Sinéad O’Connor (1966 -2023) – Photo by Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CLN Editor Notes:

“Sinéad always spoke out against injustice. Sometimes she didn’t say something perfectly. Sometimes her message wasn’t always heard. But she never stopped trying. And I think that’s really the key takeaway: is that she never, ever, ever stopped trying. And, it’s not enough for us to now say that she was a brave warrior. We have to be brave warriors, and we have to have those conversations that she tried to spark from the very beginning of her career.” ~ Allyson McCabe, author of “Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters”

The passing of a public figure has never before moved me to tears, but I sobbed when I heard that Sinéad O’Connor had died at the age of 56. I didn’t really know a whole lot about her other than her amazing voice, her mega-hit song, her shaved head, and her appearance on Saturday Night Live in which she tore up a photo of the pope. Still, I had this powerful feeling in my heart that an absolutely incredible human being had died and left a huge void. So, I decided to take a deep dive and find out as much as I could about her, some of which I share below.

In my research, I discovered that from the very beginning of Sinéad’s career up until her final public appearance, this quote from Allyson McCabe was spot on: “Sinéad always spoke out against injustice.” When she was presented with the inaugural award for Classic Irish Album at the RTÉ Choice Music Awards in March of this year, Sinéad said: “I dedicate this to each and every member of Ireland’s refugee community… You’re very welcome in Ireland. I love you very much and I wish you happiness.” Much of the world treats refugees as undesirable problems. Not Sinéad. She knows that they deserve love and happiness – just like every other person on the planet.  See HERE.

And here’s a great example from early in Sinéad’s career in which she not only reveals a horrible injustice (the cause of the great famine in Ireland during the years 1845-1852), but she also offers a brilliant solution on how the Irish people can heal their collective trauma. (Note that the worst year of the period was 1847, known as “Black ’47” – which Sinéad refers to in her absolutely brilliant song). Watch and appreciate this amazing woman:

As a result, some are now calling Sinéad a prophet – and I totally agree. Here’s the best video on YouTube that I found about Sinéad’s life and why she mattered: “A True Prophet”: Why Sinéad O’Connor Risked Her Career to Call Out Catholic Church. The above quote by Allyson McCabe is taken from this video, which is hosted by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Rather than tell you about it, I highly suggest that you watch for yourself.

This video, which includes an interview with Una Mullally, a columnist for the Irish Times in Dublin, is also outstanding: Why Sinéad O’Connor’s Legacy Is Deeper Than Her Music. Una said:

“I think Sinéad O’Connor goes beyond music. As you say, she’s more of a cultural figure. She looms very large in the Irish psyche in terms of her activism, her politics, and her actions. And so, the loss is being felt really profoundly. It’s almost as though it’s a large political figure or even a spiritual figure who’s been lost. So, there have been vigils and gatherings, and people are extraordinarily upset. I don’t think I could really think of another person that this has happened within my lifetime.”

Sinéad’s most famous act of revealing injustice was when she took a mind-blowingly bold stance against child abuse in the Catholic Church on live television. On October 3, 1992, without regard to the impact on her career, she sang a cappella the song “War” (a song by Bob Marley that emphasizes social justice, racial equality, and global peace) live on SNL before millions of TV viewers.

But Sinéad didn’t sing “War” as it was written. Instead, she modified the song’s lyrics to serve as a protest against the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. She replaced mentions of “racism” with “child abuse” and “apartheid” with “in the Church. At the end of the song, Sinéad emphatically sang these lyrics that she added:

Children!
Children!
Fight!
We find it necessary.
We know we will win.
We have confidence in the victory of good over evil.

She then held up a photo of Pope John Paul II, tore it into pieces, and exclaimed: “Fight the real enemy!” (Watch HERE).

It took tremendous courage for Sinéad to do that. And she was widely ridiculed for it – by the press, celebs like Madonna and Joe Pesci, and of course, Catholic Church leaders – including Cardinal Bernard Law who was later exposed as being involved in the cover-up of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Boston (as depicted in the 2015 academy award winning film “Spotlight”). He resigned as Archbishop of Boston in 2002 due to the scandal.

Many members of the Catholic Church were outraged. In New York City, protesters transported a 30-ton steamroller to the Rockefeller Center and then proceeded to pulverize her cassette tapes.

Two weeks after her SNL performance, the audience attempted to boo Sinéad off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. But she stood tall amidst the loud booing for over 2 minutes before finally waving off the musicians, signaling that she no longer was going to sing the Bob Dylan song that she was scheduled to sing.  Instead, she again sang the song “War” a cappella to drive home her message. Watch her incredible bravery HERE. Kris Kristofferson, who introduced and supported Sinéad at the concert with a hug and words of encouragement (“Don’t let the bastards get you down”), gave one of the best tributes to her with the release of his song Sister Sinéad“, which appeared on his 2009 album titled “Closer to the Bone.” Be sure to check it out. Here’s my favorite lyric:

It’s askin’ for trouble to stick out your neck
In terms of a target a big silhouette
But some candles flicker and some candles fade
And some burn as true as my sister Sinéad

History has proven that Sinéad’s criticisms of the church were spot on. Just hours after her death was announced, an American group named Catholics for Choice called her a prophetic heroine “unafraid to demand justice for victims of clerical sexual abuse, challenge patriarchy, and speak truth to power — even when her voice was a lonely one and it cost her dearly to do so.”

Be sure to read this outstanding article about, among other things, how Sinéad’s traumatic real-life experiences led to her courageous stance on the SNL stage and throughout her entire life: “Sinead O’Connor Condemned Church Abuse Early. America Didn’t Listen.”

Do yourself a favor and WATCH THIS absolutely wonderful 2-minute video that was posted in 2017, in which another famous Irish singer, Imelda May, describes the first time she met Sinéad and what an incredibly kind and sensitive soul Sinéad was. Imelda also noted that it was Sinéad’s idea for the two of them to sing a duet together, of which Imelda fondly recalled: “I think that’s probably one of the most heartfelt songs I’ve ever performed with somebody, for sure. The two of us, it’s just magic for me.” So now, you really must watch THIS fabulous duet that Imelda spoke about, titled “Every Night About This Time.”

THIS LIVE PERFORMANCE wonderfully captures the beauty and purity of Sinead’s voice as she sings a capella an incredibly beautiful song that she wrote titled “In This Heart” (which was featured on the hit series “Peaky Blinders” – see HERE). Also, be sure to listen to Sinéad’s most recently published recording HERE. After hearing Sinéad sing this hauntingly beautiful, 90-second theme song for Outlander titled “The Skye Boat Song,” a friend of mine observed: “She conveys so much emotion in her voice. Whatever the message, it’s always more than words if she sings it!”

To get a feeling for just how beloved Sinéad is in her home country, watch this 2-minute video titled “She was fierce in the best sort of way: Dubliners turn out to pay tribute to Sinéad O’Connor“. My favorite quote from the video (in addition to the one in the video’s title) is: “I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much for a stranger, but I think she held bits of generations of this nation in her heart. She was saying things before we could say them.”

Finally, watch THIS touching video clip from Sinéad’s funeral in the Irish town of Bray where thousands of adoring fans flocked to pay their respects. Several residents who had the good fortune to meet her are interviewed.

Thank you, Sinéad, for being a shining beacon of transformation and a heartfelt inspiration to all of us. May your music eternally resonate, uplifting us to stand up and voice our truths against injustice, and celebrate our true selves. This music video, in which you remind us to love ourselves, depicts how I will remember you – a radiant light, overflowing with love, joy, and wisdom:

RIP beautiful soul. I am really glad that you are reunited with your beloved son.

Sinéad O’Connor: A Troubled Soul With Immense Talent and Unbowed Spirit

Written by: Adam Behr, Newcastle University

Few artists have straddled the boundaries between acclaim, controversy and public affection as effectively as Sinéad O’Connor who died yesterday at the age of 56.

Her status as a household name belied a comparatively brief commercial peak in the early 1990s, thanks to her mesmerizing interpretation of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U. But she was never in any danger of being relegated to being a one-hit-wonder.

O’Connor’s life and career were characterized by irregularity and a sense of being at odds with her surroundings. Her childhood was fraught. After her parents separated when she was young, O’Connor lived mostly with her mother, who she claimed was abusive, and involved her in shoplifting and fraudulent charity collecting.

Truancy and crime led to a spell in the Catholic church-run Grianán Training Centre, a harsh rehabilitation centre associated with the infamous Magdalene Laundries. Although traumatic, the center provided her with an entry into music when a teacher asked her to sing at a wedding, which led to encounters with musicians who encouraged her to write lyrics and pursue the guitar.

Adversity infused her music with a punk spirit, an oppositional attitude that was writ large throughout the rest of her career. By the time her mother died in a car crash when O’Connor was 18 years old, the singer was well on her way. She had dropped out of school and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute – with typically spiky attitude – a name derived from a mythical Haitian bogeyman, and also the dictator Papa Doc Duvalier’s feared secret police.

A distinctive template as a singer-songwriter

Having captured the attention of former U2 label boss Fachtna O’Ceallaigh, and collaborated with The Edge on a song for the film Captive, her solo career began in grand style with The Lion and the Cobra in 1987. A gold record in the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands – featuring the Top 40 single Mandinka – it marked out her image and distinctive voice, clear and pure, but never demure.

Her trademark cropped hair and forthright bearing set her apart from prevailing female singer-songwriters. Shunning both overtly sexualized imagery and quirky hippie-chick vibes, O’Connor’s aesthetic was blunt and raw, although the clarity of her voice gave it commercial traction.

This reached a pinnacle on her next album, 1990’s I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got – a multi-platinum worldwide number one that featured her best-known recording, Nothing Compares 2 U which she made completely her own. Propelled by a stark video in unflinching close-up, tears running down her face, it made her an international star. But O’Connor’s predilection for musical exploration, political confrontation and emotional honesty meant that her mainstream career quickly self-combusted.

Despite the success of her early recordings, she took a counter-intuitive turn on her next album, 1992’s Am I Not Your Girl?, which featured lush versions of jazz standards. While her voice was more than up to the task of interpreting the classics she had grown up with, the departure from her previous work saw a critical and commercial step down from the trailblazing success of her previous album. More significantly, she used her promotional activity in America to showcase her status as a protest singer rather than a pop star.

Given the centrality of her personal, and musical, voice to her career, it’s perhaps apt that two of her most notable live performances are both a cappella and confrontational. An appearance on TV show Saturday Night Live in October 1992 saw her drop the planned performances of standards from the album and replace them with a version of Bob Marley’s War. She wanted to re-tool it as a protest against child abuse in the Catholic church, and the cover-up that followed. The change of song was agreed by the show’s producers.

What they hadn’t planned on was for O’Connor to tear up a picture of the Pope at the denouement of the performance. The subsequent furor was swift and intense. O’Connor was vilified in the press, and the NBC network received over 4,000 complaints. Two weeks later, at a star-studded tribute to Bob Dylan, she was booed by the crowd and stopped the band to shout another rendition of War before leaving the stage in tears, comforted by Kris Kristofferson.

Watch Sinéad’s compassionate response when asked: “How were you treated when you said ‘Fight the real enemy’ and you ripped up the picture of the pope? How were you treated after?”:

Unbowed and iconic

Even if her career never quite acquired equilibrium, O’Connor the artist remained unbowed and exploratory. Taking lessons in Italian bel canto singing, her subsequent seven albums tacked across genres – reggae, hip-hop, rock, soul, and folk – placing her voice at the centre of original material and distinctive interpretations of an eclectic range of artists from Curtis Mayfield to Kurt Cobain.

Her later releases were stronger on critical acclaim than commercial clout, and her well-publicized mental health difficulties led to hiatuses in her music. Ever the controversialist, she continued to weigh in on points of principle, such as her critique of Miley Cyrus over the sexualized video for Wrecking Ball, and the subsequent public spat.

Despite these gaps, and the personal tragedies like her son’s suicide in 2022, O’Connor’s fierce adherence to her principles of self-expression saw her win considerable public affection. She was, of course, vindicated over her accusations of abuse in the Catholic church. But her uneven approach to public life – announcements of retirement followed by retractions, a spell as a “priest” followed by her conversion to Islam (she went by the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat from 2019) – did little to dim her appeal in the long term.

Ultimately despite her difficulties, or even because of them, she exemplified what it was to be an icon. Her visual distinctiveness, determination and refusal to meet the mainstream halfway mean that her instantly recognisable voice cut through the shifts and uncertainty of her personal life and public debate. In the end, nothing quite compares to her.

Adam Behr, Senior Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Source: Team Kennedy

Drawing inspiration from his uncle’s (JFK’s) landmark 1963 address at American University, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers a speech of monumental significance. RFK  Jr. talks passionately about how the US must prioritize peace and diplomacy in order to heal the country and establish “not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”

Watch JFK’s absolutely brilliant peace speech:

If you truly want peace in the world, then please share these videos.

NOTE 1: RFK Jr.’s speech begins at 11:30 into the video.

NOTE 2: You can read the transcript and listen to JFK’s 1963 speech HERE.

NOTE 3: Be sure to watch more great videos by Team Kennedy HERE.

I’ve written a lot about the Law of Attraction, you can catch up on some of those blogs here:

LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling, LOA – Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?, LOA – Baby Steps That Snowball! and LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best Life Possible!

A Quick Recap

In this blog I’d like to share some tips on the process of letting go or surrendering your goals/desires/intended manifestations. This is a vital part of the whole manifestation package.

Let’s quickly run through the first four steps:

1. 1. The thought. A desire pops into your head.

1. 1. The asking. You ask for said desire.

1. 1. The action. You take as much inspired action as you can take towards said desire.

1. 1. The feeling. You truly feel into the emotions of having said desire. You live as if you already have it.

Now, the fifth step is surrendering your desire to the Universe. But that’s easier said than done, right? Especially if you’re as impatient as I am. It’s the one step that trips most of us up. And yet it is the most vital piece of the wholesome, fuzzy puzzle.

No Need to Figure Out How

I’ve recently really got my head around the fact that it’s not your job to figure out the “how” of what you’ve asked for. It just isn’t. Our brain doesn’t have the capacity to work it out, it doesn’t have the vision that the higher mind has to get you what you want.

You will strain your backside off trying in vain to figure out how you are going to get said desire.

Stop trying to figure out how your manifestation will come to you.

Just stop.

Not your job. Not within your capacity. Capiche!

Save yourself and your backside a lot of grief and do what IS in your capacity to do…

You can affirm one or all of the following to get you into that good feeling place where you KNOW what you’ve asked for is coming:

1. 1. The Universe is on my side and has my back. I believe I am Divinely supported.
   2. Things always work out much better than I can imagine. I believe in a Divine higher power that has a Divine higher view of how to orchestrate without limitation.
   3. Miracles happen all the time. I believe in Divine intervention beyond what I can conceive.
   4. I’m always exactly where I need to be, exactly when I need to be. I believe in Divine timing and Divine placement.

These affirmations will help you to let go of the anxiety, doubt, impatience, timing and semantics associated with your desire.

Read related article: How to Tame the ‘Monkey Mind’

Try ’em out! Let me know if it works for you in the comment section below. Which affirmation do you like best?  

Written by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Cherie is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician living in the Klein Karoo, South Africa.

Source: Tom Bilyeu

Watch this incredibly awesome video when you’re ready to learn the keys to success. The amazing Tom Bilyeu breaks it all down for you!

Click here to download Tom Bilyeu’s FREE guide to 100x YOUR EFFICIENCY IN 10 EASY STEPS: https://bit.ly/3F8qOJL

RELATED POST: Kobe Bryant: The Mamba Mentality (You’ll Never Look at Life the Same)

Tom Bilyeu:
You can achieve whatever you want in life. You can achieve your biggest, most audacious goals. But you have to start by changing the way you think.

Your job is to seek out, find, and develop the right mindset for success in order to be successful. Success does not happen by accident. Rewiring your brain and the way you think through your failures, your struggles and the obstacles you’re facing on a daily basis is more than possible.

Watch this episode when you’re ready to receive the key to success. Tom breaks down everything from what a growth mindset is to why soothing your ego with your psychological immune system is your biggest hindrance to success.

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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963

“I Have a Dream” is a 17-minute speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Dr. King’s speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, “Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations.”

RELATED POST: MLK Assassination Exposed As Conspiracy Of ‘Governmental Agencies & Others’ In Court Victory

Below is the full transcript of Dr. King’s famous speech:

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [Applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Cynthia Sue Larson

“It is not just an arbitrary idea that the world is good, but it is good because we can experience its goodness. We can experience our world as healthy and straightforward, direct and real, because our basic nature is to go along with the goodness of situations. The human potential for intelligence and dignity is attuned to experiencing the brilliance of the bright blue sky, the freshness of green fields, and the beauty of the trees and mountains. We have an actual connection to reality that can wake us up and make us feel basically, fundamentally good. Shambhala vision is tuning in to our ability to wake ourselves up and recognize that goodness can happen to us. In fact, it is happening already.” – Chogyam Trungpa

I once had a memorable moment several years ago, while teaching students aged 7 to 17 for a summer program at UC Berkeley. I’d explained on the first day that we’d be ending each day’s class with a one-minute meditation. I described meditation’s ability to instill inner peace and clarity for optimal health, well-being, and mental, emotional, and spiritual functioning. Each student could choose whichever type of meditation felt right for them at that time. These meditations could be as simple as focusing on:

1. Something we’re grateful for;
2.  Something we recently learned;
3. Clearing all thoughts like imagining clearing clouds in the sky; or
4. Awareness of breathing as slowly and deeply as possible.

Since these students were enrolled in a special summer program, I thought perhaps some of them had meditated before, yet a show of hands indicated none of the students in this class had meditated previously. My memorable moment occurred when I walked up to the school office the next day, after that first day of class, and was surprised to find one of my 17-year-old students sitting cross-legged on the ground outside the office with head in her hands, looking dejected. She gazed up at me as I approached, and asked, “What was that meditation for clearing our mind, again?” In that moment when our eyes met, I could see that she was in the midst of some heavy emotions, and not on her way to class.

As I realized I might not see her in class again, I sat down next to her, and lead a guided thought-clearing meditation. In thought-clearing meditation, we can observe whatever thoughts and feelings arise, while recognizing that those thoughts and feelings are not who we are. We can view them as if they are clouds in a blue sky, and we can imagine clearing those clouds—letting them go from our mental ‘sky.’

I was grateful to be able to take a few minutes with this young lady, and that we could experience a sense of foundational conscious awareness operating outside of time and space. I was especially grateful to be able to share this moment of practicing the art of meditation in a moment in life where inner peace can be most transformative.

At this time when a recent study published in Jama Pediatrics, reports of children and teens experiencing depression and anxiety have increased over the last five years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that emergency room visits for attempted suicide among teenage girls was up 51.6 percent in the first months of 2021, compared with 2019. These are times when we can be kinder to everyone around us of all ages, with the awareness that our ability to care about and connect with others might make all the difference for someone.

One of the most precious qualities we can develop is resilience—with awareness that no matter what may seem to be happening in any given moment, there exists awareness of intrinsic love and goodness everywhere. We can develop resilience through meditation and prayer, and making time to connect with a sense of unconditional divine love. Thanks to keeping our hearts and minds open to love and divine inspiration, we can be the change we wish to see in the world. From a peaceful, centered emotional state, we are quite likely to experience—and help create—goodness in the world.

One area in life that emotionally triggers people is feeling concerns about money. Knowing that meditation can help is useful, yet sometimes people feel a need for a little extra help feeling inner peace and calm about money. If you are open to seeing money from a different perspective and getting a deeper understanding of the energy of money, I am honored to invite you to a FREE event happening this month, entitled Money is Creative and Divine. I will be one of the featured speakers! Please click HERE to register: Money is Creative and Divine

You’re welcome to explore some truly amazing reality shifts that have been reported over the past twenty plus years and posted at RealityShifters. Any time you’d like to remind yourself of some of the remarkable changes we’ve witnessed, I welcome you to browse through a few issues, and fall more deeply and fully in love with the wonder and magic of life!

Love always,
Cynthia Sue Larson
email Cynthia at cynthia@realityshifters.com

Let’s Connect

P.S. Did you know that I share new experiences, tips, stories, and inspirational ideas at Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube? I look forward to seeing you there!

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps.  Cynthia has a degree in physics from UC Berkeley, an MBA degree, a Doctor of Divinity, and a second degree black belt in Kuk Sool Won. Cynthia is the founder of RealityShifters, and first President of the International Mandela Effect Conference. Cynthia hosts “Living the Quantum Dream” on the DreamVisions7 radio network, and has been featured in numerous shows including Gaia, the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, One World with Deepak Chopra, and BBC. Cynthia reminds us to ask in every situation, “How good can it get?” Subscribe to her free monthly ezine at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N22CvCClrPI
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Source: Story Waters

In this amazing video, Story Waters powerfully describes the meaning of life in 700 words – including your role in creating the reality of your dreams. Partial transcript below including a link to the full transcript.

You are amazing. You are the creation of yourself. You are that which creates. You are the choice to experience existence – beingness. The only limit to what you can be is your self-belief and your imagination. To be born into this reality is to enter a wonderful, shared illusion that grants you complete free-will in the creation of your own personal reality; this is your creatorship. Within the illusion we believe that we are looking at a separate, objective world where we experience self and other; beneath this apparent separation we are unified; we are one.

Reality is a mirror of your being. You are creation exploring itself in a space-time mirror. Through what you choose to believe you create your reality. You change your reality by changing your beliefs about both it and yourself. The eyes with which you look actually shape what you see (this is now shown in quantum physics). Perception is not passive; it is an act of creation. Your choice of perception forms not only how you experience yourself, but your entire reality. Awakening to your creatorship leads your experience of reality to become more fluid and direct. This is to enter conscious creatorship where what you desire is quickly manifest.

The key to conscious creatorship is the allowance of change; the birthing of the unknown into the known. The basis of allowance is acceptance. To change your reality you must first accept it. As long as you reject what you do not like about your reality you are in denial of your creatorship, leaving you feeling stuck. To accept that you are choosing your reality, release attachment to any preconception of how life should be and instead love what is. This comes through the taking of complete responsibility for every element of your reality. This is to love your choice. It is to love yourself. You are the choice of yourself.

READ THE REST OF THE TRANSCRIPT @ STORYWATERS.ORG

Video Source: Cynthia Sue Larson

Hello, this is Cynthia Sue Larson with realityshifters.com. And today, I’d like to talk with you about 10 ways that you can use to shift reality. This has become a big, hot topic just recently. And I’ve been studying reality shifts, as a lot of you know, since the 1990s I’ve been writing about. I wrote the book, “Reality Shifts.” I have a free newsletter every month, still publishing that: Reality, Shifters. It contains lots of tips and ideas and pointers and videos and news and lots of good things.

Let’s get started. Here are 10 things you can do to help make sure that you’re experiencing reality shifts:

1. Pay attention.

My premise is that we’re all shifting reality, but most of us don’t notice it’s happening. It can go undiscerned. So the first step has to do with that. It’s pay attention. What am I talking about? Well anything you look for and pay attention to, you’re likely to see more of. So you want to look to pay attention to see if anything today has appeared, disappeared, transformed, transported or there’s been a change in time to indicate that you’re literally, perhaps some might say, in another world. It sure feels like that to me sometimes. And some of us experience things where it literally is obviously true. So that’s the first step. Start paying attention and be uncritical in the sense that any small change is good because truthfully there’s no difference between a teeny, tiny, little change and everything changing. So, that’s where you start.

2. Be grateful

Step number two. You want to really start appreciating, and what do I mean by that? You want to be grateful for all those little shifts that you are noticing. You want to be grateful for anything good at all that that you’re able to have something to do with what’s going well in your life, even if all you’re doing is just watching an educational video. That’s great! So appreciate that in yourself and be appreciative of others as well. It’s a way to bring more reverence into the world, which is always a good thing

3. Review scientific studies pertaining to the nature of reality

Number three. You want to be able to review scientific studies. What’s that about? Why do you need it? You don’t need it if you’re already there. What I mean by already, there is if you don’t need to calm down that analytical, rational mind that most of us have been trained within the western world and if you already feel like I’m good, I don’t need that. Fine – proceed no further. But if you do need that, that’s when you want to check out things that I’ve written, such as lots of articles that are free on my website, realityshifters.com, there’s a whole article section. And there’s the newsletter. Feel free to partake of that as much as possible, because that’s going to help. What you can start learning with the scientific studies recently, just in the last couple of years.

For example, we’re noticing there may be no such thing as objective reality, because, as I frequently talked about in recent videos, that classic experiment that took place just a few years ago, the results were published in 2019. It had to do with the work at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and also Vienna, Austria. The lead researcher on the team was Caslav Brukner. And basically, they found that two observational devices watching what’s known as that double slit experiment, were able to observe two different things at the same place, same time. Is one of them wrong? No! They’re both accurate; they’re, both correct.

How can this be? Well, it means that we can experience other realities – that “many worlds” is quite literally true. This affects all of our underlying assumptions about classical reality, obviously.

4. Review your assumptions

Step four. You want to start reviewing your assumptions. When you look at what i just mentioned about the assumptions about classical reality, what are those? Things like, it matters all that matters. We know that’s not true. We know that at the quantum scale, the wave function is equally important and in fact, can often contain all the information you need about a given system. If you look at psychology, then it’s not just observables that matter. The things that we tend to live and die for, that we care the most about, are passions, love, and feelings that can never be measured in any way that would satisfy an analytical, classical observer.

Even the identity of who is the observer is totally not as pinned down as a lot of western analytical, classical scientists would have us believe. So, revising the assumptions is excellent. And I get into that in my book, “Reality Shifts,” a lot. And I talk about it all the time on these videos

5. Energize yourself

Step five, you want to energize yourself. How do you do that? This is the important part about taking care of yourself. It’s your mind. It’s your body! It’s your spirit! You need to make sure you eat good food, and good supplements if you’re not eating the right food or you can’t for some reason. Make sure you get enough rest and sleep. Make sure you exercise in a way that works for you. All of these things are very individual to you. So hardly ever is there a one-size-fits-all about these things. And then, of course, energizing yourself includes meditation, Qigong. If you do a martial art that has an internal component, make sure you do the breathing and the movements that go with them.

6. Reverse negative self-talk

Step six, you want to reverse negative self-talk, and i get into this in my book, “Reality Shifts,” where I talk about how often we collapse the wave function, if you will. We basically select realities based on what we’re obsessed with. Sometimes, unfortunately, what we’re obsessed with is what we’re afraid of. So that’s how you can often see people bring exactly what they most fear into their lives, usually quite inadvertently. And it’s most unfortunate when it happens. But we don’t want to be doing that. How do you just stop yourself from doing that? Like I said, you can’t actually reverse that negative self-talk.

There’s an idea in mathematics, you may have seen it: constructive interference. It’s like building a mountain. So you’re, building, building, building something up. You feel it when you’re surrounded by friends who are all in favor of whatever it is you’d like to reality shift and experience. That’s your inner circle of supportive friends that are totally behind you no matter what.

You can also feel the absence of that or the collapse of that – where you’ve got destructive interference. That’s like the mountain is caving in right in the center. That would be where somebody has popped your bubble. They’re basically saying wet blanket, negative things about your dreams, putting it down, putting you down somehow. Or just saying that sort of thing is impossible. So that’s what I mean.

What can you do about it? You can create very targeted, specific affirmations by reversing the exact sort of negative ideas as if it’s some sort of a virus. You’re creating antibodies that then fight that virus because these are thought constructs they have a life of their own sometimes. So you want to actively target the ones that need help. If you can’t think of what they are go, ahead and just keep asking: how good can I get? How good can my life get? That’s going to be very positive and eventually, you’ll get to the same place.

7. Feel non-locally connected

Number seven. This is where you want to feel non-locally connected. How do you do that? Well, connecting with me through this video is fantastic. You’re doing it right here because I can feel that you’re there. I know, maybe you feel like you’re alone. Maybe you feel like people don’t believe in this, but I do. I’ve been studying it for over 20 years now.

I look into physics, current physics experiments, to see what kind of evidence we have to support what I’m already experiencing pretty much every day to show what is going on here. So that non-locally interconnected feeling is very powerful. You can also feel it if you believe in angels and you feel like I’ve got support. I can feel it. Yes, you do, absolutely you do. We’re all born with that support, and you have it right now. So feeling that community, finding community – the internet is wonderful for that possibility. It can give you that.

8. Visualize what you desire

And number eight, visualize what you desire. If you’re going to visualize what you’re desiring, hopefully, at this point, you’ve cleaned out the negative interference. And you’re focusing totally on what you most wish to have happen. I like to leave it open for nature to participate, for you to participate. I might not have thought of everything you’re thinking of. So, why do I ask how good can it get instead of being very specific all the time, because I know that I’m not alone. I know that you’re working with me and that’s something. That’s amazing when we notice a Mandela effect and we see changes to huge amounts of people, like eight billion people around the world, noticing physiological changes that in some ways are improvements to our physical body that have never been there before. So, it’s very powerful.

9. Let go

Number nine. So now we’re getting in the home stretch. There is going to be ten of these, so number nine is really: letting go. You might think, but you just told me to focus. Yes, I did. You do that for just a moment. You hold it with a beautiful love, maybe seven seconds, 20 seconds, maybe a couple of minutes. But you don’t want to grab onto it and hang on to it because you want to allow. It’s like planting a seed. You want it to grow. You want it to come to you, you want yourself to come to it. You want to leave that degree of freedom open. So you can drift into a meditative state, get into that drifty state of mind where you can suddenly realize that reality was right next to me, and now I’m in it. I’m here and it happens very quickly. But in order for it to happen quickly, you’ve got to let go. It’s just like when sometimes people say make a wish and then blow the candles. It’s you just let it go. You don’t hang on to that wish. That exhalation is very much a key to that whole process.

And number ten, choose your attitude. I recommend going for the highest level of vibrational attitude you can access.

So if today it’s just feeling like things are okay.k Good. That’s a good start. If you can feel like things are okay, but I have got this feeling like they’re getting better, I feel like I’ve got connections, I feel a sense of love, that’s fantastic! And if you feel grateful for things that are going well for you or people that you love, let people know, let the world know – really share that joy, that gratitude. And if you can get to, for me, the highest state is reverence and awe, where I’m just feeling like there’s so much love, so much amazing possibility here, just in nature, and we’re all part of it And I’m so excited to be able to share that – in my work with you, in my life, then that’s phenomenal.

So wherever you are, just own it. So kind of go to where you naturally are, whatever that level is, you can have an eye looking up like okay, I’d love to get to joy. Wouldn’t that be great? Yes, it is great. So I just kind of recognize, I’m asking for it every day, I’m asking how good can it get? And even if it seems like it’s just an okay day or even worse than that, just ask it anyway? How good can it get?

So until next time, this is Cynthia Sue Larson with realityshifters.com asking you to join me every day in asking: How good can it get?

Take care and much love!

Cynthia

Below are 17 incredibly beautiful songs (plus 4 bonus songs) that are guaranteed to raise your vibration and put a smile on your face. I’ve listened to each of these amazing songs many, many times, and I return to them whenever I need a vibrational boost.

1. “You Raise Me Up” | Josh Groban with the African Children’s Choir

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2. “What a Wonderful World” | Okaïdi & Playing for Change

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3. “Canto Della Terra” (Earth’s Song) | Sarah Brightman with Alessandro Safina

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4. “When You Believe” | Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey

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5. “Somewhere over the Rainbow” | Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole

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6. “Celebration” (Kool and The Gang) | Playing For Change

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7. “Shower The People” | James Taylor

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8. “Peace Train” | Playing For Change with Yusuf / Cat Stevens

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9. “Annie’s Song” | John Denver

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10. “Bridge over Troubled Water” | Simon and Garfunkel

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11. “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” | Yusuf / Cat Stevens

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12. “Don’t Worry Be Happy” | Playing For Change

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13. “Peace” | Ajeet Kaur

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14. “United” | Playing For Change

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15. “Imagine” | Julian Lennon with Nuno Bettencourt

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16. “Lokah Samasta” | Deva Premal & Miten with Manose

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17. “Song for a Pure Heart” | Mei-lan Maurits

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Bonus Songs

18. “Give a Little Love” | Noah and the Whale

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19. “Dream Of The Blue Whale” | Anders Holte

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20. “All You Need Is Love” | The Beatles

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21. “It’s In Every One of Us” | David Pomeranz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWN2Q25efHA

Source: Science of MIND

Dr. Joe Dispenza explains his process for manifestation by connecting to the emotions of your future already manifested.

TRANSCRIPT
Imagine being so whole that you no longer want anything. We’ve measured this. Imagine feeling so connected to the emotions of your future. You’ve conditioned your brain and body into that state.

If you feel like your future, has already happened, you wouldn’t be separate from it. In fact, you wouldn’t even be looking for it. Why would you look for it if it felt like it already happened? That’s when the magic happens. That’s when you move closer and closer into the present moment.

And if that singularity point, that source energy, that the all-in-all, the universal mind, whatever you want to call it: pure love. As you move closer to it, then the process of creation, the process of healing, the process of having a mystical moment would be an arousal also, but the arousal wouldn’t be fear. The arousal wouldn’t be pain, the arousal wouldn’t be aggression or anger.

The arousal is actually ecstasy and we’ve actually caught this on so many brain scans that if you’re in that state, why would you want to leave the moment? That’s you moving closer to the source. And when that happens, you experience oneness. And oneness is when your consciousness actually merges with the consciousness of the all-in-all, and that should be an arousal, and that should be an awakening.

And the amount of energy that we capture in the brain when this occurs, the amount of information being exchanged between the brain and the heart is way, way, way outside of normal.

So getting to the sweet spot of the generous present moment takes quite a bit of awareness and energy because most people wake up in the morning and their brain is a record of the past. They start thinking of their problems. Those problems are associated to people that they know, things that they have to do, and places they have to go at certain times.

And if you believe that your thoughts have something to do with your destiny and if you’re waking up in the morning and you’re recalling your past, then you’re thinking in the past. Those are memories that are etched in the brain.

Now, every one of those problems has an emotion associated with them. So the moment the person feels unhappy or feels desperate or feels fear, now their body’s in the past, because thoughts of the vocabulary of the brain and feelings of the vocabulary of our bodies. And how we think and how we feel creates our state of being. So, a thought and a feeling, an image and an emotion, a stimulus and response and you’re conditioning the body subconsciously to being in the past.

And when we live by familiar emotions, the body’s so objective that it’s it’s believing that it’s living in that same past experience that created that problem. It doesn’t know the difference.

And if the environment signals the gene, and the end product of an experience in the environment is an emotion, we’re signaling the gene without the environment. And if those stress hormones dysregulate or downregulate genes and create disease, now you’re headed for a genetic future, right?

But then people get up after they get caught up in the way they feel and reaffirm their identity, then they get up and do a series of routine automatic behaviors that they’ve done the day before. And we could take their yesterday, 90 percent of their day looks a lot like their tomorrow. And they become habituated into a predictable future. And if the familiar past is the known, and the predictable future is the known, and that person’s lost their free will to a set of programs.

But there’s no unseen hand doing it to them. There’s no room for anything new to happen in their life. Then, if the familiar past is the known, and the predictable future is known, then there’s only one place where the unknown exists. And that’s the sweet spot of that generous present moment.

And people do meditations, Kelly, and they say, Oh, I can’t meditate. You know they go, Oh my mind’s all over the place. Oh, I got to get up. I got to check my emails, I’ve got things to do. I got a baby. I got kids. I got a job. And, they buy into the thought that they can’t meditate, or it’s too hard, or something’s wrong with them. I need a brain scan. Whatever. And really that’s just the thought that’s causing them to stay in the known.

On the other side of that thought is freedom. And when a person is saying – oh, my god, it’s eight o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting meditating. This is normally when I get in traffic and I throw a tantrum. The body’s used to that. Don’t you think that at eight o’clock in the morning the body’s going to be looking for that arousal, and if you’re not getting it from your outer environment, it’ll call up a memory so that you can feel that emotion.

And if you catch yourself doing that and you settle the body back down into the present moment, that’s the moment, you’re telling the body it’s no longer the mind – that you’re the mind. And that’s a victory, and there’s a liberation of energy that happens where we’re settling the body down from its animal nature. And then it says I gotta get up. I gotta check my phone, I gotta do this, I gotta go there. And you catch yourself doing that, and you settle your body back into the present moment. Now, you’re executing a will that’s greater than the program, and that’s a victory as well.

And it turns out, if you just give people enough time to sit with themselves. We’ve done this in 30 week-long retreats: a person that has to disentangle from the hard-wired thoughts, from you know the habituated actions and the emotional conditioning that keeps him in the past. And, if you can pay attention to those thoughts, if you can notice how you’re feeling and acting, you’re no longer unconscious. Now you’re, conscious, and you’re outside the program.

And it’s the act of doing this that causes us to disentangle. And it takes energy and it takes constant awareness. And you could be a vegetarian, you could be young, you could be old, you could be gluten-free, you could be wealthy, you could be poor, you could be white, you could be black, you could be yellow, you could be anybody you want, you could be whoever you want.

Everybody, once they learn how to do this, when they can settle into the present moment, the unknown – and nothing dangerous or bad happens – it provokes adventure, it provokes novelty, it provokes the craving for a new experience, a new possibility. And that’s where all possibilities exist in that in that eternal now.

And that’s when you go from the realm of space-time (you know space-time the three-dimensional reality where there’s an infinite amount of space and we experience time moving through it) to this realm called time-space where there’s an infinite amount of time. If time is eternal, you get a lot of things done. There are not a lot of possibilities equal to your imagination.

Now, when people finally can settle into the unknown – without a name, without a face, without a social security number, without a budget, without a profession, without kids – and just be aware of themselves, aware of nothing that has anything to do with the known physical material world. And they create from nothing that’s when something begins to appear because nothing is the fundamental ground for everything physical and three-dimensional.

So teaching people how to do that, to get to that present moment, is the art. And once people actually can get there, they actually no longer really want anything. All the things they thought they want, they no longer want because i feel like they have them. And i would say that’s a really good place to be.

So a person does a great meditation. This is all of us. You get locked in your heart. Your brain is opened up. Your mind’s expanded. You’re seeing that future, you’re embracing it emotionally. And then you got to now practice with your eyes open. Now you got to be able to maintain that modified state of mind and body your entire day. And if you can, get ready: weird things are going to happen in your life.

But if you say: God, I’m so upset. And you disconnect from the energy of your future and your response is producing emotions and energy of the past, and thoughts related to past memories, don’t expect anything in your life to change.

And if you said to me: well, it’s that person or that circumstance, I’d, say: Uh oh, we’re back to the unconscious program of being a victim -that the outer world is controlling the way we think and feel. Maybe it’s how we think and feel. Change the way we think and feel, we produce an outcome in our outer life. So, the responses in the stress, hormones, causing us to feel more like matter and less like energy, we’re going to feel more separation. And so then the desperation of separation means now it’s got to happen out there to make this go away.

ABOUT DR. JOE DISPENZA

Dr Joe Dispenza is an international lecturer, researcher, corporate consultant, author, and educator who has been invited to speak in more than 33 countries on six continents. As a lecturer and educator, he is driven by the conviction that each of us has the potential for greatness and unlimited abilities. In his easy-to-understand, encouraging, and compassionate style, he has educated thousands of people, detailing how they can rewire their brains and recondition their bodies to make lasting changes.

“Dr. Joe Dispenza is a doctor, a scientist, and a modern-day mystic. . . . In a style that is simple, straightforward, and easy to understand, [he] has woven into a single volume the paradigm-altering discoveries of quantum science and the deep teachings that adepts of the past dedicated their entire lifetimes to master.”

Source: Playing For Change

Peace Train” – Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ timeless anthem of hope and unity – was originally released on the classic album ‘Teaser and the Firecat’ in 1971 and was Stevens’ first US Top 10 hit, reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

This Song Around The World version features more than 25 musicians from 12 countries and unites Yusuf / Cat Stevens, singing and playing a beautiful white piano in a tranquil open air setting in Istanbul, Turkey, with musicians such as five time Grammy Award winning blues/americana artist Keb’ Mo’; Grammy nominated Senegalese artist Baaba Maal; Silkroad’s Rhiannon Giddens—also a Grammy Award winner; Ghassan Birumi playing the oud in Ramallah, Palestine; musicians from the Silkroad Ensemble in Rhinebeck, New York; Pat Simmons (The Doobie Brothers) and James “Hutch” Hutchinson (bass player with Bonnie Raitt) performing in Maui, Hawaii; and bringing together conflict regions with Tushar Lall playing the harmonium in Delhi, India, and Joshua Amjad playing the Kartaal in Karachi, Pakistan.

“Peace Train” Lyrics by Yusuf / Cat Stevens

Now I’ve been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun

Oh, I’ve been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be
Someday it’s going to come

‘Cause I’m on the edge of darkness
There ride the Peace Train
Oh, Peace Train take this country
Come take me home again

Now I’ve been smiling lately,
Thinkin’ about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train
Yes, Peace Train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the Peace Train
Come on now, Peace Train

Get your bags together,
Go bring your good friends, too
‘Cause it’s getting nearer,
It soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
It’s not so far from you
And it’s getting nearer,
Soon it will all be true

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train
Peace Train

Now I’ve been crying lately,
Thinkin’ about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
Why can’t we live in bliss

‘Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a Peace Train
Oh Peace Train take this country,
Come take me home again

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now, Peace Train
Yes, Peace Train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the Peace Train
Come on, come on, come on
Yes, come on, peace train
Yes, it’s the peace train

Come on now, peace train
Oh, peace train

Source: A Touch of Gentleness

TRANSCRIPT

Can you imagine a world where strangers stop to smile at each other, take time to sit and talk, to rest, and reach out and comfort one another? Where there is a sense of safety, you, and plenty for all? A world where there is no concept of loneliness? Where fear between people has no meaning. Where you can travel and learn from each other’s cultures? Where all people live with gentleness in peace. I can too. Because it’s happening.

As you know though, it wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the world was fractured and hurting. Filled with much anxiety, loneliness, depression, and greed. Stress was the number one ailment and fear a constant companion. Countries were at war. Strangers were dangerous. And your home was a place with four walls. Not a family or community or place inside yourself of peace and love.

That is until one day, little by little the change began with a group of people who came together to form a small community. Learning to embrace, embody and live in the wise spirit of gentleness they began to make contact, connect and deeply listen to one another.

Over time this once small community of people grew and spread, like lanterns of gentleness across the land their soft, bright, light rippled out and touched the world.

And as this gentleness spread so fear dissolved. Resistance softened, and people’s hearts were opened. Feelings of safety, acceptance, belonging, and love filled us up – until eventually gentle respect and tender love for all people, all species, and our earth itself became a part of our biology, our DNA and our evolution.

And it is true to say that some of this medicine did begin with ‘A Touch of Gentleness.’

By Charles Eisenstein

I want to share with you a powerful 37-minute film that Ben Stewart made from an interview we recorded last summer. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen such an effective treatment of what would otherwise be another talking head monologue. Just wow. Thank you Ben!

Watching it, I had the odd experience of learning from my own words. That’s because what I’m speaking to in the collective exists in me too. They are the issues I’ve been wrestling with my whole life. So, I’m not some expert or guru who’s got it all figured out; on the contrary, sometimes it seems to me that the reason I’m so insistent on speaking is that I, more than anyone, need to hear what I say. The danger for me is that I say it and say it, keeping it on the outside, directing it toward others, but never letting it in. The music and images of this film opened a gateway for the words to come into me. I know they will do the same for many of you.

We decided to release it without ads or paywalls or digital rights management of any sort. That’s a big leap of faith for an aspiring filmmaker like Ben. If you’d like to support our work and future collaboration, you may do so here.

TRANSCRIPT

Charles Eisenstein: Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do: when I’m speaking to Ben Stewart as an avatar of humanity, I will look at Ben Stewart. And when I’m feeling like a direct connection with some other presence, I’m going to look at the camera. Yeah.

Ben Stewart: It’s not too often in a lifetime that we find somebody who speaks so well to the heart of the matter, that we feel like there may just be a simple answer to the complex problem of human existence. What you are about to hear is an early morning moment in time with Charles Eisenstein on the gift of life and the artist within us all. So, sit back, relax, still the mind, open the heart, and listen carefully.

Charles Eisenstein: Yeah, I can say a little bit about how I got here. And it’s not really a path that makes me special because probably you’ll recognize, you’ll feel like a familiarity to that. But it started with an intuition that normal, s I’ve been offered it, and life, as I had been offered it, and reality, as I had been offered it – wasn’t quite right – a sense of a wrongness in the world. And therefore a hesitancy or a reluctance to fully participate in life.

Different people express that reluctance in different ways; some by lashing out and acting up, some through depression and withdrawal, some through self-sabotage, or it could be laziness, procrastination, getting drunk, getting fucked up – like different ways of diverting, some of your life energy away from the program.

So my journey really was a quest, a quest, which is something that’s based on a question. What is the wrongness in the world? What is going on here? Why do I feel alien to this place? Because life is such a gift. Why am I reluctant to fully step into the gift of life?

And that led me to unearth the underpinnings, I mean, what I understood as the underpinnings of our civilization – like the answer to that question goes that deep. It goes to the depth of everything. On one level, and I don’t want to be like, you know, a downer here, but on the level of everything is wrong. The way our society does it from birth – literally, you know, hospital birthing, etc – to death. Our attitudes towards death and the way that we die in this society, like everything is wrong: education, medicine, money, economics politics technology. Everything about the way we live.

Then, the next step of that in my journey was okay, well, it’s not that it’s wrong, but it is a state of being, a collective and individual state of being that is ready to transition to something else. What is this something else? Who are we and what is the world? What new stories can we tell ourselves about who we are, and what is, and how to live, and where we came from, and where we’re going, and what the purpose of a human being is, and what a self is, and what’s a man, and what’s a woman? And how do you do this thing called life? What’s a new story that can make sense of a world that is disintegrating into senselessness as we speak. That’s the container of my thought.

I like to use the term, the old story, the story of separation – the story that says that who you are is a separate individual, a skin encapsulated ego, a soul encased in flesh in a world of other. In that story, your purpose here is to make a place in the world to survive, reproduce, maximize your self-interest, contend with all of the other separate selves out there who are trying to do the same. Out-compete them, establish dominance, insulate yourself from hostile or at least indifferent natural forces, and take what you need and what you want from the world. Because why not?

The story that I have been integrating into my being, and I can’t say that I’m like, you know and especially impressive example of it, but this is my my path. And I’m sure many people will write will resonate with. It is understanding that my purpose here actually is not to maximize my safety, security, wealth, or self-interest. My purpose here, and the reason that I am on Earth and in this cosmos is that I carry gifts that I yearn to express, to give to the world, just like every species, just like, every being. Like there’s no species in an ecosystem that only takes and degrades the ecosystem. Every species actually contributes to the aliveness of the collective. They contribute to life and beauty – the unfolding of life and beauty.

We’re the same, whether as a species, I mean, it doesn’t look like that right now and that we are a gift to life and beauty on Earth. Does it? But that is what a mature species becomes. And part of the transition that we are in right now is simply the maturation of the human species. And it’s true on the individual level as well, which is why you could make, you know, a hundred million dollars, but if you’re not using that to make the world more alive and more beautiful, you’re going to feel I wasn’t put here on Earth for this. You’re going to feel when do I get to live my life and not the life I’m being bribed to live? So, this is the orientation – the orientation of understanding yourself as gift.

And then that orientation, it inspires you and this is what I’m working on, right? It’s like in every situation to ask: What is mine to do? What is mine to give? And that doesn’t mean self-sacrifice, because it’s also a recognition of the giftingness or the generosity of the world too –  like to receive fully all of the gifts that then enable me to give forward. But it’s the orientation of gift, understanding myself as an agent of the of the continued coming alive and coming into beauty of the world.

If you look at Natural History, it’s a history of the world coming more and more alive. Four billion years ago, the world was not alive yet. And then there were bacteria and they became more and more complex and more and more interconnected and then they were multicellular organisms. And then the plants came and colonized the land because the land was dead up until, you know, half a billion years ago. But then the plants came and colonized the land and the insects and the land came alive too. And then the flowering plants came and it made it even more alive, and more beautiful. And now we’ve been created as a species, same reason. As long as we’re tapped into that – tapped into that story of what is humanity for? Because the old story says we’re here to transcend nature. We’re here to conquer nature.

That’s not actually why we’re here. So the more that we’re tapped into the story of we’re here to contribute to the aliveness of the cosmos, then life has meaning, Then you know why you’re here. You know how to orient, how to navigate life. There’s a North star to follow. So, that’s one way that story tells us how to live. It tells us who we are and why we’re here.

And I’ll also say that it’s not just a narration – that the story is part of a larger state of being. There’s a like separation, competition, conquest, domination. That’s not just an intellectual concept. It’s a state of being. And when you’re in that state of being, the ideology of that, state of being is seems natural. Yeah, of course the world is like this. Of course, it’s us versus them. Of course, it’s me versus you. Son, you got to get out there and you know, don’t let anyone take advantage of you and make sure that you’re right like that. It just seems natural from a certain state of being that civilization has occupied for centuries now. And that Is becoming obsolete. Our Consciousness and our being is moving past that but we’re still stuck in the systems that grew up around separation.

Anyone who’s ever been in a situation that didn’t call on their gifts or didn’t value their gifts, you feel confined. You know, you feel maybe resigned, maybe cynical. A lot of people are feeling cynical today. Cynicism is a withdrawal from the world. So we can feel the truth of this. Teenagers especially know it. They are possessed with idealism. They’ll never sell out. You know? They want to do something magnificent in the world. They have a great expectation of who they are supposed to be. So what happens? Powerful forces coordinate to crush that native understanding, powerful programming starting in childhood.

So what’s necessary is healing on every level, deprogramming from self-conquest, from the insult to our divine nature that we are taught. That we are anything less than that – than a gift to the world. That misbelief often accompanies trauma. In fact, maybe always accompanies trauma. Sometimes it’s the explicit, obvious visible, trauma of abuse and neglect, violation. But it could also be the normalized trauma of, you know, being cast into a classroom where you don’t know anybody, and where you’re confined indoors when it’s a beautiful day and you’re supposed to be exploring the kingdom of childhood.

It could be the normalized trauma of having your relationships cut off repeatedly when you’re trying to bond. And you’re moved from one daycare to another to another, and then first grade, and then second grade. And then your friends move away and you move away. And like the ties that are supposed to contribute to a full self never form. They’re broken again and again until you get used to it and you decide well, I’m not going to really make those ties. And I’m alone.

You can see how every aspect of the way that modern humans live contributes to this destruction of our innate knowing of who we are and why we’re here. So it’s a matter of of healing, and I would say in this moment, your willingness to heal. Because the healing is available. And if you find the part in yourself that is ready and has been asking in a quiet voice for a very long time for healing, and you just give that little part of yourself full attention and full welcome – as if you were holding a child, a baby. That alone will set a process in motion because you’re validating it. You’re saying yes, this is sacred. I hold you, sacred. Miracles will unfold from that.

Let’s affirm that everybody is an artist, serving life and beauty on Earth. That’s what an artist does. And if you’re in those moments when you are a true artist, that means that you hold that sacred above all else. It’s state of devotion. Whereas, if you hold making money or pleasing the client, or pleasing the art critics or something like that, above all else, then you’re no longer an artist. It’s called a sellout. An artist does things more beautifully than they need to be done for any external reason because you are in service to that which wants to be born. So that state of devotion, it says, whenever I am given as my raw materials, not just like physical materials, but the entire situation of my life, I will make as much good and Beauty out of that as I can.

And like you were saying like you face a rock climbing wall. You’re not like, oh, man, I’m not going to climb very fast because of all these difficulties, you know, like art actually requires limitation. Just because like say you’re writing a sonnet, you know, like you’re not going to say, well, I can’t really do very good job because this line has to rhyme with that line and so forth. Like no, like you take that structure and you fulfill the potential within it. You’re bringing beauty to every corner of the world. And we have to trust that we are perfectly placed in the precise corner of world that demands the unique set of gifts that we have…

That’s one way that you could say that we’re a gift. We ourselves are artistic implements by, you know, a divine artist. And to participate in that process of creation then, we simply orient toward what is mine to do in this situation. How can I express my devotion to love, to beauty in this particular situation? Knowing that every situation is practice for every other situation. It’s part of of inducing a state of being. So it might be something as simple as how you wash your dishes, how you make your bed, how you speak to your child.

Even in those moments that seem like a distraction from your mission. It’s like, oh man, you know, here, I am, you know, cooped up all day with my two-year-old. And I could be out there doing big things in the world. No! Actually the way that you are with your two-year-old sets a template for the way you will do everything else. In other words, it says, it declares here is who I am, here is how I will do it. Every act is a prayer.

Our function as an artist is like how do I make good of this? How do I make beauty of this? It is a fulfillment of who we are that expands to fill up every corner of our lives.

What I’ve been saying could be interpreted as, oh my God, here’s this like impossible standard to be in a state of devotion 24 hours a day, in every single aspect of my life. I can’t measure up to that. It’s more like as I say these things, something will come to you that is available as some part of your life where you’re ready to step more deeply into devotion and you haven’t been doing it. But you’re ready to do it and there it is, and it’s right in your face. It’s the next step. It’s the step that you’ve just come ready to do. And as you do that, as you step into devotion in that one aspect of your life, and it might be something close to home, but it might be something out in the world. You know, it might be that you’re going to, you have some role to play in public discourse, you know, in politics, and something like that, but it could also be something very, very private. Whatever. It is, you recognize that.

So it’s the same orientation that solidifies our home and relational life, that also makes us into courageous actors in the social realm. It’s the same thing. So, I don’t know what that is for you, or you, or you. All I know is that you can recognize it. It may not be comfortable, but you’ll recognize it. The patterns are largely unconscious and that they are so deep, so subtle that they will not be revealed in their totality, and you’ll be able to cast them aside. It’s more like each step that you take, that natural next step into devotion, into service, it’ll do two things.

One, it will give you a level of joy, and solidity, and satisfaction that you had not experienced before except in temporary glimpses. Like you can get transported to that state through many kinds of experiences. But you can’t stay in that state without practice. You will know that you are on the right path because you will receive benefits. You will have more ease and joy, connection, fulfillment, satisfaction in your life. And maybe you’ve seen it before but now it’s real.

The second thing that will happen is that it will reveal even more – things that you hadn’t even imagined before. So this insidious programming, the subtle programming, it’s revealed like peeling, an onion. You know, you peel one layer, then the next layer is revealed, and the next and the next And there maybe even, like the general trend will be toward more and more joy and fulfillment,

But there can also and will also be dark nights of the soul that are exceptions to that to that trend, because it can be really painful to see the new thing come up and to see the magnitude of your folly, the magnitude of your delusion that you thought that you were helping the world. You thought that you were in service, but actually, the whole time you were just trying to get Dad’s approval, you were just trying to look good. And that can be really painful and, and totalizing. And really hard to see that that pain is the process of extracting these programs.

The forces that are arrayed against change to lock in the status quo, there’s no rational way to overthrow those forces. As long as we buy into the old story account of how change happens, which is force versus force and the bigger force winds. You know, whoever pulls harder on the tug-of-war pulls, the prize to their side. Whoever has the most power, the most military force, the most money. They’re the winners, and you’re the losers. As long as you buy into force versus force, the situation on Earth is utterly hopeless and resignation actually is a good step. Paralysis is a good step, because it says I’m not going to try the impossible anymore the way that I’ve been doing it. I’m not going to try to, to outbox, Mike Tyson. You know, I’m not going to try to, Im dating myself here, I’m not going to try to outwrestle Andre the Giant, right?

There’s another way. And to reach that other way requires what’s called burnout, what’s called paralysis, maybe even depression, despondency, resignation as you put it. And there’s something on the other side of that. There is a matrix of causality that does not operate by force that you can tap into when you are in a state of devotion and surrender. That’s when miracles happen. That’s when like, in order to live in that reality where, you know, exactly where to be and when to be there where you are riding waves of synchronicity. In order to be in that reality, you’ve got to stop controlling things. Because when you try to control reality, you are actually putting yourself in a reality that works by control. And you have no access to the power of synchronicity, the power of being at the right place at the right time with the right person, the power of, you know, these spontaneous miracles.

This bardo, this in-between state of the resignation of the paralysis,  you and I don’t know how long it needs to last for any given person. When that state has ripened, they will be receptive to the ingredient that you’re speaking of. Their receptivity will magnetize that ingredient to them. That ingredient might be you coming with the right message and the right example at the right time. It might not be any words you say to them. But it might be that they witness your devotion. And that your devotion is so obvious that they can’t explain it away through their cynicism. Maybe they witness your generosity or the generosity of somebody that that doesn’t fit into what they thought was real, doesn’t fit into their resignation that yeah, this world is just shitty people, etc., etc. And there’s no hope.

The intervention, that other ingredient could take the form of a psychedelic medicine that shows them directly that their worldview of despair is missing some important information. So yes, there is another ingredient. But if I’m speaking to somebody in this state of despair, cynicism, paralysis, and resignation, this extra ingredient is not something that you have to accomplish. The extra ingredient is not an accomplishment. And the only thing that you can do in that state, at this moment, is to recognize that you still secretly have hope. And to feel the truth of what I say right now, which is that that other ingredient will come to you. And simply being in that truth also sets a process in motion. And you can feel it right now.

You’re not alone here. This territory exists for a reason. There’s nothing that’s not love.

So the state that we’ve been talking about of resignation, despair, and so forth, that’s an intense, distilled version of the state that most people are in most of the time. There’s a tinge of resignation. There’s a tinge of despair, even when it might be temporarily overridden by excitement or addictive energy. You know, like something’s going well. You know, the future is so bright I gotta wear shades. Like things are going great, you know, temporarily. I’m on a high. I’m on a roll, but underneath that there’s a despair that we take for granted as normal in this society. And there’s a philosophical foundation of that despair. It’s inherent in believing that you are a separate self in a world of other, because you’re alien.

This confinement into a small ghetto of reality is a pervasive, almost universal state in modern society. And certain people who are sensitive and in a certain stage of their evolution are going to experience it in intense form – not as misfits and exceptions to the rule, but as exemplars of the rule. They are almost channeling a generalized state of being. So therefore what I’m saying is not specific just to those who are in an intense depression.

So this intervention, this other ingredient we were talking about, it could be a psychedelic or something that’s called in from the outside, in response to our readiness and to our need, that is one of the ingredients. It shows you that there’s a there there. It confirms the secret hope that I was talking about. And it sets you on a path.

However, there’s another ingredient beyond that, which I was talking about earlier. And many people have had this experience, you have this epiphany. Finally, you get the epiphany. And you like this changes, everything. And I’ve got to live by this. I got to remember. I can’t forget it. I can’t forget it. I’ve got to hold on to this. And you eventually find out that you can’t hold on to it. What was once an obvious direct experience becomes a practice, a principle. Then it becomes a memory and then it fades. And you’re like, was I imagining things? Maybe I was just high, You know, maybe I was just whatever – like that wasn’t real.

How do you hold onto a reality that contradicts the reality that everybody is holding for you and holding you in? And not just people, but, but like the economic system. I mean you might have an epiphany about abundance, but our money system, our economic system, shouts scarcity at us every minute of the day. You will not have enough, better take care of yourself, better protect yourself, better watch out. And not just money, the police system, the prison system, all these rules, and walls, and no trespassing. I mean the whole society is built around separation, competition, distrust.

So, how do you hold that epiphany? If you have gone through this cycle, it’s not because you’re too weak and you didn’t try hard enough. That’s not to say not to try. Yes, try. Hold that as precious, everything that comes from your accurate knowledge that that is precious is a good thing.

But the third ingredient is that we need help. We need other people to hold it with us, to hold it for us, and with us. And for us to hold it for them also. That is the community that we’re seeking. There’s a lot of research about how community alleviates depression, how people are happier when they have robust social ties. And are unhappier and sicker, actually, when they’re cut off from human connection, which is the irony of current health policy: seeking health by cutting us off from each other. Social distancing, lockdown, quarantine, stay away from me. That’s not actually where health, mental or physical, comes from in the long run.

So the intense need for community has intensified in the last year as we speak. But it’s not only like this animal, biological, social community that we need. It’s also a spiritual community. If we were trying to move into another story, another reality, another self, the self is not a separate. We are relationship. You need to be in relationship to others who also understand this.

Really the essence of community is communication. So sharing material like this is a filament of community. It’s no substitute for hugs and eye-to-eye conversations with somebody who loves you. But it’s something, it’s part of the mix. It’s part of the larger community. It’s part of the ways that we’re holding each other. That we know that we’re here for each other, that we’re not alone.

So, it is okay to trust your attraction to information and to people who validate what you secretly know. Like when you say that rings true, is it that it confirms what you already believe? Or does it make your spine tingle? Is it sometimes even arresting, humbling.

Ben Stewart: It reminds me of when I was in the band and there needn’t be any, like, explanation as to why something felt right when we were all in harmony, feeling the same thing. It felt bigger than us, and it felt effortless.

Charles Eisenstein: The Grateful Dead said it: And the music played the band. That pretty much says it all.

Ben Stewart: Thank you, Charles.

Charles Eisenstein: Yeah, thank you, Ben.

SOURCE: Evan Carmichael

Watch this fabulous compilation of Dr. Andrew Huberman’s awesome advice about living your best life. Pay particular attention to his interview with Tom Bilyeu starting at 19:19. Follow Dr. Huberman’s advice here regarding goal setting and it WILL positively change your life.

Dr. Huberman is an American neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He went from changing high schools, working in a bagel shop and getting into fights to making numerous important contributions to the fields of brain development, brain plasticity, and neural regeneration and repair.

Source: Spirit Voyage

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV

Watch this most beautiful music video with Ajeet Kaur and imagine peace in the world: Peace within me, peace surrounds me, peace from me, by thy grace let there be peace.

In this video, come with sacred chant artist Ajeet Kaur on a journey to India and chant along with her to the soundtrack of “Peace” from her album At the Temple Door featuring Todd Boston, Snatam Kaur, Sukhmani Kaur Rayat and Ram Dass Khalsa. Wash away your worries and find the peace within through this mantra to experience our connection to each other and the divine. Filmed on location in Rishikesh, India.

Lyrics

Peace within me

Peace surrounding me

Peace from me

By thy grace let there be peace

Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru (One creator created this creation. Truth is His Name. Great beyond description is His Infinite Wisdom)