Distinguishing the Voice of Guidance from Mind Chatter

We’re already feeling the challenges of the 2012 wave. The issue for ourselves as individuals and for our culture and civilization is whether the energetic intensification of the 2012 time will move us to a fuller manifestation of our potential or result in a fall into chaos and dysfunction.

This extraordinary time is a test of character. It’s an opening for application of our spiritual intelligence as a way of maintaining a perspective on the deep story of what is happening in our world.

By spiritual intelligence I mean the deeper wisdom potential that lives within each individual. There is a wisdom source separate from our ego personality that communicates with us. We call on it in moments of crisis. It is available to us in every minute of our lives to assist us in making the most mundane decisions.

I call this source Guidance. What is Guidance? Is it God speaking to us, our Higher Self, our past life self, our future self, some departed relative, our guardian angel, some higher dimensional being, or some wise alien friend?

There is a great chain of being called the spiritual network. We’re sort of near the bottom as embodied human beings. The first level up from humankind is our Higher Self and discarnates of various kinds, then angels and higher dimensional beings, and ultimately Source or God.

It’s easy to get lost in questions of hierarchy and what’s happening at subtle levels of reality beyond our three dimensional continuum. But these metaphysical questions don’t have to be sorted out in order to receive benefit from the inner spiritual resource.

You might think that with all of these spectral beings potentially open to communicate with us there would be a cacophony of spiritual advisors, each having a different voice and message, and with some disagreeing with others. However, things don’t work quite the same in the spiritual network as they do on our three dimensional plane.

For true Guidance comes to us as a single clear voice. It usually expresses itself in terms readily understandable to our level of intelligence. For the most part it doesn’t give us esoteric or cosmic truth. It talks about our everyday concerns in direct personal terms.

This is because the true voice of Guidance is filtered down to us through the medium of our Higher Self. Regardless of where the helpful inspirations originate from in the spiritual network, it’s channeled through the Higher Self faculty.

The Higher Self is our closest point of connection to the spiritual network and thus it’s where our three dimensional based humanity can most easily intersect with the spiritual realm.

Besides the Guidance faculty coming through our Higher Self, there are other channels of spiritual communication open to us. For example, there is the potential for engaging with discarnates, i.e., dead people. For as many different kinds of sentient beings as there are in our multiverse, there is human potential for communicating with these sources.

The issue of distinguishing the voice of Guidance from mind chatter then turns out to be a twofold challenge. On the one hand, the human mind is fragmented into different subpersonalities, each with its own distinct voice.

For example, there is the inner critic, the inner cynic, the inner child, the inner wild man or woman. The voices we hear in our head are often the result of the mind speaking to itself.

On the other hand, we sometimes experience spiritual communications from different interdimensional sources other than the Guidance that comes through the Higher Self.

With respect to communication from discarnates, being dead doesn’t automatically make one a better person. Moreover not all aliens are supportive of human welfare and not every channeled entity can be trusted.

However, if we can develop a good dialogue with the voice of Guidance, this can be a way to discriminate between life-affirming and life-negating spiritual presences. You can use Guidance to determine if you should engage with some spiritual communication that comes to you or if you should shut the door.

Everyone has at least some transitory experience with these spiritual communications that are not the voice of Guidance. They come in dreams, for examples. Once you have a trustworthy relationship with Guidance, you can undertake spiritual opening to any extent and still maintain good personal and spiritual boundaries in the process.

Unlike spiritual influences that do not come by way of the Higher Self, the voice of Guidance is readily accessible within each human being and is continually present.

Guidance comes to us in many different forms on a daily basis. In addition to intuitive inspirations that come in the waking state, Guidance communicates to us through dreams, fantasies and daydreams, visions, coincidences, accidents, body symptoms, and illnesses.

There are tremendous benefits in being able to take in Guidance in the form of intuitive inspiration. When you’re tuned into Guidance on a regular basis, you can, for the most part, avoid the communication through desperate measures that come in the form of nightmares, accidents, body symptoms, and illnesses.

Because of agreements we make before we’re born, for many of us, our lives turn out to be one big growth conspiracy. It seems our purpose on this planet is to experience, learn, and grow.

If we have a good relationship with our Higher Self, then pretty much everything that happens to us is going be either a manifestation of our positive potential or a lesson pointing us in the direction of growth and transformation.

Everyone is on a growth mission in this life whether they realize it or not. Depending on where folks fall on the spiritual intelligence scale, they may be moving at a rapid transformational pace or almost invisible pace.

For those on the upper half of the scale, alignment with the transformation process will manifest as various spiritual openings to Guidance. We naturally want these openings to be low drama communications versus the fall on our butt variety.

These latter symptomatic breakdown kind of communications come in just when we’re too resistant to see the other messages that were given before. The breakdown is then a symptom of something beyond itself that points to the lesson needed.

When we are forced to stop and ask “Why did this happen to me?” there is an opportunity to see through to the message implicit in the event.

As we ramp up to the energetic intensification of the 2012 wave, being able to take in the Guidance available from our Higher Self in a direct and simple form becomes a crucial factor in getting to breakthrough rather than breakdown.

The 2012 wave is a time of accelerating change and transformation. If we can stay connected to Guidance, we can ride the big waves of spiritual opening as they come in. The result will then be an acceleration of our personal growth and individual evolution.

Many of the forms of communication in which Guidance comes to us are relatively indirect and require some skill in interpretation before we understand the intended message. Dreams are notorious in this respect. Also, we can simply fail to get the point in coincidences, body symptoms, and symptomatic breakdowns.

However, with intuitive inspirations, Guidance uses the language centers of the brain/mind to communicate in terms that are pretty straightforward. But, as mentioned above, there is a constant chatter happening inside ourselves. How can we know which of the inner voices we hear is really the voice of Guidance?

What I’m referring to as inner voices generally come as thoughts and inspirations. For the most part, it not like we hear someone speaking as if it were another person. So inner voice must be understood as a kind of metaphor of a specific form of distinct communication within our minds.

Calling Guidance an inner voice makes sense to the extent to which the thought or inspiration that comes to us has a different quality than our usual internal dialogue. It is by means of this distinct quality that we can discriminate genuine Guidance from mind chatter and other mental noise.

Guidance never advises us to do harm to ourselves, to other people, or other sentient beings. So that impulse you sometimes get to throw your project into the river is not the voice of Guidance. If it’s a hateful, vengeful, or self-destructive thought you’re having, you’re not tuned into Guidance.

Guidance comes from a place of infinite patience and compassion. It has a positive supportive tone but it’s not righteous, moralistic or judgmental. It’s easy to distinguish the voice of Guidance from the inner critic because Guidance does not invoke blame, shame, or guilt.

The quality of the communications from Guidance are generally free of emotional overtones. The inspirations are direct, straightforward, and real time focused.

For example, when I’m getting ready to go somewhere I’m generally anxious about whether or not I’m got everything I going to need. “Is it going to rain?” “Should I take my umbrella?” At this point Guidance will come in and say, “You don’t need that.”

I wonder should I eat this big snack right before I go to sleep? Guidance comes in and says simply, “That would be a mistake.” Note there is no “ought,” “should,” or “have to” here, just a straight forward message.

At other times, Guidance comes in to say something like, “It would be good if you did this now.” I wondering whether I should stay up a little bit latter than normal in order to make a small step forward in my project. Guidance will say, “This is important.”

What you discover is that when you have tuned in the real voice of Guidance then, at least ninety to ninety-five percent of the time, what was said to be important really is important. What was said to be a mistake, really is one and what was said to be not needed, really wasn’t.

This awareness gives us a road map with respect to discriminating the voice of Guidance from mind chatter. Follow up the inspirations you receive that you believe are coming from Guidance and see how helpful and accurate the counsel is. Pay attention to the quality of the voice from which inspiration sprang.

To the extent that the information is on target almost all the time, you will have succeeded in tuning in the Guidance station on your inner radio.

Another way of looking at Guidance is to see it as an appeal to us coming from our better nature. Ira Hayes received a call one day of this sort. Hayes was one of six men featured in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

After the battle, the three survivors were shipped to the United States to be part of a war bond drive. There was confusion with respect to who the sixth man was. He was falsely identified as Hank Hansen.

Hayes disputed this because he knew that Harlon Block was the actual sixth person in the photograph. But Hansen had already been officially identified as the sixth man and Hayes was ordered to keep quiet.

Hayes came back from the front a shattered man suffering from what we today identify as post traumatic shock syndrome. He became depressed and alcoholic. However, one day, eighteen months after he returned, he received an inner call from his better nature.

Hayes then hitchhiked 1300 miles from Arizona to Texas to talk in person to the Block family and tell them what he knew. Block’s mother, who always thought that her son was the sixth man, wrote a letter to her Congressman. An investigation ensued and Harlon Block’s place in history was restored.

Guidance comes to us spontaneously in many moments of our lives but you can also call Guidance forth when you need it. How to invoke Guidance will be the subject of Part II of this thread.

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Humans Behaving Badly

In the month of September, there have been several instances of disturbing breaches of decorum. These violations of implicit social contracts leave us wondering what is happening and what it means.

Moreover, what motivates our emotional reaction to these events which are of relatively small consequence compared to the unprecedented planetary challenges we face such as global warming and worldwide economic turmoil?

For those who may have been kidnapped by aliens for the last week or so or have otherwise been out of the current events loop, here is a summary of four incidents of interest.

Thursday, September 03. After a football game between the Oregon Ducks and the Boise State Broncos won by Boise State by a score of 19-8, Bryon Hout, linebacker for the Broncos, taps the starting tailback for the Ducks, Le Garrette Blount, on the shoulder and says something to him.

A Boise State coach yells at Hout and tries to pull him away. Before he can do this, Blount knocks Hout down with a punch to the face.

Wednesday, September 9. President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress on the subject of health care reform. He gets to this point in this speech: “There are those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms – the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”

At just this point Joe Wilson, representative from South Carolina, yells out: “You lie.”

Sunday, September 13. Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters play a semi-final match at the US Tennis Open. Trailing 4-6 and 5-6 and behind in the game 15-30, Serena is called for a foot fault by the linesperson on her second serve. This makes the score 15-40 and match point.

Williams walks over to the linesperson, points at her with her racket cursing, and says something to the effect of shoving the ball down the linesperson’s throat. Williams is assessed a second code violation (she had had another earlier for racket abuse) and so there was a point penalty. This makes it game, set, match for Clijsters.

Sunday, September 13. At the MTV music awards in New York City, a 19 year old country singer, Taylor Swift, wins the award for best female video. After she says only a few words, Kanye West comes onto the stage grabs the microphone and says: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’m going to let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time.”

At this point Swift is so rattled she can’t continue.

Jimmy Carter weighed in on the Joe Wilson outburst and basically said he thought it was motivated by racism.

In each of these four incidents the conflicts were between people of different races: Blount is black, Hoyt white, Wilson white and Obama black, Serena black and the linesperson Asian, West black and Swift white.

I think Carter’s comments were counterproductive. This is not because racism is no longer an issue in America, but because we need to make it so. We need conflicts to be focused on issues of substance and not issues of racial bias.

It’s important not to jump to the conclusion that Wilson’s outburst was racially motivated even if he has in the past defended flying the Confederate Flag over the South Carolina state house.

Racism will no longer be an issue for us just at the point where we judge people according to their character and conduct and not because of their skin color. The United States has a way to go before we arrive at that place, but I think we ought to celebrate the progress made along that line.

For example, no serious American politician today would defend openly racist views or support politics like segregation based on these views.

With that said, one index of progress in having a just society free of racial basis will be the extent to which people of color are treated equally with whites when they behave badly.

Blount was suspended from the Oregon team for the remainder of the season. Since he is a senior, this ends his football career as a college athlete and dims his chances to compete in the pros. The person who taunted him, on the other hand, will not miss any games.

The reaction to West’s improv at the MTV awards has been a vilification that is way out of proportion to the harm done.

On the other side of the racial social justice ledger, Wilson was censured by the House of Representatives in an unprecedented move. Serena’s $10,500 fine seems like an insignificant consequence, although further action against her may be forthcoming.

In terms of what is motivating these incidents of bad behavior, frustration is a key factor. Blount had what must have been his worst day as an athlete before the fateful punch. In eight carries, he was a net -5 yards and was tackled for a safety.

Serena was being outplayed and losing her match to Clijsters when she had her meltdown at match point.

As part of a shrinking Republican minority in Congress, and with Obama in charge of the White House, Joe Wilson has his measure of frustration with respect to the prospects of having his legislative priorities given serious consideration.

West was apparently frustrated that Beyonce didn’t get the award for best female video.

The issue here is how we are going to respond to the stresses we will encounter in the 2012 wave that is already upon us. Acting out and loss of emotional control is certainly one option but one with disastrous, self-sabotaging consequences.

These events are object lessons that we can learn from along the lines of negative role modeling.

We need to strengthen the provocation gate-keeper function within ourselves and resist the temptation to act out when provoked. The 2012 wave puts us on edge and irritation and frustration are what we experience on an almost daily basis.

These incidents of bad behavior are disturbing to us because they seem to indicate a weakening of the social contract that makes orderly life possible. If the competitive passion of sports degenerates into brawling, sport as an organized activity can’t continue.

Similarly if tennis players are allowed to bully and intimate the referees, the integrity of the sport is undermined. Heckling of the President disrespects the office and takes away from the authority that we wish to invest in that person.

And an awards program is totally disrupted by someone stealing the microphone from the person who just won the award.

I think these events are especially unsettling to us now because we sense that our entire civilization is undergoing rapid transformation. We have justifiable anxiety that some of our institutions are not going to survive without major overhaul.

At the very least, we want the changes that we are undergoing in the 2012 wave to not degenerate into social anarchy and chaos.

As described in other blogs, the 2012 time is turning out to be a time of both breakdown and breakthrough. Some people are going to thrive and experience tremendous openings for transformation and manifestation of their potential.

Other people are going to be caught up in contraction, negative emotional states, and hostile behavior.

We’re seeing now the beginning stages of a kind of polarization of people into groupings based on spiritual intelligence. The health care reform debate is one current index of this trend.

On one extreme are those people who are trying to reach meaningful reform. At the other extreme are people who are resisting reform and fighting it with misinformation and outright lies.

We can see this polarity reflected in how the perpetrators in the bad behavior scenarios reacted to their situations. In two cases, genuine remorse was expressed that reflected some understanding of the true nature of the regrettable conduct.

In the other two cases, what we saw was what could best be characterized as defiant apologies. These were statements crafted by a public relations staff person for the sole purpose of taking the people of interest off the hot seat.

Blount said that he would accept any punishment for his conduct. And Kanye West went on Jay Leno’s program with the expressed intent of making a sincere public apology.

Serena didn’t apologize at all at first and made it seem as though her outburst was some kind of collateral effect from her being a passionately competitive person. This makes it seem like she believes her conduct should just be overlooked.

She went on Good Morning America and, while acknowledging she was not a perfect person, used the occasion to hype her book. She stated that the incident would be a chapter in the forthcoming book, ostensibly showing her in a net positive light.

Joe Wilson refused to apologize to the House of Representatives. He is making his heckling of the President into a statement of defiance of the policies he opposes.

Our social order is being transformed. This transformation has been in the making for decades and the 2012 wave just accelerates the process to a dizzying pace.

The apocalypse we face in 2012 is not sourced in catastrophic earth changes but in a reinvention of civilization. We’re reaching a point at which we’re not sure which implicit rules of social order still apply.

When you look at the big picture of social transformation, there are some really hopeful and positive trends and the bad behaviors illustrate these.

For example, we’ve reached quick, relatively universal consensus on the unacceptability of the behaviors in question. I think this shows an overall trend of growth in spiritual intelligence for our species as a whole. A new sense of social justice is emerging.

This is helped, of course, by the mass media technology of the internet and social networking sites.

If you make a complete ass out of yourself, as did each of the perpetrators in our bad behavior scenarios, your action is likely to become immortalized in videos and replays that reach millions in the blink of a eye. Instant replay of stupidity and bad behavior is available for now and for all future generations.

In the MTV awards event, there were also moments of incredible Grace that emerged after the initial chaos. There was breakthrough as well as breakdown in the same evening. Taylor Swift showed tremendous poise in the situation after having been assaulted with an unimaginable turn of events.

Five minutes after her big moment had been literally ripped from her fingers, she went on to give an astounding performance of her signature song for which she won the award. The performance starts out on a subway platform under New York City, continues through the moving subway car, and ends at Radio City Music Hall.

As it turned out, Beyonce won the MTV award for the best video of the year. Citing her experience of being 17 and winning her first award, she invited Taylor back to the stage for a do over of her acceptance speech. She turned the potential rivalry with Swift that West was going for completely on its head.

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Health Care Reform Forecast

Congress is returning from the August recess and the fate of health care reform will soon be decided. Much is riding on this initiative. With the economy still struggling and health care costs continually rising, many economically disadvantaged people just can’t afford health care.

There are an estimated 46 million people currently living in the United States that have no health insurance. Millions more are underinsured and, when you add these people to those with no insurance at all, it is a staggering 42% of the United States population under age 65.

From the short term perspective, it would seem an inauspicious time for a progressive health care push with uncertain economic impact. There is justified fear that the federal deficit could grow even larger with a major health care reform bill.

Yet Obama’s effort to bring one of his principle campaign promises to fruition in the fall of 2009 is very timely if you look at the big picture. For millions of uninsured or underinsured people are either not going to the doctor at all or availing themselves of some sort of stop gap treatment like emergency room visits.

Looking at the economy from an ecological perspective, some version of affordable universal health care makes good sense. Without it, a significant percentage of our population is not fully productive as a result of preventable and treatable health issues. And taxpaying citizens have to ultimately pick the tab for the stop gap treatments of the uninsured and underinsured.

Moreover, out of control health care costs pinches all but the most wealthy people and erodes their economic prospects. A single serious illness or accident can easily result in a six figure bill. If you have no insurance, then you are facing bankruptcy. If underinsured, it’s most likely going to result in a wipeout of your savings.

The motivation to serve the greater good in the big picture is a good working definition of what is meant by a progressive politician. At the other end of the spectrum are those political folk who are motivated by short term, narrow personal and economic self-interest. These would be the contra progressives.

The tension between these two camps seems to be the big undercurrent in today’s political landscape. This dynamic doesn’t translate neatly into Democrat or Republican or liberal and conservative labels.

For it seems that we’re drifting into a three party scenario with Republicans, less progressive and more conservative Democrats, and more progressive, more liberal Democrats. Then the three functional political groups would be Republicans, conservative Democrats and liberal Democrats.

Most, but not all, of the Republicans seem to have framed the health care reform debate as an opportunity to undercut the presidency of Barack Obama.

Certainly if Obama were unable to get a health care reform bill done with a basically filibuster proof Senate and substantial majorities in each house, the tremendous momentum and political influence he has enjoyed since his almost landslide election would seem to have been curtailed.

I think this is what’s behind the campaign of outrageous disinformation that has come from the Republican camp. They are helped, of course, by vagueness with respect to what a final version of health care reform bill is going to be.

But it’s undeniable that some of their aspiring leaders are playing on people’s fears. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich are the leading offenders.

What I look in the crystal ball what I see is that there will be major health care reform passed by the Congress within one month’s time. Moreover, what amounts to the soul of health care reform, a public option, will also get through in some form.

My reading is that about 70% of Obama’s vision of health care reform will be enacted this year. A 30% compromise will be needed to assuage the fears and reservations of more conservative so called blue dog Democrats.

This will be pretty much a Democratic bill without much Republican input or support. Obama and the Democrats are going to push ahead without going for further bipartisan consensus.

What will be disappointing in the bill from the progressive point is view is that the public option will be in some watered down form like something that comes into play with a trigger option in the next three years or so.

This is still a monumental achievement and it will be eventually be a very popular program with wide public support as the details come to light and it’s put into practice.

Those who are busy writing the obituary of the Obama presidency will have to find something more productive to do.

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