Arnold Patent – on Universal Principles

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Dr. Toni

Universal Principles

Universal Principles are the guidelines that govern our lives perfectly…

1. Energy

The basic component of the Universe, energy, occurs in either materialized or un-materialized form. All that we see and feel is an expression of energy. All energy is the love of the Divine flowing through us. When we resist the flow of love, we experience discomfort. When we align with the love, we feel joyful and at peace.

2. Infinite Intelligence, or God

Within all energy is an intelligence that is infinite, eternal and purposeful. This Infinite Intelligence, which we sometimes refer to as God, or simply love, is the source of all creative expression and the essential Power in the Universe. The way we view our Infinite Intelligence, or God, is precisely the way we see and feel about our Self and the way we experience life. When we perceive God as an unconditionally loving and supportive energy at all times and under all circumstances, we experience our world as totally safe, and everyone in it as loving and supportive.

3. Oneness

Since the essence of everything is pure loving energy, in the truest sense, we are One. Oneness, love, is indivisible. Whenever we attempt to withhold love from anyone, we withhold love from everyone, including our Self. The truth of this principle becomes clear as we allow our hearts to open and feel our interconnectedness.

4. There Is Nothing Outside Of Us

In order to have our human experiences, we have created the apparent reality that we are living outside the Oneness; that there are things and people that can affect us without our consent. The truth is that there is nothing outside of us; all that we see is our Self. This becomes our new reality when we open the belief in separation and accept the truth that we are One.

5. Perfection

God is perfect and expresses this perfection as unconditional love and support. Whatever unfolds is God happening. When we see and feel other than unconditional love, we are seeing and feeling the disguises we have created with our beliefs. We create disguises to explore the experiences that make up our human journey. When we are ready to see and feel with greater clarity, we embrace whatever is before us in unconditional love, trusting that the Universe, in Its constant expression of unconditional love, is sending us the perfect support to expand our joyfulness. With practice, our clarity grows, along with our gratitude for the unconditional love, support and joyfulness that is always present.

6. Beliefs

A belief is a thought hooked to a feeling. The feeling gives the thought a perception of power and creates an illusion that is experienced as real. Under the guidance of our Souls, we adopt beliefs to provide us with the precise experiences we are having, and that we planned before we entered this realm. The urge to explore life beyond our beliefs is a signal that our Soul Selves are ready to guide us in freeing the flow of Divine Love, disguised by our beliefs.

7. Feelings

Our Soul communicates to us through our feelings. The more willing we are to feel our feelings, the more able we are to connect with the love that resides in them. Love, fully, freely and joyfully felt is the true Power in the Universe—a totally peaceful Power. This Power does not belong to each of us; It emanates from the Divine and manifests through us when we surrender to It.

8. Mutual Support

Our Universe functions as a mutual support system in which each and every thing in existence relates to and affects every other thing. Every person and circumstance in our lives is there to support us by reflecting back to us the beliefs we hold in our consciousness. The prevalent belief that we are naturally competitive and adversarial is just a mirroring back to us of our acceptance of that belief. Releasing beliefs from our consciousness frees the love of God to flow through us and to those with whom we interact. Mutual support then reflects more of our natural state of Oneness, and becomes the foundation for rebuilding community based on love, from family to village, city, state, nation and world. The more we look for the love that is present in each event and circumstance in our lives, the more we appreciate how perfect the Universe’s support for us truly is.

9. The Mirror Principle

Everything we see and feel is a reflection of the state of our own consciousness. Every person we attract into our lives is showing us a perception we hold about ourselves. Every feeling expressed by another mirrors a feeling deep within us. This reflection is a gift, for it allows us to be aware of the beliefs we hold, and the ways we have blocked the free flow of Divine Love through us.

10. Non-judgment

At our request, we have been carefully taught to evaluate and judge much of what we experience. However, “right” and “wrong,” “good” and “bad” are just beliefs, disguises for the unconditional love that is always present. The truth is that everything that occurs is just another event or circumstance that we have created in our imagination. Judging something keeps whatever we judge the way we judge it. Also, judging anyone or anything tells us that we are judging ourselves in the same way. Judging creates discomfort that can only be relieved by opening our hearts, first to the judgment and then to the person or thing we have judged. Freeing this open-hearted energy leads to the joyful feeling of unconditional love for ourselves as the wholeness and completeness of who we really are.

11. Purpose

The Universe’s purpose for each of us is to direct us to Oneness. When we align our individual purpose, what we love to do (our talent), with the Universe’s purpose, the flow of Divine Power fills what we love to do with passion. This prepares the way for achieving fulfillment in career and relationships.

12. Comfort and Discomfort

Our bodies are magnificent instruments that we create to support us in having the experiences we come to the human to have. Our bodies are created and maintained in consciousness. They mirror the state of our consciousness, beliefs in how to look, act, age and die. Unencumbered by beliefs, our consciousness is unlimited. The natural state of our consciousness is perfect ease, as is the natural state of our bodies. The beliefs we have about our bodies are there to love and embrace just the way they are. The resulting expansion of consciousness shifts the bodies’ state from that of un-ease to ease.

13. Abundance

Abundance is our natural state. Everything we experience is an aspect of the abundance. When limitation appears, we are seeing a reflection of our beliefs, a resistance we have created to knowing we have it all. Opening these beliefs provides us with a clearer view of the abundance that is all around us awaiting our feeling of gratitude. Feeling gratitude for what we presently have opens us to knowing we have it all.

14. Giving and Receiving

Giving and receiving always occur in balance. It is natural to receive gratefully and to give generously: an expression of appreciation for the gift we have received. The corollary to the principle of giving and receiving is that we give only to our Selves knowing we already have it all.

15. Non-attachment and Freedom

Our perceived need to hold on to anything or anyone demonstrates our belief in shortage and personal incompleteness. Holding on to anything—people or possessions—blocks the flow of love through us thereby reducing the joy of our experience with the person or object. Holding onto what we have also inhibits new people and new things, along with the new experiences they bring, from coming into our lives. As we open our hearts, feel our state of Oneness and expand our trust in the natural abundance of the Universe, we give ourselves and everyone else the gift of freedom.

16. Means and Ends

Means and ends are the same. The action and outcome are one. To achieve peace, we feel and express inner peacefulness. To enjoy a life that works perfectly, we see and feel the perfection of everything and everyone, including our Selves. To experience the natural abundance of the Universe, we feel and express gratitude for the abundance we already have.

17. Harmony in Relationships

Our primary relationship is with God. How we see and feel about God determines the quality of all our relationships. Knowing that God loves and supports us unconditionally, allows each of us to feel unconditional love and support for our Selves. We are then able to feel and express unconditional love and support for everyone. Aligning with this sequence allows you to see your Self and others as who you really are: the Power and Presence of God eager to surrender to all possibility. When you hold this Truth in your consciousness that is what is reflected to you.

18. The Universe Handles the Details

The Universe handles the details of our lives in accordance with the beliefs we hold in consciousness. Our core belief is to supersede the Divine in how we live our lives. The sole purpose of that belief and all the others we have created is to give us a life opposite to our natural state. As we open the energy in our beliefs, we increase the flow of Divine Love into all aspects of our lives. We can then rest in the arms of the Divine and observe the details of our day reflect the joy that the Love releases.

19. What You Focus on Expands

The flow of Divine Power (Love) through the beliefs you hold in consciousness manifest as limitations in your physical reality. Focus on the physical brings you more of the limitations your existing beliefs are creating. Focus on releasing beliefs and surrendering to all possibility frees the flow of Divine Power to manifest more richness, beauty and joy in your life.

Growing Up or Growing Old?

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Dr. Toni

Does aging mean growing up or growing old? When we think of being young, we usually think of outer appearances: a beautiful face and a supple body. But what if being young has nothing to do with biological age? Qualities like being just oneself, at the moment, spontaneous, exhilarated and excited, can belong to any age, as long as we stay vital, creative and interested in life. So how can we cultivate these qualities in ourselves?

“If you look within can you feel the age, how old you are? If you close your eyes and look within, the emptiness within seems to be ageless, without age. Are you a child? Are you young? Are you old? The inner space seems to be non-temporal – it is! That’s why you become old through others’ eyes. You become old because of the mirror. If mirrors disappear and nobody talks about your age, and there is no calendar and no time measurement, you will remain young longer….

“If you are too concerned with the body, you become the body. If you go on looking in the mirror, you become the body. That’s why women age faster than men – the mirror. And the miracle is, basically they live longer than men, but they age faster. On average, all over the world, they live four years longer than men. They lose their beauty and their youth quickly. The mirror kills them – continuously meditating on the body.

“Meditate on the inner being, not on the body. Find a mirror which reflects you, not the body. That mirror which reflects you is meditation. The more you meditate, the more ageless you become.”

Osho, Returning to the Source, Talk #2

Is there really a secret of eternal youth?

“To be young is the greatest joy, the greatest bliss that is possible to human consciousness, and to know the secret of eternal youth is the real discovery. The alchemists in the past used to call it their search: the search of eternal life and the search for keeping people always young. They were not talking about chemistry – they have been misunderstood. They were talking about the secrets of religiousness.”

Osho, Snap Your Fingers, Slap Your Face and Wake Up, Talk #27

“Don’t waste your youthfulness on other ordinary revolutions – political, social, economic. Don’t waste your life energy on those stupid games. Put your total energy, focus your total energy, on a single point: the spiritual revolution – because that is a radical change, and other changes can follow that change.

“If your inner being changes, your whole outer life will be totally different. It will have a different fragrance, a different beauty, a different grace. And when your inner being is changed and becomes a flame of light, you will become a light unto others too. You will become a beckoning light, a great herald of a new dawn. Your very presence will trigger revolutions in other people’s lives.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 8, Talk #1

Sometimes it feels as if my body is aging, but I don’t feel any different inside.

“And that is one of the greatest experiences of life: when your body becomes old, but your inner being keeps its youthfulness. That means you have not lost track of life, that you are keeping yourself in step with life.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 8, Talk #1

“I have not been able to discover anybody in the whole literature of the East talking about old age. On the contrary, old age has been praised immensely, because in the East it has been thought that you are not old. If your life has simply moved on the horizontal line, you are only aged. But if your life, your consciousness, has moved vertically, upwards, then you have attained the beauty, the glory of old age. Old age in the East has been synonymous with wisdom.”

Osho, The Invitation, Talk #27

What does growing up really mean?

“Man is born to achieve life, but it all depends on him. He can miss it. He can go on breathing, he can go on eating, he can go on growing old, he can go on moving towards the grave – but this is not life. This is gradual death from the cradle to the grave, a seventy-year-long gradual death. And because millions of people around you are dying in this gradual, slow death, you also start imitating them. Children learn everything from those who are around them; and we are surrounded by the dead.

“So first we have to understand what I mean by life. It must not be simply growing old; it must be growing up. And these are two different things. Any animal is capable of growing old. Growing up is the prerogative of human beings. Only a few claim the right.

“Growing up means moving deeper into the principle of life every moment; it means going farther away from death – not towards death. The deeper you go into life, the more you understand the immortality within you. You are going away from death; a moment comes when you can see that death is nothing but changing clothes, or changing houses, changing forms – nothing dies, nothing can die; death is the greatest illusion there is.”

Osho, Beyond Enlightenment, Talk #28

“And it is right that you are feeling ageless. Meditation starts taking you beyond time because it is going to take you beyond death.

“You will be surprised to know that in Sanskrit there is only one word for both death and time. It is kal. Kal also means tomorrow – tomorrow there is only death and nothing else; life is today.

“As you become peaceful…. Your tensions are your weight. When the tensions are not there, you become weightless.

“And the consciousness which is your reality has no time-space limitation. Your body grows from childhood to youth to old age to death – these changes are happening only to the body. These are the changes of the furniture in the house… painting the house, changing its architecture. But the man who lives in the house – the master of the house – is unaffected by all these things.

“Consciousness is the master.

“Your body is only the house.

“So the moment you enter meditation you have touched within yourself something of the universal – which has no age, which has no limitation either of time or space.”

Osho, Sermons in Stones, Talk

Science is Ready to Accept Consciousness

Posted on April 20, 2018April 20, 2018 by Dr. Toni

Published on March 26, 2018

Deepak Chopra MD (official) Influencer

Founder, Chopra Foundation

Although it takes place outside the headlines, even those that deal with science, a heated debate is occurring about mind and matter. On onside is a camp of so-called physicalists, formerly known as materialists, who hold fast to the assumption that any and all phenomena in nature can be reduced to physical processes and the interaction of objects (atoms, subatomic particles, etc.) –these for the building blocks of the universe. On the other side is no single camp but a mixed assortment of skeptics who hold that at least one natural phenomenon–the human mind–cannot be explained physically.

When one explanation (the physicalist) is supported by the weight of highly successful theories in physics, biology, biochemistry, and neuroscience, and the other side has no accepted theory on its side, the debate seems totally unequal. But in David versus Goliath battles, be careful of rooting for Goliath. The possibility of a science of consciousness, which would involve a thorough explanation of mind and how it relates to matter, can’t begin until the obstacles in its path are removed and old accepted assumptions are overturned.

That has already begun, on all fronts. In physics, the essential problem of how something came out of nothing (i.e., the big bang coming out of the quantum vacuum state) stymies cosmologists, while at the microscopic level the same mystery, this time involving subatomic particles emerge from the virtual state, is equally baffling. In biology the prevailing Darwinism cannot explain the quantum leap made, with astonishing rapidity, by Homo sapiens in terms of reasoning, creativity, language, our use of concepts as opposed to instincts, tool-making, and racial characteristics. We are the offspring of the newest part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, and yet there is no causal connection between its evolution and the primal Darwinian need to survive. This is evident by the survival of a hundred primate species lacking a higher brain, reasoning, tool-making, concepts, etc. Finally, in neuroscience and biochemistry, there is zero connection between nerve cells, and their chemical components, and mind. Unless someone can locate the point in time when molecules learned to think, the current assumption that the brain is doing the thinking has no solid footing.

The day-to-day work of scientists isn’t dependent on explaining how mind arose in the cosmos–not yet. The relation between mind and matter has existed in philosophy for centuries and working scientists don’t consider philosophy relevant to their research. Collecting data and doing experiments needs no help from metaphysics. But when you look at the unanswered questions in physics, biology, biochemistry, and neuroscience, it’s more than a coincidence that all, without exception, impinge upon the same inability to know how consciousness actually works. By taking for granted the obvious fact that it takes a mind to do science, we’ve reached the point where science is leaving out the very component that might answer the questions that urgently need answering, not because philosophy demands it but because science does.

The sticking point is physicalism itself. If everything must be reduced to the smallest units of matter and energy, and yet there is zero evidence that mind follows that pattern, it is unscientific to cling to physicalism. Even a staunchly mainstream physicist like Stephen Hawking has commented that reality doesn’t necessarily match the current models in science. The mind is real, and since that’s true, defective models are required to change or even be thrown out. To repair the most glaring defect of all–our inability to explain mind–imperils all the sciences for the simple fact that science is a mental activity. If we set physicalism aside, what would be another starting point for a new model of reality?

Instead of conceiving reality from the bottom up, moving from tiny building blocks to larger and larger structures, one could do the reverse and create a top-down model. In other words, the starting point would be the whole, not the parts. So what do we know about reality as a whole?

· Reality is knowable through the mind. What humans can’t know, either directly or by inference, might as well not exist.

· What we know is tied to what we experience.

· Experience takes place in consciousness, nowhere else.

· Experience is at once boundless and very restricted. The boundless part lies in the human capacity to create, invent, explore, discover, and imagine. The restricted part revolves around the setup of the brain, which is confined to the behavior of space, time, matter, and energy. The brain is four-dimensional, while physics poses the possibility of infinite dimensions at one extreme and zero dimensions at the other extreme.

· Because the physical processing done by the brain works in parallel to the mind doesn’t mean that the brain is the mind. To assert that brain equals mind involves showing the atoms and molecules can think, which can’t be proven and seems highly unlikely. Therefore, the ground state of reality, the place form which everything originates, is consciousness.

· Consciousness is the only constant in human experience that can’t be removed from consideration in science, or any other form of knowing.

· What we call reality “out there” is constructed in our own awareness. These constructs follow predictable paths according to mathematics, logic, the laws of nature, and so on. But this doesn’t prove that reality is independent of our experience, only that consciousness is capable of extremely precise, predictable organization. In a word, the notion that everything is a mental construct is just as valid as the notion that everything is a physical construct. The two are merely different perspectives.

· If reality “out there” is a construct dependent upon consciousness, explaining the universe entails explaining consciousness. Where physicalists are stymied by how atoms and molecules think, non-physicalists are stymied by how mind creates matter.

· This impasse is broken by taking a concrete approach to mind; that is, by investigating the qualities of reality “out there.” These qualities, such as how an object looks, sounds, feels, tastes, and smells, are entirely created in consciousness. As Heisenberg noted almost a decade ago, there are no fixed physical characteristics of an atom or subatomic particle. Everything is built up from the qualities, also known as qualia, that the human mind knows, experiences, and can conceptualize.

· Ultimately, even where nature sucks all matter and energy into black holes and naked singularities, the actual horizon for science doesn’t lie there, or with the big bang, by which matter and energy reappeared in manifest form. The real horizon is where the inconceivable source of mind meets the conceivable phenomena in nature. The problem of something coming out of nothing is exactly the same when the cosmos was born as when a thought is born. This is the level playing field where mind and matter can be investigated as two sides of the same process: consciousness interacting with itself.

Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Chopra is the author of more than 80 books translated into over 43 languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His latest books are The Healing Self co-authored with Rudy Tanzi, Ph.D. and Quantum Healing (Revised and Updated): Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. www.deepakchopra.com

From Anti-Aging to Eternal Being: Embracing the Sage

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Dr. Toni

By Dr. Sue Morter

Aging is a natural process occurring for each of us, although it’s one we’ve been taught to resist. With the numerous serums, health products and procedures promising to help win the battle against aging, many are caught up in this constant “fight” against aging and left desperately looking for the next miracle product to stop or even reverse the natural effects of time’s passing. In fact, so pervasive is this growing resistance to the aging process that, according to Orbis Research, “the global anti-aging market is estimated to reach $331.41 billion by 2021.”

The fact is, there is no miracle product or serum. Aging is going to happen, but it doesn’t have to be a struggle. When it comes to our views on aging, there is a deeper truth we can embrace, and one which would benefit us greatly as a society.

Currently, our culture places our value on external appearances. We obsess about how we’re perceived, how we get ahead by the way people perceive us, if we’re going to be respected, or if we’re going to get the attention that we need, etc. It’s a focus that leaves us constantly looking for validation and our worth from the outside in.

However, in a time not too long ago, there was more value placed on the internal aspect of our life. The wise old sage was the most coveted individual in the tribe. He or she was the leader of the people, the most respected, and the one whom everyone looked to for guidance.

No matter how old or young you are in this moment, this “sage” resides within you. Your soul, or Essential Self as I like to call it, is the eternal part of you that is rooted in truth. Just as science proves energy cannot either be created or destroyed, this part of you is actually lifetimes old and is constantly wanting to reveal itself as your own wisdom.

When we tap that wisdom and bring it forward, we feel alive. We feel youthful, engaged in life, and like we’re part of a greater picture. We feel like we’re a part of something meaningful in life and by tapping our wisdom, we allow ourselves to stay in our natural flow which is always rejuvenating and replenishing itself.

Feeling Old

The “sage” is always in you, however if at times you don’t feel connected to that part of yourself, you may feel tired and like you’re many years older than you actually are. You might age in that you’re here on the planet longer, but if you’re not feeling younger every year, it is because you haven’t mastered why you’re here.

You’re here to realize that you’re not of this world, that you are an eternal, replenishing, flowing spirit energy.

The real you is an essence that is a pure stream of consciousness. While that might seem like a big “out there” picture, it isn’t so much. It’s the truth of who you are, and quantum science is teaching us that that is what we are.

The field of Bio-Energetics studies how energy moves through the body. It’s not just that you’re made of energy, but that dynamic process of energy moving or flowing is what actually allows for healing and rejuvenation and maintaining a youthful system.

Anything that blocks the energy flow in your system is really what you’re battling. If you’re feeling older, it is because you’re holding onto stuff and carrying energetic baggage around that doesn’t matter to you. But, here’s the amazing, magical cue and clue regarding this:

The very thing that you’re fighting is what you have to embrace so that you’re no longer stuck.

Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say you’ve encountered something over the course of your life that was not pleasant and in fact, may have been overwhelming such as the sudden loss of a relationship, a disappointment in your career or an unforeseen death of a loved one. These situations short circuit our system to the degree our survival mechanism kicks in and says, “I don’t know how we’re going to deal with this, but for right now, let’s just set it over here so we can keep going. Let’s just process it later.”

In moments such as these, the subconscious grabs ahold of whatever that emotion is and tucks it away somewhere so you can keep functioning and moving ahead. Each time that happens, that tiny “tucked away” emotion ends up stopping some of your energy flow and herein lies the problem. We pack these emotions up and they collect over time and begin to bog the system. When you encounter another issue a little further down the road it feels overwhelming and that “stuckness” of energy causes our system to weaken. Then, we begin to feel bogged down. We equate this heavy, bogged-down feeling with being old. We look in the mirror and wonder, “How did I get so worn down? How did I get so exhausted?”

The first thing to do when you reach this place is recognize that you’re not old. You’re eternal (which means you’re actually quite ancient, right?)

Being ancient is better than being old, and it’s the truth of the “sage” we have to tap into. The other truth we have to recognize is this: We can handle and process those energetic disturbances we’ve been collecting in our “pockets” our entire life.

We must begin to see these situations as actually acting in our favor. Whatever it may have been, it was not there to overwhelm you or take you out of the game. It was calling you forward to recognize your greatness and allow you to perceive your magnificence. When we can start to recognize that and build the circuitry to perceive in that fashion, we then become more empowered. When we start to process these unresolved issues in our lives, we begin to feel lighter. We allow the energy that’s been stuck for years, maybe decades to begin to flow through our systems once again.

As that happens, we begin to glow.

With energy flowing through our bodies, we feel lighter, younger, stronger and more vital. We find ourselves, amazingly, less caught up in this huge fight that everyone is fighting – the battle and war against aging.

The “victory” in the battle against aging is a matter of changing your perspective. If you want to win this battle of aging, you have to stop the fight itself. The best way to win a war is to not participate in it at all. The best way to stop a battle is to not see it as a battle.

Instead of seeing each passing year as one in which you are growing older, begin to see it as an opportunity for you to take a deeper look at the truth of who you are. If you connect with your inner sage and allow your wisdom to ride freely and create this wave of expression in your life, your life will change. You will begin to feel more vital.

There are people in my coursework who are in their 80’s and 90’s who tell me they feel younger than they have felt in decades. And, they look radiant. When they speak, others can’t get enough of what they have to say because they’re speaking from their wisdom. They’ve allowed the hardships in their life to become nudges toward their own greatness. The issues that were unresolved are now processed and contribute to their deep knowingness, or their willingness to be present, loving, forgiving, and most importantly, to be themselves. When they connect the dots in such a way, they glow, emanating an essence we all want a part of.

This can happen for you no matter what age you are, and no matter what has been stored in the pockets of your life. If you’re constantly fighting this aging process, I want to tell you it’s in your favor. It’s your time to recognize you too can be younger every year. You just have to learn how to connect those dots again, drop into your core and connect with that inner-sage residing deep within. Allow your energy to flow through your body and use you deep wisdom to allow it to flow through your life. Living from that place will allow you to be bigger – and feel younger – than you thought you ever could be.

For more insights as well as a breathing technique to help in laying down the battle against aging, please see the following video, “Aging Gracefully” by Dr. Sue Morter.

Stages of Development and Aging Process

Posted on April 11, 2018April 11, 2018 by Dr. Toni

It gets clearer to me every day that the aging process is all about our chance to wake up and grow up and I’m beginning to see that they even might be one and the same thing- at least that growing up is actually the key to truly waking up.

There are many theories out there about the stages of development of a human and I’ve studied several of them. What they all say, is that the ultimate aim of human existence (at least as we know it so far) is all about Oneness and even Non- Dual living. The various paths we take to get there all go through some of the same steps. One such theory – created by Terri O’Fallon – simply known as STAGES- starts us out as babies, totally impulsive, simply in a receptive state and then very egocentric and active. We progress gradually towards a rule orientation to society and then as conformists. Much of the population remains at these last two stages.

For some of us, we move on to become goal-oriented experts and then achievers and finally for a few – we become pluralists and strategists. In future weeks I may spend some time defining these more clearly. But, for today, I want to introduce you all to what I see is the work of the aging process itself – a time to give up goals and achievement and become aware that we’ve been making things up all along. It can be a bit disconcerting to surrender, let go and give up what has been our identity. They call this stage “construct aware” because we recognize that everything is constructed and what we’ve been seeing as ‘reality’ is really only a perception and perhaps even an illusion. We then eventually get to a stage where we experience the transpersonal- the beginning of understanding that there’s really only ONE of us out there. The next few top stages studied by the theorists so far, are known as universal and illuminated. And of course, evolution will eventually take us perhaps to what Barbara Marx Hubbard has termed universal human.

Since I’m not there yet, I can’t really talk about the highest stages – but I do know both from study and my own growth experience, that the older I get, the more I come to know that I just don’t know! I recognize life as a game or an even better analogy – a movie and I have invited a cast of characters in to help me experience my true self more deeply – in the hopes that I will eventually get to see the Oneness of all of Life and start to truly experience the Good that I have come to know as God.

We all are meant to get there eventually. I find that exciting. Do you?

I’d love to start a dialogue with any of you that have discovered the truth of all of this as well. Together we can forge a path that can tell the world what the aging process is REALLY all about. Yes, it is decline – but the decline is of the separate self. It really is about so much more. Each of us individually, and all of us collectively are causing evolution to move forward.