Blog – Page 7 – Muriel Stockdale

Treasure Trove

Yesterday was a very fun day, I hit a treasure trove of new materials for new flags. I already found a couple of great pieces for a Bali flag from Foreign Cargo in Kent, Connecticut so I thought I would go in and see if I could pull together the last pieces of the puzzle for that flag so I can finish it. The reason I am so excited about these new finds it because E Pluribus will be exhibited at the Wang Asian Art Center of Stony Brook University on Long Island this fall. I am delighted to have more Asian flags to include in the show. I had red and blue for the Bali flag but no white Ikat fabric. I found a great pink ikat instead; why the white is so hard to find I don’t know but I love the pink so here we go.

Then poking around some more in the fabulous collection of tribal imports that Jeff Kennedy brings back from the far east I discovered some great pieces from Vietnam and Thailand. I bought a pair of pants that Jeff had bought right off a Mien woman in the mountains Thailand. To go with the pants which will represent the stripe field of the flag I bought two headdresses with an assortment of stars already embroidered on them. The other find is cloth made from hemp by Hmong people to which I will add an embroidered panel made for a pillow case as the star field. My query becomes whether to call these flags by the name of the tribal people the materials represent or whether to name by the borders we recognize today: Vietnam, Thailand, Laos. I am inclined to honor the tribal names because these are people who cross borders and yet still hold an allegiance to their cultural roots no matter where they end up. In fact on wikipedia I discovered the American connection to the Mien and the Hmong people included here:

Most Mien Americans arrived in Laos from Southern China during the late 1800s. Reasons for this migration remain controversial, varying from political to socio-economic ventures. Many Mien American elders fought alongside the United States CIA during the “Secret War” of Laos in an effort to block weapon trails to Vietnam. When the American operation pulled out in 1975, hundreds of families were forced to seek refuge in the neighboring country of Thailand. Hundreds died during this heart-breaking journey on foot through the deep jungles of Southeast Asia. In the next few years, thousands settled in Thailand refugee camps awaiting uncertain fate. Through programs from the United Nations, roughly 60,000 were sponsored to western countries such as the United States.

Approximately 50,000 Mien settled along the western coast of the U.S. in states of Washington, Oregon and California. Approximately 10,000 settled in other parts of the country, in states of Alabama, Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois and other states. This ethnicity group has yet to be included in the United States Census and consequently, current population numbers have been skewed anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000. Since resettlement in America, historical contacts have been and continue to be made, between Mien Americans and Mien in China and Vietnam. Many Mien American relatives still remain in the countries of Laos and Thailand.

As a people from ancient, isolated farming societies, first Mien American generations struggled through obstacles of language, acculturation and more as they resettled in bustling, modern cities. As younger generations Americanize, they face generational gaps, loss of language, loss of culture, lack of identity and more. Community-based organizations formed among communities in Washington, Oregon and California to provide direct services, catering to resettlement issues.

They celebrated their 31st anniversary in Sacramento, California, on July 7, 2007. Achievement awards were given to Mien American doctors, lawyers, educators, scholars, leaders, and others.

There is a large population of Mien Americans that have settled in the city of Sacramento.

The Hmong (pronounced [m̥ɔ̃ŋ]), are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity (苗族) in southern China. Hmong groups began a gradual southward migration in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land.
A number of Hmong people fought against the communist-nationalist Pathet Lao during the Secret War in Laos. Hmong people were singled out for retribution when the Pathet Lao took over the Laotian government in 1975, and tens of thousands fled to Thailand seeking political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries since the late 1970s, mostly the United States but also Australia, France, French Guiana, and Canada. Others have been returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs. Around 8,000 Hmong refugees remain in Thailand.

Sacred Temple

OK, it’s time to explore the most important aspect of Heaven, the vehicle within which we travel and enjoy our experience here, that is the body. I am thinking that for the next seven weeks or so, we’ll see how it goes I am going to look at the sacred aspects of the body temple. This is the germ of a book I have in mind, so I am going to test it out here.

The body sometimes known as the “no seamed robe of the soul” in the ancient Vedas is just that. This body is a vehicle of the divine, a window on the dualistic world of form for the soul. The brilliant light being that we are winds its cosmic frequency, it’s omniscient, omnipresent essential self down until it fits within the confines of time and space and this exquisite vehicle that we are gifted with by the mother principle. All mothers are that divine goddess principle of creation in incarnation. This body is sacred, it is worthy, it is beloved of the divine and it is here for the soul to exercise it’s free will in this creative realm of duality in order to explore itself. This mandate comes all the way from the top. As expressions of the primordial divine whatever you call it – God, Allah, Shiva, Yaweh, The Emptiness or whatever we are gifted with the purpose of exploring ourselves so that the divine may know more of itself in diversity or duality – what we know of as form. The divine knows all about itself in unity or chaos which is the natural at rest state before becoming being.

The body is a magnetic response of form to spirit. The elements of the body attract to the spirit and create a body that reflects the higher principles of our own individual being. This understanding is apparent in many traditions and teachings throughout the world. I will start with the most obvious and gorgeous one first. Think of the head and the apparel that adorns the head for various special occasions or for dignitaries of note in many cultures. What kinds of things do people wear? I bet you’ve pictured crowns, bridal veils, American Indian Chief’s war bonnets with fabulous feathers, Cardinal’s red hats and more. All of these spectacular headdresses honor the crown chakra; a radiant light giving center of energy at the top of the head often shown in paintings as a halo. The adornments are physical representations of the light form of the chakra at the top of the head.

The crown chakra or Sahasrar is the highest chakra or energy vortex of the soul associated with the physical body, it is pure consciousness. It is located at the top of the head, hence the title – Crown Chakra. Through this chakra the energy of the soul is funneled into the realm of physicality. At this point the light is vast in all of us but more visible and workable in the world in those who are awakened or enlightened like Gurus, Shaman, Saints, Avatars and Sages. According to the Vedic texts this chakra is a huge lotus flower with thousands of petals. In the unenlightened the flower is closed, in the enlightened it opens. But don’t just listen to the texts go and seek an experience of this and the other chakras by meditation or breath yoga. Find a really good path of study with great teacher.

My own experience of the crown chakra was extraordinary and very enlightening about my beingness. I was sitting by a fire once chanting a beautiful ancient text called the Rudrum. In front of me was a massive bonfire, the wood crackled and spit and sparks flew out of the fire and raced into the vast deep black sky, filled with many layers of stars, above me. The sparks and stars were merging. My awareness shifted and the sparks seem to come up from within the core of myself to pass through my head and fly off into the stars. This stretched my awareness to include all that movement and the entire sky. Suddenly I felt my crown chakra open, it was like a flower opening almost instantly in a spiral motion and the petals as they popped open made a fluttering sound. This was a huge feeling. Once opened this chakra which was located at the top of my head fell with a thunk into my upper heart and rested behind my sternum on the heart chakra fully open. I sat on the soft supportive grass fully grounded from my heart down and from my heart up I contained the universe. That vast sky, the sparks, all eternity was contained within me. This is the gateway to our divinity it is no wonder that we need to honor that aspect of ourselves to welcome and share the specialness of that inner window.

The extraordinary significance of these chakras can only be hinted at by symbology and esoteric description, personal experience is best though illusive. There are sounds, frequencies, colors, aspects of our daily lives, moods and relationships associated with all of the chakras. The energetic system by which these chakras is connected is profound and somewhat complex but this is what we are made of and therefore it is important to explore this knowledge with great reverence. It is sacred knowledge about our sacred vehicle. But my intent is to look at the expression of the nature of our chakras in the traditional adornments and robes of people worldwide. So back to reflections of the Sahasrar.

When Kings and Queens wear crowns they are honoring that inner authority of the divine impulse and wisdom. Unfortunately the deep understanding and connection to that idea has been lost for many generations leading to great misfortune for many royals and their people. But the legends of old in all cultures speak of generations of kings that were also great sages and so functioned with full knowledge of the sacredness of their duty. The radiant nature of this chakra is also apparent in the choice of a white veil for a bride. Here the idea is to express the purity, innocence and honor associated with the awakened nature of this chakra. A shaman or chief who wears a feather bonnet reflects again the authority of the enlightened nature of one who has a fully opened crown chakra. In his case wisdom and the accomplishment of many brave or good deeds are displayed in the brilliant array of feathers. A contrary response to the brilliance of the crown chakra can be found in the sometimes enforced use of veils, bonnets and hats. The need to cover ones shining wholeness, radiance and beauty may be protective, or some form of resistance to the glory inherent in all of us. Counter to that modest impulse are head adornments like the Nigerian ladies head wraps made of stiff and sparkling silks which when tied in exotic ways and splayed fan like frame the face like any classic halo.

Many of these head ornaments are a physical expression of the halo which goes all the way back to Greek history and is represented in all cultural iconography. Other names for the ring of light around the head are nimbus, aureole, glory and gloriole (according to wikipedia). Through all forms of Western religious art these halos or rings of light are represented around the head. They are associated most often with the holy and with kings. In Asian art the light may be represented as flames which may even extend around the whole body. This vision of the light corona of the entire body is known as the Mandoria and is also sometimes seen in Christian Iconography.

Here is a representation from wikipedia of the crown chakra that most interestingly expresses the movement of the opening of the crown chakra quite brilliantly. It is amazing how eloquent and relevant symbols can be. Often the deeper knowledge can be accessed by just looking at them.

Sensitivity

Here is an extraordinary opportunity to feel into our world. We are the most sensitive, accurate instrument that exists for examining and discerning truth in our world. No statistic, no expert can discover that for us. Each individual is gifted with very specific and unique window on reality that is their very own special taste of the divine, here is where miracles occur. Most of us are sensitive the obvious input like the feelings of our loved ones, in fact we are sensitive beyond our typical awareness – we can sense a mood when a loved one enters our room behind us even. This is perfectly normal. What is also perfectly normal are many greater and finer layers of sensitivity that we have forgotten as a culture.

Sensitivity to our world and the creatures we live with is perfectly normal. In England we had a saying, ” A little bird told me” for when someone learned something they perhaps might not have heard about yet. With today’s telecommunication and instant messaging we hear just about everything instantaneously. But not too long ago getting the word across distance was not so easy. In our mythologies of the world there are many legends of great beings who communicated with animals, plants and even the land itself. This too is normal, we just don’t use that skill. It is one of the talents we are born with that rests within our “junk” DNA waiting for revival.

Today I had a most delightful experience. I am reading Penney Pierce’s book, FREQUENCY and enjoying it very much. Her clarity in describing layers of sensitivity and how to use and develop it is inspiring. It is so inspiring that I found it working spontaneously today. As I lingered in my last moments of sleep this morning I was disturbed by a neighbor’s dog, a German shepherd, barking – woof, woof, woof, woof. Repeated at a specific rhythm again and again. Finally, I popped out of bed, OK the day had begun. As I walked to brush my teeth my mind was stuck in a phrase, much like when you get a song lyric stuck in your head, “What do you do?” “What do you do?” again and again. I noticed that it was the same rhythm as the dog’s bark. Again it repeated in my head and I thought, “Why the heck am I thinking this?” A quick memory scan identified that it was not part of a song lyric that I’d heard yesterday and it dawned on me that the phrase was what the dog was saying, “What do you do? Then I knew it, that it was most definitely true. There is a knowing with something like that which is irrefutable. What a blessing, a magical insight into the mind of another being, a connection which dissolves the lines of separation between us.

Once many years ago I had a very clear understanding of a thought that popped into my head during a meditation retreat that I knew was not my thought but that of a man across the room. I have written about this in a previous post, I think. This is sensitivity which only comes with clarity, through an uncluttered mind. A mind that is full of preconceptions, distractions, rules of engagement, cultural and tribal biases and other thoughts irrelevant to our fullest experience of this most precious moment in reality will miss too many opportunities and delights. For me this kind of sensitivity restores the magic and miracles to my world. It is a much more comfortable, exciting, delightful place than it was for me when I thought otherwise.

Sensitivity restores our own autonomy and authority over our own reality. We are bombarded today with millions of bits of data telling us what to do, what to wear, where to go, how to raise our children. As a result most people are numbed and stressed. Numbed to protect themselves from the overwhelming vibrations created to generate fear, our mainstream media mandate seems to be specifically to ramp up the fear factor and drive us to think and do things we would not necessarily do with our clarity of mind and heart fully aware. We are stressed because we buy into the machinery of manipulation and “need” this and that to make our future or past complete while forgetting about this moment which is all we have.

Feeling into the now, letting go of all other ideas, needs, wants, histories and possible futures is the first step into the magical world of sensitivity. It is the most precious gift we can give to ourselves, it is our birthright, it is the attitude that will reveal to us that we have never left that primordial garden, Eden. We live in God’s backyard, this is Heaven.

Love

We cannot solve our problems from the consciousness that created them. Yesterday I received a recommendation from someone I love to watch a vitriolic political youtube rant; you know the kind. Everything the ranter said was of the same quality as the things he ranted against, his recommendations for dealing with his problem with others exactly the same as the actions of others that he decried as evil and tyrannous. It is surely now the time to step out of the mindset that has separated our world into us and them and to embrace our own longing for belonging and communion.

Each one of us has the power to shift the conscious resonance of our entire world, it is our sole and most important duty as the ones being born into this duality now. Any time we deny the rights of other we shut off a part of ourselves, we make ourselves smaller. Forgiveness is not for anyone other it is only for our own self; for the acknowledgement and blossoming of our own heart.

This is where faith comes in, do we have enough faith in ourselves to know that if we grasp acceptance and forgiveness and if we embrace those we make war with the battle really will dissolve or is our faith such that we will we be swallowed up and destroyed as the myriad voices of doom insist?

It is time to seize the power of our own heart to release its power of love and to embrace all of our world as part of ourself. It is time to require our mind to join with the highest of ourself and deny those who would insist that war is necessary, deny those who insist that “the other side” is wrong, evil, stupid, going to ruin the country or whatever. None of the seeming “terrible” things out there are real, they are projections of our inner duality a tangle between the wise and profound love of the heart and the controlling machinations of the egoic mind. Let go of the constructs, the work to keep hate going is overwhelming us all and must finally be dropped.

Blessings Abound

When we are awake and aware it becomes apparent that the next reminder of our divine origins and our residence in heaven is always in front of us. I have said it before and say it again it’s about focus or attitude. We see what we choose to see in life, the first step on the path is to wake up and recognize this and then to make a slight effort, a loving effort to see more.

Our natural buoyancy is up, around the heart, not the head but the heart. The head is too high and can topple too easily from its own constructions of what the world is. The heart though knows what’s what, it recognizes the blessings and that which we must avoid. The head can rationalize just about anything but the heart knows without a doubt what is right and true and good for all. Here is where blessings are birthed, not from a distant deity, or goddesses on a pedestal but from our own heart. We are equally capable of receiving blessings as of giving them. If we feel we need one then lets just give one, a blessing costs nothing takes no effort, reduces us in no way and only opens us up the flow of grace within us.

You know what is interesting to me about this post right now is the turn that it has just taken. I intended to write about how we can discern blessings out in the world like great teachers, uplifting music and artists, the gift of family and friends and pets and yet in the writing I was immediately directed inward to the very source of blessing; our own divine core. This is where we give thanks and generate grace and forgiveness. This the place where blessing attracts the great teacher, the healing, the blessing to our waking daily consciousness where we can incorporate it into our uplifted life.

We are moving to a time where smallness, victim state, manipulations and general postures of powerlessness will shift. If we want to claim our power and make the blessing that is our Godlike right we are more than welcome to at this time and space. We are not made in the image of God we are made of the same stuff and no-stuffness as God so we are God. With tenderness, humility and love I welcome all to step into power. Blessings to all.

Activating the Dream

For most of my life it has seemed as if we come into a society where we as individuals live our separate lives and try to get the most of it in a Darwinian, “survival of the fittest” kind of a reality however, praise the universe, now it seems that mode of operation is finally changing. No I am not going to talk about the financial crash and the burgeoning of socially conscious entrepreneurship, I have done that already and will do it again. Today I want to explore a fascinating trend shift in entertainment that speaks eloquently about the collective shift in consciousness that we are all participating in.

We have all noticed the overwhelming popularity of ‘reality programming’ but we have spent little time examining why it is so popular. I think there are two kinds of this ‘reality programming’; first is the winner take all competition, the dog eat dog fight for territory game show and second is the talent competition. To me the first kind of show sticks with the old paradigm. Contestants play to win a cash prize and will do almost anything toward that end – eat bugs, get slammed by a wrecking ball, vote each other off the island, put their kids on display and who knows what else they may come up with. This is a kind of desperate grasping for the brass ring without any sense of morals or consciousness. The second kind of game show is of a far higher spiritual value and as far as I am concerned is far more entertaining. To me this is spiritual entertainment. These are the shows that afford opportunities for people to reach out to grab their dream. They are shows like Project Runway, Top Chef, Dancing With the Stars and America’s Got Talent.

Actually America’s Got Talent is the show that made me see this trend with great clarity and inspired this blog. Let me try to explain my reasoning here. In these shows ordinary people are invited to express their deepest hearts dreams. The competitions are tough, the dreams are real. It’s not about becoming famous for famous sake or rich for rich sake; its about being a great singer or dancer, or chef or designer. It’s about testing oneself to the limit and coming out on top of oneself, not on top of the competition as much as on top of the best that we can be. I applaud all contestants that put themselves in these competitions it takes guts and commitment. And they take their chances in front of all of us, how incredibly brave they all are.

This is a path of no holds barred, no looking back, no excuses and no complaints. We see contestants dive in completely and as far as I have seen for the most part with much grace reach for the highest within themselves. Yes, we see squabbling and theatrical spats for entertainment’s sake but look at the big picture. Here is a phenomenon for our culture that steps beyond the ‘find myself’ consciousness of the 80’s, the ‘victim story’ of the 90’s, the ‘consumer voraciousness’ of the oughts and lands us squarely in the ‘stepping in to the void’ consciousness of the 2012 ascension process.

Where are we going? Wherever we go we are not going to get away from ourselves. Our relationship with ourself is the one thing that has to be dealt with in the here and now. The minute that we realize our magnificence is the minute that we want to express it. We are all magnificent and we all want to be seen. As Rumi says, ” A human being is a star attached to a body” or something like that. I think I’ve said this before in a blog but it bears repeating. As we ascend we recognize this more and more, but we don’t need to ascend to know it, we are what we are: radiant light, extraordinary talent, a new song, a new invention, a magnificent artwork, a complex new social organization. All these things and much more we are and can be.

Here is the path to the ascended future in blazing lights. Shows like America’s Got Talent are beautiful windows for us into the ascended future of our actualized dreams. This is why the world was so moved when Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent came on to the stage. She was a star from that first moment and our recognition of that lit the fire of our own stars and connected us to the dream of our hearts.

Fabrications

Well it takes me a while to get back to the blog because I don’t have a lot to say about the work until I’m in front of it and introducing it to people. Fabrications in Newport, New Hampshire, is a great show, I am so honored to be a part of it. The work is exquisitely exhibited and the pieces representing other artists were so exciting. I was inspired to explore creating some 3D projects and think even more outside the framework of the US flag but I am so far from representing enough of the diversity of people here in the US so I will stick to the current project for a while.
I was particularly inspired at the show by a lovely young lady, Lea, I’m not sure how she spells her name or how old she is, maybe 10 or so, but she was so smart. As we processed from flag to flag, the installation was such that each flag hung by itself yet you could see them together in the distance, brilliant. Anyway back to Lea she nailed every one of them; immediately recognizing the country or at least the continent by the qualities of the materials in the flag. I was impressed. Kids really get this project. I have a vision in the future of a generation that freely embraces cultural difference and celebrates that in life.

Imagine a future workplace, maybe offices will be obsolete, who knows but imagine OK the mall: a man walks by in a colorful dashiki, a woman elegantly flings the palu of her sari over her shoulder, two guys hold a meeting wearing Hawaiian shirts, some girls are running by wearing stacks of beads and batik printed sarong skirts, a boy wearing a tartan kilt flirts with them. Why not?

My sincere thanks go to Cynthia Reeves for inviting me to participate in FABRICATIONS, to Sara Mintz for tracking me down and making that introductory call which is so exciting to get, thanks also to Azariah Aker for his remarkable installation and for showing my work so exquisitely.

Sustainability

I delight in discovering new manifestations that Heaven Is Here in the mainstream news. Yesterday I saw a story about the kids at the oldest public school in the USA, Boston Latin School, working diligently to create sustainable roof scapes on their school buildings in Boston. I was so inspired. For many, many years now I have imagined green roofs on city buildings but had no sense or aptitude to pursue the vision. How exciting that these kids are making it happen. You can learn all about it at http://studio-g-architects.blogspot.com/2009/10/movie.html.

These kids are proof of heaven, they see a need, they manifest focused direction and draw those who can help to them. The envision huge without worrying about the scale of the problem and they offer back to the greater community the fruits of their discoveries. They also invite participation. It is a real community effort to change old buildings with heavy carbon footprints into sustainable spaces with ongoing learning opportunities for future generations of students.

These students could have stopped with their effort to reduce their carbon foot print at changing the light bulbs and lowering the thermostat but instead they leapt way beyond that and developed a truly inspiring program. Let’s hope that this kind of inspiration spreads across schools, universities, business and city apartment buildings. The prospect of locally grown foods, cooler roofs, cooler cities, reduced rain washes overflowing drainage systems is very promising and to me evidence of increasing awareness of our integral reliance on our landscape and responsible management of our resources. I applaud the students of Boston Latin School.

The Song in the Heart

Well, I am back. Just when I resolved to write everyday and amassed a nice list of subjects to inspire me my back went out of alignment and I couldn’t sit for a week. When it’s hard to sit, it’s hard to think and my goal here is to inspire not grumble. This was the old practice from my mother of, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” Maybe not exactly that but similar.

So today, I abandon my inspiring list and just free-associate. What is it like to live with pain and still know this is heaven? I don’t really know because I am very lucky and only get these occasional back spasms and cramps unlike many who suffer more kinds of pain than I can imagine. But I want to share my experience. Even though I was a bit miserable and whining a lot about the pain there was a song in my heart. This is the key to heaven. This song is always there, it makes me smile, it makes me see the world as it is and not as it is manufactured to be.

If we listen to the news and our panicking neighbors we can get very stressed out and miss the moments right in front of us. The song in the heart is always there, sometimes it is known as a whisper, sometimes the “still, small voice” and often the silence. AHHH! It is always available in spite of all outer events and activities and all personal conditions. All we need to do is listen. So my back was cramped and twisted and very noisy with aggravation and yet that unmistakable call to pay attention to the inner vibration of my own essential core called to me and sweetened my experience taking me beyond the limits of my own form.

I am now in physical therapy again and making very fast progress to general comfort, thank goodness for brilliant therapists who understand the workings of the human body with amazing clarity and specificity. So I can sit here and write again without distraction. I want to point out another thought about the song in the heart – it manifests outside ourselves too in the birds and in music, in the rustle of wind in the trees, the roar of the waves, AUM and other sounds.

Right now I am watching a small family of purple or house finches flutter on my deck. There’s a nest of almost ready to fly chicks under the deck right there. The ones flying were in a nest on the other deck just a few weeks ago. The noise of their voices is delightful, the mist wraps all the way up to the corner of the deck rail making it seem outside like we are at the corner of the world and high in the mountain peaks. The air is perfectly still. This is heaven.

Multidimensionality

Heaven is a realm of uncountable possibility. It is where we know ourselves as the omniscient, omnipresent beings that we are. But this is a leap for our time and space bound minds that only a very few wise ones have taken over millenia. Today many more of us are poised to grasp the consciousness of multidimensional beingness and teaching comes toward us even from mainstream entertainment.

I have talked a little bit about the concepts of super heroes and super powers and the relevance of these to our true nature today I am inspired to examine the idea of multidimensionality. If we are omniscient and omnipresent we are not truly confined to the here and now that we are all so familiar with and comfortable with. This is the most mind bending of the concepts of ascension that our spiritual teachers present to us. It is impossible for the mind to grasp the idea of being in more than one place or time. Our linear construct is so rigid and confined and just what the mind can grasp. What does multidimensionality look like?

There are amazing ancient spiritual texts that tell stories of this like the Yoga Vasistha or the Ramayana, some Buddhist tales and many fairy tales. Sometimes moments in those stories strike our super consciousness into remembrance. A moment like that is when Hanuman, the monkey god from the Ramayana, goes to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve Rama’s lost ring and he finds 10,000 identical rings there indicating that this moment has been repeated for eternity. When I read that my mind stopped, it became stuck in an open space of wonder and awe that I cannot describe.

But forget about the old stories for now, what about the new stories? Several TV shows right now toy with this idea of multidimensionality – Ghost Whisperer and Medium concentrate on how ghosts; us in another state, interact with the living. There is an overwhelming fascination with death in today’s entertainment. And last week we discover that Lost examines ideas of what can happen in the other dimensions after death exploring a tangled tale of woe, loss and loves in the Bardo state of between life and death. The Tibetan book of Living and Dying explains this Bardo state in great detail. Basically it is a state of consciousness where a human who has lost form gets stuck attached to the realm or idea of form and moves through seemingly uncontrolled adventures spurred by the fancies of the mind. The natural process after death is to move directly to the bright light of the divine, which is God or our own highest self but sometimes we are so attached to the idea of a life in form that we get stuck thinking we are still alive. Or we may know that we are dead but for some highly charged reason we are unwilling to move on. This is powerful esoteric understanding that we are becoming familiar with through the use of popular entertainment. This is a great blessing for this age.

To my surprise after suffering through the last season of Lost, I stopped watching after the first, I liked the ending. It is my dream to create uplifting entertainment and I am impressed that Lost’s last show pulled off a miraculous feat of mind-bending although a bit too sappy spirituality. The implications of the end are beautiful. When we wonder what multidimensional beingness might look like this could be it – parallel lives, friends who become enemies and then become friends again, a constant raw respect for living and a throwing oneself deep into the game of living.

Hinduism refers to life as a lila – a dance. This maybe what it would look like. The multiple arms of Shiva, of all the gods; stabbing, saving, feeding, stealing, sharing and depriving and then embracing each other. The dance of life.

We are on an ascended path, these remarkably esoteric entertainments are a cohesive part of the shifting process. They show us what is possible without ramming it down our throat like a religion might. We can laugh because it’s all fun and entertainment then we can’t get the ideas out of our heads and then we realize we are living it.

Bravo to Lost; it was definitely worth it. I think I am going to plan a Lost marathon.