A REVOLUTION OF BELIEFS

We are indeed living in interesting times. The years of 2000 – 2008 were years of domination and control here in the U.S. In all my years, I had never experienced the trashing of the U.S. Constitution. Now that we have a new president, there is a new freedom of expression in the news media. This can be good, and it can also bring out the worst in a segment of people.

The inauguration of President Obama was inspiring, and the responses of the public were awesome to view. It was a call for a change for the better. It was an expression of love. Obama has been in office for a little over eight months and now we are a nation at odds within our population.

Many were shocked by the radical strategies the President initiated and fear reared its ugly head. It knocked most of us out of our comfort zones. If one were to reason it as I did, there would be a realization that many of these measures undertaken were necessary to break the hold of corporate world on the people of this country.

It takes a shock to move people out of their beliefs. This happened to me when Nixon's Watergate affair was exposed. I had been a Republican up until that time and this expose cracked my beliefs egg. All of the cherished ideals I had held on to were suddenly stained. It isn't that I was truly naïve. No, I knew Lyndon B. Johnson was a scoundrel from the politics of Texas where I grew up. Nixon's fall from grace was the tip of a buried iceberg and I am thankful that I was able to examine my beliefs and make changes.

What I am observing now after the dust of the inauguration has died down, is the emergence of beliefs and the resentments of the policies of President Obama. The old anger of racism and prejudices has reared its ugly head and is fueled by possibly the Republican Party and/or Corporate World. What better way to chop at the beanstalk of freedom than to fuel the fans of racism, bigotry and prejudices?

An example is the current health care bill that Obama wants for the American people. Who stands to lose if it is passed? I call it the "Big 3" made up of the pharmaceutical companies, health care insurance companies and the American Medical Association. The larger and greedier these Big 3 have gotten, the sicker the population has become. One only has to stand back mentally and observe.

One can also trace the effects of racism in this country back to the days of slavery. It has been ingrained in the psyches of people primarily in the South by religions. Recently there was a news item on ABC News of a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona who vocally calls for the death of Obama. This pastor's website states this and then thee is a place to click on for a prayer that says: Jesus Loves You. Another pastor urges his parishioners to pray for Obama's death. Both of these pastors claim allegiance to the Baptist Church.

I was born in Texas and grew up there amidst the segregation, bigotry and prejudices. I know it well. Fortunately, I left the state when I was 23. This is when my real education began. These diehard racists use the Bible as the word of God. They bypass the teachings of Jesus as if they did not exist. By doing so, they dumb-down the minds of their parishioners.

They do not realize that at the time of Jesus the skin colors were dark. The people interacted with Egypt and at that time, many of the Egyptians were black skinned. One only has to research history. Apparently, what most religions want is to have power over the minds of the people. They emphasize the crucifixion and bypass what the teachings are. They allege that Jesus died on the cross to remove their sins. These beliefs turn people into blatant hypocrites. I understand that Jesus said "woe be unto you hypocrites."

Where is the practice of "It is done unto you as you believe." "Love your neighbor as yourself." "Judge not, lest you be judged seventy times seven?"
Another biblical saying is "As a man/woman thinketh so it is." Somewhere down the line of centuries, most religions have replaced God and Jesus with the Devil or Satan. This instills fear in the minds of those who follow the dictates of a preacher, priest, pope, pastor or minister. When we strip away the bigoted beliefs, we have only fear. Fear spawns hatred. Fear spawns wars. Fear spawns lack. Fear spawns poverty. Fear spawns ignorance.

There must be a change of consciousness in this world for humans to survive. The Earth will survive, as Mother Nature will see to this. We are on the cutting edge and to survive turbulent times we must rise above the issues of war and enslavement. Let this change begin with the women and those men who are open-minded. Change will come with a change of attitudes along with a revision of beliefs. This is the true revolution.

GOT SOME NEW SHOES? – Part 4
…An Odyssey into Releasing the Past

Sometimes change comes when we least expect it. For some people it can be an illness, an accident, a divorce, a death of a loved one, getting fired, taking on a new job and raising children to name a few. There are people who find it hard to change because their beliefs have become hardwired in their brains. This is what is called a 'closed mind,' and to open the door to accept change it must be initiated from the closed-minded person.

We can change our minds and our programming by choosing carefully our thoughts and our attitudes. Attitudes carrying blame, shame, guilt, regret, resentment, anger, and jealousy, to name a few are similar to wearing a pair of shoes that pinch because they do not fit, or they are old and worn-out. It is time to discard them. When old attitudes are replaced by open-minded attitudes, our brain becomes like a lotus – opening petal by petal. Doors open in our mind and we now have new experiences and new realizations.

We can do this by becoming detached and observing our attitudes, our thoughts and our reactions when we become aware. Detachment does not mean not caring. Detachment of the old attitudes makes room for caring. The first test run may appear to be a failure; however, with persistence and practice, attitudes do change. We have the mind to do it.

Yes, there is risk to changing. Our family may not understand the new change and often pull at us to return to that part of us that is familiar to them. Friends may drop out of our lives and that is purposeful. There is a part of us that wants to hold on to the past and at times it can seem to be heart wrenching. I can say this because I went through it and am now living a more fulfilled life. This is why I am sharing this information.

Attitudes that attract illnesses and accidents are what I have concluded are the major ones such as blame, shame, guilt, regret, anger, resentment and jealousy, along with judgments. Blame is not taking responsibility for our own choices and actions. It is so easy to blame someone else. When I was raising my three sons, it seemed as though there was a fourth son living in the house and his name was Not Me and fortunately, my sons outgrew Not Me and he moved out of the house. The outgrowth of blame is shame.

Those who are always blaming someone else carry within them a feeling of shame because subconsciously they know they lied. Blame and shame are bedfellows with guilt. One's guilt may not be overt, however it is lurking in the subconscious and the body cells react to this. I know, because I have experienced this. Blame and shame invite another bedfellow that is guilt. Guilt is rampant in the Western world where Christianity is prevalent. The Catholic Church has seen to it that everyone needs to be loaded with guilt. One popular phrase is the sins of the fathers are visited upon their sons a thousand fold and Christianity for the most part has perpetuated this even though there are mixed messages in the Bible. What would be the purpose? To instill fear and from fear comes control. This is how the Church and Christianity have controlled people. Another creation is Satan or the Devil. It is so easy to use this on people in order to keep them in line.

We are guilty if we do and we are guilty if we do not. Is it no wonder why people hang on to guilt and take it to their graves? The four bedfellows spawned by guilt are regret, resentment and jealousy. Regret is to dwell on the past. So many people hash and re-hash the what-ifs. The body cells are aware and listening to these thoughts and conversations creating illnesses in the body. Isn't it time to let go of the past and go forward into the future? These four attitudes and beliefs go hand-in-hand with anger. All of these emotions play havoc on the cells of the body and is it any wonder why there are so many ill people? One only has to go early on a weekday morning, and observe the parking lots in medical centers and hospitals. We have become a nation of sick people.

Why not put on a new pair of shoes – meaning making peace with the past? Why not create a life where we are fulfilled, happy and able to move through hard times with ease? Those who are wise and smart will make choices to change. It may be painful in the beginning, however the prize is health, wealth and satisfaction of a life well lived.

How do we change our attitudes and beliefs? The 12-Step programs have a process called "Taking Moral Inventory." In the inventory, one sheds blame, guilt and regret. This is Step 4. It has helped a multitude of people to release the past. We do not have to use the format of Step 4. The key to changing our attitudes and beliefs is to forgive. Yes, we first forgive our self. Forgiveness is a healthy antidote against sickness. Each of us can take a moral inventory of our self. I wrote about this in Part 2 and I reiterate it here.

Once we can accept that we are not victims and that the frequency of our thoughts and words drew the event to us, we begin healing the past. My father's family lived in the past and as a child, I observed and swore to myself that I would not be like them. I took another path and have had a rich, fulfilled life.

When I become aware that I am angry, resentful or make judgments about people when I really do not know the circumstances, I take inventory and forgive myself. We can also go back to the past and change it. Some years ago, I read a book written by Neville Goddard, popular in the 30's, 40's and 50's of the last century. In his book Imagination, I remember him writing that there was something in his past that he wanted to change, so he went into a deep meditation and imagined a different outcome. It worked.

Recently a friend of mine wrote asking what to do about sleep privation she was having. I wrote back that I am not an M.D., however I suggested the following affirmations:

I always get enough sleep for my body to function healthy. (We can alter this affirmation to fit our own needs.)
I always turn any worries over to my God – my Holy Spirit for resolution.
I let go and let God.

I have learned that when my body is screaming of fatigue to sit in my comfortable chair and I close my eyes and take a very deep breath and while holding it, circulate the breath throughout my body while thinking the word Life. When I release the breath, I think the words, health or wellness. After ten minutes of this, my body is refreshed as if there had been no fatigue.

I have learned that to alleviate my stress and change my own attitudes and beliefs that I must daily be aware of what I think and speak. The frequencies of our words and thoughts do create our life experiences. Part 5 to follow.

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." Henry David Thoreau

HEALTH or OLD PAIRS OF SHOES? – Part 2
~ An Odyssey of Health

As I wrote in Part I that attitudes and beliefs are like an old pair of shoes, I also identify this with our health. Are you aware that here in the United States that we have more sick people than ever before? In this day and age of technology, we have given our power away to the pharmaceutical companies and to the medical community. And, what do attitudes and beliefs have to do with this? Everything.
My odyssey began in the late sixties of the last century when I noticed a trend in me. For three consecutive years in August, I came down with laryngitis. After the third year, I realized that something was out of kilter. I told myself that this was ridiculous and that I had had enough. I was never bothered with laryngitis in August after I firmly made my declaration. I did not think too much about this until some years later when I began connecting the dots.

I had been plagued with allergies for a number of years and in the late seventies, I went to an allergist who tested me for a large number of possibilities. I was living in southern California at the time and when the results came in, I was allergic to dust mites and mold. Dust mites in southern California – yes, but mold no. I began taking weekly shots and after six weeks, I did not see any measurable improvement and told myself that this is for the birds. I stopped going in for shots or taking medication. Soon my allergies began disappearing and when I moved to the Pacific Northwest where there is lots of mold; my allergies did not come back.

It was also in the late seventies when I was introduced to the healing statements in a small booklet titled Heal Your Body by Louise L. Hay. Her simple – yet profound probable causes of various health conditions helped me to acknowledge suppressed feelings. I realized that the major cause of health problems is due to suppressed feelings.

During the early eighties, I became a program director for a holistic health center and for me this became a school of learning. I scheduled almost every modality of healing that I could from workshops to lectures. I learned that they all worked and they all didn't work – meaning that for some there was a healing and for others there was none. The ancient biblical phrase came to me: It is done unto you as you believe. There is also another ancient phrase that is well known: As a man/woman thinketh, so it is. Some people were receptive and healed and others were not.

My major change regarding my own belief and attitudes began in the late 1970's. I recall that I learned at some healing workshop that our first reaction to an injury such as saying 'ouch' or 'ow' gives the body a message that this is pain and the cells go to work at reacting. One evening I was frying something and grease popped out on my left hand. My first reaction was to tell myself, There is no pain. I repeated this over-and-over and immediately plucked off a piece of my aloe vera plant and smeared it over the spot. Within minutes, there was no pain and within ten minutes there was no red spot. I had proven to myself that this worked.

Taking this one step further, I read Frederick Dodson's book Parallel Universes of Self. Dodson tells an incident where he was riding his bicycle and had an accident. One of his little fingers was broken and the bones were sticking out of the skin. The pain was unbearable and as Dodson tells it: This can't be happening; I have an important meeting. No way. This did not happen. He did not tend the wound. He went home and continued his tasks while insisting that it did not happen. As he describes it, I will go to the meeting tonight, feeling refreshed and well. Nothing ever happened. Fifteen minutes later, the swelling and the cut had disappeared; there was no sign of anything having ever happened. The finger was not only completely healed, it looked like nothing ever happened in the first place. I had reversed cause and effect.

Since reading about Dodson's reversing cause and effect, I have used this often and it works. When I get a bump, stumble, a cut or a burn, I immediately say, It never happened. I say this repeatedly until I sense that it is done and there is no pain. I have realized that we can reverse health conditions and injuries. The key is to be aware and to immediately state the opposite of what occurred.

Our thoughts – our suppressed emotions are the root of our health challenges. Some of these can go back to early childhood. I know one of mine did. It wasn't until I attended a week-end workshop that I had a major breakthrough from a traumatic incident at age three. When the anger I had suppressed for over fifty years erupted, I became hysterical with anger and my anger was so volatile that my body rocked with it for three days. On the third day, I told myself that I had had enough and then I began the healing and forgiveness.

I am aware of the vast epidemic of sickness in this country. We worry about our food we eat and what we drink. Scientists have declared that eggs cause cholesterol and are bad for us. Other scientists declare that eggs are healthy and we should all eat them. This goes for peanuts, coffee, chocolate, and so on. We are bombarded with various twists and recommendations and we give our power away. We give our power to others to diagnose what is wrong with us and what we can do to correct the condition. Perhaps it is time to develop the power of discernment. Why do we want to chemicalize our bodies with drugs? Too many people are chained to taking this pill or that pill and to be sure it is taken on time.

Beliefs and attitudes are like wearing a pair of old worn-out shoes. It is time to shed them and to re-think our unhealthy thinking. The first step is to give oneself a life review. This is to go back in time and pull up all hurts, traumas, resentments, and anger. What is suppressed must come out in order to have health. In Louise Hay's booklet, she gives a probable cause for cancer as Deep secret or grief eating away at the self. Long standing resentment. Deep hurt.

It takes courage to look at our hidden suppressed feelings and emotions. Once we can take them out of our emotional box and look at them individually and objectively, we are using the Power of Discernment. The next step is to forgive not only the other person(s), events, but also our self.

Forgiveness is cleansing. There is an old saying regarding forgiveness and that is to forgive seventy times seven if it is necessary. The result is an emptying of old beliefs and attitudes and allows for healing and a healthier happier life. The cells of the body will respond.

An affirmation I have used effectively is, I forgive myself and I forgive_____. We are each free now and forever. When I know I must forgive, I write down at least fifteen times the above statement or something similar. It works. It is not up to me to determine if the other individual has forgiven me. What matters is that I have forgiven. Forgiveness of self and others is the key to healing and maintaining health.

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." Henry David Thoreau

OLD PAIRS OF SHOES – Part I
~ An Odyssey Into Attitudes and Beliefs

Attitudes and beliefs are like an old pair of shoes that may feel comfortable but are actually worn out. What keeps some people healthy, active and alert? From my perspective, it is to have an open mind without walls. Old attitudes and beliefs are walls that keep us from experiencing new and exciting opportunities.
One has only to look around our community, our country and the world to note how beliefs and attitudes determine people's lives. One of the major beliefs or attitudes is lack. One only has to listen to the words another person says. Here are a few of the old worn-out statements:
* I (we) can't afford it.
* I (we) don't have enough money.
* It costs too much.
* Money doesn't grow on trees.
* The price is out of my reach.
All one has to do is search one's memory for similar statements of beliefs.

Changing one's beliefs or attitudes is like putting on a new pair of shoes that fit beautifully once we have broken them in. One might ask how do I hold on to my new attitude or belief. This is where the power of affirmations comes in. An affirmation is not positive thinking. We can attempt to think positive all we want, however the opposite of positive is a negative. To affirm is to make the statement firm, which means that no negative can enter. It also means to maintain that it is true.

In 1979, I began reading The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. This book helped me to begin to unravel the attitudes and beliefs that I had once held sacred. Since that time, I have created my own affirmations and they change from time to time. Since I am writing about lack, I have affirmed that I always have plenty. A favorite affirmation of mine is, "I always have lavish increasing income for my use." I came upon the word lavish when I read in one of my many books a blurb about a U.S. physicist who as a teenager was living almost in poverty. His dream was to become a physicist and he began affirming, "I always have a steady lavish income." He went to college on a scholarship and later became a noted physicist. I do not recall his name; however, he was born in the late 1800's.

Religions can keep us in bondage to someone else's beliefs. Being a retired minister of Divine Science and having studied the Judeo-Christian bibles, I came to the understanding that much of it adopted from ancient Egyptian credos gives us profound statements such as "As a man/woman thinketh, so it is." Another statement is "It is done unto you as you believe." These two statements go hand-in-hand with quantum physics. There have been experiments showing that the results of an experiment can be altered by whoever is viewing it. It is called the Observer Effect. We are our own Observer. This passage in the Book of Job applies to each of, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." Our fears send out a frequency that brings to us the thing we fear.

I have also learned from Catherine Ponder and others that it is recommended to write an affirmation 15 times in order to get it accepted by the brain. I keep a small notebook where I will write an affirmation 15 times each time an idea comes to me. There are many ideas regarding the use of an affirmation. One is to draw a symbol or something to represent the idea of what is wanted on a card and look at it often at night upon retiring, in the morning upon arising and also during the day. Our brains have been programmed by our old outmoded beliefs and we now have to retrain the brain.

I have also learned by changing my belief and attitude, I do not think that my lavish income has to come from a certain source. My belief has since turned into a knowing. Knowing to me indicates acceptance. Our outmoded attitudes and beliefs are simply weeds in the garden of our mind. We can pluck them out at any moment and when they want to grow again, we can pluck them out. I liken this to Gandalf standing on the bridge and told the orcs, "You cannot pass." The orcs represent our unwanted thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. We can be our own Gandalf.

ARE WE FREE?

The word freedom has been interpreted in many ways, but are we free? Here in the U.S. we celebrate the 4th of July with picnics, bar-b-ques, displaying the American flag and proclaiming we are patriotic Americans. The majority of the people have no idea that instead of freedom that we have been carefully herded into enslavement. We are an enslaved people, because we are enslaved to our beliefs, our attitudes and our habits.

It has been eons since women were free. Women have been treated no better than a servant in the majority of the world. Women have been under the thumb of the males for the most part. There have been and are men who treat women a equals and I honor them. When I say men or males in this article, I am talking about the men who wield power over women. Women are still considered sex objects and the dumb blond jokes are sickening because they demean intelligent women who happen to have blond hair.

Religions have perpetuated the enslavement of women by not allowing them to take their rightful place in the pulpit whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Muslim. For the most part, it is still the women all over the world who bear the children. I do not think the male has the capacity--yet. Am I anti-male? Not at all. I have three sons who are wonderful men, husbands and fathers.

How do we break the chains of enslavement? How many have the strength and will to say no? One of the first chains to break is that of prejudice. Too many people look upon others with suspicion because they are different. What if each of us began to accept the differences in other people and look for something wonderful about them? What if each of us dropped our prejudices against color, language, dress and an opposing belief in God?

What if we women teach our children not to be prejudice and this includes making fun of others. Children can be cruel in many ways, because they are echos of what they hear and learn in the home. Name-calling by children is a cruel past-time. Shame on we women if we allow this in our children.

We have also become enslaved to the advertising corporate world. It use to be that when digestive aids were advertised on television that it was aimed at the older people. Now, I have noticed the actors in these ads are for the most part women that look to be in their thirties. It is subtle programming that one is sick. If women would begin to think for themselves and to look at the commercials as an observer, then a different picture would begin to form and all we have to do is refuse to buy the products. It is time to be discerning.

We women have a brain the same as men. We each have highways in our brain labeled neuronets. Our highways are activated by the belief systems, attitudes and emotions we perpetuate. Freedom comes with a price and that is to give up trying to be like everyone else and this goes for men also.

On this 4th of July, freedom is calling out. It is an opportunity to examine our prejudices, what pushes our buttons, to forgive ourselves and others, and to work for the equality of all people all over the world.

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.- Marian Anderson