This Quantum LIfe #86

Finding Your "Shool"

Those of us who deal with pain on a daily basis, I believe are greatly hampered by language when it comes to incorporating well-being into our lives. I have noticed over the years that there is actually no word that describes a non-pain state, without using the word pain: PAIN-less, no pain, pain free, pain relief, etc., etc.

When we are in the throes of pain, the immediate cessation of it becomes all-absorbing, with our attention focused--stuck, really--on the experience of the pain. There is no "go to" concept we can focus on that is "not pain", other than focusing on what doesn't hurt, which, again, includes pain in the desire of it. It's no wonder it is so easy to get caught up in the "pain cycle'--the more it hurts, the more it traps your attention, which then leads to more of it.

Last week, I got into a fascinating discussion with a local Native American "medicine man", Jake, who asked me, "How is your 'shool'?"

After observing the blank look on my face, he continued. "Have you ever heard of the idea of 'loosh'?" Yes, I had, actually. Loosh is the energy of suffering--the low frequency energy of pain and agony, and it is said that it's an energy that vampiristic beings feed off of to increase their own energy.

"Yes," Jake continued. "We just turn that concept around, and what you have is a word for your sense of well-being. We like to use it to describe a spectrum, where low shool is where it is difficult to spot anywhere on your body or your life where something feels good; and then high shool, is where you feel fantastically alive and high vibe."

I nodded, suddenly realizing he was answering this question I'd had for years.

"When there is pervasive pain, usually the first thing we do is try to get rid of it, when the healing thing to do is to acknowledge with gratitude where in your body there is no pain. We call it 'finding your shool," he gazed at me and I realized that although my shoulders were aching and my knees hurt, my lower back felt really good.

"Yes, concentrate on that. Give that your energy and attention, and it will expand," he added right after my thoughts.

As Jake left the room, I was elated to have a wonderful tool with this shool thing. In Manifestation 101, we learn that what we put our attention on expands. This is the problem with pain, so we turn to external chemical means--analgesics, NSAIDs, and such nostrums, to just get our attention off of it. This is why the shool concept is so valuable. We can now rest our attention on those areas of the body that feel good, or at the very least, don't hurt, and by turning our attention thus, those good feelings can expand.

Jake also advised that we can increase our shool where there is pain, by noticing that there is some part of that painful area that feels okay, or even feels good. He said that in order for pain to exist, there has to be its opposite present--and that's shool.

Our sense of proprioception is greatly affected by pain. Limping is a good example. We change how we feel movement in our body by avoiding the movements that trigger pain. In the Feldenkrais Method, the practitioner slowly and gently moves the body into those areas where there has been a proprioceptive avoidance of pain, demonstrating that either there is greater range of motion than was thought, or that the proprioceptive reaction is no longer necessary--basically allowing shool to expand in the area.

This goes much deeper into what it means to hurt, to suffer, and to eventually start defining ourselves by our state of pain--changing our social behaviors, altering our physical movements, and justifying the pain by accepting it as a part of who we are in the world. This is all a result of pain fixation, and not realizing that there is shool within the pain that is the gateway to healing.

Again, back to Manifestation 101, Joe Dispenza said it well: "You have to feel whole before your healing; you would have to feel abundance before your wealth; you would have to feel awe before the mystical moment; you would have to feel love before your new relationship; and you would have to feel empowered before your success." So, I would add you would need to feel shool before your healing.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
Pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

Greener Pastures and Silver Linings

Here's a thought experiment: Imagine a playing field, such as a soccer or football field. Now, at one end the playing field is a beautiful countryside with rainbows, beautiful flowers, amazing villages, children laughing, super-high-vibes--your happiest place. At the other end of the field are your worst nightmares--darkness, sadness, terror, injury, drama and dysfuntion. Now, go down onto the field. Which end are you closer to?

We all live somewhere on this dualistic spectrum--some days closer to the light end than the dark, and other days closer to the dark than the light. Within this dualistic mindset, is an aversion to the dark, and a longing for the light, and therein lies a trap of sorts.

By resisting the dark end of the spectrum, we expand it, and by longing for the light, we demonstrate how the light end of the spectrum is not what we are having, doing, or being. It is a sort of double jeopardy, where one end seems unattainable while the other seems to be continually biting at our heels. As Princess Leia of Star Wars said to the Imperial General, "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

We have been acculturated to deny and run from the darkness within ourselves, and like so many societal "solutions" to undesirable states and conditions, the more intensely we resist and deny the darkness, the more solid it becomes.

"Greener Pastures" are always "over there" somewhere away from where and what we are being right now. That "Silver Lining" is always behind those dark clouds, seemingly out of reach, representing a day of divine blessing that never seems to come.

What is easily forgotten, or overlooked, is that the "dark end" of the field could not exist without the light end. And if we find ourselves at the dark end of the field, it means there must be an opposing light end. The other unacknowledged truth is that within each moment at the dark end there exists a gateway to the light. We have only to make that choice to go there.

By getting hung up about "how dark it all seems", we expand it, make it greater than we are. We lose hope of ever getting to the light, and tumble further and further into that Dark End Zone. We stop looking at the light end, throwing away personal power in favor of "fate" or a rescuing "savior" that will make it all go away.

News flash: We are all our own saviors, and we save ourselves by choosing and committing to that light end of the field.

When there is pain, we must acknowledge that relief co-exists with that pain. We choose relief and thus begin the hero's journey out of pain. When there is the loss of a loved one, we must acknowledge that connection, oneness and love is co-existing with that sense of loss. When there are financial setbacks and poverty, there can only be such things because prosperity and abundance exist within those conditions. Just as with any problem, the solution exists within it.

I was sent a very special video by a friend that got me going on this--a talk by Miranda MacPherson. She speaks about the practice of non-duality being a frontal assault on everything we've decided we cannot be. Everything convinces us that we are not good enough, strong enough, smart enough or conscious enough to experience joy, grace and unconditional love in our lives. By fully embracing the entire spectrum of dark to light, and truly accepting and allowing both ends as eligible for unconditional love, we rise to the awareness that all is good, all is joy, and all is love. There are no excuses for our perceived weaknesses, as those are a denial of our strength. There are no excuses for our stupidity, as that points directly at our innate intelligence--how we learn and grow to appreciate our choices.

As we become inclusive of ALL of who and what we are--the entire spectrum of densities from that carbonized black goo to the glorius effulgent light of infinite being, we gain a mastery over our choices. We gain a truly deep appreciation for everything we've gone through across the entire spectrum of experience, for it has brought us to this place of true understanding.

We become free to run and jump and roll around anywhere we please on that Field, in the full knowing that no matter where we go, we are loved, we are cherished, and we are infinitely free.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
Pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

Mindfulness and the Status Quo

I ran across an article about mindfulness the other day that kind of boggled my mind with its over-simplicity, snarkiness and, well, rudeness. The author was attempting to make an argument that the current popularity of mindfulness practices is re-enforcing the economic and social status quo, denying social injustices, and is creating a world full of self-centered, passive magical thinkers.

It was like watching someone who has no idea what a football is, lay out an elaborate critique about the football not being round.

This writer had decided that if everyone spent their lives watching their thoughts without judgment, nothing would get changed in the world because there would be no reason to change anything, as if judgmentalism and victimhood were pre-requisites to social change.

He was also writing from a trolling position of "those mindfulness people", obviously without having ever done the practice. I would like to point out to this unfortunately misinformed critic that the practice of mindfulness is probably the world's best hope for survival.

If all the world's leaders were able to sit together in mindful non-judgment about the state of the world, wouldn't you think things would change, not only politically, but economically as well?

Being in non-judgment doesn't mean to stop caring about injustices, prejudices, and "evil" in the world--on the contrary, non-judgment comes from a place of non-duality, where the naked truth of a situation can be revealed in all its ugliness or beauty. From there, the mindful person can then make a choice as to what is desired in one's personal life and the world at large.

The other vital characteristic of mindfulness is becoming aware of one's personal dark side--the habitual monkey-ninded diatribe of negativity that pulls a person into depression, hopelessness and apathy. By observing such automatic thoughts and feelings without judgment, they can be seen for what they nearly always are: a cry for love. By acknowledging these thoughts and feelings, it reduces their frequency, neutralizes their power, and reveals the trauma and hurt crying out for a loving embrace.

Another argument was centered around being "happy" with any negative situation, so that the mindful person has no motivation to change anything. This just points up the author's ignorance of the practice. Remember that "Kung Fu" TV episode when Cain is put in jail? He sat down and went into meditation, becoming hyper-aware of his surroundings, he was then able to find a way to harmlessly break out of the prison. This is what mindfulness provides: a way to use the mind to look at all aspects of a situation--without denial, without judgment--so that all perceptions and powers can come to bear on a problem.

The author also had a problem with the meme, "Happiness is an inside job", as if a person can only achieve happiness by controlling outside circumstances. This, of course, is backwards. By "being OK" with one's predicament is not saying they are satisfied with it. The "being OK" means that all facets of a situation--both positive or negative--can be observed with equanimity and then intelligent choices made to change or not change it. Personally, if I'm experiencing a negative circumstance, I would much rather "get my mind right" about it by achieving peaceful allowance of it so that all the possibilities for action can be considered. Otherwise, I'd just be throwing my fists wildly in the air in hopes of hitting something--and I've been there, believe me!

Mindfulness is a vital practice, and anyone who says different is advocating for self-ignorance, low intelligence, and warlike approaches to the world's problems. It is important to allow that many people do have these non-mindful views, because by being OK with them allows us to see the pain and injustices that must have been at their genesis.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
Pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

Andy of Mayberry and the Rise of Polarity

"All policemen in training should be required to watch the entire series of 'Andy of Mayberry'," declared my younger brother out of the blue today during one of our marathon talking sessions. I've come to appreciate these talks because he's, first of all, a kook like me, and second of all we both increasingly have come to see human life as a spectator sport.

"Andy always handled things. He was the last word, and people loved him for it. His good nature and down-home philosophy fit in with a type socio-emotional small town Utopia," he said.

I joined in, "Yeah, he always was kind of pre-crime--always right there when potential trouble could have started, so nothing ever got out of hand that couldn't be fixed with good ol' common sense and a handshake."

"Uh huh... I love that style of TV way back in the day, when the Beaver had to apologize to his dad, and Fred McMurry was the wisest dad in the world," my brother waxed nostalgic.

I then pointed out that those TV shows were more about feeling snug and cozy in a predictably small world with predictably smaller world views. And as the 60s "family show" began to go out of fashion, it seemed like it was more because script writers wanted to be more dramatic and show how things "really are"--maybe a product of pressure from TV execs to increase ratings: we all know what suckers we are for drrraaammmaaa. Or, there were darker agendas at work.

The rise of the police procedural drama really illustrates this point. Shows like "The FBI", "Hawaii 5-0", "The Untouchables", "Police Story", and "Kojak" all snagged the lion's share of ratings back then--and shows like these continue to do so today. But at a deeper level, the police procedural is all about separating the good from the bad, and bringing "justice" to crime victims by discovering the "truth" behind a particular crime. Audiences love that stuff, because it's a no-brainer. There are the bad guys doing bad things over there, and here come our good guys to make them pay--the dramatization of polarity.

It proves to us that the world is basically black and white, good vs. evil, a place where crime doesn't pay, and if it does, it's only for a little while--and the longer it does pay, the harder the fall. This is comforting psychology to take refuge in, as life became more and more complex and the grey areas continued to expand into the 21st Century.

Mass entertainment media like this has, in my view, too much power and influence over casual consumers. TV is already one of the greatest of hypnotic medias, with its rhythmic scanning of electrons across a framed screen with the viewers' attention focussed on a small area. It's actually outright hypnotism. And now these days, with tiny digital dots in dense arrays, it's the very essence of high definition mind control.

And if you were wanting power over a society, well, TV is THE way to go. Throw in subliminal messages and images, and you've got a recipe for creating a hoard of unthinking, unreflecting zombies with emotional "on" switches and little self-control. You've created a polarized society, which is exactly what any power monger wants to see, because a divided, polarized world is easy to control, and easy to profit from.

The point I'm laboring to make is that the more we become aware of the darkness, the more important it is to embrace the light. Embracing the light is not the arduous task the perpetrators of the dark side would have you believe, because we ARE ALREADY LIGHT. Consciousness IS light. So it's just a matter of being what you ARE, as you face what you are not. Yes, we all have that popular "dark side", and we've stored a lot of power in there in the form of unconscious energies we've purposely created or agreed to. But that doesn't mean we have to automatically be victimized by our own dark choices.

Just observe it all--get into spectator mode about your own mind and attention and where you control it, and where you allow it to be controlled. Get into the non-duality of mindful awareness. There is no "good" or "bad"--just different states of energy. For all his simplicity and good intentions, I believe Andy of Mayberry really knew this to be true. And, yes, all police training should definitely require a nice, long visit to Mayberry.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
Pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

Healing You

I've commented before in previous writings that I have a semantic aversion to the concept of "healing". From a non-dualistic point of view, "healing" becomes a matter of judgement about how we feel about our bodies and lives, and has little to do with the reality that how we express in our given incarnation is perfectly who we are being. No harm, no foul.

That said, from a day-to-day experience of life in linear time, we most certainly become aware of dysfunction and pain leading us to look for a way to "heal". At the core of these dysfunctions, pains, and unwanted conditions, are inevitably unconscious patterns we've created in response to experiences--usually traumatic or extreme in some way, either physically, mentally or emotionally.

The deep-down reality of the situation with disease and dysfunction is that we created or adopted--many times unwittingly--negative experiences that, because they were negative, we decided to block them, or denied them, or shoved them down into a dark hole of forgetfulness. The problem with doing this, is that the energies of the experience are still active and reactive in the present moment, even though we've quite thoroughly forgotten their origin or intensity.

Complicating matters is that every time these reactive experiences are activated, it affects the entire field of consciousness, and this is what I am addressing in this essay.

The harsh or ecstatic quantum truth is that we are all connected as conscious and unconscious energy vortexes. All of our perceptions and experiences, whether conscious or unconscious, affect the entire quantum field of life. On the day to day, we don't really observe this directly due to social mores, cultural memes and contrivances, yet we are all affecting each other with every thought we experience, every intent we create, and every action we take. And, this includes all that previously created and sequestered reactive energy we've placed in the denial box of the "unconscious", waiting to be triggered at any moment.

The important thing to realize here is that for every unwanted condition, denied energy, and latent trigger, lies the opposite, that when addressed and brought to present attention, causes a discharge, and so is no longer unconsciously reactive. What initiates this process of mindful attention can exist anywhere in the quantum field of life. Meaning that your "healing" is inevitable due to the increasing and expanding conscious present awareness of all sentient life in the universe. This is why it is possible to "be healed" by another person, animal, or entity.

Often it is just a matter of asking for the healing, and in the asking, the "field of sentience" sends back the resolving energies causing the disease or dysfunction in the first place. Of course, if we believe this can't happen, or "know" this "isn't the way it works", that serves as a barrier and further isolates the unwanted energy within the dark cauldron of our Unconscious. On the other hand, to become aware and in allowance of the reality that our unconsciousness is waiting to discharge upon our request or demand, then healing occurs.

Nothing happens without our permission. My favorite book on this subject is Alice Bailey's Esoteric Healing, wherein she makes this exact point. As a healer, without the full consent and trust of the client or patient, no amount of moving energy or discharging it is going to have an effect.

Therefore, the seeking of healing requires that the seeker be fundamentally willing to re-perceive what energies lurk in the dark cave of unconsciousness, and to reach out to the Sentient Whole to find and remind how, why and where we blocked or denied the energies of an unwanted experience. And in so doing, let go of these blocked or previously unseen energies, so they may contribute once again to our life and to the expansion of general universal sentience.

Healing has always been an inside job, and in acknowledging that reality we not only open the flood gates of our own healing potential, we also open the possibilities for others to be healed, ultimately serving the entire conscious collective. And by reaching out with intent and purpose, we call in the keys to unlocking the prison of unconscious energies, and free ourselves as well as our beloved fellow beings into infinite possibilities.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

Riding the Waves of Feeling

I woke up this morning, and besides my normal waking fog, as I sat on the edge of my bed, there was some familiar terrain of feeling down deep. It was familiar in the sense of it seemed ancient and something I hadn't felt for a very long time. It was soft, powerful, all-encompassing and poignant--as if I had just arrived back home after a long absence.

This particular feeling persisted, and as I went on with my day, I noticed that almost everything I looked at, every smell, every sound, was triggering feelings I'd felt as a child, or at different times in my life--sometimes cascading with four or five opisodes firing at once. These have been intense enough to bring me to a complete pause, motionless, simply being and experiencing these intense messages from beyond, or unburied from deep within.

Many of these feeling phantasms were melancholy and brought about reactions of futility and sadness. As these continued to wash through me, I realised there was a juicy counterpart at the other end of this feeling spectrum: futility could be felt as high hopefulness; sadness could be felt as poignant joy. It became a matter of simple choice as to which end of the spectrum of these feelings I could feel.

For want of a better analysis, it would seem I've stumbled upon a kundalini event, where suddenly new spaces, new vistas of possibility have been revealed, and the gateway to these possibilities seems to have been flung wide open.

Lately, there have been astronomical reports about the sun's heliosphere contracting along with the solar minimum. The contraction of the heliosphere allows high-powered and high-velocity cosmic rays from galactic center to more easily penetrate the boundary between the heliosphere and our solar system, bringing new types of radiations to our planet. These have been shown to directlyl affect human consciousness.

Whatever it is, something is going on, and it's being felt by humanity either consciously or unconsciously, bringing a multitude of opportunities for all of us to explore the multi-dimensional aspects of our being. There is so much about ourselves that has been obscured, cut off, and made invisible for the sake of incarnation, cultural control and constriction of our senses and abilities.

When we begin to access previously shutdown perceptions and pathways to high abilities, it feels like a coming home, or a re-centering of being, just on the verge of overwhelming, yet completelly natural. It is the Second Coming of the Self, the beginning of an embodiment of everything that is.

Ask for it. Reach for it. It is there, and say hello to the infinite YOU.

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
pureenergyrx.com

This Quantum Life

The Duck and Cover

Those of a certain age will recall the grade school drills conducted in preparation for a nuclear blast--duck and cover. I remember doing this a couple of times in 4th grade, at the height of the atomic bomb scare during the early late 50s, early 60s. At the time, I did not understand how ducking and covering--cowering really--under our desks was going to be any sort of protection if a nearby atomic blast was going to instantly wipe away everything. Even if we were to survive the initial blast, there was the deadly fallout to follow, so either way, ducking and covering made no sense to me. I guess the educators responsible for this drill figured it would be better to keep innocent children's wide eyes shut in the face of total anihilation, than to witness the carnage while it was happening. I dunno.

I woke up the other night with the image of schoolroom duck and cover, and came to the awareness that metaphorically, I did this when my experience either became too intense, or scary scenarios bounced around in my ego monkey mind. Duck and cover! The ostrich sticks its head in the sand, hoping it will all just go away. And sometimes it does, but it's guaranteed that the underlying causative factors for the duck and cover still remain, unless addressed head on with eyes wide open.

Duck and cover is how we engage in full-blown denial of our fears and circumstances. It gives us a sort of sense of protection, even though it is no protection at all. The soft underbelly reality of denial is the fact that those energies we deny are precisely the ones we must embrace in order to achieve any modicum of self-mastery.

What are we ultimately denying? Well, our own creations, or our responses to our own perceptions. One person can see the charge of a lion as a life-threatening event, or maybe that lion is charging up to give us a big hug. Of course, we're not going to wait around and find out, either running away or doing the duck and cover.

There are inexorable forces in this universe, and some of them are beyond our puny personal power. They exist in our world because we subconsciously agreed to co-create them in all their wonderous brute force. These great forces of Nature, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes and supernovas, bring perspective in the knowledge that there are greater forces at work in the universe than ourselves, and serve as reminders of the lineage of power from whence we came.

When it comes to our own psychologies, it is important to discern the difference between an existential threat and a purely imaginary duck and cover event. And on the road to spiritual development, there are NOTHING except ephemeral fears masquerading as existential threats. That is to say, whatever we are ducking and covering from will never destroy us--only make us stronger.

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz story, our seeking to find "home" is often more a matter of recognizing our own ruby slippers and then how to use them, than any type of grand sojourn to an external wizard, who will dramatically reveal to us who and what we truly are, or at the very least pat us on the back with words of encouragement.

Of course, many times on my spiritual journey home, have I accepted a pat on the back as evidence of progress--a surface illusion at best, and it only served to distract me from the reality that the way home is known only to me. My greatest assistance has always been my own burning desire to return home as a fully embodied Self, living a Universal life of beauty, transcendence and power.

So now, my friends, let's crawl out from our duck and cover poses, and click those ruby slippers together three times!

To your quantum health,

Boyd Martin
pureenergyrx.com