Book Review: Creative Flowdreaming

I've written over a hundred posts now, most of them book reviews, and if you've been reading those books, you may be asking: "At what point is there some practical benefit to all of this?" Well, I'm glad you asked, because I have the book for you! It's Creative Flowdreaming by Summer McStravick, and has the best practical implementation I've seen of how to live what we're learning.

Flowdreaming is a process of connecting to the universe and offering up intentions to be acted on. Ms. McStravick refers to it as Flow or Source, but it can also be called the Divine Matrix (if you're a Braden fan), or the One Mind if you're an alchemist. The point is that communication with it is done through emotion and imagery. Flowdreaming is kind of like daydreaming with emotion added. The process is rewarding in itself, but I've tried it and it gives practical results.

One thing that sets Creative Flowdreaming apart from other New Age books is its explicit disagreement with the idea that we are here to learn lessons or work out our karma. According to Ms. McStravick, we have one reason for being here: to create experiences for ourself and for the Divine. By this view, if you have had less-than-rewarding experiences up until now, the answer is to learn to create better experiences. I agree with this view, and it also ties into what I was saying about free will in the Meditations on the Tarot postings. By the way, the idea that God is living vicariously through us is also the subject of another excellent book, The Secret Life of God: Discovering the Divine within You.

An excellent idea from the book is that you shouldn't focus on the details of what you want. That limits you to that particular vision when there might be something better available. It's better to focus on how achievement of the goal will make you feel. That leaves the door open for alternatives better than you could have imagined yourself. It's for this reason that I recommend the book even to beginners.

Next Steps on the Mystic Path

I'm sure most of you reading this have already read my post on getting started. If not, you may want to now, because I'm going to talk today about what to do next if you've chosen the mystic path. The hermetic path will be another post, because the reading materials will be different.

Now just to refresh your memory, the mystic path aims at an eventual direct experience of the underlying unity of all things. One of the things that prevents this experience is negativity. For most of us, it comes in the form of projection. The best antidote for this is A Course in Miracles. The book says that you can read it in any order, but I recommend you start with the text. Don't rush things; just read a couple of sections per sitting. This will allow time for the ideas in the book to sink in. When you're ready, start the workbook exercises. Don't try to do more than one exercise per day. You can peek at the teacher's manual if you want, but I don't think it will do you much good until you finish the text and workbook.

Some of you may have a different problem: fundamentalist materialism. Expanding your concept of the universe is key here, and the answer is Kabbalah. The Berg brothers, who run the Kabbalah Centre, have many good introductory books. You'll immediately notice parallels between their version of the creation story and materialist science's Big Bang theory.

The third obstacle to Unity Consciousness is repression, where the less desirable parts of our mind are pushed beneath the surface. How do you know if this applies to you? If you're sure that you think only positive thoughts about yourself and others, it applies. If this is the case, you can try the mystic path, but I recommend the hermetic path for you, as it has some things that will allow you to get out of your own way. Stay tuned for my next post.

You may also want to look into Eastern philosophy. The Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics) is good, but not for beginners. The The I Ching or Book of Changes is a bit more accessible, but far deeper than it seems. Everyday Zen: Love and Work (Plus) is a good starting point.

Stay tuned for the next steps on the hermetic path.

Getting Started

It's been a while since I talked about how to get started on the road to recovery from materialism, so an updated roadmap is probably in order. The first important thing is that you have to start where you are. That sounds trivial, but hear me out. There may be a lot of learning ahead on whatever path you choose, especially if it's one of the hermetic paths, but there is also a lot of unlearning that needs to be done.

So, let's say you come from a Roman Catholic background as I did. You could decide to immerse yourself in Zen Buddhism. It may work for you, and you could make progress, but your background doesn't go away. It's still there, and you'll have to come to terms with it, sooner or later. On the other hand, if you start with the Hermetic path, you'll be in somewhat familiar territory. You'll run across correspondences to things you already know. You'll hit the ground running, as it were.

That said, a good place to start is the "New Age"/metaphysical section of your local bookstore. Pick any book that looks interesting and start reading. If any veterans are reading this, don't worry. I haven't forgotten Sturgeon's Law; it's just that some things have to be learned through experience, and this is one of them. The type of person who believes everything they read will be led astray regardless.

Once you've looked through a few books, you should have an idea of what specifically interests you, and the general direction in which you want to proceed. If you want to study astrology, go for it. The same applies with Tarot and Wicca, though I draw the line at numerology (just kidding). Even the channeled books by Ramtha or Kryon (or the Urantia Book if you're desperate) will be helpful. The point I'm trying to make is that you're going to have to wade through a lot of muck to find the good stuff that's under it, so you may as well start now.

Now you're ready to choose one of the two paths. There's no wrong answer to this question. The relevant quote is: "In the end we all become mystics." The mystic path aims at experience of unity with God and the universe. The hermetic path has the same eventual aim, but uses symbolism to balance out the different components of the personality. If you like symbolism, ritual, nice pictures and the like, choose the hermetic path. Otherwise, the mystic.

Now for reading material. If you're on the mystic path, the choice is relatively simple: Path of Light: Stepping into Peace with "A Course in Miracles" or The Disappearance of the Universe: Straight Talk About Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness or anything by Marianne Williamson, followed by A Course in Miracles.

If you're on the hermetic path, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist or Tarot Awareness: Exploring the Spiritual Path would be a good start, or Kabbalah, Magic & the Great Work of Self Transformation: A Complete Course if you're especially adventurous.

That should be enough to get any of you newbies started. Later, I'll talk about the next step.

Book Review: Esoteric Christianity

I was raised as a Catholic. I was an altar boy for a brief period, and even went to a Catholic high school. When I went to college, I got away from it and went through an atheist period which only ended a few years ago. Now that I'm on the road to recovery, I've seen some things that indicate that I may have thrown the baby out with the bath water. That brings me to the subject of today's review: Esoteric Christianity by Annie Besant. This book talks about the hidden side of Christianity.

You see, Catholicism, which is the root of modern Christianity, was meant to be a religion for everyone. By everyone, I mean even the most ignorant and materialistic of us. As such, it needed to be lowest common denominator, at least on the surface. Where the Catholic Church went wrong, in my opinion, was refusing to admit publicly that there was anything beneath the surface. I'm still not sure about that, though. It may have been necessary from a credibility standpoint. Anyway, here's a quote from the book:

He (Origen) says that the Body of the Scriptures is made up of the outer words of the histories and the stories, and he does not hesitate to say that these are not literally true, but only stories for the instruction of the ignorant. He even goes so far as to remark that statements are made in those stories that are obviously untrue, in order that the glaring contradictions that lie on the surface may stir people up to inquire as to the real meaning of these impossible relations.

Well, there we have it, from an early Church father no less. Whenever we see something in the Bible that seems contradictory or absurd, we should look for a hidden meaning. The book spends a few chapters exploring this idea in the context of the story of Jesus. There are also chapters about the forgiveness of sins and sacraments. I recommend this book for any of you who, like me, come from a Christian background.

Book Review: The Twelve Conditions of a Miracle

Most of you are familiar with the miracle of the loaves and the fishes from the New Testament. For those who aren't, here's a simplified version: Jesus was preaching to his followers outside of town. It was getting late and no one had had dinner yet. They took a collection among the crowd and came up with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They started to distribute what they had, and it not only turned out to be enough to feed everyone, but there were 12 baskets of leftovers.

Did this really happen? Those of you who are Christian fundamentalists will have no problem saying yes, but what about the rest of you? Do you believe in miracles? Before you answer, what is a miracle? I can think of three possible answers:

1. Miracles are deviations from the course of nature caused by divine intervention.


2. Miracles are deviations from the course of nature, and are therefore impossible.


3. Miracles are apparent deviations from the course of nature, and it's rather arrogant of us to think that we know everything about how nature works.
   

As you can tell, I prefer the third answer. Since we don't know all the laws of nature, someone who managed to find out more about how things work might be in a position to do things that seem impossible to the rest of us. Todd Michael, author of The Twelve Conditions of a Miracle: The Miracle Worker's Handbook, has found out something. By using correct translations of the words of the original which for some reason aren't used in the conventional translations, Mr. Michael has created a pattern that can be used by us to create our own miracles.

The Course in Miracles says that miracles happen naturally, but that our fear, judgements, and hate prevent them. This is all part of the baggage I keep talking about. Mr. Michael's book doesn't really address that, but that might be because he's already gotten rid of the baggage himself. Your mileage may vary. Don't let that stop you from reading his book. Also, Mr. Michael has an interesting book about angels, and one about parables.

Psalms 82:6

There is an interesting verse in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 34:

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

This verse actually references Psalms 82:6. The King James version says this:

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

But the Jewish Publication Society version says this:

I had taken you for divine beings, sons of the Most High.

The context in the Gospel according to John, where Jesus is about to be stoned by the priests for claiming to be the son of God, seems to support the King James interpretation. On the other hand, since the reference is to a book of the Old Testament, one would expect the Jewish interpretation to be authoritative. So which is right?

The short answer is: I don't know. But let's consider that both the Western mystic and the Western hermetic traditions say that we are all ultimately children of God. Let's also consider that children normally grow up to resemble their parents. At this point, I'll just say that growing up sometimes takes a long time (lifetimes, even) and let you connect the dots for yourself.

Book Review: A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is a textbook for those on the mystic path to recovery. It contains 4 parts: the textbook, a set of exercises, a teacher's manual, and a glossary. This book is channeled; like all channeled books, the important question is: "have they got anything useful to say?" In this case, the answer is an unqualified "Yes!" In addition to a viable roadmap to the mystic path, there are some interesting interpretations of the Bible, one of which I'll talk about below.

As I mentioned before, the mystic path aims at direct experience of unity with God (or the Universe, if you prefer). Before this can happen, the "baggage" must be dealt with. The Course has a unique way of dealing with it: forgiveness. You deal with your baggage by forgiving what you see of it in others. However, the Course has an unconventional definition of forgiveness. It doesn't mean "you've done something terrible to me, but I forgive you"; it means "you've seemingly done something terrible to me, but what I really am cannot be hurt, so there is nothing to forgive." The extreme case is given by the Crucifixion, where Jesus said: "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."

So how does this relate to baggage? It is a principle of psychology that what we hate most in others is the traits of ourselves that we push below the surface. Therefore, by forgiving them in others, we also forgive them in ourselves. As an example, have you ever been driving and had another car tailgating you and swerving back and forth to get your attention? If so, you probably have also been behind another car that was driving much to slowly and got a little impatient about it. The two situations are really two sides of the same coin. So if you can forgive the tailgater, you can also forgive yourself for secretly wanting to apply high explosives to the slow car in front of you.

Now for the workbook exercises: these are designed to be done no more than one per day. If it takes you more than one day to do an exercise, or you skip a day, don't worry about it. Each exercise consists of an idea that is to be applied in short sessions, and throughout the day. There are 365 of them, but, like I said, don't worry if it takes you more than a year to do them all. (Just between us, I only got through about 40.) The first half of the exercises is designed to erase your current way of perceiving the world, in order to make room for the perception given by the second half.

You can read the teacher's manual now if you really want to. The Course Police won't break down your door and arrest you. You'll probably get more out of it if you read the text first and do all of the exercises.

The bottom line? I've chosen the hermetic path, but I'm still reading the book. You should too.

Book Review: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

I read anything I can written by Alan Watts; I recommend that you do the same. The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is a good place to start. He has also written very good books about Zen and the Tao. "The Book" is an excellent introduction to the issues we face as recovering materialists.

The first chapter of the book reads like a mission statement: if there was a book for young people containing what they needed to know to lead fulfilling lives, what would be in the book? The answer relates to our first step: it is that our perception of the world is incorrect. We are not just separate personalities; we are also connected at a very deep level.

Let's talk about personality. The word comes from the Latin word "persona," meaning "mask." Our personalities are like masks that we wear when we interact with others. They are not us, except on a superficial level. The third chapter of the book, entitled "How to be a Genuine Fake," deals with this issue, and the paradox of being a "real person," which implies that one can make something real out of what is essentially an act!

This book would be a good start for all recovering materialists, especially those who have chosen the mystic path.

Book Review: Lord of Light

Lord of Light is a classic science-fiction work by Roger Zelazny. The setting is a future colonized planet. A few people have figured out how to make themselves immortal, and are worshiped by the rest as gods. The "gods" keep technology to themselves because they think the general population isn't ready for it. The main character, Sam, has been brought back from Nirvana in order to fight for the general public against the "gods" in order to make technology accessible to everyone.

The reason I decided to review this book is the following quote:

Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken.

This is what we are aiming at. Recovery from materialism is not really about renouncing wealth, the 4000-square-foot house, the luxury car, and so forth. Most people who want those things don't really want them for themselves. They want them to impress their friends, or themselves. These things are success symbols, and that's OK. Nothing is wrong with these things per se. The problem is that some people want them mainly to prove to themselves that they've made it; they can't really "be somebody" without those things.

The real goal of recovery is to be yourself, instead what you think you are or what you think you should be. Only after you do that can you really decide if you want the McMansion and the Lexus. And it will be you making the decision instead of the theoretical conception of yourself that you carry around with you.

Book Review: The Final Elimination of the Source of Fear

If you have chosen the mystic path and are having a bit of trouble with A Course in Miracles, The Final Elimination of the Source of Fear by Saratoga and Telstar can help. Judging by the authors' names, the book is either channeled or written by two people who take themselves much too seriously. On the other hand, I consider the content of a message to be at least as important as its source.

This book describes what it refers to as the source of fear, and details how it is responsible for everything that is wrong with our lives and with society in general. It claims that in the course of reading the book, the reader will be enabled to remove the source of fear from themselves if so desired. A method for doing so is even laid out at the end. Try it.

The description of the problem is similar to that given in the Course in Miracles, but maybe easier to understand for beginners. The source of fear corresponds nicely to the ego as described by the Course. There are helpful diagrams and hypothetical examples. It's also expressly stated that exposure to the ideas given will automatically start the process of the solution. The Course says basically the same thing, but recommends daily exercises. The Course has a slight Christian emphasis, while this book is more non-denominational.

If you haven't started reading the Course yet, or if you're finding it difficult to understand, read this book first.

Book Review: Spiritual Enlightenment

Jed McKenna, author of Spiritual Enlightenment: the Damnedest Thing claims to be enlightened. Furthermore, he claims that enlightenment isn't what most people think it is. What most people think of as enlightenment is actually just cosmic or unity consciousness. A good thing to have, but not the real deal. What's more, he recommends that you don't try to become enlightened if you can possibly help it.

Here's the thing: in order to become enlightened, you'll have to leave what you think of as your personality, and your belief systems, at the door. You'll get your personality back afterward, but it won't be the same as you won't identify with it. The worst part is, you go back to your normal life afterward, but it looks like you're watching a soap opera from the inside. You see all of the characters hamming up their lines, and you know it's not real, but they don't. You might as well be sitting on a mountaintop by yourself. If this is enlightenment, I want no part of it, thank you very much. On the other hand, I know he's right, so I may not have a choice.

For those of you who for some reason wish to try it, the formula is quite simple: "ask yourself what's true until you know." It's a scorched earth approach. Question everything, and whatever is left at the end is the truth. But are you really sure you want to do this? After all, as Mr. McKenna says, "the price of truth is everything."

Which Path is Right for You?

When King Arthur's knights set out on the quest for the Holy Grail, it is said that each of them entered the forest where they thought it was the thickest. In other words, they each chose their own path, starting at the point that seemed to them to be the most difficult.

Before talking about which path is right for you, I want to go over the two main categories: mystic and hermetic. Paths in the hermetic category tend to emphasize balancing and integrating the various parts of the personality with the eventual goal of transcending it, and realizing the essential unity of all things. This category includes qabalah, tarot, and ceremonial magic.

Paths in the mystic category tend to emphasize transcending the personality and realizing the essential unity of all things, with the assumption that the various parts of the personality will be integrated and balanced on the way. This category includes the Course in Miracles, Buddhism, kabbalah, and esoteric Christianity.

You may have noticed that there is some overlap between these categories. To understand why, imagine a group of people who decide to climb a mountain, and for whatever reason, decide to scatter themselves around the base and start up. Naturally, the higher up the mountain they get, the closer they will get to each other.

So which path is best for you? Whichever feels most comfortable at the moment. You have to start where you are. And don't worry if the path isn't difficult like those of King Arthur's knights. Difficulties will arise soon enough.