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Self Empowerment

This is a lecture Ken will deliver to a conference on Self Empowerment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 15th.

 

Today we are going to talk about awakening the power within. But this isn't going to be the standard fare: you know, appreciate what you have, love yourself and others, find your passion and do it. All of this is great advice, but frankly, I have never been able to make things like this work for me on a long-term basis. For me personally, an understanding of spirituality, and the spirit-mind-body framework, has been very, very helpful in orienting me in the right direction for self-empowerment. And so that is going to be the thrust of my talk today.

I am first going to talk about consciousness and what it is. Then we are going to talk about feelings and emotions, and how they relate to self-empowerment. In this talk I will try to integrate science into our understanding of metaphysics, because science has become so important in our society that it almost drowns out spirituality. My intention today is to present to you an empowering model of consciousness and its relationship to the physical world we live in.

In order to awaken the power within, you have to know what that self-empowerment is, and who you are. Self-empowerment is simply understanding the idea that you are an immortal spirit. I'm not talking about just an intellectual understanding, but something that you KNOW. And this knowing can come about through a strong connection with your feelings. Feelings, dear ones, are the gateway to spirit, which we are going to talk about shortly. 
All right, we often talk about spirit, mind and body, and we usually place spirit on top, mind in the middle, and body on the bottom.

This reflects the idea of "as above, so below," but it also gives spirit, or consciousness, the higher position. And this is accurate, I think. Those of us on the spiritual path understand that we are not these fleshy bodies, and that we live on after the body dies. And we are pretty sure that we are not the mental images and the thoughts that appear in our minds, for we can observe these things and separate ourselves from them. Therefore we cannot BE them, or we would never know we weren't them. There, I have just disposed of thousands of years of philosophy in one sentence!

So the first thing we need to ask is, "What is spirit? What is consciousness?" We all know that in order to be successful in anything, we first have to define a goal. If you go on a trip, you first have to have a destination firmly in mind. And so too with self-empowerment. In other words, all of us here understand to a greater or lesser degree that we are spiritual beings. We utterly reject the deluded philosophies of materialism, which reduce a human being to a biological automaton; a powerless sponge for electromagnetic and electrochemical inputs. But what exactly is a spirit? When we ask this question, we are really asking, "Who are we really?" There is really a lot of confusion on this subject, which tends to make the entire subject of spirituality and self-empowerment confusing as well.

So let's try to distinguish between what spirit is, and what it isn't.

In Hindu thought there is the concept of prana, an invisible substance that represents life-force energy, the animating principle. The Chinese call life force chi. We call it the force, or orgone energy. Christians call this animating energy, the soul. The famous author Wallace Wattles called it 'thought-substance.' The Egyptians told us about the Mer-Ka-Ba, a sphere of Light that surrounds the human body; a sort of Lightship that can be used to travel to other dimensions and universes. All of these things describe something ephemeral and invisible, yet something that, in our most aware and awakened moments, can be seen and felt. And the important point here is that we do not see life force energy with our 5 human senses, because in that case, everyone would see it and the existence of such a thing would be so obvious that we wouldn't be here today at this conference!

Chi, prana, or life force are definitions of energy, however. Subtle, invisible energy perhaps, but energy nevertheless. Former NASA scientist Barbara Brennan claims to see auras, and founded an organization to help other people to do so as well. Some of you have probably read her books, "Hands of Light" is one of them. She describes various layers of subtle energy that surround the human body. Some medical intuitives can see colors or distortions in a person's body or energy field, even from long distances, and use this information to help heal a person. We know of medical miracles in which a person suddenly, through a profound epiphany or change in heart or attitude, overcomes a deadly disease. I personally know two of these people. So, is what we are this animating energy? Is consciousness or spirit, life force? Are we our auras or our Lightbodies, as some call them?

That is an interesting concept, because if what we are is energy – even if a very, very subtle and ephemeral energy-- then we are vulnerable, are we not? For it would then be possible to "scramble" a spirit and destroy it. And that is a very DIS-empowering idea! But what if consciousness, the awareness that is you and I, transcends the physical altogether?

Throughout the millennia there exists the concept that consciousness is non-physical; that spirit is the creator of form and energy, but is itself not energy. If consciousness is non-physical, then it cannot be chi, or prana, or life force, but must be the creator of these things. So consciousness cannot have mass, or momentum, or any property related to matter or energy. Consciousness must be a pure, creative potential, and the aura, for example, must be a direct result of the effect of consciousness on the physical world. Our own Lightbodies, our personal sphere of consciousness, must be our own personal creation, something intimate to who we are, but it is NOT who we are. Indeed, every one of us has a personal (and beautiful) Lightbody that interacts with our physical bodies and with the universe as a whole. We'll talk a lot more about this when we discuss the vibrational universe concept.

So chi, prana, the force, and indeed, all matter and energy must be a creation of consciousness. Now this is something that sounds simply illogical, for how can one create something from nothing? Well, dear ones, that is the magic of Spirit!

If the universe is a creation of consciousness, how does that work? Well, I have a movie that explains how consciousness could have created the universe we see about us. It's called "The Unity of Spirit and Matter" and you can see it for free on the https://www.sunrise-production.org website. Let's take a look at this because it is very important. This concept underlies the entire subject of spirituality, and of popular concepts like the "Law of Attraction."
Let's let this circle to the left represent consciousness. Of course this is really silly, because we've just said that a spirit is something without form, a pure potential. But we have to represent it somehow, so we're going to draw a circle. That circle represents the creative potential, the spirit. It is the alpha and the omega, as Christ said, because the circle is a perfectly smooth figure with no beginning or endpoints. Therefore it is appropriately representative of something that is infinite.

When you make a decision, have a preference, or initiate a thought, you create a tiny, tiny packet of energy, like so:  diagram. This little packet of energy represents a thought. It is a quanta, the very smallest bit of anything in the universe. This little thing is alive; it is vibrating within itself. That's what living things do; they move. All things vibrate internally, even so-called dead things like rocks. A dead body just sits there, but a live one moves around!  And so each one of us is the creator of our own auras, or lightbodies. Every one of our thoughts has a distinct vibration, and collectively, they form what might be called an envelope of thought that attracts more thoughts like them. Each one of us has a distinct and personal vibrational signal to the universe. We all have a Universal ID card!

Last month I shared with you an important and empowering scientific article about unification. In this article, physicist Nassim Haramein shows us the everything in the universe, from smallest to largest (including all life) is interconnected via the Phi ratio. A random universal evolution could never have resulted in such an elegant result! Haramein's paper tell us that those of us who understand our spirituality have been correct all along. The universe isn't a cold and uncaring place; it is a beautiful and complex creation that is based on something profound and beautiful. If you know anything about the Phi ratio you will understand this completely. (If you want more information about the phi ratio, you can look it up on Google, or you can go on my website at https://kjmaclean.com and press the "Geometry" button, where you can find artcles on this elegant proportion, which has been called "the divine proportion."

All right, now how does a quanta (the basic building block of matter and energy) get created? Science doesn't address this question, and properly so. In fact, a fundamental principle in physics is the Law of Conservation of Energy; and so to a scientist, the idea that energy can be created is absurd. In physics, they just accept that the universe of matter and energy is here, and try to figure out how it works. Science cannot deal with the subject of consciousness, or the infinite, because it is not measurable. When a scientist finds what is called a "nasty infinity" (a quantity that is infinitely large) in his equations, he knows there is something very wrong with his theory!  And so for science, consciousness, and energy creation, is simply invalid.

But this leads to incomprehensible ideas like the "Big Bang" theory, in which all of the energy of the universe has already been created, and is magically crammed into an infinitely small space called a singularity.  It leads to materialistic philosophies that say that when you die, you're dead, and that is simply unacceptable to those of us who know better, even if we can't prove it! History shows us that when people are enlightened about their spiritual origins, societies are prosperous and balanced, but when they are not, conflict, hierarchy, and injustice is prevalent. That is another empowering thought, ladies and gentlemen, because it means that when we as a species finally become aware of our true nature, our societies will transform.

Of course, no one can prove that consciousness is an invisible, creative principle, because it is non-physical! That has been the dilemma of philosophers and scientists throughout the millennia. We know that the universe exists; but we also know that matter and energy cannot create other matter and energy. So how did all this stuff get here? Sherlock Holmes once said that once you eliminate all of the possibilities whatever is left, no matter how impossible, must be the answer. Cosmologists have a number of theories about how the universe might have gotten started, but these theories all depend on the existence of something prior, even if it is an indefinable and ephemeral quantum foam. The answer must be a creative principle, which somehow creates the universe and then is able to experience in it.
So back to our million dollar question: how does a quanta, or this little tiny packet of energy, get created? Well, we can say that a thought, a quanta, is a mapping between spirit and the physical universe. We can define a virtual function f,some property of the Creative Potential, that maps a thought T into the physical universe, like so:

 Spirit    --->   virtual function (f)   thought (quanta)              

So whenever you have a thought, make a decision,   or have a preference, you are creating a tiny little quanta of energy. This thought-energy makes up chi, prana, life force energy. It is an animating and creative energy that comes directly from spirit, and composes everything we can see.

These subtle little quanta come together like a flower essence or oil, and, over billions and billions of years, combine to form particles, and energy, and stars and galaxies and universes. Physicists, by the way, don't have a definition for energy. Nobelist Richard Feynman, in his famous Lectures on Physics, stated that "we do not know what energy is."

And this energy is well-being, it is love, it is affinity, it is every positive feeling there is. The universe is made up of positive energy, not in the electromagnetic sense, but in the sense that everything in the universe is composed, ultimately, of a thought-substance that, if you could completely connect with it, feels totally awesome. This is the object of all those who seek enlightenment and empowerment. It is what people who have had near-death experiences will tell you, unequivocally. This means that everything we see, if we could see into the essence of it, would feel wonderful. That is what enlightened people, the Masters, tell us: that life and the universe is liquid love: that if we were to truly perceive into the heart of anything we would see that it is a part of something unifying, and whole. That is an empowering concept.

Now these little thought quanta are a lot smaller than what physicists call the Planck units, for those of who know anything about that. A Planck unit is the very smallest physical bit of mass/energy that exists in our universe. There are many Planck quantities: for mass, for energy, for time, and for length, for example. But what we are talking about here is something almost indistinguishable from nothing. And it is entirely beyond the instruments of science, no matter how far we advance technologically. But the cool thing is that a spirit can perceive these little quanta; they are everywhere. They make up the subatomic particles that form matter and energy. Medical intuitives, and psychics, can connect to this energy to a greater or lesser degree. It is possible for all of us to connect to it in meditation, or when we feel a sudden burst of love or affinity, or when we just know something before it happens.

A spiritual being is entirely non-physical, so it doesn't even have this tiny little mass. Consciousness can simply Be anywhere it wants to, anywhere in the universe just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull because it is entirely independent of the limitations of matter and energy. And because everyone is thinking and deciding things all the time, the ethers are filled with these thought forms. And each one of us has a personal energy field that interacts with this universal field, and all other thought forms. Therefore, all of our thoughts are transparent to the universe and travel within this universal field, and interact with the thoughts of everyone else. So much for privacy laws! This interaction is the basis for the vibrational universe concept, and universal principles like the Law of Attraction. We could talk about this for hours, but we only have limited time. If you want more detailed information, you can go to my website https://kjmaclean.com, or get the book "The Vibrational Universe" and the companion movie, which explains these concepts in great detail.

Emotions and Feelings

How do you access your spiritual side? How do reach the higher self and allow it into your life? This is basically the question of, how do you reach enlightenment? The key is feelings, ladies and gentlemen. Now there is a big difference between emotions and feelings. Emotions are biological, electrochemical reactions within the body that cause you to feel a certain way. But feelings come directly from spirit, and are accessed through your chakras. When you take drugs, or vitamins and supplements, you can change the way you feel emotionally. That's because the physical substances cause electrochemical changes within your body, and you feel different. But a feeling is different. A feeling is a hunch, intuition, inspiration, a sudden rush of well being or of love. These feelings are the result of you, as a spiritual being associated with a physical body, using your "spiritual sensors" to feel things you can't feel merely with the 5 human senses. That is why you can get a temporary high with drugs, but it never lasts if you are messed up psychically. Your thoughts can actually reprogram your neural pathways, change the elctrochemical balance within your body, and change the way you feel. In other words, thoughts can change your emotional state. That is an empowering idea.

Take a look at what happens when you listen to your favorite radio station.


 In an FM broadcast, a carrier wave "carries" a signal, which is the program you listen to. That program could be a music concert, a philosophy lecture, or a football game. It doesn't matter what the program signal is, because it sort of piggybacks on top of the carrier wave. This is similar to the relationship that spirit has with the physical universe. The carrier wave is a much higher frequency than the data signal; it is more powerful and has more energy. The wavelengths of this carrier wave are much finer. Without the carrier wave, you can't hear the program. Without spirit or consciousness, there wouldn't even be a physical universe; but we don't see that because we are immersed in the physical universe and in our physical bodies. If you had an ultimate carrier wave, it would be a vibration of infinite frequency and refinement, and it would cover the entire universe in no time at all.

The Hindu's tell us that there is such a universal carrier wave; it is called the OM. The OM is the fundamental frequency of our universe, to which all things resonate. It contains all harmonics and sub-harmonics of everything in creation. The OM is a creation of consciousness. It is something accessible to all life, because all life is ultimately a pure, creative potential having a physical experience. That is an empowering idea! Life resonates to this wonderful vibration. The OM is essentially the creative expression of Spirit, and allows the creation of an infinite variety of playgrounds, or universes. If you think this universe is the only one in existence, just wait until you "graduate," er, or shall I say, "die." On earth it is hard to express ideas like this without sounding like a kook, but that is only because the awareness level of humanity has not yet reached a mature stage. We are like lovable little children making messes, but not understanding at all who we are or what we are capable of!

In Haramein's scientific paper, he demonstrates the idea that everything is connected. It turns out that everything is vibrating at a different frequency, and that these frequencies are related by Phi. So apparently the OM, this universal vibration that contains all harmonics, is benign, and it is intelligent, because life itself is based on the Phi ratio. A great book to read is one written by Gyorgi Doczi, called "The Power of Limits." In this book he explains the phi ratio with diagrams, and it is fascinating. I have a link to the book at Amazon set up on my webpage at https://kjmaclean.com/MainProductPage.php, or you can just type it in on the Amazon website.
Perhaps the OM has a physical counterpart in the quantum foam, a tern coined by Nobel winner John Wheeler, to describe the incredibly large background energy that exists at the quantum level.  Regardless of what you call it, the OM would be an infinitely fine and subtle energy, and it would be something completely unifying; uniting all vibrations everywhere. Therefore, it would have to be something that exhibits total well-being and love, for only love is all-inclusive. This property of the OM would, if you could connect to it, feel absolutely wonderful.

The way to the spirit, while in the physical, is through your feelings. Feelings are your "spiritual sensors", and are the gateway to becoming aware of life force energy. When you do this, even if for only an instant, you feel a rush of well being, for life force energy is every positive feeling you have ever had. And then, when you feel really good, you can step back into a pure state of being that is what consciousness is. This state of being, as described by Eckhart Tolle and the great masters, is something utterly divine, completely intimate with the Creative Principle, utterly complete, infinite, and serene; that transcends time and space. And that, dear ones, is the ultimate in empowering ideas!  So the answer to: "How do I attain enlightenment?" is to pay attention to your feelings.

The Difference Between Emotions and Feelings
Emotions are biochemical reactions, as I've said before. Feelings are your direct connection with source energy, or chi. Every one of us has his or her personal energy field, and when we use our spiritual sensors and connect with this energy, it feels fantastic. Here is a diagram of the human emotional/vibrational scale:

Emotion

Attitude

Apathy

“I give up.”

Grief

 

Propitiation

“I’ll do anything to make it up to you!”

Sympathy

“I feel your pain.”

Fear

 

Anxiety

 

Hidden Hostility

He's smiling in your face and stabbing you in the back. Says one thing and does another.

Callousness

“Tough for you. Just do it.”

Anger

Out of control, lashing out at the world.

Antagonism

“Hey! Come over here and let me kick your butt!” Feistiness.

Boredom/
Complacency

Yawn

Conservatism

“Things are fine just the way they are”

Interest

“Hey that's cool!”

Enthusiasm

“Wow! Let's do that again!”

Exhilaration

“I feel fantastic!!!!!”

Serenity/bliss

Complete connection to Source, or God force, or life-force energy. This is the feeling consciousness has in its native, non–physical state.

You'll notice that the majority of this scale is in the negative or neutral range; what happens in life is that stress can trigger an electrochemical, emotional, reaction that interferes with our native ability to access source. It's important to distinguish between how we feel in the body range, and how we feel when our lower, or "human" emotions, don't  interfere with our ability to perceive natively. When we are not incarnated into our physical bodies, we have a direct connection to Source energy. This is a state of being my personal guidance calls "Native State." In Native State, we eliminate the "middleman," or the interface, of our human bodies and perceive the All directly.

To understand this idea, look at a computer program. Every program has helpful menus, and buttons, and areas where you can type in text or put in images. This is called an interface and it allows you to communicate with the program and do useful work. In the physical universe, spiritual beings associate themselves with human bodies, or cat bodies, or dog bodies, or beetle bodies, in order to experience in different ways. Each body has slightly different sensory apparatus, and perceives the world in a different way. The eye of a fly is a lot different from the eye of a human, but the fly seems to get along pretty well. The fly sees things a lot differently than we do. In fact, every life form sees and feels things differently. Each life form has a different perceptual "interface" to the universe, and that is the purpose of bodies: to allow a spirit to experience the same world with different levels of perception and awareness. Each life form is using a slightly different program to access the world. That is why, IMHO, there are so many different types of bodies. Life, it seems, wants to experience in as many different ways as possible.

Back to our discussion of emotions and feelings.
A feeling is a direct experience of source energy by a spirit. An emotion is an electrochemical sensation from within the physical body. In meditation, we try to place our human emotions into the background and directly connect to the beautiful and loving OM, the thought-substance that is all around us, just as we do naturally in Native State. My guidance tells me that this connection to Source is inherent to all spiritual beings; all life. It's something we do naturally; something we don't have to "work" at, which is why it is so hard sometimes. It's hard because we like to complicate things. We all know that science and mathematics, which are used to describe matter and energy and its relationships, is very complicated.  And so we are trained that the answer to anything must be complicated. But the ability to access Source and feel wonderful is the simplest thing in the world. And that is what I want to get across to you today, dear ones. To understand who you are, and to reach a state of self-empowerment, pay attention to your "spiritual sensors."

Pay attention to your feelings.

The energy of source is simply a hundred trillion ways to feel wonderful, each one of them unique. And a feeling is simply a connection to this energy that fills the universe and is a part of everything in this room. And ultimately, you, as a pure creative potential, are divine, you are immortal, and you are the creator of this wonderful energy. And so natively, you always feel wonderful in an infinite number of ways. That's the way Spirit designed Life, and the All-That-Is. You, as a spirit, always feel fantastic, in an infinite number of ways! There is no death, dear ones. Death is merely a transition of spirit from something physical to Native State and the fullness of understanding of Self and Oneness.

Self-empowerment is a simple and powerful understanding that is native to all of us. When you regain this understanding you will never fear death. You will feel a deep sense of internal power that will carry you through even the toughest of life's challenges. And you will feel an inner sense of relaxation and confidence.  Those feelings are the essence of self-empowerment.

 

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