How to Choose and Benefit from a Spiritual Life Coach

I feel very blessed and fortunate that I had the benefit of a spiritual life coach in all the years of my life while I was growing up, though at the time I probably would not have called her that. The person I trusted to share uplifting, life-affirming insights and ideas that helped me feel connected to the Divine was my grandmother, who I called “Mor Mor,” meaning “mother’s mother” in Swedish.

What Spiritual Life Coaches Do

Imagine being able to say anything without being judged, where you feel accepted and safely wrapped in love. In such a supportive environment, you can break free from fears–both spoken and unspoken–that may have been holding you back for years, and start to see an expanded horizon of possibilities from which to choose.

A good Spiritual Life Coach helps you feel positive emotions from connecting with the unseen animating power that brings meaning and inspiration to your life, discovering a deeper sense of who you truly are, and a clearer sense of what you need most at this time in your life. You can gain a sense of empowerment and passion from living your daily life according to your unique path of personal and spiritual growth, without judging you based on attributes such as age, gender, race, or religious affiliation.

A good Spiritual Life Coach guides you to feel fully engaged in life and in positive service in the world, recognizing ongoing communications between you and the universe happening each moment of every day. It’s wonderfully exciting to explore your most beneficial options in a multiverse of infinite possibility, with supportive guidance each step of the way!

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What to Look for When Choosing the Right Spiritual Life Coach for You

Because working with a Spiritual Life Coach can be such an intensely personal experience, it’s essential to select someone you feel safe with, whom you can trust. You can view a selection of Spiritual Life Coaches rather quickly by conducting an internet search for the search term, “Spiritual Life Coach,” in order to find websites with informational pages. Once you’ve screened potential Spiritual Life Coaches for all requirements you feel are mandatory, measurable and realistic, it’s time to evaluate how you would rate the Spiritual Life Coaches you’re considering according to the following considerations:

* Experience – How many years of experience does each coach have in Spiritual Life Coaching? While it’s true that Spiritual Life Coaches can be quite good right from the start, there are benefits from working with Spiritual Life Coaches who’ve been working with a wide variety of clients for many years, and who have a correspondingly large number of tools in their Spiritual Life Coaching toolkit to help people with. While some spiritual coaching certification programs exist, excellent coaches don’t automatically spring forth by passing such programs.

• Testimonials – How many testimonials for each Spiritual Life Coach resonate for you? While not everyone writes testimonials for Spiritual Life Coaches, it’s safe to assume that for each person who does write glowing words of praise there are many others who feel similarly. You can often learn quite a lot about prospective coaches based on how others appreciate them.

• Philosophy – How harmoniously does each coach’s philosophy match yours? Because it’s so helpful to work with a Spiritual Life Coach you can trust, it’s a good idea to find one whose philosophy is similar enough to yours that you feel comfortable. Look for Spiritual Life Coaches who specifically state their philosophy, background and beliefs, and pay attention to whether or not each one is open-minded with regard to assisting those from different religious and spiritual paths.

• Methodology – How do each coach’s stated methodologies resonate for you? Some of the most experienced Spiritual Life Coaches have a large variety of possible ways to work with clients, whereas newer Spiritual Life Coaches might have just a few. It’s a good idea to find out what a typical session includes, and what kinds of methodologies are typically employed. While trademarked special processes sound flashy, the best coaches understand that their value comes from the very simple–yet powerful–connection that each of us has to the Divine.

Freedom – What commitments or conditions are required by each coach of their clientele? While most people benefit from continuing Spiritual Life Coaching for a minimum of several months, and preferably several years, beware of coaches who require that you work exclusively with them. Ideally, you should always be free to continue or discontinue working with a Spiritual Life Coach whenever you feel inspired to do, as well as free to work with other advisors as you deem to be best for you.

Availability – How will you communicate with your Spiritual Life Coach? Thanks to telephones and the internet, it’s now possible to work with a Spiritual Life Coach from anywhere in the world. If you feel most comfortable working with someone in person, then look for recommended coaches living in your immediate area. The majority of clients for most Spiritual Life Coaches practicing today are through telephone and Skype connections, and these sessions can be every bit as powerful and productive as the in-person kind.

• Price – How clearly are coaching prices stated, and how affordable are they for you?

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How to Prepare for Your Spiritual Life Coaching Session

Spiritual Life Coaching can bring you substantially greater insights and rewards if you do a couple of simple things to prepare yourself prior to each session.

• Initial Status – Take a few minutes to write down the areas you’d most like to see transformed, along with whatever roadblocks or obstructions currently appear to be in the way.  Such a pre-session initial status report serves to remind you of your commitment to gaining a clearer sense of who you are and what you most need in life, and later can provide you with a record of how you are transforming and growing.

• Meditate – Meditate for between five to thirty minutes immediately prior to your coaching session. Breathe deeply and fully to your lower abdomen, while relaxing your muscles and clearing your mind.

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You can see my video blog post on Spiritual Life Coaching at: http://youtu.be/HS2RZMjosT8

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Thank you for reading and sharing this blog post! Chances are good that if you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy my books, especially Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World

CLN’s Conscious Trends of 2013

Link

Cassandra Sturdy and Ross Pittman of Conscious Life News share exciting high points from 2013 that help us focus on some of the most important recent trends. For those of us who’d wondered what might happen post December 21st 2012, we now have some answers… and by taking a closer look at positive directions going forward, we can see ways we can make an even bigger difference in the world in the months and years ahead.

CLN’s Conscious Trends of 2013

Well, we’ve made it through 2013. Quite remarkable really, considering the world was supposed to end in a global apocalypse on December 21, 2012. Meteorites, tidal waves, aliens and comets… all sorts of spectacular scenarios were envisioned for the end of the Mayan calendar; a real-life record-ratings Hollywood blockbuster event.

What the mainstream and Hollywood failed to realize however, was that all the hype was symbolic of something much deeper playing out in the collective psyche: the completion of one cycle of consciousness and the beginning of another.

Indeed. The Mayan calendar and its associated prophecies actually marked the end of one age and the dawning of a new one, one driven by a more feminine energy and the values associated with this such as peace, nature, compassion and connection. This was never meant to manifest overnight, but to grow gradually in global society as more and more people awaken to realize that business as usual on planet Earth cannot go on.

Here at Conscious Life News, we think we’ve seen some pretty exciting trends this year that indicate this new age has begun. We’re not saying everything’s perfect… just that there have been positive developments that indicate the shift is alive and kicking, and will continue to take shape, provided we all keep doing our bit. Without further ado, we present to you, the Conscious Trends of 2013.

1.   More women became influential leaders.

Margaret Brennan

As foretold by the Maya, women became stronger role models and more influential in society. The UN formerly recognized women for the role they play in peacekeeping and conflict prevention. Rwanda elected a women-majority parliament and the equality gap between men and women narrowed in most countries. But perhaps one of the most significant actions by a woman in 2013, was when CBS correspondent Margaret Brennan helped to avert a war with Syria by asking just one brilliant question.

2. More people realized their governments do not always act in their best interests.

More Americans are afraid of their own politicians than another terrorist attack

Admitting they now see their government as the single biggest source of the Nation’s problems, Americans said they are more afraid of their own politicians than another terrorist attack.  We’re waking up to the fact that a wealthy minority use their positions of power to further their own agendas along, often at the cost of the masses and the environment… and we don’t like it.

3. More people awakened to the fact that mainstream media cannot be trusted.

Mainstream media is losing viewers as more people realize they cannot be trusted

Protests against the mainstream media were organized all over the world and people started turning away from big news networks. CNN and MSNBC lost almost half their entire audience.Realizing the mainstream media can no longer be trusted to foster freedom of speech and report important global issues, we’re leaving them behind. Sorry about that Rupert.

4. Whistleblowers stood up for our freedom.

Chelsea Manning & Edward Snowden

Just like Chelsea Manning did in 2010, Edward Snowden risked his home, family, life and freedom, because he realised the citizens of Earth deserve to know that governments are building aworld-wide surveillance system that secretly tracks how we live, who we talk to, and what we say. Thanks for proving what we’ve long suspected Ed. And, thank you Chelsea for your bravery in fulfilling your moral obligation. You totally got screwed. We pray for your early release from prison.

5. More people turned to alternative news media.

As the sheeple scurried away from the mainstream,demand for alternative news media shot up. The rapidly growing audiences for websites likeConscious Life News, RT , Activist Post, Natural News, Ben Swann’s Truth in Media, and The People’s Voice prove that there’s a huge demand fornews that uncovers important and hidden information about our democracies, is for the people and by the people, and is without corporate and political constraints.

6. We started to call for an end to the corrupt banking system.

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson

Continuing to shine as an example of democracy and human rights, Iceland did something with their corrupt bankers that Americans should have done long ago: they threw them in jail.Meanwhile in the US, Ron Paul called for an endto the Federal Reserve. All over the world, people began speaking up about the poisonous grip the banking system has on democracy.

7. We banned GMOs.

GMO corn caused tumors in lab rats

From Hawaii to Mexico,  from the EU to Africa, and from China to India, governments all over the worldput their feet down on genetically modified plants and foods, sending a strong message to greedy corporations like Monsanto that the people of this world do not want to risk their health or the natural diversity of the planet.

8. We let our governments know we want a better world.

Brazilians protest transportation costs

Brazil, Egypt, Italy, Bangladesh, Turkey, Chile,U.K., Ukraine, South Africa… we took to the streets en-masse to make it known to our governments what we will and won’t accept, and to show we want change. Acknowledgment of where things are at is the first step of awakening, and we saw lots of evidence this year that highlights people are doing just that.

9. Celebrities helped to raise awareness of the global shift.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand became a prominent speaker about the global shift, calling for a revolution of consciousness. Along with celebrities such as Oliver Stone, Michael Ratner, Moby, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brand also took part in a powerful short film about Bradley Manning and the importance of whistle-blowing. The world’s authors banded together to sign an anti-surveillance petition and singer Ben Lee released an album infused with ideas about spiritual awakening and inner work, donating all of his royalties to charity in the process.

10.  Governments started making decisions that favored the people over the corporations and the military industrial complex.

Peru’s poor given solar power

One of the biggest surprises of the year was Britain’s decision not to support a US-led strike on Syria. It seems the UK government did actually learn something in the aftermath of Iraq. Not only that, but in saying no to the US, the UK sent a strong message to other governments that you don’t have to agree with the world’s superpower all the time and you can still stay friends. In Malaysia, the government decided to cut fuel subsidies so they could fund the poor. And in Peru, the poorest citizens were given solar power while the natives of Brazil started to get back their land rights.

11. We started waking up the intelligence of nature and the animal kingdom.

Dolphins Help Fishermen Catch Fish

Discovering that it’s possible to communicate with animals and work with them to create solutions, we began to awaken to the complex intelligences of nature and how sacred and interconnected consciousness really is.  All of life on planet Earth is of value and we must treat it with respect for future generations.

Areas We Can Improve On In 2014 and Beyond

It’s important that we all keep doing what we can to help the shift unfold. Don’t underestimate the difference you can make, we are all equally responsible. Here’s a list of things you can do in 2014 and beyond to continue raising our collective consciousness.

1. Care more about stuff that doesn’t appear to affect you.

Pakistani drone strike victim testifies before Congress about her grandmother being literally blown to bits while gardening in her own back yard. Only five members of Congress bothered to show up.

Everyone should be out protesting the ongoing use of American drones to kill innocent people inPakistan and Yemen. Innocent civilians don’t deserve to be blown up while gardening in their own back yard or attending a wedding. If people in the US were being killed by drones when they stepped outside of their homes, there’d be an uproar. Yet, that is precisely what’s happening in Pakistan and Yemen, and very few people in the U.S. seem to care. When the Rehman family travelled halfway around the world from Pakistan to tell the story of the killing of their grandmother (who was gardening in her own back yard at the time), only five members of Congress bothered to show up.

It’s important to have compassion for all beings and do what you can to create change.  As Albert Einstein said, we must strive to widen our circle of compassion:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

2. Vote for better leaders.

In the November 2012 (close enough to 2013) presidential elections, none of the third party candidates in the US received even one percent of the vote. People in the U.S. need to wake up to the fact that the 2-party system is broken and provides merely an illusion of voting (here’s why). Promises of change by the 2-party candidates are empty at best, as evidenced by Barak Obama promising change and then breaking many of his key campaign promises.

In Australia, although Julian Assange’s new Wikileaks Party obtained 88,000 votes in the Australian Federal election, it wasn’t enough to secure him a seat in the Senate. A lot of people who are critical about the system don’t vote and this attitude is really self-defeating.

Make sure you get out there and vote for the people who are trying to create real change in the system… this is by far one of the most powerful actions you can take to protect the world and your civil rights.

3. Support your fellow global awakeners.

Occupy builds homes for the homeless

If your current circumstances don’t enable you to do as much as you’d like to help raise global consciousness, support people who are. Keep getting your news from alternative media, donate your time and skills to important projects and reach out and offer to help with meaningful causes. You’d be surprised how hard people are working and they can always use extra pairs of hands. It’s also good to assist those in the same field as you, even if they might be seen in the old paradigm business model as your “competitors.”

4. Lead by example.

Some people aren’t ready to wake up and there’s no point trying to force them, it can just make things worse. Instead, lead by example. Make conscious choices as a consumer and strive to integrate the new paradigm into your life more every day.

And finally, remember the words of Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

About the Authors 
Ross Pittman and Cassandra Sturdy are the editors of Conscious Life News. Conscious Life News (CLN) is committed to delivering timely, relevant and leading edge news within the alternative spectrum of information that is critical to each and every individual on planet earth.

Featured image: Eric Wagner/Flickr

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. 

Nelson Mandela Didn’t Die in Prison, and Why it Matters

“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”   – Mark Twain

If you remember seeing media coverage of Nelson Mandela having died in prison in the 1980s, and you’re wondering why he’s just this month been reported dead again, you’re in good company. Mandela is one of the most commonly discussed celebrities who has been seen alive after having been reported dead. When we personally witness disparities between events we remember having happened and what reliable physical evidence suggests has occurred, we might at first feel a sense of dissonance. Fortunately, we need not stay confused, since noticing the differences between our memories and evidence in our current reality allows us to gain valuable direct experience of how malleable reality can truly be. Recent scientific discoveries suggest it’s quite likely that both this so-called “Mandela Effect,” also known as the “Alive Again” phenomena, are not new, as shamans and spiritual teachers from every continent and age of humankind have described for millennia.

The Mechanism Behind the Mandela Effect

We are fortunate to be alive at a time when scientists from several different branches of physics are converging on the idea that we live in a holographic multiverse… AND that everything including you and me have a truly quantum nature. When we put these two big ideas together, we see the mechanism by which we can understand and appreciate how things like intuition, synchronicity, the placebo effect, and spontaneous remission can transpire.

Illustration of Holographic Multiverse from “Quantum Jumps: An Extraordinary Science of Happiness and Prosperity”

Evidence supporting the concept of many parallel universes being interconnected comes from UC Berkeley’s Raphael Bousso, whose view of reality has been gaining support ever since last year’s discovery of the Higgs boson. And there is further good news for those wondering, “Where are these other parallel universes?” Some of the first hard evidence of other universes was found just this year by theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Carnegie Mellon professor Richard Holman, through cosmic background radiation data collected by the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope, which indicates the presence of other external universes to our own at the very moment of the Big Bang.

What Happens in the Quantum Realm Doesn’t Stay in the Quantum Realm

In much the same way that some people prefer that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” many physicists have hoped that the weirdness known to happen in the quantum realm would remain safely confined there. This appears to not be the case, as evidenced in recent ground-breaking laboratory experiments over the past few years. Increasing numbers of studies with macroscopic scale objects, such as diamonds, are consistently and repeatedly demonstrating such distinctly quantum behaviors as entanglement–which Albert Einstein once called, “spooky action at a distance.” 

Other behaviors previously presumed to reside exclusively within the quantum scale including: superposition of states, coherence, and teleportation are also being witnessed on the macroscopic scale. This is happening to the point that a growing consensus is beginning to form amongst physicists, such as those surveyed at a recent conference that you and I and everyone and everything around us exists in a superposition of states.

This means that in one possible reality, you have not made a decision that resulted in your catching a cold, but in another possible reality, you have. We can expect to occasionally experience quantum jumps from one possible reality to another, particularly when we are aware that such leaps are possible. These jumps from one reality to another can be a lot of fun, as some of the world’s quantum jumping experts can attest.

And who, might you ask, are the world’s quantum jumping experts? Such experts include most of the world’s top athletes, medical miracle experiencers, heroes, survivors of close brushes with death, experienced meditators, beneficiaries of the placebo effect, and people experienced with hypnosis and lucid dreaming have experienced leaps to better possible realities. These people often trust intuition, and benefit from a sense of there being a connectedness between themselves and everyone and everything else.

Evidence of Possible Futures & Pasts 

As the saying goes, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” But how can we find evidence demonstrating that alternate histories occur, when typically the only “proof” we have that a change has occurred resides in our own memories? One way to collect such proof is to rapidly document peoples’ experiences immediately following highly memorable historic events like the Kennedy assassination, the Challenger space shuttle explosion, or Princess Diana’s death. Such flashbulb memories provide reference points by which the same people can later be asked about.

Researchers Ulric Neisser and Nicole Harsch at Emory University investigated flashbulb memories of students immediately following the Challenger space shuttle explosion by collecting handwritten student reactions immediately following the disaster. When they followed up two and a half years later with the very same students, Neisser and Harsch were startled to find that students’ accounts of where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news were different from what they’d initially described. One student said, “That’s my handwriting, but that’s not what happened.” 

Kindness Matters 

Discrepancies between memories also often appear amongst people who were all together for a particular event, but later remember what transpired very differently. Chances are pretty good that you’ve encountered disagreements with people you’d usually consider competent and aware… except for when they insist something happened some way you know for sure couldn’t be true.

If we didn’t live in a holographic multiverse in which we’re all venturing in various directions to experience a multitude of different possible futures and pasts, we wouldn’t find the tremendous divergence between peoples’ memories. As we enter the Quantum Age, it’s time that we stop calling such differences in memory “false recollections,” in favor of “alternate recollections,” indicating respect for the fact that each and every one of us exists in a superimposed state, with access to many possible alternate histories, presents, and futures.

And most importantly, it’s time we truly show respect for one another and our multitudes of alternate histories and recollections.

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Do you remember Nelson Mandela having died before? Take the poll, and share your recollections with alternate histories in the comments below:

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Further details, explanations, research, examples and references about the ideas presented in this article are provided in Quantum Jumps: An Extraordinary Science of Happiness and Prosperity.

Alternate Histories and the Mandela Effect

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”                              — Nelson Mandela

If you’re hearing news that Nelson Mandela is approaching death, and wonder how that can be because you recall him having died in prison many years ago, you’re not alone. Lots of people share this particular memory, and wonder why and how they have such clear impressions of all the international hoopla and attention for Nelson Mandela by presidents and world leaders… yet clearly as of 14 July 2013, Nelson Mandela is still alive. The fact that so many people remember an alternate history in which Nelson Mandela died in prison many years ago provides us with a valuable insight to the nature of reality… and the possible existence of parallel universes.

Many Previously Dead People Noted Alive Again

The “Mandela Effect” aka Alive Again phenomenon is gaining public attention as more and more people make note of people being announced dead by reputable sources such as the San Francisco Chronicle and CBS Evening News, who are later reported being alive. This type of reality shift continues to be one of the most surprising and amazing to me, as I am astonished to see people alive and well again who I know have died. Editorial error can be ruled out, since there are no retractions of false reports. Until you’ve noticed this sort of reality shift yourself, it’s hard to fully understand how shocking this experience can feel. Typically, whatever evidence I’ve had regarding the previous death report is unavailable, leaving me with the usual amount of physical proof that a reality shift has occurred… haunting memories of the other reality.

I wrote about my first “alive again” experience in my book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World. It occurred in the 1980’s when my ex-roommate and neighbor’s cat, Ashes, was run over by a car and killed… only to appear in my backyard a couple of weeks later! I was astonished to see him again. He looked a little less tidy, like he hadn’t been keeping himself quite as clean as usual, but he was absolutely and positively the same cat. My husband reacted normally at first to seeing Ashes, until I reminded him, “Ashes DIED a couple of weeks ago!” My husband rubbed his chin and recalled more details, without any prompts from me. “Oh, yeah… he was hit by a car, wasn’t he?” I spent an hour petting and talking with Ashes, since I never thought I’d see him again after he’d died.

While folklore tells of cats sometimes having nine lives, people can really surprise us when they return from the dead. In addition to noticing Nelson Mandela alive again, as I discussed recently on the Money Laundering/Reality Shifts Coast to Coast AM show with George Noory, I’ve witnessed both actor Larry Hagman and biologist Jane Goodall’s untimely demises mysteriously reversed. Both of them were announced dead, only to show up again in new programs and speaking engagements. When Jane Goodall was reported dead, the news came as a huge blow to me. I had heard of Dian Fossey’s murder, and I recall thinking “How could Jane have died now?!” I was especially sad that we’d lost two women biologists working with primates. When a bit more than a year later I saw that Jane was speaking somewhere, I could barely believe it. I double-checked to confirm that sure enough, it was the same Jane Goodall, and now there was no record that she ever died!

I’m relieved to note that I’m not the only one who’s noticed these alive again shifts. Many people on the realityshifters discussion list have witnessed the alive again phenomenon over the years, and many more have written to me sharing their first-hand accounts of having seen people they know alive again after having previously died. Often these “alive again” people are celebrities, but sometimes they are acquaintances, neighbors, family, or friends.

In July 2005, RealityShifters conducted an Alive Again survey, asking the question: “Which people have you heard reported to be alive again after having heard trustworthy reports of their deaths?” At that time, 26% of respondents recalled having heard that Bob Keeshan (“Captain Kangaroo”) had passed away, yet were startled to see him alive again, 15% of respondents recalled Jane Goodall, 15% recalled Larry Hagman, 10% remembered Bob Hope having already passed away, and 10% remembered Jack Palance. Bea Arthur, Ed Asner, Walter Cronkite and Mariel Hemingway were each remembered by 5% of respondents as having already died. __________________________________________________

ALIVE AGAIN SURVEY RESPONSES:

Celebrity	% Reported
Bob Keeshan (“Captain Kangaroo”)	26
Jane Goodall	15
Larry Hagman	15
Bob Hope	10
Jack Palance	10
Bea Arthur	5
Ed Asner	5
Walter Cronkite	5
Mariel Hemingway	5

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Alternate Histories… Clues that Reality Shifts

Remembering alternate histories–such as Nelson Mandela died in prison–is a great way to discover the truth: that reality shifts. This phenomenon is much bigger than peoples’ seemingly miraculous return from the dead–it also includes changes we notice in books, movies, and TV shows we’ve watched before that occasionally are very different from what we remember having seen before. Have you ever watched a movie a second time and wondered why the ending seemed so different? Consider the possibility that your mind’s not necessarily playing tricks on you–it really might have changed. Our observation that alternate histories exist is exactly in keeping with what a majority of physicists mean when they say we exist in a superposition of states. We don’t always exist in the same reality, in other words, because we and every other thing in this multiverse are capable of moving between possible universes, in accordance with Hugh Everett III’s Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics.

When we envision there are other possible realities–other parallel universes–we can get a sense of how it feels to move between them. These kinds of “jumps” are leaps of pure consciousness, and do not require that we pack our suitcases and prepare for a journey of the kind we’re accustomed to planning for. From the point of view of those who’ve made a leap between parallel worlds, many such jumps seem pretty normal at the time. Often only a few things seem different, sometimes only subtly so.

It is possible that when some people die, people miss them enough to retroactively change reality to one in which they are still living–provided we’re not 100% absolutely, positively convinced they’re definitely dead. Many of us who’ve heard news of a death on TV or a newspaper, or from a friend or relative are able to subsequently end up in a reality in which the earlier report was incorrect somehow. It seems to help to not have gone through intense grieving, as that seems to lock us into the reality someone we care about has died.

There is a scientific theory that describes how events can be changed after the fact through retroactive reality shifts, such as the ones discussed in the August 2004 Revise the Past issue of RealityShifters News. Experiments have shown how people can definitely revise the past by focusing their intention on retroactively changing the rate of decay of radioactive material, for example.

If you’ve ever remembered a different history than seems to be the case, including an instance of the Alive Again phenomenon, please leave a comment or email me with your experience. I share many examples of such reality shifts in my book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World, which provides exercises for shifting the world in a positive direction you’ll most enjoy. You can see my video blog post on this topic at: http://youtu.be/HS2RZMjosT8

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Thank you for reading and sharing this blog post! Chances are good that if you liked this post, you’ll also enjoy my books, especially Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World

The Science of Finding Lost Things

How to Find Lost Things with Quantum Jumping 

While I do my best to stay organized in order to minimize misplacing or losing things, every now and then something manages to get misplaced… and sometimes by the time I discover it’s missing, I need it right away. I’ve also noticed that I’m most likely to notice something missing when I’m in a hurry to go somewhere and don’t have a lot of time to search.

FIRST: CONDUCT BASIC SEARCH

The first step in finding something that’s gone missing is to conduct a basic search, making sure that it’s not actually right nearby and we somehow missed it. A good basic  search involves:

(1) Retrace your steps to where the item was last seen and where it might have traveled,

(2) Ask anyone nearby if they’ve seen it,

(3) Ask the item to show itself by asking aloud a question my mother taught me when I was very young, “Now if I were ____________, where would I hide?” 

(4) Tidy things up while searching. Putting things together with other similar items creates a systematic process of elimination, making it easier to spot the missing item.

SECOND: KNOW YOU’RE NATURALLY WIDENING THE NET

Expanding search categories so more of your brain is involved in your search is a natural process. Researchers at UC Berkeley have found that your brain calls in backup to find lost things. We typically organize objects in one of 1,000 categories in our mind, in such a way that when we see something we can assign it to a logical and easily retrievable location in memory. While this may not in itself be all that remarkable, recent neuroscience studies conducted at UC Berkeley have shown that when study participants are asked to look for something in particular, such as a person, their brains can be seen to widen the net of possible categories:

“… their brains also commandeered the brain regions responsible for perception of animals, body parts, action verbs and natural minerals and shifted them toward the perception of people. Likewise, when participants were seeking vehicles, the categories of tools, devices and structures were also stimulated by representations of vehicles.”

THIRD: HOPE FOR REALITY SHIFT

If you’ve tried all the above steps and still can’t locate your missing item, it’s time to pull out all the stops and resort to some truly amazing natural processes. As it turns out, nature knows a few tricks that physicists don’t, including how to utilize quantum coherence in natural processes such as photosynthesis. What does this have to do with finding lost things? Plenty. Just as scientists are now learning that plants try all possible pathways in order to maximize efficiency of light absorption in cells by virtue of a process called quantum coherence–so too can we take advantage of the fact that as many physicists believe, we and every object around us exists in a superposition of states.

The basic concept is this. If you’re looking for lost keys, for example, envision there is more than one reality in which your keys exist. In some realities, your keys seem to be gone, and in others your keys are nearby in a perfectly accessible place. You are now seeking one of many possible realities in which your keys return to you. Without getting overly concerned with which particular realities have your keys and which don’t, it’s best to adopt the attitude seen in many a “Missing” poster that reads, “No questions asked.” In the realm of quantum physics, in which Shrödinger’s cat is either alive or dead, we don’t so much care about the details as to which of many possible universes the keys come back from, as long as they do return.

Once you’ve focused your attention on what you’re seeking, so as to expand your ability to find it (with more of your brainpower actively being put to work), it’s time to lighten your mood a little… and relax. Saying “Hope for reality shift!” the way my daughters did when they were young is actually an excellent way to feel a bit more light-spirited, thereby making it easier for you to make a jump between parallel worlds of possibility. What this phrase lacks in sophistication it more than compensates in successful returns of missing things–often either in places already thoroughly checked, or rather unexpected locations one would not expect (such as my toddler’s favorite juice cup suddenly perched atop the refrigerator, or water shoes resting atop my daughter’s pillow, or my favorite jewelry tucked inside a dresser drawer). When lost objects reappear, they often seem a little shy… preferring to quietly sneak into an out-of-the-way location, rather than startling people by exuberantly popping into existence right before their very eyes.

I hope you’ll feel inspired by reading real-life reality shift stories posted at RealityShifters and included in the book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World. Sometimes, all it takes is a little bit of hope that missing things really can reappear… right out of the blue… and they do!

FOURTH: DOWSE AND YOU SHALL FIND

Dowsing is a great way to find lost things. I’ve had excellent success finding lost things using pendulum method that involves just my fingers–so no extra equipment is required. To use the hand dowsing method, you will create circles by touching your left thumb to left forefinger, and right thumb to right forefinger. These ‘circles’ can be intersected, so you have created a two-link chain. With this system, I’ve found “lost” family members in crowds of thousands of people very quickly, able to walk directly to them! The dowsing works through muscle strength. The idea is that when you are thinking or saying something you agree with or know to be true, such as, “I am alive,” your muscles will hold strong, even as you tug your hands away from one another, trying to pull the circles apart. If you think or say something you know is untrue, such as, “I am dead,” you will get no such strong support from your muscles, and your hands will easily separate as you pull them apart. Once you’ve tried out hand dowsing a few times to get familiar with how it feels when you get a “yes” or “no” response, you can use it to locate people in crowds (by asking yes or no questions as to whether they’re ahead of or behind you), and to locate lost objects.

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Sources:

Ball, Philip, “The Dawn of Quantum Biology,” Nature, 16 June 2011

Draxler, Breanna, “Your Brain Calls in Backup to Find Lost Things,” Discover Magazine, April 2013

Larson, Cynthia, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World, 2012

Sand Crabs and Our Perception of Reality

When I was a child, I saw an extraordinary thing one day at the beach. My family and I were vacationing at a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, and we spent a leisurely day on a quiet, uninhabited beach. I sat by myself on a part of the beach populated by a whole colony of sand crabs. These little crabs lived in holes in the sand that each crab dug for itself, and at any sign of movement, the crabs would scurry quickly down into their holes for safety.

I observed one of the crabs moving sand with a claw with absent-minded proficiency, and I was mesmerized to see the effortless way it obtained a scoop of sand and lifted it into the air. This activity looked like so much fun to me that I made a similar ball of sand and playfully tossed it toward some crabs. The sand ball hit an unsuspecting crab, which immediately scooped up a ball of sand and held it aloft while standing up as high on its back legs as possible. The crab looked as tense and concerned as a crab can look, with moist grains of sand from the sand ball I’d just tossed still clinging to its shell.

The crab continued standing high on its back legs, surveying the area and assessing all the crabs in the vicinity to determine who might have tossed a sand ball. After several long moments of careful consideration, the crab steadied itself as it fixed its gaze on one particular crab. It suddenly flung its ball of sand at this unsuspecting crab, which it hit with incredible precision! The targeted crab immediately scooped up a ball of sand and returned fire.

In a matter of minutes, a dozen little crabs were all flinging sand balls at one another with reckless abandon. None of the crabs suspected the perpetrator of the whole sand ball fracas was not a crab at all, but a human.

My experience with these sand crabs shows me that crabs interpret what happens to them in terms they can understand, which may not be the truest sense of what is actually happening. We humans are not so different from crabs, in the sense that we are also only capable of interpreting experience based on what we know of reality. Some forces are simply outside our realm of comprehension. The sand crabs had no prior knowledge of humans, so they did not imagine I might have been the one who threw the first sand ball, though my interaction with them had the effect of moving almost every single crab on the beach into action.

We live within a conceptualization of a universe of which we have limited understanding, just like the crabs on the beach with no knowledge of anything besides other crabs throwing sand balls. We have much in common with those crabs, since we usually only consider other humans like ourselves to be capable of affecting our lives. When Captain Cook’s sailing ship first approached the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific it was not noticed by the inhabitants, even when Captain Cook and his crew pointed it out to them, since no Tahitians ever saw such a vessel before. Just as Captain Cook’s ship was invisible to Tahitians, I was invisible to sand crabs on the beach. This shows that we can’t contemplate what we have no comprehension of, even when it is right in front of us. The range of our knowledge of reality is limited by our pre-existing beliefs, assumptions and expectations.

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Copyright © 2012 Cynthia Sue Larson

Excerpted from “Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World“

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Smart Grid

Cynthia Sue Larson

How the Precautionary Principle Can Save the Day

Like most Americans, I took only moderate notice of President Barack Obama’s announcement on October 27, 2009 of a $3.4 billion commitment to build something called the “smart grid.” My ears perked up when Obama spoke about how the new smart grid would be based on a clean energy economy, and I envisioned renewable energy sources powering every home. I love the idea of clean energy, and I imagined a future in which America’s clean energy leaders would be choosing energy sources and delivery systems that strive and succeed in doing good, or at least in doing no harm, as the word “clean” implies.

“The growth of clean energy can lead to the growth of our economy,” Obama announced, promising that 100 private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and others would soon be receiving grants of between $400,000 and $200 million each. This sense of fast forward action suited America’s recessionary times, and resistance was discouraged when Obama called for an “all hands on deck approach,” saying, “The closer we get to this new energy future, the harder the opposition is going to fight. It’s a debate between looking backwards and looking forward, between those who are ready to seize the future and those who are afraid of the future, and we know which side the United States of America has always come down on.”

Few details were explained at this initial presentation. Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change said, “The smart grid is something that has a transformational impact on how energy is delivered. This is about building more than just miles of wire, it’s about building… something that works.” Having something that works sounded promising, and at the time, I gave the smart grid no further thought.

Canary in the Coal Mine

I took no notice when smart meters were attached to my house in January 2010, without notification by my utility, nor my express permission. I didn’t notice that one by one, smart meters were being installed on homes to either side of mine, and all around my neighborhood. I didn’t notice that slowly but surely, my entire city was being outfitted with smart meters… until one day in October 2011 I wondered why I awoke each morning feeling dizzy, with nosebleeds, blurred vision, ringing in my ears, and migraine headaches. I wondered why when I was just sitting and watching TV or reading, my heart would often skip a beat, and bizarre muscle tremors would inexplicably spasm muscles on my face, arms, legs, and all over my body as if I’d just been given an invisible electric shock. When I spent ten days away from my home and away from smart meters in Maui, I was amazed at how much better I felt. Gone were all the symptoms which I’d been thinking might have been signs of sudden aging. When I returned home, all the aforementioned symptoms returned, and I wondered what could be causing them. In January 2012, a couple of months later, I caught strep throat and felt sicker than I’d ever been in my life. Unable to feel comfortable anywhere in the house, due to feelings of pain in my head, eyes, ears, heart, and all over my body I slept on the living room floor, and turned my full attention to the question of what, exactly, was making me feel so terribly sick.

When I looked up my symptoms, I was amazed to find that many of them matched what used to be known as “microwave sickness.” The first scientific report of microwave sickness appeared in 1974, with symptoms including: fatigue, headaches, palpitations, insomnia, skin symptoms, impotence and altered blood pressure. In cases of extreme exposure, symptoms also included: warming sensations, nausea, neuropathy (numbness, tingling, even paralysis in toes and fingers), stomach cramps, dyasthesia (a crushing sensation) and irritability. People in these studies had been accidentally exposed to microwave radiation, and no clear biological markers at that time were found, so these were not the kind of long-term studies that could establish safe exposure levels.

While I’ve never owned or used any kind of cell phone, WiFi has been installed in my home for the past decade, with the router running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the opposite end of the house from where I sleep. I’ve worked with a wireless laptop computer for many years, many hours a day on this WiFi network with no problems or symptoms of any kind. Despite assurances from my local utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), that smart meters supposedly emitted much less radiation than cell phones and WiFi systems, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I felt much better when away from smart meters, and terribly sick when they were nearby.

I called and wrote to PG&E, asking them to immediately remove and replace the smart meters that were making me so sick on my home with the analog meters I’d had for years, with no problems. The PG&E spokesman I reached on the phone read rather woodenly from some kind of prewritten script, repeating over and over again how “smart meters are harmless.” I explained to him that I have a degree in physics from UC Berkeley, and am well aware that many kinds of radiation that we currently don’t have health standards or studies for are far from harmless, and that I was certain I am experiencing extremely negative effects from smart meters installed on my home. Eventually, this so-called “help” line staffer informed me that there was nothing I could do–there was no way (yet) to opt out.

A few weeks later, I attended and spoke at a public hearing of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco. Dozens of people spoke about how they, too, have been adversely affected by smart meters, and I was shocked to hear reports of people who have become so electro hypersensitive that they are living in their cars. On the bright side, I was delighted to hear some good news–beginning in February 2012, California residents in Pacific Gas & Electric’s territories could opt out, for an initial price and an on-going monthly extra charge. This is not a neighborhood opt-out, but rather a house-by-house opt-out, and businesses are not allowed to request to keep the time-tested analog meters at this time.

At the beginning of February 2012, I requested a smart meter opt-out, and on February 8, 2012, the gas and electric smart meters on my home were replaced with analog meters. While I still hear ringing in my ears and have increased sensitivity to my computer that I never had before, I’m now sleeping well and no longer waking up with nosebleeds and migraine headaches… and the heart palpitations, muscle spasms and blurred vision are a thing of the past.

The Precautionary Principle

With the advent of exponential technological growth in recent years, environmentalists have advocated use of something known as the precautionary principle. The thinking goes that without some kinds of checks and balances, human creativity is bound to occasionally throw caution to the wind, with results we now recognize as being detrimental–regardless how wonderful we originally assumed the benefits of our ingenuity to be.

The idea behind the precautionary principle is that if an action or policy is suspected to risk causing harm to the public or the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action. This can be achieved through open communication with the community, who has a right to know complete information about possible known risks and issues. The burden to supply this information lies with the proponent of the new product or technology (not on the general public). Part of this open communication includes an alternatives assessment, with an obligation to examine a full range of alternatives (including doing nothing) before selecting the alternative with the least potential negative impact on human health and the environment. Full cost accounting is part of this assessment, with long-term benefits and costs (including health and environmental impact costs) included. The entire process is: transparent to the public, participatory, and informed with the best available information.

In some legal systems, such as within the European Union, application of the precautionary principle is a statutory requirement. The advantage of the precautionary principle for policy makers is that it reminds decision makers of their social responsibility to protect the public and the environment from harm whenever scientific investigation has found plausible risk. Only when scientific findings emerge providing solid evidence of no harm shall the wheels of progress roll forward.

It’s Not Too Late

While the city of San Francisco made the news in March 2003 by adopting the San Francisco Precautionary Principle Resolution, and again in June 2005 when San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed the Precautionary Purchasing Ordinance… not much of the precautionary principle has yet been seen in action in the United States.

Many people have stepped forward to acknowledge they have been adversely affected by electromagnetic fields, including some high-profile, well-educated professionals, such as Norway’s former prime minister, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland. Increasing numbers of scientists and doctors are speaking up about known and suspected dangers of the pulsed, non-ionizing microwave radiation emitted by smart meters. The World Health Organization (WHO) now lists such electromagnetic radiation as a Class B carcinogen, indicating that it is considered likely to be carcinogenic to humans, and there is increasingly clear evidence that this kind of radiation causes the brain-blood barrier to become leaky, in such a way that toxins are more easily carried into the brain.

With mounting questions from an increasingly concerned public wishing to know what is being installed in our homes, and interested in knowing what effects wireless smart meters have on ourselves, our children, our friends and our families, it’s time we hold policy makers accountable for ensuring that a democratic, truly transparent decision-making process is taking place with respect to smart meters. The current “Ready-Fire!-Aim” approach to rolling-out wireless smart meters for the smart grid is negatively affecting human health and the environment.

Just as we recognized the proverbial “writing on the wall” with regard to technological wonders of their times: Agent Orange, Asbestos, CFCs, Diethylstilbestrol (DES), Dioxin, DDT, lead paint, and Thalidomide… it’s time for us to stop, wait for results from current scientific studies, do a thorough job gathering all relevant wireless smart meter information, engage in open dialogue all involved communities, and take a careful look at what role we really want wireless smart meters to have in our world today. If smart meters are harming increasing numbers of people, we potentially have a huge ticking time bomb on our hands… one that is leaving few habitable places left on Earth for growing numbers of individuals who have less and less tolerance for modern day  electrosmog.

Now is the time for each of us to contact our local government leaders at every level, and ask the simple question, “How can we best ensure that we’re truly moving toward a clean energy future?” When the government and corporations don’t adequately answer this question, it’s up to we the people to make certain this matter is properly addressed.