Virginia hills have gone to brown
Another day, another sun goin' down
I visit you in another dream
I visit you in another dream

I reach and feel your hair
Your smell lingers in the air
I brush your cheek with my fingertips
I taste the void upon your lips
And I wait for paradise
And I wait for paradise

I search for you on the other side
Where the river runs clean and wide
Up to my heart the waters rise
Up to my heart the waters rise

I sink 'neath the river cool and clear
Drifting down I disappear
I see you on the other side
I search for the peace in your eyes
But they're as empty as paradise
They're as empty as paradise

I break above the waves
I feel the sun upon my face

_______________________