Archive for the ‘Vision Speak’ Category

A few photos of the trip so far are in the gallery below.  I’m finally starting to adjust to this timezone.  There are 12 of us here to cheer Roni on in the Youth Olympic Games.  Unfortunately her younger brother, Austen, has been in the hospital since shortly after we arrived.  He is fine and will be out tomorrow hopefully.

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The weather has been fabulous, sunny and just below freezing.  Roni’s had two races so far – the Super G and Super Combined.  She DNF-ed (Did Not Finish) the first day, unfortunately.  The second race, Super Combined, was today and is one Super G run and (if you survive the SG), one Slalom run.  She finished 9th overall which is excellent but she was not overly happy with her result as she made a few mistakes and can do better.  Still we are all very proud.  Way to go Roni!

We’re looking forward to seeing what she will do with the GS and Slalom on Wed and Fri as these are her better events.

Tomorrow is a day off and some of us are going to take the train to Salzburg to do some sightseeing..

This coming Friday, December 2nd, come to the Book Launch and Book Fair at the York Simcoe Literacy Council in Newmarket.  For more information, visit author Heather Lambert’s site at http://cassiusvampire.com/news-and-events

I will be onsite to sell my novel, “Vision Speak” (www.vision-speak.com), along with other local authors.  As this is Heather’s book launch, she will do a reading from Cassius Blood Rights, her new vampire novel, at 6pm

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The Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts (www.bmfa.on.ca) in Collingwood is a juried show featuring creative work by local artists and artisans.  “Vision Speak” is available for sale at this show during November and December of 2011.

WINTERS GIFT

November 3 to December 31st -  The Arts Centre

The Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts presents Winters Gift, a fine art and craft show and sale. Opening on November 3 and running until December 31, 2011 the show includes the work of over 30 of the regions talented artists and artisans. Pottery, jewellery, woodworking, glass, painting and more will be beautifully presented in the historic Arts Centre building adjacent to the Gayety Theatre. Support local arts while taking home an exquisite one of a kind gift.

The Arts Centre will be open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 – 5 pm and Sundays 1- 4 pm.

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In previous posts, I’ve shared a little bit about the ups and downs over the past year of first releasing my novel, “Vision Speak”, with a publisher that didn’t work out and ultimately making the decision that I needed to move on.  Since then, I got my rights back and last month, re-released “Vision Speak” via “Future Day Publications” (my company), printed by Ardith.  The beautiful new cover for the book was designed by my sister, Rebecca Marsden. 

As I am very busy with my job in the software industry and have slowed down promotional activities for the moment, I’ve been experimenting with a new medium for sharing my work – Youtube,  I’ve created a Youtube channel called “Future Day Productions” which will have a mix of personal videos, “Vision Speak” related videos and video-blogs (vlogs).  I’ve included a couple of the first videos I’ve recently produced below.  These are a novice effort but fun to do and I’m excited by the possibilities.  Perhaps I’m having too much fun mixing in a variety of pictures and video clips.  You’ll have to let me know if you have some suggestions..

Introduction to “Vision Speak”:

Dreams and Wizardry on Silver Creek:

What is “happy” and is it really attainable?  In this age of fast-paced, information overload, what do we really want from life?

I believe we want what people have always wanted.  We want to be happy.  We want to love and contribute to others.  We want to be loved.  We want to think we’re making a difference, that there’s a “reason” or purpose for our existence.

While some might argue that happy (as in merrily skipping along through life) is an overused term and not a practical goal, let’s consider happy as being peaceful and content, as being the opposite of miserable, as being empowered to be all that we can be in life, to be able to have loving and sustainable relationships.  And then, I think, everyone will agree that this is a state where we would all like to be centred.

Based on my own personal exploration into this essential quest, I’ve summarized what I view as the Top Ten tips to a Happy Life, as taught by many of the thought leaders today who are great authors, speakers, and spiritual teachers..

TOP TEN:

1. Be Present, Be Here Now

Studies suggest we have somewhere between 12,000 to 65,000 thoughts per day, although I’ve seen reference to a wider range (between 2,000 to 600,000!).   Most commonly, 50-60,000 is considered a good estimate.

Being human means being inundated with thoughts all day, every day: endless observations, judgements, interpretations, complaints, worries, ‘what-ifs’, memories, regrets, wishes, desires, dreams about our future, anger about our past, and on and on.  I’ve seen statistics indicating 95% of them are similar from day to day.  Some thoughts seem completely random, others can hijack us as we follow a thread and let our emotions react to what are sometimes completely irrational, twisted versions of reality.   For me, it has been a major breakthrough to understand that I am NOT my thoughts.  For too long, my thoughts ran me. They still try to, every single day, but I am watching them now.  I used to look to my thoughts for meaning, wondering why I was suddenly upset when nothing had happened.

So how much of an average person’s thoughts are rooted in the present moment?  Some suggest that the majority of our thoughts are rooted in the past (somewhere between 70 and 90%) with about 10-20% ruminating or dreaming or imagining what will happen in the future.  A small percentage of our thoughts actually focus on the present moment in a purely experiential manner.  Within our minds, our perception of the past, how it is affecting us now and into the future can often become warped.

Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth” and other books is a well-known speaker and teacher in this area.  Tolle tells us: “Stay fully present in the now—your whole life unfolds here. In the now there is joy of Being and deep peace”.

In Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”, he says that pure potentiality is pure consciousness, the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity.  Meditation to connect with our inner being to be present and master our thoughts can help us to find that state of pure consciousness.

2. Your Thoughts Create your Reality

When you start to understand that you are not your thoughts, that you are a being with a powerful inner spirit that happens to also have a brain that does what brains do, non-stop generation of thoughts, you can step back and observe this and take control.  Consider how you can choose how your brain operates just as you make these decisions about using your arm or your fingers or your eyes every day of your life.

The realization that you actually could control and direct your thoughts to create whatever reality you choose can open up a whole new world.  If, for example, you tell yourself that you cannot succeed at something - then you probably won’t.  So, the obvious question is why tell yourself that?  And yet we do it all the time..

There’s so much groundbreaking work in this area over the past decade, everything from the books on the Law of Attraction (including the blockbuster work called “The Secret”) and new science indicating that thoughts are actually bits of quantum energy (see previous post “The Science behind the Mystery“), which opens up even more unbelievable implications for our potential capabilities if we can master our mind.

Louise Hay (founder of Hay House) is an inspiring example of this powerful concept in action.  Her countless books and CD’s on Affirmations show how you can change your life by the very simple practice of constantly generating positive, life-affirming thoughts.  From “Power Thoughts” by Louise Hay at www.healyourlife.com: “Trust life to hear and respond to your positive words. Say these affirmations every day and your whole world will change for the better.”

3. Be Grateful

Expressing gratitude, especially if you can make it a daily practice to declare everything you are grateful for in your life, can create positive self-affirming thoughts instead of negative ones and align your attention to everything that is good in your life.  This alone can be transformational.  Many current thought leaders and spiritual teachers encourage people to keep a gratitude journal.  For a good example of this in practice, check out my Aunt Suzy’s Grateful List that she circulated at Christmas and I have since posted on this blog.

If you do a search on Gratitude quotations, you will find many empowering thoughts.  Here’s a few:

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’ “  William A. Ward

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you’, that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart

4. Trust that the universe is unfolding as it should..

Or perhaps an easier way to say this is, Have Faith.  Sometimes in our darkest hours, when nothing seems to be going as we had wanted or expected, we can’t see this.  We want only to fight against what is.  Everything will not always go our way but, if you trust life and let it unfold, as Mick Jagger said, “you just might get what you need”.

For some this could mean a belief in God, aligned with one of the great faith traditions, for others it might just mean knowing that there is a greater life force, that we are all a part of it, and that life will take us where we need to go if we surrender to it.

5. Practice Forgiveness

Oprah and others, have defined Forgiveness as recognizing that you can’t change the past.  We hold onto a lot of resentment and in the end, who does it hurt?  We hurt ourselves more than anyone else.  Accepting what has happened and creating the space to move on can be a powerful step forward.

Sometimes, particularly if you have been a victim of crime or abuse, whatever happened may seem ‘unforgiveable’.  In these cases, remember that forgiveness does not mean you have to let that person back into your life but it can release you from the hold that this has on you. 

In other cases, we may have imagined transgressions that were in reality, minor.  Caroline Myss, medical intuitive and author of a number of bestselling books including “Sacred Contracts”, outlines the common archetypes that drive our behaviours.   She identifies the “Victim” as one of the four archetypes for survival which can lead you to believe that “you are always taken advantage of and it’s never your fault.”  If this feels familiar, her work may be of interest.

Regardless of the situation (and many may lie in between these two extremes), if you have anger or bitterness in your heart, you must do the work needed (whatever that is for you) to let it go.  It literally will suck the life out of you and can affect all your relationships.  The serenity prayer from AA says it all: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”

6. Follow your Bliss

One of Joseph Campbell’s famous quotations…. 

Many will say that they would love to follow their bliss but they have to pay the bills, don’t have time, it’s too late to change course, or any other number of excuses.

I would contend that for many of us, we don’t really know what our ‘bliss’ is.  Of course, it seems like it must be the greener grass on the other side.  Certainly, the idea of walking away from a tough job and living in luxury seems blissful – but this is not what Campbell intended. 

Sometimes we need to take a hard look at our life circumstances and make adjustments along our journey.  The important thing is to be conscious.  Make conscious choices. Embrace work that you love.  Remember, even when you’re “following your bliss”, there will be tough sledding at times.  This is certainly not a free ticket to quit.

7. Choose your Life

This is another perspective on “Follow your Bliss”.  Sometimes, it’s not our outside circumstances that need to change but our interior dimension.

I took a course called the Landmark Forum many years ago, and this was a key concept after 3 long days of workshop.  It correlates back to the idea that ‘your thoughts create your reality’. 

When you declare that your life, your spouse, your children, your job, your world are all exactly what you always wanted, then they will become that for you. 

8. Don’t take yourself too seriously

Or, put another way: “Get over yourself”. 

No one likes criticism and we all have fragile egos…  but sometimes, when our thoughts hijack us, we can turn the simplest comments into conspiracy theories.

The truth is that not everything is about you, sometimes when people scowl at you, it’s because they’re unhappy inside.  If a person says something to you that you don’t like, you don’t have to react in kind.  In fact you may be able trigger transformation in another by not letting your ego take over, instead be present with that person and be compassionate.

Deepak Chopra asserts that “…the ego is not who we really are.  The ego is our social mask, it is the role we are playing.”

If you are aware and present with people, not coloured by past injustices or imagined indignities, then you can choose to always have powerful, meaningful conversations. 

Not being driven by ego takes focus, commitment, and courage…

9. We are all one

When you take steps to be present, become committed to not ‘be your ego’ or run by your thoughts, to be grateful for the people in your life, and to create your reality then you will start to sense more and more that you are not alone but a part of something much greater, the collective spirit of humanity. 

Even the latest scientific breakthroughs with respect to quantum consciousness and unified field theory are demonstrating that the universe and everything in it, ourselves included, are interconnected by a vast field of energy.

In this collective space, love and contribution become natural which in turn can fuel harmony and peace in your life.

10. Conscious Evolution

Last summer, I took the Evolutionary Worldview Course through Enlightennext Magazine and Andrew Cohen and then a few months ago, I watched the event: “A Call to Conscious Evolution, Our Moment of Choice”  which was also hosted by this group.  Both experiences were inspirational and eye-opening.  As Deepak, one of the many renowned speakers at the Evolutionary Leaders’ event, said: “…the only way to transform the world is to transform yourself..”  and “…even well-meaning activism is often coming from a place of outrage rather that creative consciousness..”

This jives with many of the teachings of Andrew Cohen and his team with respect to the evolution of our interior dimension and our culture.  Last year, I wrote a short post on “Evolution of Consciousness” vs.”Conscious Evolution” when I began to perceive the difference.  Our mind, our being, or our “interior dimension” as they call it have evolved just as our bodies have.  They talk about 4 billion years of evolution on this planet and how we, as sentient, powerful beings, can now choose where we go from here.  They ask questions like: “how does your own evolution come into the culture, into changing the world?”  and “To what degree are you enabling this process of evolution through your own heroic efforts?” so that we can leave the world a better place because we were here.

Andrew Cohen’s annual Being and Becoming Retreat delves deeply into these possibilities.  I hope to attend this one day myself and will continue to explore and discourse on this topic in future posts.

I recently spoke at a women’s dinner meeting and shared my Top Ten tips, asking for their feedback.  One suggestion, which happened to come from a Chinese medicine doctor, was “Your  Body is your Temple”.  A wonderful suggestion and I believe that, in many ways, this is an extension of  this commitment to conscious evolution. 

Making conscious decisions everyday to feed and exercise your body for optimal health and well-being is the other side of the coin to choosing the thoughts that you feed yourself for optimal mental health and well-being.   WILL POWER has a whole new depth of meaning…

If you’re reading this post and have opinions or suggestions on what your top ten are, don’t be shy.  Share your ideas.

Many people have asked what happened with my original publishing contract.  Why did I end it after less than a year? And what is the current status of “Vision Speak”?  I can tell you that it was a great relief for me to get my rights back and be free of this arrangement.   I am now excited about the future and have much news to share… but first, I need to clear the air about what happened.

So, before I announce the launch of the second release under a new publishing company, this post will give you an idea of generally what happened with the first release of “Vision Speak” from my perspective. 

In June 2009, PublishAmerica  (PA) offered me a 7 year publishing contract for “Vision Speak”.  At the time, I did find some of the criticism about PA online.  This involved discussions on their business practices including suggestions that they are not a traditional publisher but in fact a ‘vanity self-publisher in disguise’.  I chose to believe their insistent denials of these accusations and proceed with the contract, largely because I was impatient to ‘get on with it’ and reluctant to spend years chasing a publishing contract.  Traditionally, a new author must send out query letters to agents and publishers and it can often take many months (or even years) to get a response from each one.  Often the responses are form letters and almost always rejections, the impression being that no one has really read your work on the other end.  It is very difficult to publish a first novel, particularly if one is an ‘outsider’ to the world of publishing as I am.  The alternative is self-publishing which I wasn’t yet comfortable with..

So, I proceeded with PublishAmerica through cycles of ‘editing’, cover design and release, receiving my first copies of the book in December 2009.  The official release was slated for February 2010 by which time it should have been available at all online sites and available via wholesalers Ingram’s and Baker&Taylor to all retail outlets should they wish to order it.

Nothing with PA went as I had expected and there were many painful encounters.  Everything was handled via email.  They didn’t really do any editing.  They typeset the book.  When I found some mistakes that needed to be corrected after it had already been typeset, I had to pay a small fine to have them corrected.  They produced a cover design which I didn’t like.  When I requested a new design, I had to pay another fee to get a second design and then it was done and I had nothing to say about it.  In fact, the emails sent to me by their design department were rude and disrespectful.  Their idea of press release and marketing was to send a blast email out to contacts I had sent them.  No other efforts for marketing were undertaken by them.  The book appeared on Amazon right away but there were issues with all other online outlets and they had a falling out with Ingram’s so it was not available for retail stores to order.  (Without some legwork on my part, I knew that retail stores would not try to order them but my attempts to do this were hopeless without being listed on these wholesale catalogs).  My contacts who did order books directly from PA had to wait a long time, in some cases, months to receive them.

And meanwhile, I was bombarded with solicitation emails from PA (about 2-3 per week) with a variety of offers for me to buy books.  “Authors – buy 2 get 2 free”.  “Order 50 books and we’ll send 10 to Good Morning America”.  “Send books to Tom Hanks if you order today”…. and on and on.  It soon became clear that PA had only one customer in mind to market their books to – their authors.    And they had no end of gimmicky promotions and promises attached to entice these orders.

But I was willing to ignore this.  I had gone so far down this path that I was resigned to making it work – IF I could get books at a fair price and IF they had the distribution model in place.  I needed the book available on all online retail outlets.  I needed it available through the industry wholesalers so I could approach stores myself to do signings and place orders.  But none of this was even happening.  On top of that, PA’s price to ship books to Canada doubled in six months.  By June, they wanted to charge me $12 per book for shipping on top of the price of books (which varied from about $6-12 depending on which deal I bought them under).  For a book that should not sell for more than $20, this was unpalatable.  I was losing money on selling books.  At one point, I was interacting with someone at Chapters.  Because they could not source books via Ingram’s, I could buy the books myself and bring them but they would have to make 40% off the top.

I realized that I had made a mistake and I had to face it.  I began interacting with the Canadian Writers’ Union to get some advice.  Finally, I sent a letter to PA requesting a release from my contract based on this and some other grounds relating to how they had handled the eBook release.

After some unpleasant and unprofessional return correspondence, they told me I could get out of my contract for $299 (plus $12 shipping charge for a letter!)  After my blood stopped boiling, I decided it was a bargain and not worth any more of my precious mental energy.  I paid the penalty and got my release and full reversion of rights back in the fall of 2010.

So, after seven months and many successful events, including launches, conferences, and book clubs,  and some great feedback on “Vision Speak” from my readers , I abandoned ship with PublishAmerica and began to consider how best to bring my baby back into the world under less contentious circumstances.  

Now in the dawn of 2011,”Vision Speak” is available in both print and online as an eBook and I have put this experience behind me.  I am looking into options for distribution and assistance with PR.

And, after a brief hiatus with appearances, I am looking forward to two exciting events next week.

On Monday Feb. 21, I will be a guest on Dr. Majick RavenHawk’s radio show again and on Thursday, Feb. 24th, I will be speaking at the Women With Vision dinner meeting in Collingwood.  More on these events to follow in a future blog!

For the Winter 2010-11 issue of Women with Vision magazine, I’m on the cover.  As is customary for Vision magazine’s ‘cover girls’, the feature story is my life story.  Lorraine Leslie, editor of the magazine, wrote the story.  My cover shot and the picture included inside the magazine were taken by Catherine J Capek, an extraodinarily talented photographer and good friend.   In fact, I look so fabulous in her pictures (aided by the great work of Mac Cosmetics at the Bay) that I might stay in hiding and let people think I look like this everyday.     If I were really vain, I might fashion a paper bag for my head and paste this picture on the front.  Fortunately, at 48 years of age, I am not as hung up on my appearance as in my younger years.  So, I’ll forego the paperbag.  My friends can continue to rave about the picture and wonder how I managed it.

This issue came out two weeks ago.  I read it once but couldn’t do it again.  Now with a bit of distance, I can begin to talk about this experience.

Before I share my perspective and so that this is not misconstrued as being negative in any way towards the writer or magazine, I’d like to say a few words in general about Women with Vision (WwV) and Lorraine.   Lorraine is an admirable woman who pulled herself up from rock bottom to build an inspirational magazine and women’s networking groups who meet regularly around Southern Ontario, with roots in the Georgian Triangle.  It really astounds me what she has accomplished and I hope she tells her own life story in the magazine one of these days.  The article she wrote about me, based on material that I shared with her and sent her, is nothing but positive and I thank her for it.

But there are a few mistakes and, as I’ve also learned from a previous article written about me in the Era Banner, a common format for this type of article is to “quote” the person being interviewed to bring the story along.  However, because in real conversation, one explains something in fits and starts and long paragraphs – not short sound bites – the tendency is to paraphrase and shorten what one says to lead the story along more effectively.  But in so doing, sometimes the original intent can be misconstrued.  And generally, one is not allowed to proofread or approve the story before it goes to print.  So, it is a natural reaction, I believe, to cringe a little bit when you first read such a story about yourself at the same time as the rest of the world.

In fact, it’s not just the little inaccuracies but actually reading some of the things you say in print, is always uncomfortable.  I should be used to that by writing this blog.  You’re probably thinking, yeah right Eden, obviously you’re not shy and you want people to see you and hear about you.  But that’s not exactly true.

Plus for me, it caused some conflict between my mother and I, which always launches me onto an emotional rollercoaster, perhaps the one I rode for most of my teenage years.  As Lorraine’s story about me relates, I was once a bit of a ‘rebel’ and surviving my teenage years left behind a few scars.  

In this generation, with so many people on Facebook or LinkedIn, with blogs and twitter and youtube, with the inexplicable fascination with reality TV, real-life trainwrecks, and memoir style non-fiction, privacy is becoming less of an expectation.  People are sharing their day to day thoughts and feelings, experiences, embarrassments, angst, break-ups, desires, and even what they had for lunch with anyone who cares to listen/read/follow.

My sons – aged 23, 20, 19 don’t seem to think anything of this.  They update their status on facebook regularly, telling their hundreds of ‘friends’ what’s happening, where they’re going, how they feel about the Leafs, their exam that day, their birthday present or whatever happens to be on their mind in the moment. 

For me, I am on Facebook (personal and fan page for Vision Speak), Twitter, LinkedIn, now Youtube and of course I have this blog and my Vision Speak web site but I am not yet ‘comfortable’ with my online presence and being a ‘public’ person as compared to my kids’ generation who take this for granted.  As an author who wants to share my work with the world, I have moved in this direction but I have to confess that every step along this path is uncomfortable (like wearing underwear washed with fiberglass). My inclination is to run back inside, shut the doors, close the blinds and hide.  I rarely update my Facebook status and most of my tweets are retweeting interesting quotes or science stories or blogs.  I’ve not yet reached the stage where I can daily or hourly share my activities or innermost thoughts in these shared public forums. 

Well, perhaps until today.  My story is out there now so I might as well face it.

This relates to the “generational comfort” of having a public presence that our kids have always known.  Those of my generation seem to be mixed, some have embraced this (take my old high school friend Karen who first convinced me to go to Facebook a few years ago) but many of us are still not quite comfortable although we are ‘out there’, still others won’t consider joining Facebook or Twitter.

If we consider the older generation – my parents and grandparents, for many of them they can’t fathom what everyone is doing on Facebook.  They abhor the idea of sharing their day to day existence in this manner.  They grew up with an intense need for keeping certain things private.  Even now, in their 60′s and 70′s, there are aspects of their ‘story’, their youth perhaps, that they don’t want people to know.  These are things that many of us wouldn’t think twice about advertising on our status and our friends wouldn’t think twice about commenting on.  But for them, it’s deeply personal.

So imagine someone of this generation, someone who is extremely private and uncomfortable with people knowing the intimate details of their life.  Then think about how they might feel if some of this information is published because they are part of someone else’s story. And if those details are a bit mixed up, it might be even more embarrasing for them. 

The thing that I’ve come to realize is that we all have a story.  And everyone’s story is interesting.  There are inspirational aspects that everyone could share with the world and it might make a difference to someone.  This is one of the great things about the way our culture is going, the opening of our private lives.  (Of course, there are some bad things, the sensationalism, the obsession with Snooki and Brangelina and crazy housewives and the like..)  

But truly walking in someone else’s shoes can be educational.  And every individual’s life story involves how they came to exist on this planet, their upbringing and early life, their struggles to reach adulthood, their failures and triumphs, and of course, the significant people in their life, the people who love them and support them.  In other words, it’s impossible to tell your life story and not tell a little bit of your parents’ story too.

In my case, by becoming an author, by choosing to share  my story with the world, I’ve signed up for some degree of this public life but my mother, who has no interest in this, did not.  And this, I believe, is the heart of the conflict.  Yet, she is also proud of me and supportive.  So we move on.

Lorraine has asked women who have been on the cover to share their feedback about this experience.  I’ve asked for more time.  The first week, quite honestly, was very stressful.  The second week, I deliberately put the magazine out of sight and out of mind. 

Now, I’m almost ready to come out of hiding.

Could we become “superconscious” beings if we were able to master both our conscious and unconscious psyches?  If we are, in fact, connected to everything in the universe over a quantum field of energy, what could man become with awareness and control of our superconscious beings?

Let me back up.  In a previous post (http://edenrwatt.com/2010/09/can-our-conscious-and-unconscious-become-one/ ) I discussed concepts about the unconscious or subconsious explored by Freud and Jung.

Most of us are intimately acquainted with our conscious mind – the endless thoughts and emotions, judgements and reactions, the logic and reasoning abilities we use in our day to day life.  One of our greatest challenges is how to quiet our mind, master these thoughts, and keep ourselves present (instead of flying off into the past to relive encounters or in the future to imagine what we might say or do).

If we can gain mastery over our conscious mind, we have the potential to be powerful beings, present in our daily lives, loving and grateful, sending positive affirmations to our inner selves and to others.  If all of humanity were able to achieve this, we would already be evolving to a higher state as a species.

But what more is possible, if we could gain mastery and awareness of both conscious and unconscious?  What would that mean?  How would we be different?

Carl Jung identified the unconscious mind as having two distinct areas: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious.  The personal unconscious contains our lost memories, painful experiences that are repressed, subliminal perceptions (that we may not have consciously observed), and other contents and abilities that are not yet ready for consciousness (representing our potential).

But beyond this personal, very individual level, Jung identified the collective unconscious which contains instinctive and other elements, a blueprint within our psyches, that have commonalities within tribes, races, nations, and even all of humanity.  Evidence appears in dreams, mythology, creative works such as art and literature, throughout the ages and all over the world.  Jung said the collective unconscious is “detached from anything personal and it is entirely universal and… its contents can be found everywhere...”  This deep inner part of our being has also been defined as the spiritual side, where we are connected to all life, to the universal life force that flows through all of us.  In “Vision Speak”, I imagined that we could consciously connect with others using this ‘vision source’.

Deepak Chopra has defined pure consciousness as the field of “all possibilities and infinite creativity“.

Taking these ideas to the another level…. for over two decades, scientists have been involved in discovery about the nature of consciousness (where is it?  what is it??)  Many have reached the conclusion that human consciousness can best be explored with quantum physics, hence the popular term – “Quantum Consciousness”.  Although the early scientists espousing these theories may have been considered renegades, with more and more scientific research backing these claims, they are now leading experts in this  emerging field.

If you haven’t seen the documentary movie called “What the Bleep do we Know?”, this is a good place to start.  It’s available in it’s entirety (in 12 parts) on Youtube.  Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QlZ5O8_bGk  or the roster of scientists involved at http://whatthebleep.com/scientists/ .  Lynn McTaggart’s bestselling books – “The Field” and “The Intention Experiment” and Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” brought to public awareness the scientific breakthroughs in the areas of quantum physics and consciousness with progressive scientists such as those at the Institute for Noetic Science (http://noetic.org/).  Stuart Hameroff and Deepak Chopra and others have written and broadcast continued findings and dialog on this subject. 

The underlying discovery driving all of this excitement is that all living creatures are interconnected in a quantum field of energy.  Our thoughts, our dreams, our beings are not just encased within our bodies or our brains but actually exist at a quantum level beyond what we had ever imagined in a field of all possibility.

The implications for this are fantastic.  Our thoughts, our intentions, our consciousness create our reality.

And taking this to another place, I imagine that if we achieve a ‘superconscious’ state then we will be able to connect at a deeply spiritual and emotional level where words and misunderstanding will no longer be necessary.  I imagine that we will find other life in the universe – perhaps we will connect to those that have left us to move to another dimension or perhaps we will find other life forms who we may never meet and could certainly never talk to but within our superconscious spirit, maybe there will be a common vision source which will allow us to communicate..

I will cover more on this in future posts, especially an indepth review of some of the ideas behind quantum consciousness.

 The following is the presentation with three short readings from the ”Vision Speak” Book Launch in February.

In “Vision Speak”, a powerful matriarch leaves an explosive legacy for her great granddaughter.  Willow’s expanding consciousness threatens her society but may hold the key to humanity’s future.

People have asked where I came up with the ideas for this story and what was I thinking…

Vision Speak Book Launch - Reading

When I began this journey, I was plagued by questions.

Simple ones like: Why are we here?  Why do some people die young? Why can’t we live in harmony? …and … Why is there so much senseless violence in the world? 

These questions led me in a variety of directions and some of the research underlying the concepts in this book included:

-         The history and evolution of man and civilization

-         World Religions – the beauty, the wisdom and the sorrow, futility and failings

-         New Age Philosophies and Spirituality

-         Jung and Freud, particularly Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious

-         Joseph Campbell and his ideas on mythology and religion and their metaphorical  value

I know this sounds heavy but it’s not really, not at the level that I was searching.  I’m no expert in any of these areas, just someone who craves answers to unanswerable questions. 

Basically, I found glimmers of wisdom and imagined the rest.

This story takes place centuries after global wars and devastation have led to a new world order.  The Republic now controls and restricts all spiritual practices, intent on preventing the mistakes of the past from ever happening again.

Willow has violated her Spiritual Contract, secretly trained in “Vision Speak” by her mentor, Elzabeth.  In this first reading towards the end of Chapter 1, Willow and Elzabeth are connecting at a deep, inner place…

Starting at the bottom of page 9:

 After that, time swept away. Despite her agitated morning, Willow reached the state quickly, effortlessly—with minimal guidance from her mentor. It seemed to go faster every time. Within minutes, she became immersed in a waking dream, a trance-like existence where she was still aware, still conscious of her surroundings and yet her inner being was animated and exposed as never before. The old matriarch and her young descendant interacted with visions and feelings, thought-pictures and senses. It was like an inner voice, a connection of directed, shared dreams. Great Bet called it Vision Speak. The two women were oblivious to the absolute silence in the room. To them, their surroundings were vibrantly alive.

Finally they stopped. Willow sensed that her great grandmother was growing weary. Returning her attention to the physical world, she gawked at the time display. Two hours had passed. She resigned herself to missing her Experimental Art class too, yet it didn’t seem important anymore. The room, its occupants, the outside world—everything—had a fresh glow. The world was transforming before her eyes. It all coalesced unlike ever before.

Elzabeth had sunk deeper into her pillows, her eyes glazed. Concerned, Willow bounded out of her chair, energy pulsing through her. She leaned over her great grandmother, smoothing back her silvery-white halo. “Great Bet. Are you okay?”

Deep wrinkles and lips curved upward. “I’m wonderful, so wonderful thanks to you.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Willow leaned in closer. “Oh, my dear, why didn’t I teach you long ago? I didn’t sense the possibility until I saw you again at my birthday party. It struck me that day so clearly that you were open but even then, I had no idea what you would be capable of. The others will be shocked when they experience your abilities.”

“You must tell me about the others. Who are they?”

“I meant the Vision Speak group at the Center, especially Jill, Aaron, and Simon. But, you can’t meet them yet. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this.” Her eyelids fluttered but she continued. “I’ll sort this out before I’m gone, my dear. I promise.” Her words trailed off at the end so that Willow had to strain to hear. 

Leaning forward, she kissed the wrinkled forehead and pulled the covers up. “I’d better go now, Great Bet. You need to rest.”

“Wait.” Elzabeth’s eyes shot open and she gripped the young hand. “I forgot to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“When I die…”

“Shh—no, don’t say that.”

 “Don’t be foolish.” The frail woman snapped. “I’m dying soon and it’s long past due so don’t waste my remaining time with platitudes.”

“Okay, sorry.” She mumbled. “Please continue.”

“I want you to know that I’ve changed my will. I’ve made you my Protector.”

Willow gasped. To be the keeper and protector of memories was a privilege, usually entrusted to someone more mature, someone who had known the departed for many years. This meant that she, and she alone, would be responsible for Elzabeth’s Life Journals.

“Oh, I’m honoured, Great Bet. Really I am, but what will Grandma Sybil say? What will my mother say?” Her voice raised a decibel when she mentioned her mother. Willow sank back down into the chair, chewing on her fingernails.

“I don’t give a donkey’s ass what they say. I’m tired now, Willow, we’ll talk more later. You should know that before I found you, I wasn’t entrusting my journals to anyone in the family. And now that I’ve discovered you, now that I see what you can do, this is the only way. But, I know the legacy I’m leaving you…it won’t be easy. There may be, uh, interference.”

“What do you mean?”

The old woman closed her eyes again. She was silent for seconds that stretched out like minutes. She never answered Willow’s question but she did whisper one more instruction. “Please be careful. Keep the journals secret, even with the family—at least until you’re ready.” She smiled weakly. “I’ll explain more next time.”

But there never was a next time.

Before we jump ahead 17 chapters, here’s a brief background on what’s happened.

Elzabeth dies, leaving her journals to Willow in a public ceremony garnering unwanted attention from Republic leaders, spies, and even her family.  Willow joins the “Vision Speak” group and her abilities advance rapidly.  She finds herself attracted to one of their leaders, Aaron.  They’re out together when they discover they’re being followed by Republic agents and Aaron gets a glimpse of Willow’s secret abilities for the first time.

In this scene, they’ve escaped to a secluded garden where Willow is reading a sealed entry from Elzabeth’s journal to Aaron.  The entry describes an unexpected encounter with a powerful presence that Elzabeth could not explain.  Willow is seeking Aaron’s advice but they get distracted..

Second excerpt (from Chapter 18, mid page 96-97) 

Looking back at what happened as I record this entry, I struggle to find the words to describe the actual encounter. What stands out in my mind is the power of the visitor. I cannot say what the intention was—the force of it took me by surprise and my only response was to flee, to sever the connection.

I am home now and for the first time, I question what this new evolution of the human spirit will bring. Have I been too naïve? I’ve been so convinced that once all humans could relate at this level, understand each other to the depths of their souls that senseless violence, misunderstandings and manipulations would cease to hinder mankind’s progress.

But what if I am wrong? What if there are evil forces that will use this power for destructive means? I worry now that perhaps the cult has been resurrected. I thought we had disbanded them and their Sacred Trance sessions but now I don’t know. I pray that I have not been wrong.

Willow finished the passage and turned her unit off, gazing at Aaron. She admired the contours of his face in shadow, his wavy, thick hair. Not for the first time that night, she had to contain an urge to reach out and touch him, stroking the wild hair down, running her fingers along his muscular arms and back.

“Whew—that’s intense. I wasn’t aware of this.” Aaron looked off into the distance as he talked, searching his memory banks. “I’ll ask my mother if Elzabeth shared this with her but I think she would have mentioned it.

Do you know what she meant by the cult?”

Willow slipped the unit into her handbag, and set it down on the grass beside them. She stretched out her long legs, leaning back with her hands holding her weight behind her, gazing up at the majestic branches overhead. She knew Aaron’s eyes followed her movements, first her legs then tracing his way along her body up to her throat and face. Could he really think that she didn’t notice? Her long hair hung back behind her, almost touching the ground.

Softly she responded, careful not to disturb the currents that were humming between them. “No, I was hoping you might know.” She looked into his eyes then. “Have you ever experienced anything like that?” It was dark, they could barely see each other but something snapped between them.

Although she stayed perfectly still, she drew him in. It was imperceptible—a slight arch of her hips, the staccato sound of her breathing, perhaps pheromones triggered by her intense longing. He responded as if on a string.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with organized religion.  As someone who’d never attended church, always looking from the outside in, the assertion that scriptures written millennia ago contained the ‘words of God’ seemed ludicrous.  How could there be billions of rational people around the world, in diverse groups, claiming that their particular book, their beliefs, their way, should dictate behaviour, morality, and rituals, in this modern day? 

I wondered how they could follow so blindly and I suppose that I shared a natural disdain, along with other ‘non-believers’, for those that insisted it was “their way or the hell-way”.  There may have even been a beneath-the-surface, irrational, school-girl resentment towards those groups from which I felt excluded.

I apologize to anyone who might find my opening statements offensive, however, before you condemn me Shirley Sherrod-style, please read on….

Ironically, in my twenties and at my most rebellious period towards traditional belief systems, I married a Baptist Minister’s son.  It was an eye opener certainly but even this new family of church-goers were unlikely to be able to convert me to their ‘ways’.  And fortunately, they never tried… which ran contrary to my expectations at the time.

The best lessons in life come from personal experience and contact with others.  To that end, I encourage you to read this article  in ChristianWeek about Pastor bob and MJ Paterson-Watt (yes, another minister on the in-law side) from Woodbine Heights Baptist Church and their involvement with the Daily Bread Food Bank, the Shoelace Collective and Not Far From the Tree.  They work with others in the community to grow and pick local fruits and vegetables which are then shared with those less fortunate.  bob and MJ and their associates are shining examples of church leaders who are committed to do good both for their community and the world at large without concern for differing beliefs or enforcing theirs on anyone else.

So, now, as a ‘mature’ 40-something who has searched a little deeper, observed the good that these community groups of ‘believers’ can do, and explored spirituality at both an intellectual and instinctive level, I understand so much more.  Actually, ‘understand’ is not really the right word, perhaps ‘sense’, ‘empathize’, and ‘appreciate’ are all more appropriate.

When I was researching and writing “Vision Speak”, my primary interest was humanity, our evolution and growth, spirituality and religion, and its effect on society.  Whether I was researching to stimulate my imagination for my writing or for my own personal enlightenment cannot be separated.  The goals were one and the same.  During this stage, I came to understand that all the great religions have timeless wisdom.  Many of the rituals practiced within their hallowed halls have true meaning for the participants.  They help to bring people closer to the source of their beliefs and to each other.  Good religions bring people together in love and harmony and a community spirit.  Wise spiritual leaders know that their way is not the only way yet they are focused on leading those that want to practice with them, using the teachings that have inspired them.  How could anyone possibly resent that? 

Although traditional religious practices may not suit my spiritual journey in life, it has certainly proven to be a viable and successful model for billions of people for many centuries. 

Yet, we have all seen examples in the news and during the course of our history, where horrible death and destruction were enacted in the name of religion.  In my novel, I imagined a society where religion was controlled so that no group could ever claim their way as the only way.  Exclusivity was forbidden and I speculated on where humanity might go next if we could bring an end to battles over belief systems and wars and widespread violence.  By the end of this first book, the possibility of a collective, harmonized way forward for humanity is exposed.  So, now I am excited for the next stage in this journey, for both my fictional world and my own growth.  Certainly, initiatives such as that demonstrated by bob and MJ show what can be accomplished with a community in harmony.  Imagine this on a world scale with a unified collective consciousness.

I recently completed a fascinating course with EnlightenNext called the “Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World”.  This brings to mind some of the course material about the evolution of culture, spiral dynamics, and the observation that as culture and consciousness progresses, we can see that each new stage is not born purely out of creation but often in reaction to the past stage. 

It strikes me that in my youthful, reactionary attitude towards religion, I was only seeing the negatives and looking for something drastically different.  Clearly the vast majority of these groups are focused on living in a community of love and harmony, caring for those less fortunate and creating a better world for their children.  What could possibly be wrong with that?