What Is Your Relationship with Animals? by John Cali

 

I’ve loved animals all my life. When I was growing up in a rural area of New York State we were surrounded by animals—wild creatures, farm animals, household pets. Although we loved our pets, we saw wild and farm animals differently, more as resources to serve us. They were not part of the family, as pets were.

A friend, Barbara Clark from Scotland, visited me in Wyoming this past summer. She’s also an animal lover and a talented animal communicator.Read more

What I learned From the Blizzard of ’79 by John Cali

Last week’s Hurricane Sandy brought back my memories of a fierce storm from an earlier generation. Way back in 1979 my family and I were living in the suburbs of Washington, DC. In those days that area rarely got the severe storms they’ve seen in recent years. So the sudden blizzard of 1979 came as a shock, especially since it was just a few weeks before spring was supposed to start.

In our town, 30 miles west of Washington, we got 40 inches of snow, all in one night.Read more

Why Do Disasters Like Hurricane Sandy Happen? by John Cali

As you all know, Hurricane Sandy devastated many areas along the United States east coast last week. Among the hardest-hit were the metropolitan New York and New Jersey areas.

Many folks are still reeling from the shock and the aftermath of that storm. Damage has been estimated at $50 billion. Nearly a million New York and New Jersey homes and businesses had no electricity, and vehicle fuel is in short supply.

According to weather forecasters, tonight another storm, a so-called “nor’easter,” will descend on the United States’ mid-Atlantic and northeastern coastal areas, including New York and New Jersey.Read more

You Are the Universe by John Cali

There’s an expression in Sanskrit, “Aham brahmasmi.” It means “I am the universe and the universe is me.”

My spirit guides have often said we are not our physical bodies. However, most of us identify the person we call “I” with our physical bodies. So if we are not our bodies, who are we? Where are we? What are we?

If the Sanskrit expression is right, and I believe it is, then whatever we perceive to be “out there” is really in here, within each of us.Read more

Where Do Dead People Go? Part 2 by John Cali

 

Last week we talked about life after death, and we had a pretty good response to it. We’re going to talk about it a bit more this week. Actually, we’re going to talk about life before death, a subject we’ve rarely discussed.

Over the years I’ve been honored to be at the “death beds” of some of my close family, though not recently. Although I wasn’t uncomfortable with it, I did not always know what to say to them, or to the other family members who don’t see death in the same positive way I do.Read more

Cowboys, Essential Oils, and Assumptions by John Cali

 

I know that’s a really weird title, but please bear with me for a moment.

My good friend Pete is a Wyoming cowboy. We’ve known each other about 20 years. Pete (not his real name) and I were chatting not long ago about a physical problem he was having. He mentioned the essential oils he’d been using to help with the problem were very effective.

Now, essential oils are not exactly a mainstream medical treatment, and I’d assumed they were used mostly by folks interested in alternative spirituality.Read more

Are You Guilty of False Modesty? by John Cali

Marianne Williamson famously said “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

When I first read those words long ago I had to do a lot of soul-searching. Could her words really be true? It took me a long time before I could accept the truth of the words.

In my spiritual work over the years I’ve clearly seen how many folks, including me, do not let their light, their true selves shine.Read more

Where Do Dead People Go? by John Cali

 

One of our readers asked us what life after death is like. Death is a subject many of us avoid if at all possible. Why do you suppose that is? Probably because we fear it more than anything. And why do you suppose that is?

My personal opinion is we fear death because we often consider it the end of us. Even many who say they believe in the afterlife are scared of death. I think that’s because we do not know what death really is.Read more

What Is Real Beauty? by John Cali

It seems to me we’re obsessed with external appearances in our world today. I often hear from folks how unhappy they are with, for example, the appearance of their physical bodies. No matter how beautiful they may be by the world’s superficial Hollywood-style standards, they can always find something wrong. So they judge themselves “ugly” or, at least, unattractive and simply not “good enough.”

My spirit guides and I have talked about this before, but true beauty—as we all know—is far more than the way our bodies look.Read more

How Can We Help Others Heal? by John Cali

One of our readers recently asked us this question:

When a group meditates and sends love/light/positive energy to a place or people or situation, can this help with healing?”

He also asked several related questions. These included:

  • The ideal size of the group.
  • Specific meditations or techniques.
  • Whether a small group could positively affect our entire society.
  • The number of repetitions needed.
  • And, in general, how to improve a group’s healing effectiveness.

Here are Spirit’s thoughts:

The best way you can help others heal is to heal yourself first.Read more

Are You A Master? by John Cali

One of our readers had some interesting comments in reply to our recent blog post, Is the World Driving You Crazy? I’d like to share them with you today, especially with those who may have missed them.

Hi John and Spirit,

I love the opening of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens!

First Line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”Read more

Remembering Violence and Terror by John Cali

You may recall it was 10 years ago this month the Washington, DC area in the United States was terrorized for 23 days by mysterious, random sniper shootings. Before the police found the two killers, 3 people were wounded and 10 killed. All 13 were strangers to the killers.

At that time I was temporarily living in the Washington area. I clearly remember the energy of fear and terror, as the whole metropolitan area was brought to its knees. Schools were turned into fortresses.Read more

What Are Parallel Realities? by John Cali

Many years ago when I first moved to Wyoming, I became good friends with Jim, my next-door neighbor. After a couple years I moved out of the neighborhood and we lost track of each other.

I ran into Jim again at a party about four years ago. We were having a friendly chat when I mentioned the time we were next-door neighbors. A blank look came over his face. He said he’d never lived in that house. In fact, he said, he didn’t even know me back then.Read more

Is the World Driving You Crazy? Part 2 by John Cali

A few days ago we published a blog post called Is the World Driving You Crazy? We got quite a few comments on that post.

One comment in particular caught my attention. I always read them all—and I appreciate the time and energy all of you put into your comments. So thank you for that.

This comment was from our dear friend, Ian Barnfield. I realize not all of you may have seen Ian’s comment. So I wanted to share it with you today.Read more

Is Suicide Ever Justified? by John Cali

In our last blog post, Is The World Driving You Crazy?, we talked about a family murder-suicide. I know this is a tough subject for many folks.

Objections to suicide, including assisted suicide, range across the spectrum—religious, legal, spiritual, practical, and so on. It’s a contentious subject with widely varying and conflicting opinions.

Years ago, in a message I found very comforting, Spirit spoke of suicide. Read it here.

****************************

Please share your thoughts with us below.

We welcome your comments and thoughtful opinions, whether you agree or disagree with us.Read more

Is the World Driving You Crazy? by John Cali

This past week’s newsletter article was Are You Trying To Save the World? Here’s our brief introduction to that article:

Lately, for whatever reason, I’ve been hearing a lot from folks having a tough time with what’s happening on our planet today—the wars, corruption, financial collapses, crime, etc. etc. They feel lost and lonely, despairing of ever being able to change things for the better.

Is our world going to hell in a handbasket? Is there any hope, any light at the end of the tunnel?”Read more

Are You Trying To Save the World? by John Cali

Lately, for whatever reason, I’ve been hearing a lot from folks having a tough time with what’s happening on our planet today—the wars, corruption, financial collapses, crime, etc. etc. They feel lost and lonely, despairing of ever being able to change things for the better.

Is our world going to hell in a handbasket? Is there any hope, any light at the end of the tunnel?

Here’s Spirit.

Spirit

You did not come to this lifetime to right the wrongs of the world.Read more

What’s the Difference Between Self-Image and Self-Esteem? by John Cali

 

There was a Gallup poll a while back about the self-esteem of Americans. It concluded 2 out of 3 (almost 70 percent) suffered from low or no self-esteem. That’s a pretty sobering statistic.

What’s the difference between self-esteem and self-image?

Most of us at one time or another in our lives build up elaborate self-images. They’re usually based on externals—how physically attractive we are, how much money we have, how many friends we have, how much worldly power we command, how big our houses are, etc.Read more

Is There An Afterlife? by John Cali

One of our readers recently sent us a question about the afterlife. Here’s her letter (which I’ve partially edited to omit unrelated information):

 “Lately I’ve been wondering if there really is an afterlife, a creator….My brother died about a month ago, and my thoughts have turned to what happens when you die. I have so much doubt right now. Maybe we are just an accident of the universe.”

 Here’s Spirit’s reply:

 There are no accidents. There are no coincidences. We—all of us in spirit and all of you in physical—are eternal.Read more

What Is Time? by John Cali

 

Time is often the greatest challenge many of us face in our daily lives—specifically, the lack of time. Many of us are forever complaining we do not have enough time. But each of us has all the time there is. That’s a seeming dilemma—or is it? Exactly what is time?

According to my spirit guides, time is only perception. I agree with them. In the realms of spirit time does not exist. Spirit transcends time and space. Here are some of Spirit’s thoughts about time:

  • The more you rush through your lives, the less time you have.
Read more

You Do Not Have A Soul by John Cali

I grew up in a religious tradition that taught us we could easily “lose” our souls if we did the “wrong” deed, thought the “wrong” thought, etc. etc. “Saving” our souls was our primary purpose in life.

That was then. This is now. And now I’ve realized we do not have a soul. We are our souls. Here’s what spirit said about it years ago.Read more

Are You Happy? Part 2 by John Cali

We had some interesting and insightful responses to our article, Are You Happy?, earlier this week. So today we’re going to talk again about happiness.

Here are a few more of my favorite happiness quotations:

  • Through practices of self-awareness, you will establish an unshakable baseline of happiness through all of life’s ups and downs. ~ Deepak Chopra
  • Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.
Read more

Are You Happy? by John Cali

Spirit and I have talked about happiness many times over the years. Although they and I firmly believe we were meant to be happy in this lifetime, no matter what our circumstances, I know so few truly happy people. Often that’s because they look for happiness where they will never find it.

Today I want to share with you some of my favorite happiness quotations:

  • Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.
Read more

Garage Sales and Manifesting What You Want by John Cali

What do garage sales have to do with manifesting what you want?

Last weekend a couple of my neighbors had a garage sale. They put a sign in the street at the end of their driveway. The sign was so small and the lettering so faint, I wondered how folks driving by would even see the sign. How did my neighbors expect to attract potential customers?

This reminded me of another similar incident we wrote about many years ago in an article titled For Sale By Owner.… Read more

The Theology of Fear by John Cali

The Theology of Fear is the title of a new book by Father Emmett Coyne, a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest.

Having grown up as a Roman Catholic and graduating from a Jesuit college, I’m familiar with the issues Father Coyne raises in his excellent, well-written book.

Here are some of Father Coyne’s concerns:

  • He’s disturbed that Jesus’ love for humans has taken a back seat to the Vatican’s desire to preserve its political power at all costs.
  • He rightly points out the Vatican is the only religious-political entity on the planet.
Read more