Consciousness Stream: Field Notes & Cosmic Wanderings

  If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." -Jack Kornfield Metaphysical teachers through the ages have taught that thoughts are things–not airy, wispy, inconsequential passersby inside our minds. Many of us on a conscious path understand this principle but few of us really ‘get it’ until the results manifest. How our negative thought patterns manifest over time is as individual as each of us. In my early life, I let other people’s thoughts and words become my own, and I unknowingly fell down a rabbit hole of self-destruction, although I did not see it happening at the time. Self-sabotage by thought is very insidious; outside influences find their way into our brains and become demons that patiently chisel away at our wellbeing, confidence, and self-image until very little is left. One day we wake up in a wasteland and wonder how we got there, unaware that we have invested years, sometimes decades, into abusing ourselves on the mental and emotional plane. ...

  For a breath of ecstasy, give all you have been or could be. -Sara Teasdale In kindergarten, our class took a mini field trip to hear a musical performance, and I remember sitting on the floor in a circle with the other kids as a big brass band played When the Saints Go Marching In . Goosebumps flared up from my head to my toe, and my heart quickened; by the time they had reached the rousing conclusion, tears of joy were streaming down my face. I hadn’t even realized that I was moved to tears until the kid next to me burst out laughing and exclaimed, “You’re crying!” Her finger-pointing spread halfway around the circle, and my face flamed with embarrassment–and denial. I put on my most unaffected face and changed the subject, but it would not be the last time that I would be broken open with joy or beauty, or the last time that I would hide my heart’s ignition for fear of being sensitive in an insensitive world. Ecstasy was my closest companion, and I found her in the pink la...

  I don’t believe that consciousness is generated by the brain.   I believe that the brain is more of a receiver of consciousness.   -Graham Hancock   We live in a world where consciousness is theorized to be a product of electrical brain impulses and once the brain is dead, so, too, are we. Religions and spiritual philosophies through the ages speak of the soul–that vital spark deep within the flesh that survives physical death. Those who have come back from clinical flatlining have tales to tell, of worlds beyond this one, of a journey into light and reunion with those who passed on sometimes years and generations before. Seeing consciousness independent of the flesh was part of everyday conversation in my home while I was growing up. Raised Catholic, my mother Winnie found her spiritual calling in her late 20s when she had a series of unexpected, profound mystical experiences that led to even more profound tools for  self-healing . One morning,...