Questions and Answers
The Four “Mega-Foundations”
Could you talk a little more about the four main areas of involvement or what you call the four “mega-foundations”?
The first mega-foundation is the integral involvement with a group of like-minded individuals, all of whom have the same intention to develop their human and spiritual natures and support each other. Ideally, everyone would have a sense of belonging, a sense of being welcomed and accepted for who they are. In this age of discordant energies and alienation—and with so much inertia in support of low-consciousness living—true growth and transformation is rarely supported. We need the support of a group; we need a place to belong, a place to be accepted and acknowledged. We need a place where we can be held, embraced and appreciated; where we feel safe, connected, and “gotten”; where we can have fun, and feel alive, and express our love and appreciation; where we can be ourselves and be free of judgment. Such groups are rare and difficult to find so concurrent with all our other practices would be the endeavor to create such a place for ourselves and others.
The second mega-foundation involves developing and understanding our human self. This is about becoming more and more conscious of ourselves, of our subconscious conditioning, of our deep-seated motivations and beliefs. Part of this is about developing a positive, empowered human identity and feeling the full aliveness of life. This is about accepting and embracing who you are as this person. Not much is gonna happen on the spiritual level without becoming a whole, integral human being.
The third area is the cultivation of our creative power. This not only involves getting in touch with our integral oneness with Spirit but also working on ourselves in a psychological way, uncovering subconscious tendencies and taking steps to change outmoded beliefs and thinking patterns. This whole area is based upon the teachings of the New Thought movement which began in the early 1900s and which includes the teachings of Thomas Troward and Neville Goddard.
The fourth area is about realizing our true nature, about feeling and living from the state of our divine presence, and about becoming established in our inherent state of unity with Spirit. This mega-foundation is in keeping with most of the world’s spiritual traditions and is supported by an informed practice of meditation, prayer, and/or presence.
The Nine Foundations and the Twelve Steps
Every time I hear about a new “recovery” program I’m curious to see how it compares with the Twelve Steps. What are some of the main differences between the Nine Foundations and the Twelve Steps?
The Nine Foundations is a path of personal empowerment that can be used to overcome addictions but the focus is not on addictions or overcoming them. When a person has a solid foundation in life, when he comes into more and more of his fullness and power, addictions and negative conditions won’t be able to take hold and derail his life as they did before. The central problem, often related to a sense of weakness, low self-esteem, or isolation—and the subsequent need to use alcohol or drugs to cover up, deaden, or appease that problem—is no longer there, is no longer the driving force of one’s life. Well, the problem may still be there but it will no longer derail a person’s life as it did before.
When we become more whole and more connected to life—and have greater access to the joy and fullness of our own being—addictions lose their power over us. A person does not have to exert some kind of super will-power to overcome addictions—nor base his life and identity on that aim. Addictions may still be there but as the fullness of one’s being begins to emerge it overshadows, or over-lights the dim glimmer of addictions.
Another difference between the two programs relates to valence, where one program can be seen as negative (and somewhat disempowering) while the other can be seen as positive and empowering. If you want to get a sense of what I mean just compare the feel of Foundation One with that of Step One: Foundation One says: “I am an individual expression of Infinite Spirit, possessing all the qualities of Spirit such as love, power, abundance, and beauty.” Step One says: “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions, that our lives had become unmanageable.”
The Twelve Step program can certainly have value for people whose lives have been completely overtaken by addiction but more valuable and life-transforming than the central teachings, perhaps, is the love and support a person gets from others who are involved with the same struggles. Being part of a supportive, loving group is a catalyst for healing and transformation in both The Twelve Steps and The Nine Foundations.
One thing I’ve noticed about many people who have been involved with the Twelve Step program for a while is that they adopt an identity based upon weakness or the giving up of their will. In order to remain a part of the Twelve Steps community (which provides an essential anchor for a recovering person) a person may have to keep that weakness-based identity going even if it no longer suits him or if it begins to feel more and more confining. This weakness-identity does not apply to everyone but it can be a trap. The Nine Foundations never promotes weakness; it always promotes an empowered, fulfilled sense of self.
To realize and experience our all-fill spiritual nature is to feel the fullness of life. So long as this is not experienced one feels a sense of sad imperfection and his intellect suggests methods of regaining his sense of fullness, which are called desires. Each desire in the heart of man is an attempt of his intellect to discover a fuller sense of satisfaction in his life. (Swami Chinmayananda)
Doing God’s Will
Many spiritual seekers, and those involved with the Twelve Steps, strive to know and follow God’s Will. How does the notion of doing God’s will fit in with the Nine Foundations?
Doing God’s will is a creative act on the part of the individual. I don’t see how a person who believes that he is weak or powerless, or who just wants to give up—or thinks that he can do nothing for himself and that his only option is to have some Higher Power do everything for him like Mommy once did—can truly do God’s will. Such a person can certainly find support or solace from God but to do God’s will requires inner resolve and strength, and being in a position of choice. It’s not about giving up. We must come into full possession of ourselves (and know our likeness to God) before we can do God’s will, before we can give ourselves in service to God. How can you give what you don’t have?
In cases of desperation or hopelessness, giving up your will to some Higher Power, real or imagined, can be a remedial first step; anchoring yourself to something you believe is greater than yourself might bring you some solace, some hope, and it may give you a cause or a reason to improve your life. So, that can be helpful. But I don’t think this is the kind of surrender that makes you whole or can deliver you to you the magnificent splendor of Life. Again, for many people, it’s a necessary first step.
As mentioned, God’s will, what moves God to act, is the desire to experience more and more of His own nature, what He feels Himself to be. It is a purely positive impulse. As such, God’s will is to be ever-more joyous, alive, abundant, loving, and beautiful. The all of creation comes into existence as an outpouring of God’s Will. Thus, to truly do God’s will we must have the same will for ourselves as God has for himself, we must be moved to experience more and more of our own nature, more and more of our joy, beauty, and magnificence. That’s how we do God’s will—by being more and more like God. We were made in the image and likeness of God; how can acting contrary to our own nature and our own likeness align us with God’s will?
This should not be approached as an all or nothing endeavor. It should not be based on some impossible-to-reach ideal you set for yourself. This is a process that begins with you, with an acceptance of who you are. It is then your task to feel inspired, to incline yourself in the direction of God’s Will as best you can. That’s the only thing required at this point.
The Creative Process
Could you talk about the specific components of the creative process, how a person goes about creating what he or she wants?
To go about creating what you want, the first thing you have to do is get clear on what you want, what you really want. If your heart is not in it, if you’re not certain about what you want, if you’re divided, if you don’t really want what you think you want then your desired creation will lack manifesting power. Once you’re singular and clear about what you want then you have to uncover your deep-seated concepts and beliefs that run contrary to what you want. These are the subconscious blocks and counter-creations that neutralize your desired creation; these are the countervailing conditions that you are, unawares, creating right now. You may want a relationship but at the same time you may feel it’s going to confine you; or you may want wealth but at the same time feel that you are not deserving of it or that it’s not your destiny.
So, first you need to get clear on what you want; second, you have to uncover all the counter-creations, concepts, beliefs, etc., that are nullifying your conscious intention; then you need to expel or “falsify” those counter-creations so that they no longer nullify your creative efforts; then singularly, through the power of your embodied imagination, create what you want. You have to create what you want with the same certainty and singularity by which Spirit creates what it wants. … But, on a simpler level, you need not involve yourself in the process of creating what you want because, once you make a change in your belief system, in your view of the world, in your view of yourself, that change will naturally manifest in your life. Bear in mind that you don’t always get what you want, but you always get what deepest self believes to be true.
If you feel inspired, however, you can use the power of your creative imagination to help empower and focus the process. So, once you’re able to get past or deflate your counter-creations—to whatever extent is possible—then you go about imagining what you want in explicit detail; you have to feel the realness of your imagined reality; and then fully enter your creation, thinking and living from that position just as you would had the same reality taken place on the physical plane. This is the way to make real, or realize, your imagined reality; this full embodiment of your imagined reality is what Spirit needs in order to go about creating such a reality for you. It needs you to impart realness to your own creation, to believe wholeheartedly in the efficacy of your creation. It needs you to fully occupy your own creation. Only then can Spirit occupy it as well. Only then can Spirit give you what you already got.
The bottom line is that your Imagination and the Imaginative Power that creates the universe are one and the same, the only difference is in degrees of efficacy. You can create anything you can imagine. And you can manifest what you imagine to the degree that you can occupy your own creation.
Did Jesus demonstrate this kind of creative, manifesting power?
Yes. We, too, can direct that same power but our efforts are usually nullified by doubt, uncertainty, and subconscious counter-creations. I know people who have reached the same state of God-realization as Jesus, realizing their inseparable unity with God, but I don’t know anyone who has mastered the creative power to the extent that Jesus reportedly did. In addition, Jesus exhibited true humanity and love through his human form. That’s why he was the rarest of beings. But you have all the potential power that Jesus had, you are as dear to God as was Jesus—and this is what he tried to teach his followers—but you have lots of things that Jesus didn’t have, and that’s the problem. You have lots of doubt about who you are and your creative power, you have lots of mistaken concepts, you have lots of limiting beliefs that cause you to feel weak and powerless and somehow less than Jesus. So, you need to get rid of all of that stuff. … If you are inclined to accept Jesus as your lord and savior, that’s okay. But the best way, and perhaps the only way to do this is to become more and more like Jesus, which includes honoring and accepting the whole of who you are.
Creative Revision - Neville Goddard
"Going back into the past and replaying a scene of the past in the imagination, as it ought to have been played the first time, is what I call “revision”—and revision results in repeal [i.e., a change in our present and future conditions]." —Neville Goddard
Neville Goddard talks about the practice of Creative Revision where you access a memory of a past event and revise it in accord with your wishes. You re-imagine and re-experience the event as you wish it to be not as it actually happened. With regards to this, I only have one problem: the event was real, it really happened to me. This revision stuff is not real, it’s just imagination.
Yes, well put—the event that happened to you WAS real. It happened to you in the past. But now it’s just a memory, an imagined reality that you take as being real. And your memory of the event—perhaps your regret and guilt over it as well—all that is imaginary as well. The event is over. Done. You're re-creating it and re-experiencing it in your creative imagination. The event came and went, perhaps even years ago; all it amounts to now is a mental recall. It’s a figment of your imagination. Yet you keep re-imagining the event, in accord with your memory of it, holding it as real; and even though you don’t like what happened, even though it is painful, you keep it going. Why? Somehow your ego-defense programming is attached to the event. You keep identifying with it. You keep owning it; you keep making it real for yourself. And, as a result, your subconscious mind keeps making it real for you as well. It assumes that the negative event is something you want, something you are choosing for yourself, so it keeps giving you more of the same. You see, Spirit, which is one with your subconscious mind, always creates what it wants, and only creates what is wants; so, since you are continually creating this negative event, and occupying it, and holding it as real for yourself, your subconscious mind holds that it must be something you want and so it keeps creating it for you. Why else would you be thinking about it and recreating it in your memory if it was something you did not want? Thus, according to your own choice, your subconscious mind keeps filling your life with the negative experience of the event. If it is not something you want, why on earth would you be creating it? This is the kind of deep trouble human beings get into when their limited cognitive mind interacts with their limitless subconscious mind.
So you see, this screwed up programming, this disjointed belief system, where you recall some past event in your memory, now, and believe it is real, and where you see your creative re-imagination of the event as being unreal, is a problem. It strips you of your creative power, binds you to a phantom past, and fills your present experience with something you don’t want. Is that the reality you want? If so, keep choosing it; if not, choose something else. The choice is yours.
Food
Can you talk about food and Overeaters Anonymous? How do the Nine Foundations relate to this issue?
As stated, the Twelve Step program relating to food struggles is called “Overeaters Anonymous.” And notice that, right from the start, participation in this program requires a person to adopt the negative title of being an “overeater.” This struggle, however, has little to do with overeating. People who habitually overeat or eat a predominance of comfort foods are often besieged by a sense of dissatisfaction, emptiness, lack of meaning, lack of power, isolation, and/or low self-esteem—and this applies especially to women. And the vast amount of attention placed on food, eating, dieting, one’s body-image, thoughts that no one will love me if I am fat, etc., only perpetuate the problem by lowering one’s “life-vibration” and keeping one’s consciousness riveted to a negative and desperate sense of self. By dwelling on the negative, by trying to get away from the negative, we keep on creating more of that negativity in our lives. The central approach of the Nine Foundations is based on coming into your own power and developing positive self-esteem, not on the notion that you are weak, a sinner, or that you must give up your will to a Higher Power to bring about changes in your life.
The best approach for people who want to overcome eating problems is to establish their center, increase their sense of self-acceptance and self-love—and to focus more on life (and the positive side of life) than on food, food issues, and a constant sense of struggle and failure. Bringing a further sense of weakness and powerlessness to a person whose power and esteem is already diminished—in an attempt to overcome their “addiction”—can be especially problematic and counter-productive, particularly for women. In this case the treatment would be worse than the disease.
Ultimately, the best way to fully resolve a food addiction, or the need to fill or comfort yourself with food, is to feel your own sense of wholeness, to be centered in your own power and love. Any program that fosters a sense of weakness or dependency on something outside your true self will only take you so far. It may be helpful in the beginning but soon it can become the very thing that blocks you from becoming a whole, integral human being.
Loving Oneself
A big formula for Oprah, especially as it relates to food issues, is that we have to love ourselves; we have to feel good about ourselves. How does this fit in with the Nine Foundations?
The better you feel about yourself, the more value you find in life, the more in touch you are with your own qualities of love, aliveness, creative power, and beauty the less sway food (or any outer “promise”) will have over you. However, when Oprah says that we have to love ourselves, or feel good about ourselves, which self is she talking about? Most people think she is talking about our personal self, our self-image (i.e., the self that most people identify with). However, Oprah may also be talking about our true self. This is a much deeper part of our being; it is something much more profound and empowering than simply having a positive self-image. Once we are in touch with our true self, our innate sense of love naturally emerges; we don’t have to “do” anything or love ourselves because when we enter the core of our being we discover that love is who we are.
Our Soul's Longing
To feel good about ourselves (as this person)—is that good enough? Will this lead us to satisfaction and fulfillment in life?
It’s a start, a solid foundation upon which we can base our spiritual development—but there is something more. So long as we completely believe ourselves to be this person (and exclusively identify with this limited part of our being)—even if we feel good about this limited part—our soul will long for more. Our soul knows that there is something much more profound about who we are and so it is never satisfied with this limited identity we have adopted, this limited person we believe ourselves to be. It simply cannot feel its fullness and joy when confined to this person-based identity. So, no matter what, no matter how much we love or enjoy ourselves as this person, our soul will always want more. Our soul will always long for the fullness of itself.
The obsession with food (and every other obsession) is an attempt to appease our soul’s longing; it's an attempt to fill that sense of emptiness, that sense that something deep in our core is missing. And, indeed, the deepest part of ourselves is missing from our own lives. Of course its always present but it's not part of our human experience.
So long as our soul is confined and imprisoned in this mental version of self, this personal identity—which we believe is the whole of who we are—she is going to suffer, and we are going to feel that suffering. The soul will suffer because she is totally displaced from her true abode, which is the Heart. Experiencing that pain, and not really understanding what it is, we naturally try to run from it (or cover it up) through various pursuits, goals, activities, obsessions, etc. But what are we running from?—the call of our own soul! The call for "more, more." Feel into that; don’t go with your knee-jerk reaction to try and avoid, cover up, or reject that longing. Go where it leads you. That pain, that longing, when properly understood and acted upon is the very thing that can lead you out of pain altogether and into the radiant wonder of your own being. As the Sufi poet, Rumi, writes:
”It is the burn of the heart that I want. That burn is everything; it is more
precious than a worldly empire because that is what calls the Beloved
secretly in the night."
________________ ◊ ◊ ◊ ________________
The Four “Mega-Foundations”
Could you talk a little more about the four main areas of involvement or what you call the four “mega-foundations”?
The first mega-foundation is the integral involvement with a group of like-minded individuals, all of whom have the same intention to develop their human and spiritual natures and support each other. Ideally, everyone would have a sense of belonging, a sense of being welcomed and accepted for who they are. In this age of discordant energies and alienation—and with so much inertia in support of low-consciousness living—true growth and transformation is rarely supported. We need the support of a group; we need a place to belong, a place to be accepted and acknowledged. We need a place where we can be held, embraced and appreciated; where we feel safe, connected, and “gotten”; where we can have fun, and feel alive, and express our love and appreciation; where we can be ourselves and be free of judgment. Such groups are rare and difficult to find so concurrent with all our other practices would be the endeavor to create such a place for ourselves and others.
The second mega-foundation involves developing and understanding our human self. This is about becoming more and more conscious of ourselves, of our subconscious conditioning, of our deep-seated motivations and beliefs. Part of this is about developing a positive, empowered human identity and feeling the full aliveness of life. This is about accepting and embracing who you are as this person. Not much is gonna happen on the spiritual level without becoming a whole, integral human being.
The third area is the cultivation of our creative power. This not only involves getting in touch with our integral oneness with Spirit but also working on ourselves in a psychological way, uncovering subconscious tendencies and taking steps to change outmoded beliefs and thinking patterns. This whole area is based upon the teachings of the New Thought movement which began in the early 1900s and which includes the teachings of Thomas Troward and Neville Goddard.
The fourth area is about realizing our true nature, about feeling and living from the state of our divine presence, and about becoming established in our inherent state of unity with Spirit. This mega-foundation is in keeping with most of the world’s spiritual traditions and is supported by an informed practice of meditation, prayer, and/or presence.
The Nine Foundations and the Twelve Steps
Every time I hear about a new “recovery” program I’m curious to see how it compares with the Twelve Steps. What are some of the main differences between the Nine Foundations and the Twelve Steps?
The Nine Foundations is a path of personal empowerment that can be used to overcome addictions but the focus is not on addictions or overcoming them. When a person has a solid foundation in life, when he comes into more and more of his fullness and power, addictions and negative conditions won’t be able to take hold and derail his life as they did before. The central problem, often related to a sense of weakness, low self-esteem, or isolation—and the subsequent need to use alcohol or drugs to cover up, deaden, or appease that problem—is no longer there, is no longer the driving force of one’s life. Well, the problem may still be there but it will no longer derail a person’s life as it did before.
When we become more whole and more connected to life—and have greater access to the joy and fullness of our own being—addictions lose their power over us. A person does not have to exert some kind of super will-power to overcome addictions—nor base his life and identity on that aim. Addictions may still be there but as the fullness of one’s being begins to emerge it overshadows, or over-lights the dim glimmer of addictions.
Another difference between the two programs relates to valence, where one program can be seen as negative (and somewhat disempowering) while the other can be seen as positive and empowering. If you want to get a sense of what I mean just compare the feel of Foundation One with that of Step One: Foundation One says: “I am an individual expression of Infinite Spirit, possessing all the qualities of Spirit such as love, power, abundance, and beauty.” Step One says: “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions, that our lives had become unmanageable.”
The Twelve Step program can certainly have value for people whose lives have been completely overtaken by addiction but more valuable and life-transforming than the central teachings, perhaps, is the love and support a person gets from others who are involved with the same struggles. Being part of a supportive, loving group is a catalyst for healing and transformation in both The Twelve Steps and The Nine Foundations.
One thing I’ve noticed about many people who have been involved with the Twelve Step program for a while is that they adopt an identity based upon weakness or the giving up of their will. In order to remain a part of the Twelve Steps community (which provides an essential anchor for a recovering person) a person may have to keep that weakness-based identity going even if it no longer suits him or if it begins to feel more and more confining. This weakness-identity does not apply to everyone but it can be a trap. The Nine Foundations never promotes weakness; it always promotes an empowered, fulfilled sense of self.
To realize and experience our all-fill spiritual nature is to feel the fullness of life. So long as this is not experienced one feels a sense of sad imperfection and his intellect suggests methods of regaining his sense of fullness, which are called desires. Each desire in the heart of man is an attempt of his intellect to discover a fuller sense of satisfaction in his life. (Swami Chinmayananda)
Doing God’s Will
Many spiritual seekers, and those involved with the Twelve Steps, strive to know and follow God’s Will. How does the notion of doing God’s will fit in with the Nine Foundations?
Doing God’s will is a creative act on the part of the individual. I don’t see how a person who believes that he is weak or powerless, or who just wants to give up—or thinks that he can do nothing for himself and that his only option is to have some Higher Power do everything for him like Mommy once did—can truly do God’s will. Such a person can certainly find support or solace from God but to do God’s will requires inner resolve and strength, and being in a position of choice. It’s not about giving up. We must come into full possession of ourselves (and know our likeness to God) before we can do God’s will, before we can give ourselves in service to God. How can you give what you don’t have?
In cases of desperation or hopelessness, giving up your will to some Higher Power, real or imagined, can be a remedial first step; anchoring yourself to something you believe is greater than yourself might bring you some solace, some hope, and it may give you a cause or a reason to improve your life. So, that can be helpful. But I don’t think this is the kind of surrender that makes you whole or can deliver you to you the magnificent splendor of Life. Again, for many people, it’s a necessary first step.
As mentioned, God’s will, what moves God to act, is the desire to experience more and more of His own nature, what He feels Himself to be. It is a purely positive impulse. As such, God’s will is to be ever-more joyous, alive, abundant, loving, and beautiful. The all of creation comes into existence as an outpouring of God’s Will. Thus, to truly do God’s will we must have the same will for ourselves as God has for himself, we must be moved to experience more and more of our own nature, more and more of our joy, beauty, and magnificence. That’s how we do God’s will—by being more and more like God. We were made in the image and likeness of God; how can acting contrary to our own nature and our own likeness align us with God’s will?
This should not be approached as an all or nothing endeavor. It should not be based on some impossible-to-reach ideal you set for yourself. This is a process that begins with you, with an acceptance of who you are. It is then your task to feel inspired, to incline yourself in the direction of God’s Will as best you can. That’s the only thing required at this point.
The Creative Process
Could you talk about the specific components of the creative process, how a person goes about creating what he or she wants?
To go about creating what you want, the first thing you have to do is get clear on what you want, what you really want. If your heart is not in it, if you’re not certain about what you want, if you’re divided, if you don’t really want what you think you want then your desired creation will lack manifesting power. Once you’re singular and clear about what you want then you have to uncover your deep-seated concepts and beliefs that run contrary to what you want. These are the subconscious blocks and counter-creations that neutralize your desired creation; these are the countervailing conditions that you are, unawares, creating right now. You may want a relationship but at the same time you may feel it’s going to confine you; or you may want wealth but at the same time feel that you are not deserving of it or that it’s not your destiny.
So, first you need to get clear on what you want; second, you have to uncover all the counter-creations, concepts, beliefs, etc., that are nullifying your conscious intention; then you need to expel or “falsify” those counter-creations so that they no longer nullify your creative efforts; then singularly, through the power of your embodied imagination, create what you want. You have to create what you want with the same certainty and singularity by which Spirit creates what it wants. … But, on a simpler level, you need not involve yourself in the process of creating what you want because, once you make a change in your belief system, in your view of the world, in your view of yourself, that change will naturally manifest in your life. Bear in mind that you don’t always get what you want, but you always get what deepest self believes to be true.
If you feel inspired, however, you can use the power of your creative imagination to help empower and focus the process. So, once you’re able to get past or deflate your counter-creations—to whatever extent is possible—then you go about imagining what you want in explicit detail; you have to feel the realness of your imagined reality; and then fully enter your creation, thinking and living from that position just as you would had the same reality taken place on the physical plane. This is the way to make real, or realize, your imagined reality; this full embodiment of your imagined reality is what Spirit needs in order to go about creating such a reality for you. It needs you to impart realness to your own creation, to believe wholeheartedly in the efficacy of your creation. It needs you to fully occupy your own creation. Only then can Spirit occupy it as well. Only then can Spirit give you what you already got.
The bottom line is that your Imagination and the Imaginative Power that creates the universe are one and the same, the only difference is in degrees of efficacy. You can create anything you can imagine. And you can manifest what you imagine to the degree that you can occupy your own creation.
Did Jesus demonstrate this kind of creative, manifesting power?
Yes. We, too, can direct that same power but our efforts are usually nullified by doubt, uncertainty, and subconscious counter-creations. I know people who have reached the same state of God-realization as Jesus, realizing their inseparable unity with God, but I don’t know anyone who has mastered the creative power to the extent that Jesus reportedly did. In addition, Jesus exhibited true humanity and love through his human form. That’s why he was the rarest of beings. But you have all the potential power that Jesus had, you are as dear to God as was Jesus—and this is what he tried to teach his followers—but you have lots of things that Jesus didn’t have, and that’s the problem. You have lots of doubt about who you are and your creative power, you have lots of mistaken concepts, you have lots of limiting beliefs that cause you to feel weak and powerless and somehow less than Jesus. So, you need to get rid of all of that stuff. … If you are inclined to accept Jesus as your lord and savior, that’s okay. But the best way, and perhaps the only way to do this is to become more and more like Jesus, which includes honoring and accepting the whole of who you are.
Creative Revision - Neville Goddard
"Going back into the past and replaying a scene of the past in the imagination, as it ought to have been played the first time, is what I call “revision”—and revision results in repeal [i.e., a change in our present and future conditions]." —Neville Goddard
Neville Goddard talks about the practice of Creative Revision where you access a memory of a past event and revise it in accord with your wishes. You re-imagine and re-experience the event as you wish it to be not as it actually happened. With regards to this, I only have one problem: the event was real, it really happened to me. This revision stuff is not real, it’s just imagination.
Yes, well put—the event that happened to you WAS real. It happened to you in the past. But now it’s just a memory, an imagined reality that you take as being real. And your memory of the event—perhaps your regret and guilt over it as well—all that is imaginary as well. The event is over. Done. You're re-creating it and re-experiencing it in your creative imagination. The event came and went, perhaps even years ago; all it amounts to now is a mental recall. It’s a figment of your imagination. Yet you keep re-imagining the event, in accord with your memory of it, holding it as real; and even though you don’t like what happened, even though it is painful, you keep it going. Why? Somehow your ego-defense programming is attached to the event. You keep identifying with it. You keep owning it; you keep making it real for yourself. And, as a result, your subconscious mind keeps making it real for you as well. It assumes that the negative event is something you want, something you are choosing for yourself, so it keeps giving you more of the same. You see, Spirit, which is one with your subconscious mind, always creates what it wants, and only creates what is wants; so, since you are continually creating this negative event, and occupying it, and holding it as real for yourself, your subconscious mind holds that it must be something you want and so it keeps creating it for you. Why else would you be thinking about it and recreating it in your memory if it was something you did not want? Thus, according to your own choice, your subconscious mind keeps filling your life with the negative experience of the event. If it is not something you want, why on earth would you be creating it? This is the kind of deep trouble human beings get into when their limited cognitive mind interacts with their limitless subconscious mind.
So you see, this screwed up programming, this disjointed belief system, where you recall some past event in your memory, now, and believe it is real, and where you see your creative re-imagination of the event as being unreal, is a problem. It strips you of your creative power, binds you to a phantom past, and fills your present experience with something you don’t want. Is that the reality you want? If so, keep choosing it; if not, choose something else. The choice is yours.
Food
Can you talk about food and Overeaters Anonymous? How do the Nine Foundations relate to this issue?
As stated, the Twelve Step program relating to food struggles is called “Overeaters Anonymous.” And notice that, right from the start, participation in this program requires a person to adopt the negative title of being an “overeater.” This struggle, however, has little to do with overeating. People who habitually overeat or eat a predominance of comfort foods are often besieged by a sense of dissatisfaction, emptiness, lack of meaning, lack of power, isolation, and/or low self-esteem—and this applies especially to women. And the vast amount of attention placed on food, eating, dieting, one’s body-image, thoughts that no one will love me if I am fat, etc., only perpetuate the problem by lowering one’s “life-vibration” and keeping one’s consciousness riveted to a negative and desperate sense of self. By dwelling on the negative, by trying to get away from the negative, we keep on creating more of that negativity in our lives. The central approach of the Nine Foundations is based on coming into your own power and developing positive self-esteem, not on the notion that you are weak, a sinner, or that you must give up your will to a Higher Power to bring about changes in your life.
The best approach for people who want to overcome eating problems is to establish their center, increase their sense of self-acceptance and self-love—and to focus more on life (and the positive side of life) than on food, food issues, and a constant sense of struggle and failure. Bringing a further sense of weakness and powerlessness to a person whose power and esteem is already diminished—in an attempt to overcome their “addiction”—can be especially problematic and counter-productive, particularly for women. In this case the treatment would be worse than the disease.
Ultimately, the best way to fully resolve a food addiction, or the need to fill or comfort yourself with food, is to feel your own sense of wholeness, to be centered in your own power and love. Any program that fosters a sense of weakness or dependency on something outside your true self will only take you so far. It may be helpful in the beginning but soon it can become the very thing that blocks you from becoming a whole, integral human being.
Loving Oneself
A big formula for Oprah, especially as it relates to food issues, is that we have to love ourselves; we have to feel good about ourselves. How does this fit in with the Nine Foundations?
The better you feel about yourself, the more value you find in life, the more in touch you are with your own qualities of love, aliveness, creative power, and beauty the less sway food (or any outer “promise”) will have over you. However, when Oprah says that we have to love ourselves, or feel good about ourselves, which self is she talking about? Most people think she is talking about our personal self, our self-image (i.e., the self that most people identify with). However, Oprah may also be talking about our true self. This is a much deeper part of our being; it is something much more profound and empowering than simply having a positive self-image. Once we are in touch with our true self, our innate sense of love naturally emerges; we don’t have to “do” anything or love ourselves because when we enter the core of our being we discover that love is who we are.
Our Soul's Longing
To feel good about ourselves (as this person)—is that good enough? Will this lead us to satisfaction and fulfillment in life?
It’s a start, a solid foundation upon which we can base our spiritual development—but there is something more. So long as we completely believe ourselves to be this person (and exclusively identify with this limited part of our being)—even if we feel good about this limited part—our soul will long for more. Our soul knows that there is something much more profound about who we are and so it is never satisfied with this limited identity we have adopted, this limited person we believe ourselves to be. It simply cannot feel its fullness and joy when confined to this person-based identity. So, no matter what, no matter how much we love or enjoy ourselves as this person, our soul will always want more. Our soul will always long for the fullness of itself.
The obsession with food (and every other obsession) is an attempt to appease our soul’s longing; it's an attempt to fill that sense of emptiness, that sense that something deep in our core is missing. And, indeed, the deepest part of ourselves is missing from our own lives. Of course its always present but it's not part of our human experience.
So long as our soul is confined and imprisoned in this mental version of self, this personal identity—which we believe is the whole of who we are—she is going to suffer, and we are going to feel that suffering. The soul will suffer because she is totally displaced from her true abode, which is the Heart. Experiencing that pain, and not really understanding what it is, we naturally try to run from it (or cover it up) through various pursuits, goals, activities, obsessions, etc. But what are we running from?—the call of our own soul! The call for "more, more." Feel into that; don’t go with your knee-jerk reaction to try and avoid, cover up, or reject that longing. Go where it leads you. That pain, that longing, when properly understood and acted upon is the very thing that can lead you out of pain altogether and into the radiant wonder of your own being. As the Sufi poet, Rumi, writes:
”It is the burn of the heart that I want. That burn is everything; it is more
precious than a worldly empire because that is what calls the Beloved
secretly in the night."
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