April 8th marks a rare astronomical event, a total solar eclipse.  The path of totality will first make landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico at 18:07 UTC (1:07 PM local time) near Sinaloa.

The path of totality will leave the Earth's surface at 20:16 UTC (4:16 PM Atlantic Daylight Time) in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The total duration of the path of totality from beginning to end will be about 2 hours and 9 minutes. And, at any given location along the path, the total solar eclipse will last for a maximum of 4 minutes and 28 seconds, with the duration decreasing as you move away from the center of the path.

The path of totality will have traversed a distance across the Earth’s surface of approximately 3,200 miles. 

Today, we know that the eclipse, while it substantially blocks the sun’s light, does no harm to the Earth or its inhabitants. That was not always the case. Throughout history, many civilizations have associated solar eclipses with bad omens, often interpreting them as signs of impending doom, divine displeasure, or significant changes in the world. 

So, you can look up without any worry — but only if you are wearing protective eclipse glasses — and appreciate the wonder of the moon passing in front of the sun and how it changes the natural light surrounding you. 

But this might also be a good opportunity to reflect on the more sinister shadows falling across the Earth at the same time.

You see, each of us carries an inner divine light, the spark of creation, basic goodness, or whatever you wish to call it.

And each of us is responsible to protect that light within us, not to allow anyone or anything to block or dim our own divine light. There are forces, dark forces, that want to do just that — to snuff out our light or block it or weaken it — because the truth is that our collective divine light as human beings is our best protection against all the darkness that can really do massive harm to each of us and to our Earth 

We live in a challenging time for knowing and keeping reality and truth. Today, we have a very different set up than any other time in our history that makes discovering and holding truth infinitely more difficult. I’m referring of course to the mad rush of investors, entrepreneurs, companies — and our enemies — racing headlong into developing a completely new technology based on Artificial Intelligence.

The solution to winning the war of reality against delusion, truth against lies and deception is, first, to understand that our ability to know truth is at the core of the spiritual war against evil. As we know, evil works almost entirely by deception, illusion, confusion and chaos — that makes us question what we think we know and even who we think we are, and whether our friends and family might really be our enemies, or one of “them” who is out to get “us.”

Our next step in the war in defense of truth and reality is to stay out of fear, as we talked about in the last episode of this podcast. Today, we understand how this works. Fear changes our brain neurobiologically in very dramatic ways. Fear distorts our discernment. When gripped by fear, our brain instantly shifts into prioritizing survival over thoughtful reflection or nuanced analysis. Our reactivity kicks in, short-circuiting our capacity for deliberate thinking.

If you are watching news or a video or find yourself in a group situation where what you’re hearing is making you feel afraid, stop! Either remove yourself from the situation or shift your attention completely away from what is being said to who is saying things that promote fear. This is like the mantra, “Follow the money” to find the source of fraud or wrongdoing. “Follow the fear-monger.” Look for who is speaking fear and then ask yourself, what do they have to gain by instilling fear in others right now? This is a form of spiritual and emotional situational awareness. Ignore the message. Focus on the messenger and the likely motives for calling forth fear in the audience.

If you already are in a fear state, then you must “break state.”  That means to act in a way that jolts you out of the neurobiological hijacking that caused your reactive state to regain your rational, reasoning and reflecting mind.

One quick and easy technique if you are in your home is called “ice-diving.” This is a skill taught in Dialectical Behavioral Training, DBT, where you literally fill a large mixing bowl with ice — or even very cold water. Then take a deep breath and submerge your full face in the ice or cold water for 10 – 20 seconds.

To find and know the truth, we must look within ourselves to our inner guidance and our connection with the Universe. In Luke 17:20-21, we read: Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, [Jesus] answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!,’ for the kingdom of God is within you.”

Once you reset and return to the calm and caring and open person that you are, you are ready to strengthen your internal alignment by playing your favorite music, walking in nature, talking with friends, or just getting quiet and alone to meditate or pray to connect with your inner guidance, the Divine Truth within you.

Fear not! That two-word phrase appears as a divine command more times in the Bible than any other directive from God’s angels or Jesus. According to one source, the divine command to “Fear not!” or “Fear ye not!” — sometimes translated as “Do not be afraid!” — appears as many as 92 times in the King James Version of the Bible. A few examples:

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 28-30, tells the story of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to tell her that she would conceive and bear the Son of the Lord God, Jesus. The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Naturally, Mary appeared startled and perplexed, and so the angel continued, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

And again in Luke, chapter 2, verses 1-10, when Jesus was born, an angel appeared radiantly to shepherds living in their fields, and the shepherds were terrified. This angel used the same divine command, “Do not be afraid, for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people … to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah.” And the angel directed them where to find the infant Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 14, verses 22-27, we read that in the evening after a day of preaching to crowds, Jesus told his disciples to go on ahead of Him to cross the sea by boat while he went up the mountain to pray alone. And in the early morning, He came walking toward them in the boat across the sea. They thought it was a ghost and cried out in fear. Jesus said to them, “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.”

Now many interpretations logically suggest that this divine command to “Fear not!” simply is a reassurance in response to the startle or confusion of a sudden supernatural vision or spiritual visitation. But a command that appears 92 times is not to highlight the divine need to calm the reactions of mere mortals in the face of a spiritual experience. That actually would not make sense, right? Like many scriptural passages — across many different religions — this phrase actually provides us with a spiritual code that can open us to a higher consciousness. To understand that code and how to apply it anytime yourself is to find the key that unlocks the cosmic realms. 

Today is the Ides of January. And it’s already clear that this new year will challenge us in new ways. So, today, we’ll look at the single greatest weapon we must develop and continuously train with so that we can be effective in the intensifying spiritual war. Our very survival may well depend on it.

But we need to begin now to develop and hone this skill in new ways we never imagined to survive and thrive against the existential threats of AI, nuclear war, more pandemics, perhaps even extraterrestrial encounters — and most importantly the spiritual war against evil.  This powerful weapon that can protect and defend you, as well as help you evolve in ways you never imagined is: discernment. 

From the practical and physical to the sublime and the divine, we can think of discernment as a heightened sense of awareness and perception that we can activate consciously, subconsciously, or even unconsciously. And it’s extremely powerful! We all have either personally experienced or know someone who saw or heard or otherwise knew of, a particular threat against which they reacted instantly — sometimes in fractions of a second — to narrowly avoid death or serious injury.

Discernment serves as an early warning system in your daily life. Sometimes, it’s warning is subtle — you have a vague but sudden sense that “something isn’t quite right.” Maybe when you turn down a street, or walk into a building, maybe even your own house. Or you strongly don’t want to take a particular flight on the scheduled date of departure.

Your discernment often operates on levels you are not consciously aware of. We  call that form of discernment intuition. And once your subconscious early-warning discernment alerts you, you can then bring your discerning power into full consciousness to focus and direct it intentionally as you seek to identify and eliminate the threat.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year!  As we enter 2024, I want to talk about the MOST DANGEROUS QUIET CANCEL facing us right now … and what we need to do about it.  It’s not what you might think. 

References to a real phenomenon that poses the greatest existential threat to humans and even the entire world ALREADY HAS BEEN ERASED FROM MAINSTREAM CULTURE. This one-word for the ultimate negative energy known to ancient and modern cultures until very recent times is: EVIL.

It’s winter solstice — the astronomical event celebrated by many indigenous cultures since ancient times and also the natural event most aligned with modern cultural holidays. 

Traditions this time of year include family gatherings, fellowship, prayer, song, gift exchanges and celebration. But the hard truth is year-end holidays are a challenging time for so many of us. So, is it possible to take our fears and insecurities, our grief over recent losses, and our weariness of wars and rumors of war, and transform that energy into something more uplifting that can support our hopes and visions for the New Year? The answer is definitely yes!

One of ways we can do that, as we’ve talked about previously, is by going to Earth School and learning Byron Katie’s excellent practice, The Work, to truly see and understand how things that on the surface seem to “just happen TO us” actually can be understood as happening FOR us. They teach us, guide us, point the way forward. What feels like disappointment or bad luck can be a cosmic gift that saved us from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We recognize an illness or injury or major life change as a time to stop, reflect, heal, integrate the changes, hit reset, and then “listen” to our inner wisdom for guidance. This process reboots our internal energy system.

One of the most amazing tools that can help you achieve this energetic reboot and actually transform your suffering to well-being and loving-kindness is called Tonglen. 

In this episode, we discuss how to discern reality. We’re referring here to the inner reality  that provides us with access to our inner guidance — the capacity to open ourselves to limitless creativity and possibilities as human beings living in true happiness.

So, how do we increase our ability to discern actual and potential realities? Full perception of absolute reality is impossible for humans, but we can start to become aware of it by raising our consciousness. And we do that by eliminating our inner conflicts. That requires engaging in a process of self-searching work.

Becoming aware of our emotions and their significance helps us find our long-held unconscious erroneous beliefs and ideas. At that point, we become increasingly aware of the emotional unreality in which we have been living — our illusions, delusions and false beliefs and assumptions — and we move closer to actual reality.

Resolving our inner conflicts is the only path to true happiness. And one of the cosmic laws, or divine truth, is that the only way to live a spiritual life and find the sacred source of inner guidance within ourselves is to become truly happy — NOT as a temporary feeling or emotion, but as an unconflicted state of being.

Our topic in this episode is cosmic laws. They are not positive laws at all. They are not made up by human minds. They are not rules. And they are not written down in words.

I will share with you now the cosmic law prime, the cosmic law first principle, which all other cosmic laws serve. And I warn you ahead of time that your left brain will quickly seek to dismiss it as some platitude or nice idea rather than the golden front gate to cosmic laws. This is normal and natural. 

In fact, the enlightened Jesuit Priest Anthony de Mello captured very well just how this kind of revelation works to show us reality as it is without our concepts and judgments. In his book, The Song of the Bird, de Mello retells an old story by a Chinese Zen master. De Mello writes: “Before one studies zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters. After a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters. After enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters are once again waters.”

To gain any kind of knowledge and skills, we must learn them. In fact, we must initially figure out where we can go to learn the type of knowledge and skills we need to acquire in order to achieve our desired goal or purpose. In this episode, we’ll discuss how you can gain that knowledge and those skills that can help you develop an ability to work with vital energy in Earth School.

The path to achieve happiness lies in gathering both outside, or acquired knowledge, and inner knowledge. We look for acquired knowledge outside of us — in retreats, workshops or seminars, as well as consulting mentors or helpers, and also reading material that can provide helpful insight and information. We seek to widen our knowledge about the true nature of reality and creation, and about the cosmic laws.

But, it’s not enough just to engage with such outside sources. For them truly to further our progress along our path, that acquired knowledge must be applied on a personal level, and digested, and evaluated internally. And then, we must put that knowledge into practice so it takes root in our personal daily lives.

Where can we learn how to conduct the ongoing self-examination necessary in order to get clarity about the sole reality and spiritual laws?

The very good news is that you actually can attend what many of its teachers call, Earth School. In Earth School, you will gain amazing knowledge and awareness that opens you to see through our own version of The Matrix, the illusory life that shrouds our awareness, obfuscates our clarity and blocks our access to cosmic laws.

The purpose of this podcast is to reveal how we can recognize, gather, harness and transform what we’ll call vital energy, and then direct, apply, release and express that energy intentionally to achieve specific goals and purposes. That goal or purpose can be almost anything within the range of human imagination or desire. But here, in this podcast, we will focus on using vital energy as a creative, productive and transcendent force for growth, joy, balance, harmony and peace in human life.