arawin.

say hello to my sister abbie`s horse arawin. she`s so proud of him and so wanted to show me how he`s coming along. this picture is of him being trained on a long rope. he`s about to be saddled for the first time. he passed the test with flying colours and is ready for the next step, accepting a rider.
abbie and arawin live in the countryside of rural wiltshire in england, not far from stonehenge.

more about love.

it is our nature to be in love. i am realising that the modern person is somehow blocked from his natural place as part of everything in so many ways. love is a part of what we are deprived of all the time.
forgiveness is a big part of this barrier. the traditional judeo-christian view of things is that we are responsible for everyone else and everyone else`s state of mind. we cannot offend, insult, slander, libel, confuse, challenge, disagree with or otherwise be at odds with anyone else for fear of some dreadful outcome the likes of which is never made clear.
it is o.k. to be that way with yourself though...........according to the j-c bunch.
so we are taught to love, forgive, help, understand and support others and give to charities until we are "good".
but what about the self?
why not forgive, understand, love, support and give charity to the self, with the understanding that everyone else is doing the same?
well, because then there would be no need for a church, most of government and all of the military.
but that doesn`t mean that some of us can`t just forgive, love, support and generally treat ourselves in a caring fashion anyway...............if we want to.

???????????????

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060713/ap_on_sc/darwin_evolution

microevolution. not monkeys turning into people.......ever, for any reason. and i wish that people would stop confusing the proof of microevolution for monkeys turning into people. our children don`t need to be any more confused than they already are.

seeing is believing.

we want to see things so that we will have confidence in thier existance. seems like a normal thing to want to have happen and everyone will agree that it makes sense to see the "merchandise" as it were, before buying.
but what if our senses are distorting, editing and adding information without us realising what`s going on?
there are many witnesses to accedents on the road yet witnesses are notoriously unreliable due to the fact that people`s bias will add, delete and distort events to fit thier pre-suppositions about what "should" have happened.
a young kid in a sports car hitting a bus will be seen as behaving differently from a businessman in a mercedes by the witnesses.
why does this happen?
because we have memories of prior events stored in our minds that we play to compare with what we just saw so that we can compare events and draw a conclusion. this mechanism is useful if you have had an experience in the past with a lion for instance and you run into one at a gas station or a cocktail party you know that, shit, big teeth and four sets of razor sharp claws means run like hell.........no matter what he`s saying.
so pre-suppositions are useful in some instances but can lead to erronious conclusions when dealing with things that don`t include a lion.

filters.

an interesting conversation emerged yesterday as i say with friends at starbucks. one chap, who`s name escapes me for the moment, suggested that we all start a church based on filters and he went around and asked us all to choose our filtering methods and thesis. it didn`t strike me right away what he was saying, but then i realised that filtering is exactly what religion and government and science do. they allow so much and restrict so much else in a consistant way that creates a type of collective thinking which only flows along set pathways.
what would happen to society if we changed the filters?

the quiet mind.

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10032287&postID=115271436755656524
i think that the quiet mind must be the first goal of the spiritual quest. without the quiet mind everything is chaos. the quiet mind is like the rudder of a yacht. lose the rudder and you drift aimlessly, prey to whatever mood of the weather comes along. when you control the rudder of your mind you can choose to be in the state necessary to accomplish whatever you need to in your life.

once again...............

once again i fell in love with my life. it happens quite frequently actually. i am just minding my own business just going through the motions and then the sheer joy and wonder of it all comes bursting through.
don`t you ever feel that way, even for a second?
i was walking over the bridge at the dufferin gate in toronto the other afternoon right after a thunder storm and i looked across the city into the sky where the clouds were still roiling in the air, heavy with rain and the sheer magnificence of all of what i was looking at just moved me to wonder. it was as if a living thing was looming above the city ready to descend at any moment. i was captivated in the sheer scope and power of what was passing above my head.
i could feel the energy in the sky surging through my soul.
i am part of all of that.

intelligent design.

o.k. so how did we get here?
we`ve always been here. there was no arriving.
different question then; what is consciousness?
don`t know but the colours are magnificent...............and the sounds, well how does one begin to describe the sounds. then there are the tastes. then the touch against the skin. then the fragrances.
what else do we need to know but what our senses deliver to us?
i have a front row seat for the greatest show on earth. would you like a ticket?

a world of words.

we live in a world created by words. these words are agreed upon by us to mean certain things and so the words have become meaningful because we agree as to what they mean. a sentence such as "the speed of light is a constant" is accepted and becomes part of the next series of ideas we begin to formulate.
heres another idea made of words. "all blondes are stupid". we react to this series of words in predictable ways.
but what if we are wrong about the meanings we give these words?
what if light doesn`t move in such a predictable way and what if all blondes aren`t stupid?
what happens then?
we are forced to start thinking again, aren`t we?
maybe it`s not so hard to make an honest buck after all and maybe dreams do come true and maybe, just maybe we can be happy for no reason............because why wait for a reason to be happy when it feels so good just to smile in the mirror and feel silly, for a minute, and then really feel good. permenantly. whenever you most need to.

is the mind in the head?

http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=10032287&postID=115264538080959576&r=ok
fascinating line of reasoning and responses.
one of my favorite philosophical debates.

21 day test.

o.k. so you aren`t sure whether your thoughts create reality. let`s try this then.
for 21 days you are going to do an experiment to see what will occur in your life. you don`t have believe, expect or wish anything. just do some simple things constantly for 21 days to prove, one way or another, whether visualisation effects reality.
step 1) get a note book and write down some goals, desires, destinations, etc.
step 2) pick a time each day where you can be quiet and alone for ten minutes or so to concentrate and visualise the things you want to happen in your life in the next 21 days.
step 3) as the exercise unfolds write down impressions, coincedances and results you get.
there you are. good luck and keep me posted.

coincedance.

do you notice things happening outside of chance? i do. in fact i see things happening purposefully all the time. as i focus on the things i want and see them clearly and in detail, sharp in my mind, the more events start happening in the world outside my head that seem to be in response to my visualisation.
this is the power of faith.
be careful what you believe will happen, because the more you see, hear, and feel ideas in your mind the more likely they will happen when you open your eyes.

if you aren`t getting it by now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwthqRJ1Khg

the divine spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UStCHkzLJ4

so much of what we know as spiritual developement involves practices such as meditation or prayer. this is the traditional view of what it means to be a spiritual person.........but i take an entirely different view. why sit in dark room quietly talking to yourself about your problems and asking for help when you can go and directly experience the glory of divinity that is surrounding you at all times?
the religious view is that god is omnipotent. i don`t disagree. i see god as an abundance of experience. this experience is omnipotent. just try to switch it off.
get involved in your life and crank up the divinity by whatever means necessary.
do it now.

the movie in your head.

what movies are playing in your head?

what we choose to watch.

what we choose to watch shapes our reality. when i watch ted nugent play i am transported away into a sense of thrills and excitement that is precisely the same as the feeling i used to get when i listened to him as i prepared for soccer games when i was young.
it works the same way now.
i watched the ted nugent video that i had stored up in my memory (the same place we put annoying t.v. commercials.) this morning as i drank coffee and prepared for my game............i got three goals in the first half and we won 4-2.
what we look at, in our minds, in life and in the media, sets our state and in a major way dictates how our day will turn out.
it should be becoming obvious to you how important it is to be aware of what we consume in the media.

terrible ted............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALFyvb2dZq8


it`s pretty simple really. you either feel one way or another. i watch this video and every time i feel, well, awesome.............
i watch it a lot.
what we feel is dependant on what we are thinking about. controlling our feelings is a matter of controlling what we choose to feel, consistantly, over time. ted nugent might not be your taste, but something is. go to youtube and type in your favorite performer`s name and there is bound to be something there for you to watch and listen to..........you will feel better as a result.
if we all did a bit more of that each day there would be no need for guns.

chicken hypnosis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M268UccYVCE


chickens are easy to hypnotise, as this video demonstrates, but the state wears off after a moment or two. in humans the induction is as quick for the trained hypnotist but the state stays for as long as the hypnotist wants the subject to remain in trance.
i`m not sure what this says about the difference between chickens and humans..............

erronious arguement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060708/ap_on_fe_st/us_elderly_woman_ticketed

in the article linked above, an elderly woman is ticketed for jaywalking. apparently she entered a crosswalk after the don`t walk sign was lit. her arguement was that the walk sign was still lit when she began to walk. o.k. let the judge work it out. the officer wrote the ticket and the judge withdrew the ticket after a public outcry and growing media attention. the officer stated that the woman took too long to cross the road so he ticketed her for her own safety.
by laws and tickets aside, to state that you gave someone a ticket for thier own safety is plainly a false arguement.
there needs to be a ticket for that type of thinking among our police.

guilt.

the more i write the more i realise that guilt is the binding force that limits our ability to be intellectually and spiritually and physically free. when we feel guilty we then do things that we wouldn`t normally be happy to do. all of the co-dependant and controlling games that go on are driven by guilt.
where does this guilt come from?
the church and the state.
the blogs and sites i visit are all talking about the practices that need to be adhered to so that one can attain states of enlightenment and spirituality and yet people return to the same behaviours in relationships and in making decisions that make them feel badly.
why is that happening?
because we are still negotiating with a repressive culture driven by the media that pumps guilt and pleasure at us 24 hours a day.
we don`t realise that it`s occuring all around us all the time while we watch t.v. or read the newspaper but we are being brought back into the fold by the trance of bright shiny images.
look away more.
turn off the t.v.
stop reading the bloody newspaper.

if something really important is happening your niegbour will knock on your door and tell you.

acceptance is love.

acceptance is love. when you accept youraelf unconditionally then you are loving yourself the same way too.
this unconditional state is the crux of becoming free spiritually. if all you have to rely on for love and acceptance is ypurself and you do that freely and without condition, imagine what you could accomplish..............
when are you going to start?

aikido.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H0VcOtneCRU&search=steven%20seagal

this is a demonstration of the grace and power of aikido, a martial art, that i have studied and applied to my soccer game enabling me to enjoy it at another level.

point of view.

the fireworks in toronto last night at a conservative estemate cost $1oo, ooo or so. to me it represents acelebration of life, art and the release of so much that is held down inside us that just cries out to be free. there are others that see the spending of money like that as an obscene waste when there are people homeless on the city streets.
both are correct.
both ideas are equally valid and true.
we need people who hold these diverse types of thinking so that fireworks will still be fired into the sky and also so that the homeless will be cared for.
but not one at the expense of the other.
that is the nature of abundance.
there is enough of everything for all points of view to be satisfied.

tired.

i cannot write today. too physically tired. i find that when i`m drained that my mental focus is shot also.
so here you witness the writer in his inability to write.................still struggling to write something down, to try to sort things out and find meaning. i have tried to depersonalise myself by seeing me sitting at the computer from across the room and still the heaviness persists. i`m too tired even to make a cup of coffee. i know that all that will do is jangle my nerves and make the thinking process even more difficult.
the question is formulated; just give up?
no. typing is soothing to the intellect.
thoughts, though like syrup in consistancy, are at least coming. i am still alive and thinking.
last night i sat and watched the symphony of fire.
the symphony of fire is a fireworks display held in toronto each summer, with teams from around the world putting on enourmous displays of pyrotechnics all set to music.
even though we were 3/4 of a mile a way the show was spectacular. we figured that there must have been $100,000. or more of explosions in half an hour`s show.
another celebration of abundance in the world.

don`t play with this for too long.

http://fergusmurray.members.beeb.net/resonata.htm

it`s test time.....................

http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/killerquiz/


you`ll have to be good to beat the doctor.

independance day.

independance day. that`s what i`ve always liked about the americans. freedom.......the value of being unbound by restrictions and tyrany and oppression.
here`s a thought. what do you want to be free from in this next year? what binds and restricts you so that you chafe and blister and become sore?
what if you could just walk away?
would you?
you need to now more than ever on this day of celebrating independance.
god bless america and all that is free wherever in the world you may be reading this right now.

word games.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5519239193881956619&q=george+carlin&pr=goog-sl

in the above article we see people using the wording of a problem to try to perpetuate it by lessening the impact of the name for the problem.
we can`t yell fire! anymore in case someone is offended. people will just have to get burned.
the political correctness movement is one of linguistics and semantics.......as noam chomskey knows all too well being a professor of linguistics, though he would rather you see him as an expert of foriegn policy and diplomacy. the political correctness movement is basically another way to control thinking dressed up as the "right" way to do things.
we cannot for instacne kiss a girl without express verbal consent. has that ever happened in any of your experiences?
i didn`t think so.
in nlp we call that a pattern interupt. guaranteed to ruin a special moment.
o.k. so what is going on here?
the big picture;
an attack on traditional values from all sides.
we cannot say, act and think in ways that would potentially offend even the smallest minority of people in any way.
it grinds acting, thinking and speaking down into a semantic world that only a small elite group has any discression over.
welcome to 1984.

self-explanatory.............

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5519239193881956619&q=george+carlin&pr=goog-sl

how we get ourselves in a bad mood.

computer software works by building command chains that say; if this happens, do this. simple programs may contain one or two operations. more complex programs may contain millions.
one such program contains billions.
it`s called consciousness.
consciousness is made up of if/then programs that we refer to as pre-suppositions.
we pre-suppose that if a dog is snarling then he could bite. if we want to avoid that bite we back of.
if(snarl) / then(back off)
unfortunately some of the programming of the software we know as consciousness isn`t done very well. i`m not going to get into the whys and werefores of that here but it think we can all agree that this is true.
i had a client recently who thought she was addicted to fast food.
she worked from home and did a few hours of work and then had to rush out and go to burger king.
the hypnotist would then put the client into a suggestable trance and tell them not to go to burger king right?
well, no. i am trained to investigate these kind of situations further.
why doesn`t this bright middle-aged woman eat at home?
i asked her this question. the answer will surprise you.
she hated her mother.
she hated her mother`s messy kitchen so much that she vowed to never have a messy kitchen in her own home.
so she didn`t have one thing in her kitchen...........so when she got hungry working at home she had to go to the quickest place she could to eat.
this woman would go inside her head and have arguements with her mother. imaginary arguements with a woman who had been dead for years......and then feel terrible about it for hours.
i asked her if she thought this was a good thing to do for herself each day.
she said no.
i asked her to get some food in her kitchen and work on minimising the imaginary arguements in her mind by telling the thoughts and images to shut the fuck up.......as many times as necessary until the thoughts dissipated.
she laughed.
the thoughts went away.
she laughed when she said shut the fuck up over and over until the thoughts went away and she could eat in her home where she worked.
i like my job a lot.

the world we create in our minds.

when we think of something that makes us uncomfortable, what has really happened?
we go inside and see pictures and we hear voices and sounds and then we get feelings that make us react.
did the things we thought about actually occur right then?
so why did we get the uncomfortable feelings?
our minds are capable of creating chemicals in our brains called neuro-transmitter peptides. these chemicals stimulate glands in our bodies to make us feel things so that we can act on our thoughts.
if i say lemon to you now, you will eventally salivate thinking about the juicy yellow fruit.
if i say snow capped mountain you go inside and build a model of a mountain covered in snow and if you work the image enough you will actually feel the cold wind on your face.
the study of this process is a big part of nlp (neuro-linguistic programming.) which builds models of how each of us does our reality in our minds by seeing images and hearing sounds inside. we also smell smells and taste tastes too. the end result is that we have feelings as a response that become our reality.
the formula is simple and direct.
good images in the mind=good reality.
when you control the imagination you control your reality.
the negative imagery we carry around that sneaks up and ruins our morning can be controlled by seeing how we get to the bad feeling.
we`ll discuss this next.

things we aren`t allowed to say or think or do.

so much of my work is in helping people dealing with anxiety. this anxiety is, in my view, installed as a way to control our behaviour from an early age. certainly, when we are young, we need to have some restrictions applied to our behaviour for obvious reasons. as we get older there is never a time, it seems, when the process is reversed.
in the last posts we have seen where our language has been controlled. some words are forbidden and entire concepts are edited out by religion and science. there is a constant struggle in the media, the church and the classroom and even in the living room of your own home, to control our reality through language and thought.
this process leaves us stressed by not having the permission to say what we need to say about so many things......................
yet life goes on from day to day and our experiences and thoughts and questions go unanswered and unvalidated.
it`s time to speak up.
when you do, the anxiety diminishes.

more on epithets.

you will notice a commonality amongst those who wish to control the actions of others, whether it be by word, deed or otherwise. these people tend to be those who wish to attain a moral high ground.
why do they do this?
a number of reasons, the greatest of which i believe is intellectual laziness. there are generally issues of co-dependancy and control in thier family and social environments also (notice i didn`t say church........) which don`t help to allow them intellectual flexibility.
the moralists want you and i to conform to whichever set of rules they`ve arbitrarily devised or adopted. it makes me wonder what special privelige they`ve earned to appoint themselves dictator.
when we look at the soft underbelly of these technocrats we generally find a humourless fearful person with anxiety about the simplest things.
the common term for people like this is neurotic.
the shame of this behaviour is that it has taken the place of competance in most management and government hierarchies.
the bureaucrat loves nothing more than another policy meeting or amendments to the existing rules.
my rules are;
1) think for yourself.
2) say what you will, and be prepared to live and die by the words you use.
3) repeat when necessary.

epithets.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3644072958341565007&q=abduction&pr=goog-sl

a gentle introduction into semantics and those who want to control yet another aspect of our lives.
WARNING: contains profanity and narrow-mindedness.

more on mirror neurons.

mirror neurons are nerves in the brain that are designed to react to the behaviour of others in such a way that they begin to re-train our bodies to emulate the new behaviour.
monkey see; monkey do.
we tend to intellectualise ourselves out of the functioning of this process and thereby resisting the ability we all have to take on new tasks or becoming better at the old things.
resist the urge to talk yourself out of improvement.
the chatter in the head can get in the way.
just let the body go and it will adapt in ways you can`t imagine........yet.

the world cup.

are you watching the world cup? you know, the game where men run relentlessly for an hour and a half and only score one goal? well just imagine how happy they are when they do. what happens when a goal is scored? pandemonium breaks out. yelling and screaming and jumping up and down. traffic stops and horns blare out and fists are raised and people just lose thier minds.
try doing that as you walk to your car in the morning. it doesn`t matter that people are watching......they`ve had thier suspicions all along. run out the front door and jump up and down and yell and scream and laugh for 15 seconds like you just scored a goal in the world cup.........the winning goal.
and then get in your car and go to work..........smiling.

excitement.

you do it to yourself................................
you go inside and remember a time when you were the most excited about something that you remember now. you see what you see clearly and in detail and you hear the sounds that remind you now, of what you experienced then. the more clearly and accurately you build the experience up in your mind the more the feelings can grow until you can relive the experience now and be as excited if not more.
when you choose.
choose to do this before a meeting or a presentation or an exam or getting off the bus to go to work.
no really.................why not go in to work in the best state possible?
we do have choices after all.
i choose to have good feelings for no reason.
and go from there.

mirror neurons.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8484052068327971038&q=hypnosis

great short video by wendy friessen explaining how visualisation of the ideal self stimulate areas in the brain to begin to emulate that behaviour. a powerful tool for change.

getting back to the divine.

this is easy.
take your shoes off and walk on the grass. feel the soft, cool green blades under your toes. smell the rich earth and see the green lawn spread out and away from you as you walk. look behind and see your footprints in the grass.
can you smile about that?

some thoughts on god.......

o.k., so if you or i were god what would we build?
given that we have created everything and made it as awesome as it appears and made men and given them thinking and love and all this stuff.........how come there is so much unhappiness?
choice?
yep........i have come to the conclusion that we get into piling up ideas and concepts and types of thinking to the point where we forget our humanity and our direct access to god.
if you and i were god would we want to have people forgetting about us?
i wouldn`t.
so, what`s going on?
we have forgotten our true nature by being distracted by bright shiny things.
the competition for these bright shiny things is a brutal struggle for some form of peace of mind.
the ad in on t.v. says you`ll be better, fitter, stronger or whatever if you have a certain product. so the divine creature that we are that has forgotten who we are and has decided to get caught up in a game of material possessions.........to feel good about being alive degs, borrows and steals to get the new bright shiny thing.
and then doesn`t feel any better...........
so this descent into a "hell" of material things continues.
until you look up from your catalogue and look in the mirror and recognise the divine in yourself.

space travel.......

and why is it we are in so much of a hurry to go of into space? what part of outer space are we interested in. we can`t really get any more out into space that we already are..........whizzing through the void on this green and blue rock we call earth.
could it be that we are trying to escape from something in ourselves?
many peopple travel of to far distant places in search of themselves only to find that they were right there all along.
look in the mirror sometime.

alan watts....

http://www.spacetruckingmogul.com/mindfieldtv/

if you are into alan watts at all you will appreciate some of his impossible to find audio files. the link above contains some lectures of his and the work of terence mckenna and others.
enjoy...............

who is that?

i noticed a hit from an island in the middle of the atlantic ocean. i just have to know who you are.
would you post a response if you read this?
thanks......

how we seperate.

when we think that the universe is made of bits of things and not all a part of one thing it becomes easier and easier to think in terms of seperation. the fearful person creates ever more complex and smaller and more seperate little bits of things and makes rules and regulations to govern and seperate these bits. pretty soon there are huge industries of rules and regulations governing tiny bits created by fearful people so that we can`t do anything in case something might happen.
and there are, of course, people who can tell you the statistical likelyhood of something happening to these precious bits of things. so we`d better just not do what we want to do so that the bits of things will be safe.
the bits have become more important than we are.

the world inside your head.

the universe in your mind is made up of a number of elements. sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations that relate to the body. these elements are entirely within your control, even though it seems that these elements appear and effect you as if you are powerless at times, this is because of a lifetime of passively sitting back and just watching the show.
we are raised in the belief that things happen to us and we are seperate from the rest of the universe. this concept is a judeo-christian construct that has formed us into mere observers 0f our lives. there are other ways of thinking that include us in the wonder of existance. a person thinking this way doesn`t ask where we come from. they already know.
as you realise that you are in control and can decide what you think, see, hear, taste, smell and feel in your mind and you start to actively do these things out of confidence you will begin to feel included. needed. involved. loved.

an expression.

there is an expression in the airforce which says that the flak is heaviest over the target. this is true in many areas of our lives. in my work it is truest regarding my success with clients who have anxiety issues that lead to substance abuce. my strongest critics are those who suggest that because i`m not a medical professional that i couldn`t possibly be able to provide relief from alchohol or drug abuse. well, tell my clients that. the clients that come to me with substance abuse issues get to work and stop the anxiety and then make better choices.
people who feel good naturally, without medication, don`t need to drink or do drugs. it`s as simple as that.
so i wear a flak jacket and keep working.

more about voices.

have you ever noticed that when someone encourages or compliments you thier tone of voice is totally different from those who criticise?
is the tone of voice you hear in your head critical or encouraging?
you realise now that you have a choice.
you can go inside and speak to yourself in the most positive, encouraging tone and make your next experience one of excitement and anticipation.
still aren`t concinced?
try talking yourself into it.
now.
"come on. you can do it. you`ve done it before. go get after it. you are the one. yeah baby"
it may sound silly at first but there is someone talking to himself right now and he doesn`t feel silly.
he`s too busy planning to win.

voices.

how do you treat yourself? what i mean is how do you talk to yourself? how do you talk yourself in or out of what you want to do?
the voices we hear in our heads make us feel so many things...........these voices are snippets of conversations we have heard and things people have said to us and so many other things....lines from songs or movies for instance, or poems or stories that we have read.
all of these ideas come back to us in the form of voices in our heads. these voices have volume, tone and persistancy. just as if a real person was right there talking to us.
seems as if we might all be a little crazy, right.
not really.
it`s perfectly natural to have a dialog running in our minds. it`s a steering mechanism for our consciousness.
it`s only the psychiatrists that have a problem with the process.
now, here`s the interesting thing; we can say anything we want to, in any tone of voice and for however long we want to.
in our minds.......any time we want to.
even when the boss is standing right there, and there`s not one thing he can do about it.
because he can`t possibly imagine what`s going through your mind.
so how are you going to talk to yourself from now on?

promo.....

http://www.reganodesigns.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=15449afca204e8d/shopdata/index.shopscript


my sister in scotland has decided to release her jewellery designs to the public. here`s a bit of promo for her new site. tell her her brother sent you.

if you have an inferiority complex, don`t read this...

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

ecuador....

not uraguay.
still. odds were the same. 1-0. bring on portugal.

wrong again.

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060622/1/8475.html

the pressure is on uraguay to beat a team far better than they are. uraguay has approximately .ooooooooooooooooooooo75643% chance of winning this game.
many teams from smaller footballing nations rise to the occasion with spirited performances in the world cup and that is part of what makes the game of football what it is.
but uraguay, good luk. you will need it.
COME ON ENGLAND!

inocuous enough..........

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060624/hl_hsn/usblackshearbetterthanwhites;_ylt=AsVi0dbKBQF40KNlc8tpzHCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ- well, here`s the thing. there are those that assume that there is something wrong with certain people hearing differently. these same people then look to find "solutions" the "problem".
who`s to say that there is a problem that needs to fixed in the first place?
in the logic of arguement the premise needs to be valid for the arguement to be sustained. if the premise is flawed then the arguement fails.
this flawed premise is the basis for many issues that we deal with in our lives. we assume to readily that the premise is valid and true.
environmentalism is another case of an assumed premise. the media has pushed global warming, peak oil and the extinction of species and then sars and now the impending pandemic bird flu to ther point hwere the is an assumption of fact for the premise in the arguement for the environmental movement.
what we may actually be seeing is the hegelian dialectic at work; problem-reaction-solution. (thesis-antithesis-synthesis.) those who create the problem in the first place are suspiciously likely to magically just have the solution.......for a couple of hundred billion.

happy.

internal states.

when we think about things that have happened and things that are going to happen we show ourselves pictures and talk to ourselves and as a result we get feelings that make our legs go. we then go about or daily tasks.
most people are unaware that we can direct the types of things that we think about. we find ourselves having all sorts of emotions during the day, a fair amount of which is destructive. it`s not that these thoughts are even real. they are mostly suppositions about things that probably won`t happen, but we worry all the same.
this constant conflict has a wearing effect on our nerves and reflects in the stress we feel and the decisions we make in our lives.
the only hope we have is to take on a practice of focusing on the positive in our lives and processing these thoughts to fuel our existance.
then out of this unconditional love we have for ourselves we have to do some radical things.
here`s a list;
stop watching the news.
stop reading newspapers.
tune out negative conversations in your environment.
only promote the positive in your own thinking.
leave the politics to the others.
now, i have to say that the negative is a natural part of our existance and we have to deal positively with challenges that we face on a daily basis but here is no need to consume the negative as entertainment in the newspapaers, magazines and on t.v.
we are worth so much more than that.

divinity.

as a student of divinity i study religion, spirituality and philosophy. these schools of thought are negotiating to be the one that accurately describes the world and man and the meaning of our existance. each one either overtly or covertly demeans the others at times in the vain hope that they can grasp the top spot. this is typical human behaviour seen in all areas of our existance. i think what bothers me most about this behaviour in terms of consciousness is that all of these fields want to seperate us from the concept of god.
there are six and a half billion of us here all looking around at everything and most are convinced to look for god under rocks and in trees and deep in the ocean or high in the mountains. we are sent on a lifetime of wild goose chases, argueing over dinner about who`s ideas are right and fighting wars and killing people who don`t believe precisely what we believe.
doesn`t this all seem a little silly when described this way?
i have another view.
i think that we are all part of the same one god. we are all capable gods as a part of this one great thing that is rocks and trees and mountains and oceans and everything else we see, hear, taste, smell and feel.
why else to we feel what others feel and hear, taste, smell and see what they do if we are not connected?
there are those who would bind us to obligation and performance by creating a seperate, judgemental god that has to be lived up to and who`s love must be earned.............but that sounds susupiciously like some nasty people i know that want to control people for thier own twisted reasons.
a creative, loving god wouldn`t create and love a shitty arrangement like that and test a group of people without giving them instruction and set people amongst each other like that.
i think something else entirely is going on.

what excites you most?

what excites you most?
are you planning to do it again?
why not?
excitement is a propulsion system that drives our life. we remember the feelings we had when we were excited and we want to attain that feeling again. so we plan to get there.
or not.
which one are you?
i`m the one who loves to be doing things that are exciting. i plan to remember how i felt the last time i was doing the things that excited me.
i remember the sights, sounds and other stimuli that triggered feelings of pleasure within me and in so doing this re-enforces my desire to want to do those things again............with the absolute certainty that i would feel the same way.
and i`m right every time.
our neurology all works the same way.
if you show yourself the right pictures and talk to your self the right way you will feel the same feelings.
it`s the feelings that make your legs go.
the better you get at churning up the feelings the beeter and harder and faster the legs will go........and they will carry you right to where you want to be.

what are you doing about it?

there is an epidemic out there of monumental proportions. it is called blaming. we get ourselves into a bind of one description or another and we automatically blame someone else.
why?
habit. conditioning. protecting the ego. who knows.
the problem with this reaction is that, while there might be some justification in the observation of blame, the other person isn`t going to solve the problem for you.
you have to do it yourself.
so, the action and continued feelings created by blame are useless to solving t he problem at hand. any time invested in blame is gone.
so, if you are focused on loving yourself unconditionally.............don`t waste time getting caught up in all the nattering to yourself about how the other person did this, that and the other thing to effect you.
even if you are right.
put your energy into what you can do to solve the problem yourself without persecution and vilification.
clear your mind of the negative.
what will naturally fill your mind in the space you have created is positive thought that leads to solutions.

have fun with this................

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/oz.htm

how much?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060620/tc_pcworld/126177

the huge list.

how big is the list of things you make in your mind about the things you want to do and the way you feel about life and what you see and how you react to things?
if it`s a list of all the shit that could happen in your life you`d better make it a short one.
or better yet,stop listing shit.

life is too short.

life is too short for a wasting time making yourself feel bad. the worrying that we do over things that will never happen is staggering, yet it`s what we do. we show ourselves horrid pictures in our minds then we talk to ourselves in ways that make us feel bad.
what is up with that?
this process makes us feel bad all day and into the night and we wake up the next day with the same feelings all over again.................unless we break the back of the process by focusing on something good, fun and exciting instead.
it`s the same process we used to piss ourselves off, with the same likelyhood of actually happening, but this time we just feel better during the process and wake up the next day feeling better still.
which do you prefer?
i thought so.
next.

hypgnosys.................

welcome to hypgnosys. if this is your first time or your fiftieth visit you must know that there are hundreds of entries in the archives about the variety of experiences we call consciousness. if you visit here regularly you know that i post about the hidden aspects of the human mind. my hope is that my writing helps each person in some way to awaken thier own personal power to love thier live.
let me know what you find in your travels through the archives. ask questions and i`ll do what i can to expand my thoughts toward your specific issues.
happy reading and a happier life.

how are you doing?

good and bad things happen to all of us. it`s not what happens to us so much as how we react to situations that decide who we are. so much of what i love about sport, and life it`s self, is this simple fact. the winners decide to win before they play the game.
decide to win the game of life the moment you wake up in the morning.
show yourself the best thoughts possible.
expect the best possible outcome.
put yourself in advantagious positions...............like; in front of the people who will consume the product of service you provide.
too many people plan in thier mind to do things and yet they never tell thier legs to get going.
many times you see the pretty girl you would like to talk to and you think of clever things to say.......in your mind, while she drives off in her car.
dare to make mistakes and see them as practicing for the real thing. over and over...........hey, at least you are talking to people who you find attractive..........eventually someone will find what you have to say interesting, funny, charming and honest.
unless you think you are so special that you are different from the six and a half billion other people on he planet and that one day someone will magically appear out of a star trek transporter beam into your life.
do you really believe that?
this is what i believe. i believe that there is enough of everything out there in the world for everyone who truly believes they can have what they want and can meet thier goals.......especially because most talk themselves out of the game first thing in the morning.
so now you have an unfair advantage.

awake.

recently i am hearing and reading about being "awake" with greater frequency. being awake in terms of an amplified sense of a wareness of things . not just being in a state of functioning in the world but actually seeing the source code........seeing the pattern of life laid out like a map with all the details and the traps, pitfalls and snakes in the grass that await the unsuspecting traveler.
then other times i`m blind and asleep, deeply unconscious and wandering through life like a robot.
rarely though.
i see how plainly human we all are. the pope is a man. the bureacrats are children in suits still bullying, the cops are so scared they have to carry a gun. the politicians are full of shit like they were as kids.
when you wake up you see this plainly.
sometimes you don`t really want to.
sometimes you are staggered by how asleep most people are.

all the good things.

so, tomorrow is monday. time to make a list of all the good things that have happened to you in your life. i don`t care that you don`t feel like it. take a piece of paper and a pen and start writing. write what you saw and what you heard and what you did. get into the detail, the colours, the type of sounds and the people around you. the more you detail the memories the more you will vividly re-enact the events now. keep writing and go as far back in your memory as you can to the point where you are writing about your favorite teddy bear or a memorable christmas present or being with people you cared about of that raise at work or promotion. hey, i don`t know, it`s your life.
churn up the bottom of the memory river and relive the high points of your life in your writing.
this piece of paper will be a valuable tool for you to be able to access good, strong memories and new good feelings as a result.

stupidity.

http://www.rageboy.com/Stupidity.html

in a perfect world this would be taught in grade school. the tragic irony of it all that a fair number of education professionals fall into the class of people causing damage to others without personal gain. i will go further and say this is true of a fair number of bureaucrats in all other fields as well.

i love articles like this.

http://www.ctraces.com/Circuit_Traces/CT2_5/ogden.html

the industry of predicting the future, whether it be from a technological, religious, social, political or spiritual standpoint, is one of entertainment. many people come to my seminars on stop smoking or weight loss for entertainment purposes. they don`t have the slightest intention of doing the work to change behaviour, but if they feel they`ve been entertained then they feel they`ve got thier money`s worth.
from ogden to chomskey, from al gore to david suzuki, from the dalai lama to the pope. it`s all show business. the bigger the event, the better. when the pope came to toronto a few years ago there was almost a million people jammed into a field and the sewage system overflowed. there`s a comparison for you!
the point is that we can`t predict the future but it is enjoyable to see how some subscribe to the belief that someone can and see an industry built around them.
one thing i will predict though. humans will continue to behave pretty much the same as they have for thousands of years come monday morning.
you can bank on that.

a reality caused by the mind?

http://members.cruzio.com/~quanta/amy.html

pay attention.........

when your ten year old boy beats you at chess there are a number of things that run through your mind. after you have congratulated him you start to realise that the boy has a seperate intellect from you, capable of waiting patiently while you take his pieces, knowing that you have left your king trapped behind three pawns and open to a pinning move from his castle.
that is the greatest father`s day present a man could ever ask for.

the human mind......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_bi_ge/teaching_ethics

the human mind cannot process a negative. for example; try to not imagine a pink elephant.........first the mind visualises a pink elephant then deletes it. the child learns by this method. everything you say and do gets processed in a positive way. then the editing and deletion begins.
the master lawyer will contaminate a jury by making stements in open court that he knows will be struck from the record and the jury instructed to ignore......but the information is already installed.
you would thing ethics professors would know this already.

words we use.........

what are your favorite words?
here are a few of mine.
elated.
powerful.
cheetah.
determined.
positive.
dauntless.
persevere.

the language that we use forms our reality. i include these words in my conversations and visualisation dialogues. i get a thrill out of how i feel when i use these words.
take some time to honestly inventory the words you use in your daily conversations.
are they positive, powerful and assertive and loving words?
they can be.

love yourself.

if you don`t love yourself what is left?
power, lust, control, conflict, fraud, threats, revenge...............the list goes on.
choose to love yourself, it`s easier and nobody gets hurt.

what do you expect?

"england expects every man to do his duty."
that`s what i grew up with. admiral horatio nelson`s speech as he lay dying to the men of the british navy.
what you expect will happen will happen. your reality is all around you. you have been an active partner in getting where you are today.
if you like it do more.........you`ll get more of the same. if you are dissatisfied, changes have to be made.

winners and losers.

the difference between winners and losers is that winners believe that they are going to win.
i am watching the world cup and as an englishman i have my favorite. during the game with trinidad today england went 82 minutes without a goal. there were rumblings of an upset amongst the commentators. england seemed to be flat and lacking ideas, yet they kept on plugging away and finally, in the 83rd minute peter crouch got on the end of a precise david beckham cross and put the ball behind the trinidad keeper. steven gerrard put the game out of reach for trinidad in injury time with a clinical strike from 25 yards which sent a message to the rest of the world that england are on thier way.
trinidad were in the game. they were fit, strong and skilled, yet they lacked ideas and the type of optimism needed to go forward consistantly for 90 minutes.
and that was the difference.
bring on brazil.

beautiful things.

how do we recognise beautiful things?
by being that way inside.
otherwise we lust and control.
the universe matches and mirrors who we are and what we think about and what we do.
we are in and of the universe so we manifest accordingly.
it is our consciousness that drives the slide show........the movie.......the sound track.
the more in love inside we are the more beauty we will percieve.
and let it all go.

it`s all about love.

love is everything. it is the manifest and the process of manifesting. it is the energy of the universe, the gravity, the weak and strong electro-magnetic force and it is inertia and time as well.love is our thinking, our breathing and our will. it is the thing that makes everything just the way it is.
choosing love is the choice of existing in tune with the universe.
there is a language of love that we recognise at the cellular level. love is food for the cells and for the nerves and for the blood vessels and for the brain and the heart.
we recognise others in love. we see it in thier eyes and in thier walk and in thier gestures. we can see it so plainly that we have to actively force ourselves to look away if we don`t want to see it.
it is easy to be in love in the universe. just say you want to be in love in the universe and you will be.
hold that though..................................for the rest of your life.

generating good feelings.

we generate feelings in our bodies by the way we think. we think in several distinct ways. we see things, we hear things, we smell things and we taste things. these processes result in us feeling things in our bodies. these feelings in our bodies make our legs go. we either go towards what we like or we move away from what we don`t like.
when we attain some mastery over what we see, hear, tase, smell and feel we begin to master our lives.
have you got a favorite memory?
what does it make you feel like?
look at this memory in terms of the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings. amplify the sensations you like by deciding to in your mind. make the colours brighter, the sounds louder and movement faster. notice how the change changes your feelings.
what did you notice?
the different things that you notice in this exploration of your mind is your individual temprament.
you can practice playing with the elements of your visualisation of the memory you chose to intesify the experience.
remember; we are doing this all the time anyway. why not do it in a way that can add to your life?
when you are around others notice how they are going inside and experiencing things to drive thier reality. everyone is different and most are faily controlled in thier behaviour, but every now and then you see someone who is totally controlled by what they are experiencing in thier mind and are exuding this internal stuff out into the world.
they are the one`s who make people watching so much fun.

happy?

those who are happy by default are blissfully unaware of how they are that way. those who aren`t so happy and wish that they could be don`t have access to the means to do so. there are exceptions to this rule but they are rare.
here`s a question. does happiness come from within or from without? another way of asking this question is; do we find happiness inside our own thoughts or do we need to be made happy by material things or by the actions of others?
for the majority of people alive on the planet today and those who have gone before us, the answer is things and other people.
so by the metric of the huge majority of thinking, we are made happy by others and by things.
so we need to get things and have people do things for us to become happy................
i think that`s a poor way to arrange things frankly.
what if we could just show up happy in the first place?
then we wouldn`t need to do anything or provide anything for anyone else unless we wanted to, by agreement or choice and we certainly wouldn`t have to have things to be pleased.
so how do we generate good feelings inside so that we can be happy?
that`s the subject of the next post.

words.

i have been reading a bit more recently, as my computer was off-line all week-end, and i picked up a book about logic and reasoning and it brought to mind some of my early study of nlp (neuro-linguistic programming.) and how it`s rooted in the logic of aristotle 2000 years ago.
aristotle called us the reasoning animal.
we are also the emotional animal, but that`s another story.
logic is based on reason.......if we dig hard enough we will find the cause for things......if we are patient, disciplined and, of course, schooled in logic.
the thing most people miss is the schooling.
what are we left with if we don`t have at least a basic understanding of logic and reason?
emotion.
emotion is quick, easy and feels right.......sort of, and gets us into trouble by confusing, jumping to conclusions, blaming and plain not getting the facts first.
emotion is a powerful tool in arguement by it`s self. people are swayed by emotion all the time. one can be intimidated into taking the first offer if you don`t have the facts and don`t believe you have time to get them.
logic and reason are habits that allow you to take time to learn the reasons why things are happening and find out the full extent of your options. then in the calm light of reason take the first step.
a good first book on this topic is called being logical, a guide to good thinking, by d.q. mcinerny. it is the book i`m re-reading and as simple and accessable as it is it gives a good basic understanding of how we think and reason and draw conclusions, for right or wrong.
i recommend it.

technological challenges.

my modem died so i took it back to the cable company as per thier instructions and they gave me a new one. after a half hour on the line with tech support i finally got signal on the device and i can post again.
i love technology when it works and i hate it when it doesn`t.
we are slowly becoming more and more dependant on technology for our daily routines.
since the modem stopped i have gone through withdrawal from e-mail, blogging, surfing, and research that up until six years ago i wouldn`t have been able to do at all. the internet has changed my life and the life of millions of people around the world. one of my favorite writers, marshall mcluhan, predicted this "global village", driven by high-speed computer communication, that would reduce the percieved size of the planet measured by the time it takes to send and recieve information. in a hundred and fifty years since the invention of telegraph the world has shrunk a million fold. in the four hundred years since the invention of the printing press the world has shrunk a billion fold. how much further is the world going to shrink in the next ten years?
are you ready?

for some reason blogger has been acting funny recently..........so i have had problems posting. right now i`m typing into a blank screen with some icons in one corner with the hope that i will be able to post it when i`m finished.
well, here goes.

a test of my faith.

sometimes something happens that changes your life. you work hard and study and plan and work some more............and then there are setbacks. things happen that are well out of your control that come down hard to make you doubt that there is a rationale to this existance.
we causually call these events setbacks........especially if they happen to someone else.
but life has to go on and so you dig down and find reasons to continue. with some faith that things will improve you keep rowing your boat and your friends support you and keep you going through the darker times, and you do your work and find the place where your mind can rest for moments at a time............and you face your situation with all the strength you can imagine.
and then, against all your expectations, you recieve news of a solution to the problem..................
and you know your life is going to return to some semblance of normalcy.
to my friends; thank you. you know what has been happening. to those who don`t; take my word for it, it`s been a challenge.
it`s not over yet though, but at least i have a plan.

we enslave ourselves.

"if i had a million dollars i would be happy".
fair statement, right?
most people who have that kind of money have it tied up in a mortgage or investments. they then go to work at jobs they dislike, working with people who the dislike and commuting through traffic jams to get there.
they have enslaved themselves.
they are working for thier money.
the money doesn`t make them happy at all. it makes them miserable having money as a boss...........a slavedriver.
what`s the alternative?
if you have a million dollars in a mortgage...................sell.
rent an apartment and slow down a bit and listen to your heart instead of your head.
the head that got you into this jam in the first place.
the ego wants the big house..........your heart wants a rest.
the love you feel wants to grow into a lifestyle of peace and grace and enjoyment of life........instead of chasing next year`s model.
that`ll kill you.

the spirit in the normal.

too often people on a spiritual path will find themselves deep in philosophical concepts trying to derive meaning in thier lives. meanwhile life is swirling around without them as they sit reading or meditating or listening to a lecture or reading blogs like this. life is persistant and pervasive. we have to go to extreme lengths to shut it out.
the tragedy is that many succeed.
the very essence of spirit is in what is going on around us each moment of our lives.
notice it.
there are insects under rocks and microbes in the drinking water and molecules in the grains of sand all alive and ocillating with life.........yet we have been convinced to try to stop the flow.
get ocillating.
watch the birds on the wing and the clouds moving across the sky and the shift in the smell of the wind as the storm approaches........and you will begin to become a part of it again.
"there is a rustle in the headgerow".

a gibson sg of indeterminate vintage.

the bloke at the stall said the guitar was from the early sixties with a `59 les paul neck grafted on. it sounded nice and played well but `59 neck? very nice restoration though. beautiful blue baby.

matt`s favorite.

the blue hagstrom swede. the swedish les paul. good choice boy.

chris gets a brief glimpse of heaven.

the t-shirt is a dead giveaway...........

spirituality and enlightenment.

so what do soccer and guitars have to do with enlightenment?
everything.
we can delve deeply into the meaning of existance it`s self and meditate until our ego dissipates into nothing, but unless we are stimulated to be alive and enjoying the experience of participating in the process of humanity, we may as well give up and crawl under a rock.
there are too many people putting things off until tomorrow. tomorrow doesn`t exist. there is only a continuous stream of now.
it`s the only time you can do anything.
right now.

guitar show.

my friend chris and i took my boys and ourselves to a guitar show in north toronto today and wandered around for hours looking at guitars that we couldn`t afford, but i did bring my camera and managed to capture some images of wild beasts from darkest america. my head is still reeling from seeing the `57 les paul gold top and playing the `68 les paul gold top. i got some shots of some old s.g.s and a really nice blue hagstrom and i caught chris eyeing an old gretch. i have a feeling he was having a feeling right then...............
more to come later.

57 les paul gold top.

wasn`t even going to ask to play this one though.

`68 les paul gold top.

there are no words to describe this experience.

watch this now.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4775435252723962406&q=nlp

watch this now........don`t think.
just click on the link.
do it now.

we are the champions.

proof you can`t teach an old dog new tricks. once a champion, always a champion.

interesting.

a friend of mine is a bono impersonator. he sings in a u2 cover band and travels around the world doing shows. he was asked to do a private party for a large corporation and was announced as the surprise guest. there was no announcement as to who he was and so nobody knew who was going to appear. after the event it was announced that he was in fact an impersonator. the e-mails his manager recieved after the show were interesting. some e-mails stated that the show was great and that bono was amazing, some e-mailers were upset at being fooled and others were convinced he was really bono even though it was announced that he wasn`t.
this is an intersting comment on human perception and reaction.
some were happy with the "deception".
some were angry at the what they felt was a deception.
some were entertained and happy.
some were determined to keep the original feeling of actually seeing bono.
a bit like religion and politics.

this is what i do.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060601/ap_on_he_me/canada_smoking_ban

a major part of my work is helping people stop behaviours that are destructive to them. smoking tops the list. the government ban on smoking in public places is a reasonable step toward what has become not only a health problem but a tax issue as well. as our population ages our focus falls to retirement and benifits. the action of the government is directly related to the health issues caused by cigarette consumption and it`s attendant health risks.
traditionally the government has sat back and watched it`s citizens poison themselves with tobacco products while reaping the tax benifits. now they are looking to reduce the back-end cost to the health budget by restricting the consumption and visibility of the product.
assholes.
too little, too late for the approximately 20,000 people in canada who will die as a result of smoking.

this is the miracle.

that we are alive is the miracle. the simple fact that we can experience all that is here.
we can walk amongst the tall buildings and look up staring until we feel dizzy.
we can stare up at the clouds and watch them turn into animals or monsters.
we can look deep into the garden and see bugs and worms and birds and small animals like rabbits and mice.
we can walk in the rain and get wet and spash in the puddles.
we can sit and talk about nothing with friends and laugh.
like children.
this is the miracle.
just experiencing.

unsung hero.

week in, week out jamie carragher has been a tireless defender of the liverpool goal and it`s no wonder he has been included in england squad. he is the winner of a european champions medal and f.a. cup medal in the last year. he is the consumate champion.

more about the world cup.

as we get closer to kick-off i will be posting more of my views regarding the event. it is my opinion that england will win the cup. it has been my nature to be biased in favour of old blighty for obvious reasons over the years, but this year england has a real chance as one of the favorites in competition. defence and midfield is argueably the best in the world and with the recent return of micheal owen to 70% or so the opposition must be concerned.
come on england!

wold cup preview.

surprised? don`t be. this is the not-so-secret weapon that the rest of the world doesn`t want to see in the final 20 minutes. and there are a few more not-so-secrets to be aware of if you are germany, holland or brazil.
gerrard.
lampard.
terry.
70% owen.
ferdinand.
i could list them all but in eight days we will see them all on the field together. let the games begin.