Living Consciously April 14, 2007

Dear friend,

If you’ve ever watched a tiny ant push a crumb uphill you have seen diligence in action. This is real determination and strength. We carry our food home in the trunk of our cars or on some other conveyance on wheels. For most of us in this wealthy culture, strength and determination are not required. However, as our minds begin to contemplate the possibility of catastrophe, we need both. What if we lose our job and our income decreases? In times of economic downturn it is more important than ever that we lead our minds into a real expectation of Good.

Pushing the problem around mentally or trying to push down the negativity is not the healthy way to handle it. Leading ourselves to authentically feel cheerfully expectant takes determination and strength. We need to reason it out spiritually.

This is an abundant universe. Everything in it is supplied with everything it needs to grow and prosper. Nature is lavish in her creativity. There is an underlying intelligence running through all life and a deep power inherent within all self aware beings. It is the power to generate experience through the content of the mind. What we think about tends to come about. This is something we can prove for ourselves. But it needs to be the leading edge of our awareness. We cannot succumb to superstition or allow ourselves to be talked into fear by the media.

Never more than now do humans need to stand up and lead themselves out of the belief in lack and scarcity, into a solid, powerful, creative awareness that this is a universe of relentless becoming. There is enough of everything for everybody because the cause of our prosperity is in mind, not in the stock market. Let us not be pushed around by the world. Let us each be the leader in our own world. We are not dealing with crumbs. We are dealing with Intelligence, love and creative mind.

Peace and blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes

Living Consciously April 15, 2009

Dear friends,

There is an old blues song called I put a spell on you. Casting spells is an old school way of speaking about the power of mind. You can probably remember a fairy tale about the witch placing a curse on someone. But no one can invade our own private mind space unless we are susceptible, unless we are open to receive. We would have to believe that someone else had power over us in order for them to influence our interior reality. It is a tightrope walk to be open- minded enough to learn new things, to hear diverse opinions, to embrace difference, and at the same time to keep the integrity of our own consciousness.

We are bombarded with information about many things we have no interest in and we automatically screen out much of it. However, if what is being said hits one of our insecurities, we pay attention until we are convinced we need to buy that particular product. If we are intimidated by outer authority, we might feel unable to be ourselves in its presence and effectively we are under the spell of a false belief.

Hypnosis works because it takes the subject into their subjective mind, kind of putting a spell on the conscious thought. The subject is so open to suggestion they will follow the orders given to them and do things completely out of the realm of their ordinary behaviour. In a similar manner, we hypnotize ourselves when we do not mind our mind. We are under the spell of our environment when we do not choose what we hold to be true, when we fall under the influence of the loudest voice.

We have to exercise our right to place parental controls on what we allow into this very creative mind of ours. Fill it up with positive affirmations and there will be no entry point for spell-casters to invade your space.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes