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I’m not sure why this is, but I hear more interesting conversations while standing in line at my local post office. This is a small western mountain town, and almost everyone seems to know almost everyone else.
One day at the post office last week, I overheard a conversation between two men who obviously knew each other. The first guy asked the other how he was doing. The second replied, “Well, if I wasn’t falling apart, I’d be doing fine.”… Read more
Two of our family members recently died. So I’ve been thinking about death lately. Though not in any morbid, depressing way — as strange as this may sound, I’ve almost always found funerals joyful.
Last week I was browsing through The Washington Post. I have no interest in all the negative news, celebrity gossip, political speculation, and that sort of stuff. But I do read articles I find interesting.
So it didn’t surprise me, since I’d been thinking so much about death, to find three full-length articles on the subject in just one edition of the newspaper.… Read more
As you may recall from last week’s newsletter, “Listening To Your Inner Voice,” I had technical problems getting it properly sent to all of you. In one of my emails apologizing for the mess, I described it as “a day from hell!”
That remark unleashed a flood of emails from you. You said I was being too hard on myself. Here are some of your comments:
I’m pretty health-conscious. I exercise regularly and watch what I eat. But I sometimes wonder if that’s enough.
I don’t pay much attention to the mainstream news media, but I do follow health-related news. I mostly read articles related to exercise and diet. Lately I’ve noticed an almost overwhelming amount of that information out there, some of it confusing and contradictory.
For example, one of the US government’s guidelines says you should do aerobic exercise at least three times weekly for a minimum of twenty minutes a day.… Read more
A dear friend sent me a beautiful and intriguing response to last week’s newsletter, “Perfect Partners and Soul Mates.”
I’ve started calling her letter “The Tennis Racket Technique.” For her, it’s obviously become a great way to clear out “past baggage” from her life. Maybe it will do the same for you.
Here’s her letter:
… Read more“This week’s message from CJ, et al, took this long for me to mull it over and become one with it. And I think it’s because during my formative years the responses to my feeling great about myself were always negative, i.e.,
With Valentine’s Day coming up next week, we thought this would be a good time to talk about romance.
Someone asked Spirit a while ago, “It seems like forever I’ve been searching for my soul mate. Sometimes I get so discouraged! Can you help me?”
I recently read a quote from one of my favorite people and teachers, Alan Cohen: “When you become your own greatest lover, you will have lots of competition for the position.”
I love that one!… Read more
One of the most frequent questions Spirit and I get goes something like this: How can I be free of my past traumas and all the negative feelings accompanying those traumas? The questions are usually more specific, but you get the general idea.
So many folks feel imprisoned, or at least restricted, by their past. And it can be the past of this lifetime or of other lifetimes. Seemingly, the past affects everything in their present — physical health, relationships, work, financial abundance, etc.… Read more
Many of you probably know Wells Fargo was, in the USA’s early frontier days, a stage coach company. Founded in 1852, they became part of the legend and romance of the Old West. Over the years they’ve undergone many changes, and today they’re one of the USA’s largest banks.
Now, you might be wondering what on earth Wells Fargo has to do with this newsletter’s focus. Well, nothing, at least directly. But there was an article last week in our local newspaper, The Cody Enterprise, about one of the town’s banks being taken over by Wells Fargo.… Read more
My ancient laptop computer died recently. So I bought a new one.
As I thought about all the software and data files I had to transfer, I realized it would be a daunting task. Not the transfer itself — that would be easy — but the “computer clutter” I’d accumulated over time.
Some of that stuff I hadn’t used, or even seen, in years.
When I moved to Wyoming some years back, I decided to simplify and “de-clutter” my life.… Read more
After last week’s newsletter article, “Eve of Destruction,” I thought we’d do something lighter this week.
I grew up in a family of Sicilian immigrants in rural New York State. As you’d expect, we were all Roman Catholics. Those were the days when the Catholic Church was pretty strict and conservative. Having grown up in that era, I clearly see the positive changes in the church over the years, although I am no longer Catholic. But back then, in the church I remember, it was a pretty bleak and joyless environment.… Read more
Eve of Destruction has been moved to this location.
This week we’re continuing our discussion of health and healing, again responding to yet another letter from a close, long-time friend. If you missed last week’s newsletter or want to review it, here it is.
Here is the relevant excerpt from our friend’s letter:
… Read moreI feel better about everything and that is due in no small part to the words you published. I refer to them often and use them as a starting point in my visualizations and meditation.
The past several weeks we’ve been discussing health and healing in these newsletters. Also, you’ve sent us questions and comments about this whole issue of our physical bodies and their healing. Spirit and I realize this is a huge challenge for so many today. So we’re continuing the topic this week and next.
In response to last week’s newsletter article, one of our readers, a long-time and dear friend, wrote us. Here’s the essence of her letter:
… Read moreWell, though I’ve heard this message countless times, I still find that it disturbs me.
You sent us some excellent questions and comments on our newsletter article, “A Sight To Behold” from November 28. So this week we’re doing a follow-up to that article. If you missed it or want to re-read it, here it is.
First an excerpt from Spirit’s original “A Sight To Behold.”
… Read moreYour bodies know how to heal themselves. They have a consciousness — every cell within them has a consciousness of its own. That consciousness is always — always — moving toward perfect balance, perfect healing, wholeness….
We received many interesting comments and questions in response to our recent newsletter article, “Inter-dimensional Traveling.” So we thought we’d do a follow-up. If you missed that newsletter, or want to re-read it, go here.
One of our readers sent us these questions. They’re typical of questions from other readers:
We’re sort of following in the “footsteps” of last week’s newsletter and making this week’s article also a bit out of the ordinary. If you missed last week, read it here.
I’ve been nearsighted (can’t see at a distance) all my life. So I’ve always needed glasses (and, later, contact lenses). It was very dangerous for me to drive a car without my glasses. Not to mention illegal.
One sparkling spring morning in 1994, I awoke to a brilliant blue sky filled with warm sunshine.… Read more
I thought we’d do something different this week, something fun and lighthearted. Of course, everything we do here is fun. But it’s not always lighthearted. Anyway, I’ve always been fascinated by this subject.
Many years ago my wife Theresa, our young son John, and I were visiting Pennsylvania’s Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield. For those of you outside the USA, this is one of the better known battlefields of the 1861-65 US Civil War.
We’d always loved visiting Gettysburg and sometimes stopped there when traveling from our home in Virginia to my family in western New York State.… Read more
As most of you know, last week, on November 4, we switched from daylight saving time back to standard time. I had a strange experience with the switch, something that had never happened to me before.
My telephone, which has a built-in clock, is supposed to automatically switch back and forth from standard to daylight saving time at the usual 2:00 a.m. hour. It’s worked perfectly in previous years.
But in the change last week, the phone refused to switch.… Read more
There was a fascinating article in The Washington Post last week. A man called Aubrey de Grey is arguing humans are capable of living in a healthy and youthful state for 1,000 years. That’s not 100 — but ONE THOUSAND!
De Grey recently published his long-awaited book, Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. A group of renowned, respected scientists have reviewed de Grey’s work. They concluded, as the Post article said, no scientists “had succeeded in blowing de Grey out of the water.”… Read more
One of the responses to last week’s newsletter article, “Depression,” asked how Spirit and I define the term “higher self.”
Here are some excerpts from our reader’s response, and her question.
… Read moreHi John:
Thanks for today’s newsletter. I enjoyed it as always.
I’ve got a question for you. How do you define your “higher self?” I’ve heard it defined as your God self, but do you communicate with yours? Is it something you should be in touch with every day?
Our recent newsletter articles, including “Should Healing Be Easy?” from last week, have brought feedback from both ends of the spectrum. Some folks resonate with the messages while others are turned off. I suspect this week’s article will be another of those.
I recently read a short article by Andrew Weil, M.D. on depression. Dr. Weil said “Depression is rampant. The World Health Organization estimates that major depressive disorders will become the second largest cause of disability worldwide by 2020, exceeded only by heart disease.”… Read more
Last week’s newsletter article, “The Rut of Earthly Reincarnations,” generated a lively discussion at our discussion group.
The discussion turned into an interesting conversation about healing. I’m paraphrasing here, but one of the participants said she was sometimes reluctant to use a healing tool called EFT because “healing should not be that easy.”
The response from another member clearly articulated what I think, judging from the work I’ve done with Spirit over the years, is a common perspective:
I have a hunch there are those of us who, no matter how much we understand that life is not “supposed” to be hard, at some level believe that nothing comes without effort and sweat equity.… Read more
We received mixed feedback on our two most recent newsletters, “Feeling Good” and “All Roads Lead Home.”
The feedback ranged from “unsettling” and “maybe you are after feedback from conflict” to “Thanks to Spirit for never wavering.”
Then there was the letter from my good friend of many years, George Ball. Here’s George’s letter:
… Read moreJohn,
It’s nice to hear from the Spirit group that we will all return safely home. I don’t doubt that there is truth to that.
Many of us, especially when we were young, had a hero or heroine in our lives.
Sometimes, we had more than one. These were people we looked up to, people we wanted to model ourselves after.
At various times in my younger years, my heroes ranged from cowboys to politicians (believe it or not!) to religious figures, and so on.
Who have been some of your heroes and heroines? I think the answer to that question can teach us a lot about ourselves.… Read more
Spirit raised more than a few eyebrows in last week’s newsletter with these comments:
“As bizarre as it may sound, we believe addictions are a good thing. Because they temporarily take you away from your pain and help you feel good. You will — you must — ultimately come to the point where you know you don’t need anything or anyone outside yourselves to feel good.
“But, in the meanwhile, any light is better than the darkness.”
Spirit is not the first to say something like that, but it still provoked some interesting feedback.… Read more