Tag Archives: awakening

God Is, As Me

God Is, As Me, by Rev. Dr. Laura V Grace

Joel Goldsmith, mystic, author, and teacher of The Infinite Way, gave a powerful lecture in 1956 in Johannesburg titled “As, Is and Am.” It is available on Youtube.com and provided a turning point in my awareness about the truth of my being. After listening and re-listening to this talk one sunny afternoon while riding my bike under the beautiful tree canopy on Amelia Island, it finally struck “home.” After months of meditating hours every day, I finally experienced the profound truth that Goldsmith was instructing his students: God Is, As Me. Meaning, we are each God, appearing as physical form. We are microcosms of the Macrocosm.

Though I had understood this wisdom intellectually for years, it became an actual lived experience earlier this year. Feeling deeply moved by this revelation, I stopped my bike, laid it on the ground, then leaned up against a tree that was more than 300 years old to breathe in this truth. The vision of a white light flowing from the bottom of the brain stem up and out through the crown of the head appeared. Interestingly, I later discovered from Kriya Yoga that this is exactly where the Medulla Oblongata resides. Kriya Yoga explains how universal energy flows in through the medulla oblongata which supplies the body with life force energy. It sits at the base of the skull where the brain stem and spinal cord connect. God’s energy flows into this part of our brain and connects with the third eye where energy is stored then rises through the crown chakra referred to as the “thousand petal lotus.”

During this morning’s meditation, the white light vision reappeared as I felt energy flow into my medulla area and up into my third eye. About an hour into meditation, I re-experienced the truth that God Is, As Me. All bodily sensations dissolved as light expanded in the interior region of my mind and I was lifted to another plane of consciousness. From here, I could “see” each of us as God-Selves where no suffering of any kind resided, just pure divine perfection.

As I journal about today’s profound experience, I am clear that no matter the appearance of another’s physical, mental, or spiritual suffering, the truth is, every human being possesses this Divine Light. But we have become so hypnotized by our false selves that we have lost sight of our God-Selves. Therefore, my current focus remains on GOD IS, AS ME (and everyone else) and to see beyond all false appearances. Daily practice continues to keep this truth in the forefront of my thinking. This may be the one of the greatest breakthroughs we will ever have. To see beyond what our physical eyes see, is monumental and changes the entire course of our lives. It is an essential part of awakening and the process of Self-Realization.

With Great Love for Your Inner Divinity,

Laura

An Intimate Portrait of Awakening

An Intimate Portrait of Awakening

Hello dear Friend.

It has been a long while since I wrote an article, or done anything “in the world,” so to speak. Months ago, Kundalini Shakti was unexpectedly activated and began altering my inner landscapes and neurophysiology. Spiritual expansion has been my soul path the past 30 years (except for a few detours!), but this type of awakening was not invited or even considered. Some days my meditations reveal a state of bliss so intense that my intellect goes off-line, making it difficult to communicate for hours or even days. Other times, my nervous system is recalibrating in ways that I can hardly tolerate ordinary noises and Nature becomes my only haven. Except for counseling clients and spending special, limited time with my beloved Thomas and fur angel, Mia, life has been immersed in intense sadhana (spiritual practice): meditation, contemplative prayer, journaling, self-inquiry, and Advaita Vedanta and Bhakti Yoga teachings. Only now does it feel like the right time to share this highly personal story of awakening with others. Actually, “awakening” is not a journey but a profound undoing; undoing the attachment to the beliefs that we are the “doer,” the “experiencer,” the “reactor,” the “thinker,” the “personality,” the “body” and so forth.

You may be on this mailing list because you signed up for articles on nighttime dreams. Since dreams continue to be an integral part of awakening, I am recording them and will use them to illustrate their significance. But the focus will remain on waking up from your false self and living from the reverence of the true Self. This divine aspect lies hidden beneath the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about what we believe we are. If this is not of interest to you, please unsubscribe using either the iContact or WordPress unsubscribe link.

If this resonates with your soul, you are invited to participate in my non-dualistic journey that feels precarious at times since there is no teacher, guru, or organized path. Though I am not an expert—only someone who is willing to be vulnerable and expose her experiences—authentic insights from my personal journal about daily life during awakening will be shared. Stages of awakening will be high-lighted, perhaps stages you are currently experiencing. And yes, there are stages. We may even fall back to sleep if we have not dealt with the seeds of our vasanas (behavioral tendencies) and our vrittis (thought patterns).

This is not an easy road to travel. Yet there really is no journey, no road, nor even a traveler. Very few people are even remotely interested. Thus, if you possess even the tiniest glimmer of curiosity, know that your Self is already coaxing you Home. Lasting inner peace, deep contentment, and periods of pure bliss are likely to shine forth as you learn to view everything through the eyes of pure awareness. Why? Because true awakening is the recognition of the Self which resides within you. Never having been born, It never dies.

From my journal…

This morning’s meditation felt like I was being resurrected. As the intense Kundalini was rising throughout my being, I communed with God as never before. Though it was not the showering of Grace I felt a couple of weeks ago, it was very gentle yet powerful. “Surrender” kept surfacing and the more I let go, the higher I felt lifted into stunning levels of golden, white light. About an hour in (not sure), I witnessed a golden orb gently pulsating and communicating its love to me. It was quite profound. I seemed to stop breathing. Gasps for air escaped my body. I kept my focus single pointed as waves of Kundalini surged through the body. As the focus intensified, I felt unafraid of the ascension and immense energy pulsating up my spine and out through the top of my head.

At one point, I felt a significant shift into the Divine and my hands went cold and stiff. They began to sweat a little. In the past, I would have felt more hesitation/fear but today, I was COMPLETELY open and with each deepening surrender, I was lifted higher. Afterward, I had to lie down. Warm waves of peace washed over me and I felt profoundly content.

How did this happen after feeling so disconnected from Source just yesterday?! An answer emerged: GRACE.  

Namaste.

http://www.lauragrace.net

Dreams that Lead You to Your Life’s Higher Purpose

Dreams that Lead You to Your Life’s Higher Purpose by Laura Grace, PhD

Dreams, being your “inner GPS” inform every area of your life. Your nighttime dreams possess the power to lead you in discovering the deeper meaning of your purpose. Simply put, dreams reveal why you are here. How? By uncovering your hidden talents and gifts. In revealing the people who “appear” to you and are meant to support you in your soul’s development.

Here is a personal example of how your dreams can provide specific direction for accessing your life’s work and creating abundance.

Years ago, I was a human resource director for a CPA and consulting firm in the Midwest. Most of my time was spent firing managers and partners as the firm underwent a series of mergers. As a highly sensitive person and empath, this was excruciatingly painful and I experienced immense burn-out in only a few short years. The life-force had been sucked out of my soul and I resigned. Instead of immediately putting myself back on the executive market, I felt guided to take a year off and do some significant soul-searching. So, I withdrew my 401(k), bought a house on small lake in the Midwest, and took my ten-year-old daughter, Alexis, and our cat, Buttercup, and moved in to a new home with my beloved partner, Thomas. It was a new beginning. Emotionally and financially it was challenging, yet I spent the next twelve months delving into spiritual teachings, journaling my thoughts and feelings, and working with my nighttime dreams. At thirty-two years old, it may have been one of the best years of my life.

Daily, I asked for guidance from my dreams and how best to use my gifts, strengths, and talents. During this time, I had a powerful dream:

I am sitting in the driver’s seat of my red Toyota which is parked in a parking lot. Next to me in the passenger’s seat I see a dark blue book with “Bhagavad Gita” scrolled in gold across the cover. I open the car door and see several brochures that I have created lying on the ground and next to them are various silver and gold coins.

This dream was showing me that writing combined with spirituality were a definite part of my life’s work. As I followed my dream’s cues, I began writing articles for spiritual and personal growth publications, something I had never done before. As a result, I had the following dream:

I am guided to look under my bed and discover enormous diamonds in the shape of crystals. I am amazed by their beauty.  After looking under the bed I look to another part of the floor and see two or three similar stones, not quite as large as the one under my bed, but just as radiant. I awake feeling happy and inspired.

These dreams affirmed the work that carried me deeper into my authentic self. They paved the way to profound abundance, not just financially, but emotionally, intellectually, creatively, and spiritually. The fact that the diamonds were shaped like crystals revealed the multi-faceted potentiality within me.

Looking back over the past couple of decades, I can see how prophetic the dream truly was. I became inspired to write a series of articles that were published throughout the country and eventually morphed into my first book, Gifts of the Soul. Next, the book and articles inspired the creation of The Self-Mastery Program, an intensive that supported individuals in accessing their inner gifts. I taught The Self-Mastery program for ten years and in the meantime, penned my second book, The Intimate Soul. (Both books were written and self-published under my former name, Laura V. Hyde.)

Unlimited ideas continued to spring forth and I developed a series of additional programs, workshops, and retreats. During this creative era, I generated a course on dreams and coached people on understanding and utilizing them. Desiring to deepen my spiritual growth, I attended an interfaith seminary program and began providing spiritual counseling.

The “multi-faceted” diamonds represented skills I never knew I had, and didn’t have, until I began working with my nighttime dreams and stretching beyond my comfort zone. Edgar Cayce wisely affirms, “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.”  Listen to your dreams. Like a diamond, they possess marvelous, mystical, multi-faceted brilliance.

If you would like to see the video that accompanies this blog, watch the video below which is more in-depth. And it means a lot to me if you will kindly give it a thumbs up if you find it helpful. Namaste.

Intro to Your Nighttime Dreams

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The overall subject of our dreams is, ultimately, the inner process of individuation. Most dreams, in one way or another, are portrayals of our individual journeys toward wholeness. They show us the stages along the way—the adventures, obstacles, conflicts, and reconciliations that lead finally to a sense of the self.  Robert Johnson

Imagine walking into a dark theater. Hundreds of empty seats await an audience to sit in before a shadowy stage. The director shouts, “Lights, cameras, action!” and you are mesmerized as the actors take their places and the storyline begins to unfold. As you watch, you feel yourself both watching the movie and being in the movie. The plot twists and turns as you connect with the actors and every dream character is playing a unique role. Feelings of excitement, judgment, bias, disdain, fear, hatred, empathy, love and compassion arise. The film captivates your every sense and the images feel alive in your body. As the movie ends and the credits roll you realize that this wasn’t just any movie, it is a story about your life.

And, so it is.

You are the screen writer, director, producer, casting agent, choreographer, landscape artist and every character starring in your nightly dreams. You are also the observer who witnesses a comedy, tragedy, romance, horror film called “This Is My Life.” All of these creative gestures and more emerge from your unconscious an average of four to five times per night. Every film, crafted by you, reveals your unresolved issues, desires, hope, fears, strengths, doubts, grief, resentments, beliefs, and connections to the deepest realms of your soul. And it doesn’t stop there; dreams are not always purely personal and can encompass the “anima mundi,” the Greek term for “world soul.”

Dreams are the language of our individual and collective soul. The word “soul” stems from the Greek term “psyche.” Carl Jung (1963) declared: “Without the psyche there would be neither knowledge nor insight.” During dream time, while the ego is asleep, psyche comes to life and reveals information unattainable during waking life.

As a prolific dreamer, I became interested in connecting and understanding my dreams when I was eight years old. By age sixteen, I was dreaming about events which inevitably manifested the following day. My mother kept urging, “Write down your dreams, Laura, they are trying to tell you something important,” and thus began my personal and spiritual journey with dreams. Now, more than 30 years later, I have book cases and boxes filled with dream journals. They are treasure troves of thoughts, feelings and wisdom about my family, physical health, past relationships, finances, life’s purpose, shadow aspects, fears, insecurities, self-sabotaging behaviors, desires, strengths and spiritual gifts. Dreams are the purest form of information. Since they are not censored by our conscious thoughts, feelings and perceptions, they possess the capacity to provide more support and insight than therapy, and they are free! I am always saddened when people tell me their dreams are nonsensical or that they do not have time to listen to them. Our dreams are wellsprings of information, the language of our soul.

You dream every night whether you remember your dreams or not. The more you seek to understand them, the more likely you will recall them. The first thing to keep in mind is that your dreams are meant to help you not frighten or confuse you. I cannot tell you how many people have secretly shared that they do not listen to their dreams, or remember their dreams because they are afraid of them, or they will have to make some significant changes.  Growth can be messy and change is inevitable if you wish to grow. You always have the choice to delve inward and move forward, and you have control over when you choose to do so.

Secondly, all dreams are meaningful despite how ridiculous they may seem, even “snippets” contain invaluable information. Dreams may seem silly but only to the limitations of your waking mind. Even working with one dream image will help you increase your self-awareness and can lead to significant breakthroughs.

Your nighttime dreams are a powerful pathway to transformation and occur as a guidepost to support you on your pathway to wholeness.

Now is the Time to Stay Awake and Not Fall Back to Sleep

2017 continues to be a year of great upheaval and change. For many, it has been fraught with anxiety and uncertainty and people are emboldened to speak out with conviction.  The core message that summons us right now is: Stay Awake, Do Not Fall Back To Sleep! 

This is one of the reasons I have founded Love in Flight Interspiritual Society (LĪFĬS for short pronounced “LIFE IS”) which is being birthed into existence on December 31st, 2017 in San Luis Obispo, CA.  And if you live in another part of the country or unable to attend, we invite you to listen to our podcast sessions which will be available through our website.

LĪFĬS embodies a profound way of working toward the goal of global understanding, respect, and peace by elucidating the common themes, methodologies and truths of the world’s religions while respecting the unique gifts and particularities of each tradition. Our interspiritual teachings honors the spiritual experience available to us in every area of our lives. Brother Wayne Teasdale, an active force of the Interspiritual movement wrote:

            Everything is an avenue leading to the experience of Ultimate Reality. The divine communicates itself in all things. There are infinite ways to encounter the source, the Ultimate Reality which may be experienced in virtually anything. There is no place, no activity  that restricts the divine. It is everywhere. 

As 2017 unfolds and 2018 beckons us—amidst much turmoil—may we be open to receiving the divine in our lives, to believing in each other and to sustaining an open heart and mind.

And to honor the divine we are having a very special service at  LĪFĬS on December 31st at 10A.M. in San Luis Obispo. Our New Year’s Theme is INITIATING the CONSCIOUSNESS of the SACRED in 2018. This experiential celebration will invoke the spiritual qualities we most deeply revere as individuals, and, as a community. Live music, heart-felt connection and open-minded creativity will be an integral part of the reverence as we create a brand new year together.   For more information please visit us at: www.lifisslo.org.

Namaste,

Laura V. Grace

 

The REAL (and ALCHEMICAL) MEANING OF SLEEPING BEAUTY

Posted on by Laura Grace, Ph.D.

sleeping beauty imageSleeping Beautiful was my mother’s favorite fairy tale. She bought me the book when I was seven years old and inscribed it to me. It was a hard cover book and the front was laced with dreamlike hues of blues, greens and shimmering gold. Inside the book were beautiful illustrations of Sleeping Beauty, the prince and Sleeping Beauty’s court. It was the only book I remember my mother inscribing to me and she wrote: “I hope you enjoy this fairytale as much as I always have. Love, Mother.” Well, I did love that story. It was romantic, passionate and taught that all women need to awaken is a sweet and simple kiss from a man who possesses the power to save us.

What was there not to love?

Unfortunately, many women have taken Sleeping Beauty literally. I know my mother did, and, so did my older sister. My mother desperately hoped that my father would be her shining prince, awaken her and fulfill her every need. And as much as I loved my father, he was the family patriarch; religious, fundamental, and ill-tempered. Over the years, I watched as my mother’s own “sleeping beauty” fell into a deeper and deeper sleep as she medicated herself with prescription medications and alcohol. She died at age 57 and my sister died at age 54, both suffering deeply from abusive men, broken hearts and shattered dreams.

The amazing Jungian analyst, Anne Baring, excels in transformational work of the soul which entails the 4,000+ year old practice of “alchemy.” Many of us know the process of turning base metal into gold, but Baring’s teachings encompass the psychology of alchemy and the alchemical transformation we must go through in order to reach our opus and be fully awake, whole beings. In her seminar titled, “What is Soul?” Baring dives deep into the alchemical waters of the ancient fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. She reveals how Sleeping Beauty is the ultimate story for this point in history because it reflects the vital call for balance between our masculine and feminine aspects. Baring writes, “I see this magical story [Sleeping Beauty] as a metaphor for our time and the urgent need for a marriage between our head and our heart, a marriage between our solar thinking and our lunar feeling…From another perspective, I also see it as a metaphor of the reconciliation of spirit and nature or the reunion of the masculine and feminine aspects of spirit which have been progressively sundered during the last four thousand years.”

In Sleeping Beauty, the prince represents the solar principle of consciousness, searching for meaning, wanting to understand the universe but ultimately, seeking reconnection with his feminine aspect—the soul. Sleeping Beauty symbolizes the lunar principle of soul, the Alchemy image to use at beginning of talkfeeling values, Eros. Therefore, this bewitching story has nothing to do with being rescued and everything to do with the alchemical marriage of the masculine (sun) and the feminine (moon). Thus, when the prince (solar/rational mind) connects with Sleeping Beauty (lunar/heart energy), not only does she awaken, but her entire sleeping court awakens. For the past 50 years, we have been witnessing an awakening and deepening of connection to our soul and attaining balance between our head and heart. More and more women I encounter who are on the path of growth have shared the increased amount of animus dreams. Our animus shows up during dream time in male form, sometimes a familiar man and other times a stranger. These dreams present us with an immense opportunity to explore our beliefs and attitudes about our relationship with men and our relationship with ourselves. Dream work is a significant part of alchemy. May we remember the transformational power they possess and take time to attend to them.

The Greater Coniunctio: A Higher Love
When one is journeying through the alchemical process, there are several stages of transformation we must experience. The stages are: calcinatio, solutio, coagulatio, sublimatio, mortificatio and separatio. They lead to coniunctio which resides at the heart of alchemy. Coniunctio is the joining of the alchemical King and Queen, Sol and Luna. The process of transformation begins when these opposites meet, but they are not conjoined until the process is completed. We travel in and out of these stages throughout our life, depending on what is happening in our relationships, career, health and all of the life changes we encounter.
Sol and Luna Image
Viewing the tale of Sleeping Beauty from a higher and alchemical position reveals something antithetical to what we were taught as children. No one is meant to save us, particularly not a special soulmate who kisses our forehead and brings us out of our sleep. The deeper meaning of this story is the recognition and conjoining of our feminine and masculine aspects. Alchemy uses a series of unique images that illustrate this process. The King and Queen start out fully clothed (separate and concealed) then immerse themselves in an alchemical bath where the transformation begins. The lovers, who were once opposites are now connected into inseparable wholeness. Alchemical love has attained its exultant zenith. The opposite energies of the prince/Sleeping Beauty, the King/Queen, and the Solar/Lunar, become transmuted through the alchemical process which is can only be done solo and can be very painful. It’s an “undoing” of all that we have learned and at times, we may feel as though we are being turned inside out. Sometimes we pass through the alchemical stages at varying times, and, sometimes we move through two or more simultaneously.

Yet the pinnacle remains the same, to fully realize genuine love and union. Edward Edinger, who wrote Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy states, “That which goes by the name of love is fundamental to the phenomenology of the coniunctio. Love is both cause and effect…objective love, a love purged of personal desirousness, not one side of a pair of opposites, but rather beyond the opposites”. Sleeping Beauty is a mythical story of a higher love. It encompasses self-less love and the feeling of oneness that we each desire on the deepest level. It cannot be attained by wanting to be rescued, saved, or kissed, but only as we awaken to the strength, courage, and love that resides deep within.

I believe if my mother were still alive and read this very different interpretation of Sleeping Beauty, she would not be disappointed, she would be relieved.

Namaste,

Laurasig

The Power of Your Night-Time Dreams

Posted on by Laura Grace, Ph.D.

Dreams are alive. Rich with symbols, archetypes and metaphoric meaning, dreams are an invaluable healing instrument. When understood, dreams can be a pathway to higher consciousness, healed relationships and understanding your soul’s blueprint.

Dreams possess the power to free you from programmed beliefs, status quo thinking and false personas. They provide ideas, insights and solutions. Edgar Cayce taught, “Dreams work to solve problems of the dreamer’s conscious waking life, and they work to quicken in the dreamer new potentials which are his/hers to claim.”

Dreams cover the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of your life. They emerge from the point of contact between spirit and matter, human and divine, male and female, ego and Self.  Carl Jung calls this point of contact the soul.