Were Elephants Engineered as Living Metaphors of Grace and Patience

 

elephant living

Elephants are beautiful! A Shutterstock Licensed Image

Earth and human beings were most likely constructed as scientific experiments by extraterrestrial races, that is if you ascribe to the ancient astronaut theories of Erich von Däniken or Zecharia Sitchin. Given this, it’s possible that many of our planet’s species, living and extinct, were infused with unique sets of attributes meant to teach and inspire us.

At the birth of the great Earth experiment, aliens may have had justifiable fears around the dangers of what they were creating. They knew that the outcome would be unpredictable, and most likely, unimaginable. From experience, they recognized the dangers inherent in an experiment like this one.

It stands to reason that our alien architects must have known that developing simpler, somewhat limited, and possibly conscious species in tandem with human beings might preserve their experiment and related research.

“People are so difficult. Give me an elephant any day.”
— Mark Shand

It might be that animals, like elephants and birds, were created specifically to save us from ourselves.

It all comes down to the core questions that may have been referenced at the start of the venture. If you and I were designing a new race or planetary culture today, we’d need to start with the basics.

The initial, foundational questions might include:

  • How do we want our new living-Beings to look?
  • Which one should we create first?
  • What do we want them to feel?
  • How might they relate with themselves?
  • How do we want them to behave and interact?
  • How might they be able to liberate themselves?
  • How do they heal?
  • What tendencies should they have at conception?
  • What limits should we implement through their initial designs?
  • What failsafe termination material should we include in their DNA?

Tardigrades and Elephants

Consider the Tardigrades, also known as “slow steppers” or “water bears.” They can be found thriving anywhere on the planet, from oceans to mountaintops to volcanos, and in every type of forest. I believe this creature was one of the primary failsafe living-Beings, explicitly created for the Earth experiment.

Comprised of 1200 species, Tardigrada can live through any catastrophe, including extreme temperatures, air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, starvation, physical abuse, and space travel. Their fossils date back 530 million years. I believe our alien fore-parents wanted to make certain that even if we destroyed ourselves, Earth might remain a terrarium for millions of Tardigrades.

Along this line of thinking, let’s look at the elephant. Its brain usually weighs around 11 pounds. This is 2-3X larger than the average human’s brain and is also much larger and more functional than those of rhinos, hippos, and others.

This graceful and friendly mammal has a long pregnancy, at almost 22 months. Some say this gives baby elephants enough time to build a strong connection within themselves. It also makes them more self-sufficient, less anxious, more creative, and less competitive. This length of time inside of their mothers might even make them more nurturing and peaceful. What better attributes for us to adore and worship?

Upon birth, elephants are immediately curious, exploratory, and creative, able to successfully utilize objects they’ve never seen. When elephants are reprimanded for doing something incorrectly, they can later be seen practicing the required exercises, in private, to improve their skills.

An elephant’s trunk utilizes over 4000 muscles. Imagine the brain impulses required for this activity. Elephants can also recognize themselves in the mirror and with affection. This type of self-awareness can only be found in humans, apes, and dolphins.

The Stunning List of Elephant Attributes

Elephants have outstanding social abilities, as represented in their exemplary levels of gentility, empathy, and altruism. At the very least, we should be protecting this precious species from recognizing it as eternally sentient.

African tribal leaders see the elephant as a conscious Chieftain of the forest. They respect the high level of consciousness that elephants embody.

If you look at an elephant’s commitment to their family, you’ll find that they will do anything to protect their young. When baby elephant bulls and cows suffer from dehydration, mother elephants will quickly nourish and cool their calves with self-regurgitated water. They draw from within their stomachs to heal their children.

An Elephant’s Spiritual Nature

In India, Thailand, and other Asian countries, elephants are revered as spiritual-Beings, here to remind us of our most beautiful qualities. They are seen as living embodiments (and reincarnations) of Ganesha, son of Parvati, the Goddess of the Mountains and wife to Lord Shiva.

In spiritual circles, the elephant, like Ganesh, has features that are seen as symbolic:

  • The head represents the ability to acquire wisdom
  • The ears speak of patience and the ability to listen thoughtfully and empathically
  • The small eyes represent the ability to recognize the truth
  • The belly is metaphoric of how we should be able to digest all attributes and aspects of creation, the good, bad and indifferent
  • It is said that every obstacle and challenge in our lives can be extinguished by calling upon the love and light found through Ganesh

“If anyone wants to know what elephants are like, they are like people only more so.”
— Peter Corneille

Whether Asian or African (Savanna or Forest), all elephants share similar attributes and are potential extensions of kindred species. All factions of the two elephant trees appear to have cross-migrated, interbred with cousins, and enjoyed spreading their DNA throughout Europe, several islands, Asia, and beyond.

We are human beings living busy lives, on an increasingly complex and challenging planet. It’s difficult for us to fathom and fully comprehend how we came to exist and why we are here. Even though we imagine ourselves as the sole reason for this planet’s existence, we’re most likely only a tiny part of a much larger evolutionary plan.

When I look into the eyes of elephants, I see eternity. I can feel the spirit of the elephant, which feels representative of an incarnated Buddhist Lama. Feeling into her spirit, I sense thousands of years of meditation.

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The elephant also feels somewhat foreign to me, as if she were placed on Earth to be a helpful fish out of water, a reminder of the attributes nestled deep within our cores.

Peacefulness, fearlessness, acceptance, and empathy: these are the primary attributes that seem to fall from view when we’re living strained and hectic lives. As we embark on the next chapters in our lives, let’s look to the elephant and be grateful for what she teaches us. While we’re at it, let’s give a nod to her alien engineers.

Mammoths, Octopus, and Beyond!

Scientists are using mammoth DNA to create elephant hybrids. While Mammoths are the assumed ancestors of elephants, they are unique. In the coming years, we’ll learn how Mammoths are yet another unique example of alien bioengineering.

With almost 5X the number of brain cells, each with a unique personality, and the ability to think through intricate puzzles don’t even get me started on the octopus! They may be the Earth’s first fully conscious species.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Can Mindfulness Dismantle Our Truthfulness, Positivity, And Flow?

 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness – The Trendy, Undisciplined Vacuum: A Shutterstock Licensed Image

Can Mindfulness Be a Bad Thing?

We are born as electric, wild creatures, infused with limitlessness, and empowered by the infinite array of energies found in every galaxy throughout the universe. There are subtle-bodied energies, planetary and other-realm influences, magnetic pulls, angelic blessings, and the biochemical reactions that result from living in a vast, 3-dimensional, physical reality.

We are powerful, to say the least…

Mindfulness is a concept that has been steadily injected into our social media feeds since the early 2010s. There are thousands of mindfulness teachers, corporate trainers, new-agey yoga folks, and beautiful monks seeking to enlighten the world with this simple modality. The concept goes something like this:

By being aware of our conscious Self, actions, and emotions, and focusing solely on the present moment, we can become calmly aware of our realities, bodily sensations, and natures, and objectively engage with our realities.

It all sounds wonderful, beautiful, and transformative. Who wouldn’t want to live in such a way? When embracing this ancient Buddhist tradition, what could possibly be harmful or restrictive to us? How, really, can mindfulness limit us?

The problem with mindfulness is that it’s been co-opted by the New Age movement. You remember this movement, right? It’s the often narcissistic, over-feminized, spiritual ideology that teaches people to objectify and worship themselves. Meanwhile, it rejects the idea that it takes work to improve ourselves.

The New Age is the same quasi-religion that promised a perfect balance out of one side of its mouth while exalting the spiritual ego out of the other. This mish-mash style of spiritual development sounds good, but sometimes it’s nothing but rainbow-colored quicksand.

The New Age as the Selfie of Spiritual Ideologies.

The way that mindfulness is often taught isn’t necessarily damaging, it’s just that it has limited value, and might not help us evolve. While it might keep us out of trouble for 10 minutes, mindfulness is missing a long list of steps and experiences. And it’s filled with presumption.

Today’s corporate mindfulness is nothing but a stolen final-phase, poorly extrapolated from meditating monks. It’s the most overused brick in the foundation of the faux-spiritual paradigms amidst today’s convenient spiritual truths. The way that mindfulness is currently portrayed, marketed, and taught is half-baked at best.

Every day we see trendy snippets from the world’s purest liberation practices flowing through our feeds. These snippets are comforting, but without context, they circumvent the pathways to liberation and enable our denial. To truly liberate, we must begin by acknowledging who we are. We must embrace our compositions and desires, not judge them. We have to start by practicing and perfecting the person we’ve become, so we can understand what and who we are seeking to abandon.

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We need to love ourselves, despite our mistakes. This requires that we explore and express our passions with abandon. If we don’t know our curiosities and desires, how can we move through them? How can we expand?

Many students of mindfulness have created a new personality to justify their goals and the money they paid for the mindfulness classes. They’re not investigating their uniqueness and power, they’re avoiding it, having relegated their true Self to a locked, labeled closet. They’re afraid to be themselves, so they picked a prettier “me.”

Unless you’re an avatar, you probably can’t extinguish your nature by avoiding it. It’s better that you celebrate it and love it to death.

After all, the ego is the I am, and without the ego, we are not.

While pursuing mindfulness, if we aren’t also honoring our emotions and shortcomings, we’re adopting temporary self-identities and fooling ourselves. To rebirth ourselves and embark on a path toward authenticity and liberation, we might not always be peaceful and mindful. Those pleasant ideas might be the antithesis to our evolution!

To take full advantage of this physical reality that we were born into, there are times when it’s vital to be wild, aggressive, hateful, and full of rage. How else can we know the spectrum of our humanity? And how else can we embody empathy with the hope of helping humanity transform?

Do you see the truth here?

  • If you cannot be authentic, you cannot know your limitations or expanded potential.
  • If you do not embrace who you are in this moment, you have no platform from which to evolve.
  • If you do not begin with accepting your desires and affections, you cannot know what is truly important to you.
  • This means that without letting it all flow, you cannot know your path to liberation.

Our true Self is the unrestricted one. In our exploration of our true Selves, we can become aware of our vasanas (problematic attributes and latent tendencies), and then consider releasing them. Heck, we can even enjoy them for a time. We might have moments where we feel a deep peacefulness, and we might begin to taste our true natures and Selves. But if we have not accepted and loved ourselves along the way, we will arrive at the precipice of liberation without having paid the price of admission. We will be forced to turn-around and begin again.

Wait, aren’t we all permitted to expand and enter the kingdoms of Heaven and expanded consciousness?

Yes. We all have tickets to the eternal realms and our most evolved Self, but most of us are obsessed with how we appear to others. Most of us are stuck in hierarchical paradigms that offer no promise of self-acceptance or liberation. The majority of souls living on this planet right now are obsessed with OPP – Other People’s Opinions.

In general, we don’t form our paths and personhood from self-exploration. We create ourselves by believing in religions, trends, misinformation, and self-limiting ideologies. Why? Because we all feel less-than, and we all feel guilty.

Rather than celebrate this complex universe and the gifts we’ve been given, we squash them with political correctness, over-analysis, and self-judgment. Rather than seek forgiveness and the healing of our guilt from within, or in partnership with the divine, electric universe, we ask forgiveness from our religious leaders, families, lovers, and friends. We might also demand it from strangers.

This type of projection-styled life results in two things: a long, repetitive journey – and a failure to achieve our objectives related to self-realization.

Can I choose to be who I truly am, right now?

Sadly, we cannot expand unless we relax into who we are at this moment. We have to forget about the “shoulds” that are over-sold to us by religions and new-ager ideologists, and instead, invest in fully accepting who we are right now. This includes allowing our anger, prejudices, desires, addictions, and bad habits.

To be mindful is lovely. But if we’re ignorant and resentful of who we are, our mindfulness will be based on a projection, illusion, and the false Self. This means it will be based on fantasies and result in experiences that only our false, temporary, contrived Selves will experience. This leaves us completely out of the picture.

In this case, our pursuit of mindfulness will result only in temporary, elusive, possibly damaging, alter-ego gratification – and nothing else.

Where do we go from here?

There’s a reason mindfulness has become so popular in corporate culture: everybody wants to be told that 10 minutes of meditation per day will enable them to change the world – and make money at the same time. It’s a scam.

There’s no simple formula for self-exploration. There are thousands of paths that could lead to expansion and liberation. While everybody is unique, and no path is absolute for all Beings, below are a few steps that might lead you to know and accept who you are right now.

These ideas might also help you break free from your limiting, temporary, and fantasy-based self-identities:

– Accept and love everything about yourself without limits. Remember that every aspect of you is a gift, and it provides a pathway toward a related but more evolved aspect.

– Encourage yourself to explore the people, activities, and beliefs that make you feel good, delicious, excited, and free.

– Enjoy actively participating and validating these aspects. If you love food, find ways to celebrate it. If you love punching people’s faces, take a boxing class. If you love sex, find sexual partners who might fulfill this desire-base.

– While having these experiences, allow yourself to deepen your appreciation for them. As you experience highs, relish them with every part of your Being.

– When you see holes in your beliefs, lows in your experiences, and unforeseen repercussions that make you nervous, consider how you might up-grade or release each of them.

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– As you experience projection-failures and relational breakdowns with the people and events that you once thought were valuable, make a note of what you learned from each one.

– Practice gratitude often.

– Consider what you’ve learned. Look within yourself to see how you have participated in these things. Seek to understand why you may have chosen them, why they were successful, and how they may have been less than adequate.

– Explore the possible reasons why you objectified and over- or under-validated yourself, others, and the events that unfolded.

– Allow yourself to feel and express the emotions that are related to your explorations, celebrations, and disappointments. Let it all out.

– Ask yourself why you chose these people, events, and passions in the first place. Answer honestly.

– Forgive everyone involved in each of your disappointments.

– Own the choices that led you to be involved with these people, events, and passions.

– Forgive yourself.

– Upgrade your beliefs and continue exploring what feels enjoyable, connective, and real.

Explore, experience, accept, forgive, emote, let go.

Throughout this process, you’ll evolve.

To improve your realities, both internal and external:

  • Embrace relationships, thoughts, intentions, rituals, and ideologies that are infused with liberating principals. Don’t skim off the top, devour the entire stew.
  • Seek love only from those who fully accept you for who you are, and what it means to love you.
  • Most importantly, be yourself. Be fully embodied and authentic in this lifetime.
  • Allow your desires to move through you, not solely for your pleasure, but also so you can learn to dissolve the false-Self and embrace your true, eternal Self. You can’t simply step into a new identity without first absolving the prior.

You are the embodiment of a trajectory that holds every answer you seek. There are no limits, other than those imposed by your oppressors and your loving heart.

Let it all out. Be authentic. Forgive everything. Allow the universe to accept, love, and perfect you.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Why We Need To Choose Conscious Relationships

Last modified: August 20, 2025

Not long ago, men held jobs, women cared for their families, most people smoked, and a fair number of us lived past 80. Most folks lived within their limits and according to pre-approved societal roles.

Religions were clearly defined and vehemently defended, and far too many people were judged, then relegated to the outskirts of society. In the midst of all this, somehow, it seemed people were kinder and better to each other and enjoyed conscious relationships.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?! The Problem with Modern Love: Ego, Selfies & Projections

Even though the 60s revolution was vital for the expansion of our collective consciousness and spiritual awakening, it was built upon self-gratification through connection. Well, dancing and sex. The core ethos of the movement was all about rejecting any form of oppression and embracing our impulses.

The hippie archetype loved to regularly peel back the onion, with the hope of seeing far beyond the limiting constructs of self, family, religion, and suburbia. While it was laced with a colorful and benign narcissism, the hippies established the precursors for tech obsession, selfies, and selfishness. While some of these things might bring us to our knees, overall, the 1960s was a spiritual and evolutionary success.

As the automotive, housing and education industries began to manipulate and subjugate the average American through overpriced loans and inadequate products, people began to feel the pinch. Within the pinch, the collective consciousness began to dissociate, isolate, and become depressed. To satiate their self-loathing, people everywhere began to seek solace in fantasy through the forms of news, television programming, and movies, all contrived and dispersed by billionaires and conglomerates for the sole purpose of monetizing what I like to call “the collective American obsessive disorder.” 

To counteract this disease and its related trends, somewhere in the early 1980s, America took a nosedive into a grotesque obsession with a horrific display of greed. By the mid-1990s, the predominant generation was depressed, self-obsessed, debt-ridden, polyamorous, and exhausted.

 

Wait, What Exactly Are You Saying?

I’m exaggerating, of course. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that, as a species, we’re in deep doo-doo. Indeed, this is not the time of our lives or the best it’s ever been. It’s more like what David Bowie said,

“We’re not evolving; we’re not going anywhere.”

The critical elements to our current state of mind and heart include a variety of relatively new concepts, including projection, selfies, ego gratification, and self-expanding intentions. While these things are taking root, we’re also grappling with skyrocketing costs of living and the potential decimation of the earth. Good times!

Ego And Intimacy In Modern Love: What is Projection, and How Does it Hurt Us in Relationships?

Projection occurs in a couple of main ways:

  • When we believe our hangups, problems, and limitations stem from other people, rather than from within ourselves or as a result of our behavior. An example: When we are fearful of commitment, we might blame the other person for their inability to commit
  • When we believe the stories, mental images, and emotional impressions resulting from our past to be the truth in the present moment. An example of this type of projection might be when we’re having a slightly heated discussion with someone, and we begin to feel like they’re attacking us. In this case, we might be thrusting the emotional residue and imagery from childhood experiences onto the other person or into the present discussion.

Suffice to say, projection isn’t very useful and it can be downright damaging. At the very least, when we project onto other people, we prevent ourselves from seeing the moment and the other person for what they truly are. Many people are addicted to projecting, which is why they cannot successfully participate in healthy relationships.

How Does My Pursuit of Ego Gratification Limit My Relationships?

When it comes to love relationships, there are three entities to consider: you, your lover, and the relationship. When it comes down to clout, the biggest shareholder in the trio is the relationship. This means that when you’re wandering the world seeking validation and pleasure, your relationship might be suffering from malnutrition and a broken heart. While it seems logical to seek the joys in life, only fools believe that relationships will not inhibit their prior sense of freedom, at least to a small degree.

Why Are Relationships So Unfulfilling And How Can We Create Authentic Connection?

Love relationships require lots of emotional healing and watering before they can endure steady streams of ego gratification. Otherwise, they often feel unfulfilling or ego-driven.

If you want to wander and also desire a fruitful relationship, focus on the bond for three years. After that point, it’s probably safe to reintroduce your wild meanderer back into the equation. It’s only then that your relationship might have enough substance to counterbalance your inner Indiana Jones.

Why Are My Intentions To Expand Spiritually A Coitus Interruptus For Intimacy In Relationships?

It’s wonderful to seek self-expansion, but when in a relationship, the path to liberation can be difficult, unless both people seek the same forms of freedom and at the same pace.

Either way, it’s difficult to establish long-lasting, conscious relationships before we hit 35. Prior to that, we barely know who we are and might be unable to form concrete, lasting, connected, and humble relationships.

You can go off to the mountains and sit with your guru or spiritual master, but take your partner with you. Before you leave on your quest, understand that each of your egos might require distinct or opposing modalities in order to be successfully apprehended or healed.

11 Ways Steps To Break Trends in Relationships & Love

While there’s no formula for stepping into the present moment and making commitment your priority, without these things, your relationships don’t stand a chance. Here are a few ideas that might help you liberate yourself amid tending to your loving relationship:

    • Let go of the belief that you have to give 50% to your relationship for it to work. This is a lie. You both have to give 100%. Life is too difficult to expect anybody to pick up the slack, even when it’s their turn.
    • Let go of believing that personal liberation requires hiking in the Himalayas, going to raves without your partner, or hitting the bars with your friends. Personal liberation is the relinquishment of the ego, or an ego death, so that you can experience the eternal self. It’s not about adventures.
    • Spend lots of time loving and serving each other.
    • Reduce the number of distractions in your lives.
    • Reset your goals to include joy, intimacy, awareness, and deep connections with others.
    • Relinquish the temporary self-identities that inflate your ego.
    • Relinquish one expectation per week. Pretty soon, you’ll have enough space in your mind and heart to allow the other person to be themselves. This will help your relationship thrive! 
    • Remember that the other person is not you, and you are not the other person. You are each unique bundles of particles barreling through space at insane speeds. It’s a miracle that you can pour orange juice into two glasses and drink them together. It’s also a miracle when two souls successfully love together.
    • Allow for fewer expectations and more space. When you finish giving each other space, give each other some more space. Allow the space to speak to both of you. Dance separately, and then together, within the space. Let your conscious relationship with each other include a dialogue with the space. More space, more clarity. More clarity, more joy. More joy, more love. Rock on!
    • Gentle kisses on cheeks, sweet love notes and foot massages also help.

One of the saddest reasons why our relationships are not fulfilling is that we spend more time using the words “I” and “me” than the pronouns “you” and “us.”

If you want more guidance to improve your relationship, you can book a private intuitive reading.

Q&A

Q1: What is a conscious relationship?
A conscious relationship is a relationship in which both people intentionally cultivate awareness, emotional growth, and mutual respect, moving beyond ego-driven needs to create deeper connection.

Q2: Why do so many modern relationships feel unfulfilling?
Because they’re often centered on ego, validation, and projection rather than shared growth, genuine intimacy, and space for each partner’s individuality.

Q3: How can I move from self-centeredness to partnership?
By shifting focus from “me” to “us,” setting shared goals, reducing personal distractions, and actively practicing gratitude, service, and presence with your partner.

Q4: What’s the harm of projection in relationships?
Projection means placing your old wounds and fears onto your partner, which prevents you from seeing them clearly and undermines authentic connection.

Q5: Can a conscious relationship survive differences in personal growth?
Yes, if both partners are committed to communication, giving each other space, and supporting each other’s unique journeys.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Praying With Humility: Changing Yourself And The World

change yourself

Praying Hands, Change Yourself – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

It’s perfectly appropriate to defend our belongings, lives, and loved ones, and to yearn for specific relationships and life-experiences. It’s also suitable to desire titles, positions, gobs of money, and the highest levels of success. You might even have fantasies of domination or revenge. It’s all part of the play.

While goals and desires can be conjured through intentions and focused effort, prayers tend to require a separate set of conditions and attributes. If all whimsies and pangs of hunger were equal to prayers, then prayers for football team wins, stock windfalls, and military massacres would dominate the supernatural circuits, and crowd the fulfillment funnel.

For a prayer to be considered “fair trade,” it’s probably best it meets one or more of these conditions:

  • Reflects a personal, life or death situation
  • Is born from pure, heartfelt intentions
  • Stems from a place of humility
  • Reflects a measure of reverence
  • Does not require that other living Beings be hurt, punished, or killed
  • Results in improved conditions for one or more people, the results of which do not threaten other living Beings
  • Enhances an individual’s or group’s health, safety, mental capacity, attitude, emotional state, spiritual
  • wholeness, comfort, relationships, or general well-being, including yours
  • Expedites a person’s psychological, emotional, or spiritual evolution, including yours
  • Inspires and invites feelings of positivity, kindness, and generosity
  • Provokes compassion or empathy from anyone who might hear the prayer
  • Immediately increases the vibration of the person praying with humility

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If your prayer doesn’t embody any of the above attributes, it might be more of a hope, desire, or goal than a prayer. Authentic and humble prayer does not generally involve the ego — it requires vulnerability and selflessness. For example: praying for a financial windfall is probably egoistic, but praying with humility to receive money to pay for your Mother’s surgery, might have measurable appeal to the Universe’s vibrational, response-network.

How do we create and improve our realities?

To up-level our selves and lives, we start with a feeling or a sense, then we slowly churn it into an intention. Once it’s embedded in us, we imagine related scenarios, outcomes, and destinations. Within these elusive dreams, we form agendas and implement actions, thereby moving us toward the fulfillment of our desires.

To accelerate our journeys, we might use games, leverage, strategy, or cunning. We might also engage our friends, allies, and demons. These are the systems and rackets that rule our physical lives within our three-dimensional realities.

It’s perfectly moral to have goals, dreams, and fantasies that are self-serving. Even a measure of greed can produce positive feelings and outcomes. It’s also permissible to dance with shadows and invite devils to dinner. What separates goodness from evil is not our thoughts or associations; it’s the upshot of our efforts. If hints of our intentions, and hosts of our actions, produce favorable conditions, we still might be invited to sit at the right hand of the divine.

When we’re in the aggressive pursuit of achievement and position, it’s not necessarily harmful or bad, but it’s probably not prayerful. Prayerfulness requires our vulnerability. If our prayers are muddied with desires for pleasures and trinkets, they can become superfluous, even benign.

What if we wish to shift something unique, deep, and lovely? What if our desires are perfectly pure and egoless? What if we have the heart, soul-intention, and desire-base of a child? What, then?

Strangely, the Universe, born from light, has the heart of a child. This child is not infantile; rather, She is the embodiment of the deepest and most profound truths in all of reality, and throughout all galaxies and realms. Whether you see Her as a God, Avatar, Master, or Guru, or the embodiment of pure electromagnetic energy giving birth to matter and circumstance, She is truth itself.

When we beckon the Divine, we enter into a courtship with eternal light. It doesn’t matter if we’ve named him Jesus, Buddha, or Elm Tree, and it doesn’t matter whether we’re rich or poor. What matters most is that we have chosen to bow to a Supreme Being, which is also us. As we embody the purest humility, we see through the eyes of the Divine, and into forever. It’s in this state that prayers are immediately fulfilled.

Once we are in a complete and humble prostration to the eternal Self, we can be anyone or anything. In this position, we can share every tidbit of our pain and let it all out. We can be sad, angry, or delighted. We can be full of love, rage or hate. We can be selfish, and we can beg. Most importantly, as we lay our hearts and burdens at His holy feet, we free ourselves. This is how every soul, regardless of religion, can be immersed in the bosom of eternal light, and be born again.

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Genuine prayer is not easy. It comes at a price. To connect with and shift the fabric of reality through prayer, we must first admit that our self-identities and personas are temporary and barely real.

While we might not need to embody our purest selves at the start of our prayers, we need to be open to our unraveling. Without a doubt, to achieve a durable state of prayer, we must acquiesce to the All-That-Is, from the cores of our beings.

Praying with Humility: The Reality Of It All

When leading and participating in Native American and Pagan rituals, I’ve seen people heal themselves of hatred, depression, and disease. I’ve felt spirits exit bodies, and I’ve seen miraculous transformations in the most broken and horrid people.

Through deeply intentional and action-based prayers, I know that anything is possible. Even if for a moment, we can strip ourselves of our false identities and desires, and open our hearts to the vibrations of pure light, we can co-create any reality.

To begin praying with humility, sit in silence, and bow to the eternal master. Call out to your angels, guides, Gods, and helpers in all the realms. Yearn to be opened. Beg for the light to blow you away.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

The Humble Life Of Yoga Master, B.K.S Iyengar

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Iyengar Yoga – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

As trendy as yoga has become, when it’s properly practiced it can help earnest people release physical and emotional toxins, and reach deeper levels of clarity and self-realization. Improperly practiced or bastardized, yoga becomes nothing more than an ego-serving, adrenaline-inducing exercise.

While there are many social-experimenters in the US and UK offering varieties of classes involving Party-in-Your-Pants Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, and his Iyengar Yoga are the real deal, both grounded in spiritual truths and ancient texts. While some of Iyengar’s followers and teachers may come from a more egoistic state than their master, Iyengar’s teachings have endured the tests of time and dilution. They remain profound and penetrating.

“My Body Is My Temple And Asanas Are My Prayers”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar’s career spanned eight decades, during which he developed and taught a unique version of Hatha Yoga. Hatha was founded in the early 10th century by Matsyendra, the yogi-saint known to be an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, who has been honored in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

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Iyengar’s style focused on correcting alignment through the precise performance of yoga postures (asanas). This “new yoga” was the first popularized form that utilized benches, blocks, belts, sandbags, blankets, and other tools within the practice. This was not only revolutionary, but it also opened the doors for people with physical limitations to correctly perform the asanas without hurting themselves.

Yoga And Sex

Hatha Yoga was originally an extension of Tantra, the celebratory practice of physical and spiritual fusion of masculine and feminine aspects. With specific poses aimed at raising the kundalini or “life force,” Tantric aspirants were enveloped in blissful unions with the eternal consciousness of the cosmos. Tantra, as it’s practiced today, can be exciting, transformative, and yet challenging to master. It can also become addictive and inspire ongoing sexual promiscuity, which can detract from living a balanced, love-based life.

Have no doubt, yoga awakens our most coveted aspects, including our sexual prowess. This is why some yoga masters become sexual predators or at least sexual experimenters. The lure of multiple partners can be enticing and overwhelming, and eventually intoxicating.

But if we consider that most yoga asanas were designed to awaken the flames within us, how can we find faults in our desires, addictions, and yoga teachers? Sexual expression and healing have always been intertwined with the tenets of yoga. Eventually, it comes down to taking responsibility for our projections, and enjoying the outcomes, whether they result in disaster or bliss. Remember, there is no “other.”

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

Trendy Yoga

While it used to be an honor to be invited to study yoga, today, anybody can wander into a gym and sign-up for classic forms of yoga. Gym and yoga studio members can also engage with the more hipster versions of this ancient rite, including “Rage Yoga,” Metal Yoga,” and “Sailor’s Mouth Yoga,” the latest forms designed to massacre the ancient texts with ego and attitude. There’s even a USA Yoga Championship and The International Federation of Sports Yoga. Hooray!

While these concepts are exciting and potentially fruitful for their followers, they have nothing to do with the original yogic disciplines. Yoga is not a sport or a hobby. It’s a spiritual path that can lead to awakening. And while you might feel joyful, accomplished, and self-validated when competing, copping attitudes, or slamming shots of Jäger after downward-facing-dog, these activities tend to be more self-aggrandizing than transformative.

The Basics of Iyengar Yoga

Iyengar Yoga requires discipline as it strives to unify the body, breath, mind, and soul. What also makes Iyengar Yoga unique is that it focuses on learning and experiencing rather than pushing through a list of poses in one sitting. It’s all about quality instead of quantity. While this style of yoga veers from the traditional flow of Hatha Yoga, it’s equally calm, gentle, and mindful. While the practice of Iyengar Yoga does not require its students to adopt any set of beliefs, it follows this teaching to its core:

“Let us bow before the noblest of sages Patanjali, who gave yoga for serenity and sanctity of mind,

grammar for clarity and purity of speech, and medicine for perfection of health.”

BKS Iyengar authored many books on yoga, including “Light on Yoga,” which sold over 3 million copies, and became an international best-seller, translated into 17 languages. He also authored 13 additional books, including “The Tree of Yoga,” “Light on Pranayama,” “Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,” and “Light on Life.” Although he was a profound teacher and master, he never required his students to follow his personal, religious traditions. In fact, he would encourage them to remain devout to their birth religions and cultures, the sign of a true spiritual master.

The BKS and Ramamani Iyengar Family

Married to BKS in 1943, Iyengar’s wife was a humble, loving woman named Ramamani, for whom he later opened The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India. During their loving marriage, Ramamani gave birth to five daughters and one son. Their children Geeta and Prashant continued the Iyengar Yoga legacy by becoming internationally-known teachers and authors.

Throughout her life, Geeta (1944-2018) focused on yoga for women and published “Yoga: A Gem for Women.” Prashant authored several books on yoga and served as director of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute for many years. It is said that Iyengar’s and Ramamani’s other children Vanita, Sunita, Suchita, and Savita, led more secular lives. Yet, the lineage continues: Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar, their granddaughter, continues to each at the family’s institute in Pune, and in other countries.

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While many yoga masters fall under the tutelage of a guru very early in their lives, Iyengar did not hear the calling until his brother-in-law invited him to a class when he was 15. Not only was his brother-in-law a respected teacher of yoga, but Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is also often referred to as “The Father of Modern Yoga.”

“There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us

with a universal reality that is everywhere.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

BKS Iyengar’s Early Education

BKS Iyengar lived a fascinating life. Born in a poor village in Karnataka, India, he was the 11th child of 13. After contracting influenza during the pandemic that ravaged his hometown, the young BKS was never the same. Before reaching adulthood, he was stricken with malaria, typhoid fever, poor nutrition, and bouts of tuberculosis.

By the time he was 15, he was ready for a change. Beckoned by his famous brother-in-law, the yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, Iyengar moved to Mysore, India, and spent two years devoutly practicing yoga asanas. In 1937, when Iyengar was 18 years old, Sri Krishnamacharya ordained the young man as a yoga instructor and sent him to Pune to spread the gospel of asanas.

During the time of his study with Sri Krishnamacharya, the young Iyengar struggled. Since he neither showed spiritual promise or was a favored student, Iyengar was often assigned to the drudgery of household chores. Because of this, his relationship with Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was often strained.

It wasn’t until Sri Krishnamacharya’s prize students moved away when Iyengar’s master training began.

While some students were given lighter exercises and less stringent schedules, Iyengar was taught a series of difficult postures, often being instructed to fast until he mastered specific asanas.

After teaching yoga for many years, Iyengar felt called to teach in other parts of the world. He spent time in Switzerland and Europe teaching violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Back at home, Iyengar taught celebrities Jiddu Krishnamurti and Jayaprakassh Narayan. He also taught the Queen of Belgium how to do a headstand, and writer Aldous Huxley and actress Annette Bening to perform his unique asanas. Iyengar continued to teach and lecture through to his death on August 20, 2014. He was 95 years old.

“Be inspired but not proud.”
— B.K.S Iyengar

B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”

“Breath is the king of mind.”

“Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul creates the symphony of life.”

“Yoga does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.”

“There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.”

B.K.S. Iyengar’s Legacy

As an Indian national hero, Iyengar’s government awarded him several prizes, including “The Padma Shri” in 1991, “The Padma Bhushan” in 2002, and “The Padma Vibhushan” in 2014. These accolades were heard around the world. In 2004, Time Magazine named Iyengar as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2005, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared October 3 as “B.K.S. Iyengar Day.” In 2011, Beijing’s China Post honored this prolific writer and teacher with a commemorative stamp.

More recently, the Oxford Dictionary recently defined the noun “Iyengar” as “a type of Hatha Yoga focusing on correct alignment of the body.” On December 14, 2015, Google honored what would have been Iyengar’s 97th birthday with a Google Doodle, a digital animation that was shown on browsers in India, North America, Europe, Russia, and Indonesia.

A true master of yoga, BKS Iyengar continues to inspire millions of people to improve their postures, health, happiness, and souls through his uniquely profound Iyengar Yoga.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

How To Create Miracles

Miracles

Miracles are for everyone. A Shutterstock Licensed Image.

Miracles are born from absolute congruence and surrender, but only when we are in our humblest and purest states of spirit.

Miracles cannot be born from ego or goals, as these trivial things are based in physical and three-dimensional realities, which are only tangential to the creation of conditions. Miracles are born in the spirit world, then handed over to our physical positions in spacetime, with our consent. From there, we must bring them to life and keep them alive.

If you’re hankerin’ for a hunk of miracle, you need not be an altar boy, Rabbi, Priest, healer, saint, Pope, Goddess, Avatar, or perfect person.

In fact, miracles tend to fall into the laps of the people who have no powers, titles, or privileges. This is because the beaten, poor, and lonely are well-practiced in humility and transparent, heart-felt requests to the Divine.

When thinking of your miracle, you might first consider why you have not received it already. Here are the top ten reasons why your miracle evades you:

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  1. The miracles you seek might be the inverse reflections of the things that you refuse to acknowledge, heal, or address in your life.
  2. Even if for brief moments, you might not have learned how to love yourself.
  3. It’s your ego’s miracle, not your spirit’s.
  4. Your anger is in the way.
  5. The miracle you seek is in direct conflict with someone else’s pain or identity.
  6. You do not yet know how to acknowledge your feelings or process your emotions.
  7. Your miracle might be too complicated and intellectualized for it to emerge from spirit.
  8. Your pain is more valuable and nutritious to your soul than the miracle you requested.
  9. You may not have recognized a specific experience as the miracle you sought.
  10. Your karma ate your miracle.

When miracles evade us, we might be refusing to grow up.

When our love miracles don’t appear, it might be that we have yet to learn how to love ourselves. If we are seeking fame-n-fortune miracles, it might be that the natures of our souls require further pain to expand beyond their current, temporary self-identities. In this case, fame and fortune would not elevate or benefit our spirits in meaningful ways. These things would merely function as pieces of candy.

This alludes to the fact that sometimes we might have a miracle in mind, but as a result of our prayers, we’re given something completely different. We may have mastered articulating our miracle. We might even be embodying perfect humility, congruence, and surrender. But amid our devotion, the Divine hears something deeper and then administers what is necessary, and possibly more in line with our root needs and spirits.

It’s in these cases that we must trust our intentions and the precise, divine answers to our calls.

There have been millions of reported miracles throughout history. These include:

  • Apparitions
  • Physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual healings
  • Saviors
  • Bleeding icons and statues
  • Appearances and disappearances of people and objects
  • Magical shrouds and hats
  • Playful ghosts
  • Stigmata and physical abnormalities
  • Incorruptible saints and paupers
  • Astronomical and planetary manifestations
  • Births and deaths
  • Money
  • Love

While many of the more sensational miracles that emerged throughout time may have been driven by religious prophecy or wishful thinking, they are nonetheless miracles. Every time that your deepest desires and intentions appear in a physical form, it could be considered a miracle.

The most lovely miracles are born from broken hearts. These humble requests are not about promoting religion or gaining position; they are simple hopes that are stated clearly and without expectation. It’s not that expectation is not helpful; it’s just not a required ingredient when creating a miracle.

The broken heart is like a beacon to the Divine. She hears us. Immediately seeing our faces, She knows our pain and embraces us. It’s in this moment that the eternal and divine consciousness grants our wishes.

Do we have to be broken to gain access to the versatile fabric of the universe?

The reason that brokenness is helpful to us is that it puts us on our knees. In this position, we are vulnerable to love and attack. When we’re broken, we are driven by our attachments and assumptions. We’re pushed outside of our minds and into our hearts. Brokenness is how we see our true natures and experience our most enduring attributes. Without moments, weeks, years, or lifetimes of brokenness, we might never know the truth.

Are you feeling separate from the eternal fabric of reality? Are you living without knowledge of your sovereignty and might? Have you forgotten that you are made of stardust?

The reason that most of us become depressed and distracted from our truths is that we allow our egos and minds to drive the train. We’ve all heard this before, but let me take a bit further. The moment you feel low and then ponder that low position, you have already cemented it into reality. Because you allowed it, you now have to dig out of it. For most of us, there’s a way to stop the madness.

How can I move past the moment when a disconnected sadness covers my heart and eyes? How do I stop enabling this, and allowing it to take hold of my Being?

As you are falling into the dark cloud, realize that you created it and that you can un-create it. While it might not be easy, in the moment you feel a falling, reach above you and call for God’s help. Reach to the stars and beg for divine light. Realize that you are not the person falling; you are the stars and light you are beckoning.

We give our minds too much power, and like any entity in power, they take us on wild, sometimes horrible rides. It’s not that our minds are bad, it’s just that they don’t offer much value when it comes to improving our feelings and protecting our individualized divinity.

To find your miracle, soften your heart, release expectations, and feel gratitude. When you’re ready, look into the eyes of the Divine and speak to your soul.

The moment we feed the temporary self-identity that our mind’s depression creates, we have lost the battle. Once we get on the train of misery, it’s tough to truncate its trajectory. It’s like being locked in a ride at Disney, but not a good one.

Sometimes our miracle-request is simply this, “Universe, Goddess, Creation, Avatars of Light, please walk me out of the darkness so that I can feel the power, light, and love infused in my soul, blood and bones. Be with me so that I can put this old identity behind me, embody your love, and represent the eternal flame.”

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Dragonflies Are The Forgers of Creation And Carriers Of Ancient & Alien Secrets

Dragonflies

Dragonflies are remarkable little Beings! A Shutterstock Licensed Image.

One might see dragonflies as insects of no substance, or little animals that are of little consequence to our lives here on Earth. We might even feel a hint of fear when seeing a dragonfly on a nearby tree.

With streaks of emerald greens, royal blues, and bright scarlets, sprinkled across multiple sets of wings and scales, Dragonflies have an other-worldly appearance. At rest, they are tall and erect, using two sets of hands as they build, connect, and tend to each other.

To the Native Americans, these beautiful creatures remind us that living in this world can cause us to attach to fantasies, illusions, and delusions. The Hopis believe that dragonflies have supernatural powers and a shamanistic presence. Because dragonflies are born in the water and ascend to the skies, Native elders see dragonflies as representatives of pure water, and liaisons to the Sky-Gods.

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In some cultures, The Great Winged Friend might act as our divine-intercessor, guiding us in our pursuits of clarity, creativity, and blessings. By creating whirlwinds of thought and movement, the dragonfly can help us distract and fool our enemies.

As mystical coaches, the dragonfly encourages us to ground and manifest our dreams, as we seek validation for our natures in this complex three-dimensional reality. To some, these vibrant angels are embodiments of love, light, and joy.

 

“Dragonflies are reminders that we are light, and we can reflect light in powerful ways if we choose to do so.”― Robyn Nola

 

Throughout Ireland and Scotland, the dragonfly has often been associated with magic and fairies. In Scandinavian folklore, the Æsir cult glorified the dragonfly as the symbol of the love goddess, Freya.

In Japan and China, these powerful winged-Beings are known to be special, holy animals, with the potential to protect and heal those in need. They might be our spiritual judges, here to evaluate whether the souls around us are good or bad.

In some mythologies, dragonflies were the harbingers of magnificence, the gatekeepers who protect the doors that lead to the other realms. In all its legends, the dragonfly represents a doer, an abundance of spiritual energy, and one of the most expeditious travelers between dimensions.

When we think of dragonflies, the adjectives that emerge include agility, powerful, lucky, peaceful, graceful, light-filled, transformational, pure, wise, and enlightened. With these things in mind, the dragonfly could potentially inspire our spiritual advancement and liberation.

The Science of Dragonflies

Believe it or not, there is a Worldwide Dragonfly Association that promotes the research and conservation of all the species of the world’s dragonflies (Anisoptera) and damselflies (Zygoptera). Collectively known as the Odonata, they form a “clade” or “clatus” (latin), a group of living-Beings who have a common ancestor, and embody one branch on the eternal Tree of Life.

While their magnificence has few equals, dragonflies often take a majestic stance, with their mighty wings held outward from their sides. Damselflies are more slender, almost demure. In physical stances that appear to be protective, they raise their pinions over their bodies, whether they are threatened, at rest, or at play.

NASA has named its latest rover, “Dragonfly,” which is being considered for exploration on Saturn’s massive moon, Titan.

Dragonflies can travel at over 60 miles per hour and stop in the batting of an eyelash. They do the same things in reverse. They breed in wild fashion near streams and lakes and have been traversing planet Earth for over 300 million years. They’re zen warriors, and unless grabbed, cupped, and violently attacked, they will never seek human flesh for a casual bite.

Are Dragonflies Descendants of Aliens?

Many of our planet’s early prophets and seers were able to channel the truth about Earth’s humble beginnings. In deep trances, they saw the many varieties of alien lifeforms that visited, pollinated, and then inhabited our Earth.

According to these shamans, one of these living-Beings, who at that time was nearer to the size of a human being, was akin to today’s dragonfly. It might be that long ago; dragonflies governed several aspects of life here on Earth.

These shamans saw that the dragonfly-Beings came from a remote double-star known as Gamma Andromedae or Almach (also Almaak, Almak, and Alamak). Almach is the third brightest pinnacle of light in the constellation Andromeda, and 350 light-years from Earth.

When forming this planet and its many species, the original creators must have imagined the most coveted attributes to infuse into the creatures they were creating. Speed, power, flight, agility, magic, and grace would probably have been among them. By bringing the dragonfly and damselfly to Earth, the original creators blessed it.

These creatures were created with such magnificent artistry! It would be hard to deny that they weren’t meant to be at least companions for some of Earth’s original species and power-Beings.

Dragonflies: History, Physique, Eyes, and Sex

The dragonfly and damselfly have been around for over 325 million years, in some form or another. While today’s dragonfly wingspan is often two to five inches, their ancient relatives had wings that spanned several feet.

There are over 5000 species of these lovely creatures, in 348 genera, with 11 families.

With ferocious, serrated teeth, dragonflies are cold-blooded predators, eating a variety of insects, butterflies, mosquitos, moths, animal matter, damselflies, and smaller dragonflies.

They’ll catch over 95% of the prey they pursue. Akin to humans, they can be are found anywhere from sea level up to around 12,000 feet. They live on every continent, except Antarctica.

The eyes of dragonflies are comprised of nearly 24,000 ommatidia. An ommatidium is a hexagon-shaped photoreceptor, surrounded by supportive and pigment cells.

When you examine the colors of today’s dragonflies, you will find that they are covered in thousands of colors, many of which have not been recorded by science. The dragonfly and damselfly are remarkable in every way.

Mating for dragonflies is a bit of “Tarzan meets Jane.” Flying in tandem, the male will hold the back of the female’s head while the female rolls her stomach under her body. This is how the female catches sperm from the male’s secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen. Besides the male having two sex organs, a fascinating aspect here is that when the two bellies are united, they form a heart. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is!

From Nymphs to Dragonflies

Far from being your average insect, dragonflies are born in the water and live as nymphs or larvae for up to 5 years. At this stage of their lives, they have huge eyes, six legs, and a rounded, sectioned stomach. Akin to fish, they breathe through gills.

Once nymphs grow to adulthood, they crawl out of the water, shed their nymph skin, and rebirth as strong, young adults. It takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days for their four wings to emerge, dry and harden.

The time before their wings emerge is considered the “teneral” stage, which means “delicate and tender.” During this brief period, they are weak and cannot fly, which makes them especially vulnerable to predators.

Within a week of leaving the water, dragonfly nymphs complete their adult maturation and are ready to fly. When hiking near water, you might see a nymph’s hollow exoskeleton, which might be mistaken for a transparent, lifeless cricket.

From their first flight to their last, dragonflies are flexible aviators who can hover like helicopters, or fly up, down, and sideways. They can fly for several weeks at a time, and up to 100 miles a day.

These airborne hunters will die within a year of emergence from their shells, most of them expiring within a few months. Our powerful friends will rarely die from old age. Most will be hunted, caught and eaten by falcons, swifts, flycatchers, nighthawks, and other birds, along with lizards, frogs, fish, and wasps.

Snakes and Dragonflies

In folklore and life, dragonflies and snakes appear to have a secret alliance. There have been many reports showing these two creatures connecting, with the dragonfly resting atop the snake’s nose. According to legend and eyewitnesses, when snakes are in trouble, dragonflies will fly to their rescue.

Because of their “needles,” tools that can stitch wounds and heal the sick, they have been called “snake doctors” or “snake pilots.” American naturalist, John K. Strecker said, “Unless you cut off a snake’s head, a “snake doctor” can bring it back to life, even though its body may have been badly mutilated.”

Dragonflies embody a complex set of attributes. They represent the water and wind, the power of warriors, and the grace that be found through enlightenment. Because of their short lifespans, dragonflies are always living in the present moment. Having to endure multiple births in their lives, they teach us about the temporal natures of our physical realities, bodies, and self-identities.

Their transformations from nymph to teneral to dragonfly, are representative of our personal transformations. As they push from stage to stage, and from Earth to flight, these beautiful little Beings show us how grateful they are to be alive. In life, love, transitions, relationships, and more – BECOME THE DRAGONFLY!

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Unlock The Hidden Secrets of Your Personalities

hidden secrets of personalities

Our Personalities Are Temporary Self-Identities! A Shutterstock Licensed Image.

Some life lessons are hard to swallow, but the toughest ones are those which push us toward a greater self-understanding. With an expanded sense of Self, we make better decisions and our lives are more peaceful and productive, even healthier. What determines our growth is not warm-fuzzy, white-light vision-boards; rather, it’s the actions we take toward fulfilling our dreams of self-realization that determine our growth and success.

Each of us is an ever-changing chemical equation in pursuit of connection and equanimity. We know that our personal alchemy and happiness are dependent upon our thoughts and desires, but without investment through action, nothing in our physical realities will change.

Working in the background of our daily lives and relationships is a set of powerful personalities. This buoyant, loyal, feisty group of secret identities is what we use to interact with the world. By confronting, healing, and up-leveling each of these personalities, we in turn release emotions, people, events, beliefs, and paradigms that no longer serve our evolution. In the process, we transform this life, as well as prior and future lives.

The Purpose of Personalities

Every experience results in the accumulation of attitudes, intentions, and beliefs, which live in us like magnets. Left unchecked, our internal magnets can attract undesirable experiences to our lives. These magnets also form identity masks (personalities) within us, which also attract experiences and act as the engines behind our actions. We are at the mercy of these amorphous, embedded constructs until we recognize, heal, and release them. While some of our personalities are helpful or benign, the rest of the crew can be a force to reckon with.

Our core personalities act as the collective machine that drives our lives. Much like our spirits use our bodies to live in physical realities, we use our primary personalities to engage the world, make friends, get jobs, and get attention. By temporarily naming and then exploring our personalities, we make them more relatable in the moment, which helps us process unattended emotions, imagery, and experiences. Doing so, we increase our ability to forgive ourselves and others. As a result, our awareness expands and we grow.

Over time, we evolve and our core personality sets change. At the ends of our lives, we drop all personalities and return to Source.

This does not mean that our souls die: it means we go back to an existence without pretense or construct, a state we can achieve while living in our bodies in the here and now.

Return to Source

According to the most ancient spiritual traditions, the purpose of life is to release the features within us that are incongruent with the Source of all life. This is what the masters who have appeared throughout time have taught us. Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Quan Yin, Amma, Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Vivekananda, Osho, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sai Baba and all the light beings who brighten our spirits, point to oneness with creation, a merging with eternity.
They desire for us to go through the process of Self-realization, seeking Nirvana, the state of the perfect non-existence of self-serving desires. Some people pursue this clear state by praying, chanting, or living monastic lives, but the majority of us utilize relational and emotional modalities to serve our spiritual advancement. These tools bring us closer to the Self, expanding our awareness, clarity, and sense of freedom.

By exploring and finding empathy for the broad spectrum of human attributes inherent in the human condition, we move closer to the Source.

By seeing ourselves in every living being we experience and interact with, we become free. With our intentions and actions focused on embracing all aspects of the human condition, we awaken.

The Challenge

How do we begin this type of deep exploration? There are powerful rituals that can bring us closer to ourselves. From Sweat Lodges and Pagan Rituals to advanced energy work and self-cleansing modalities, we have many options.

The challenge is that most of us do not have the simplicity of life to allow a one-time workshop or Vision Quest to take hold in our lives in a longer-term, meaningful way. And even though we might recite positive thoughts and mantras, if we’re honest with ourselves, we know these things are often not powerful enough to break our emotional and psychological bondage. In many ways, traditional new age modalities are temporary, egotistic, problematic, and narcissistic.

We cannot advance without a measure of deep exploration and momentary pain. We might achieve a state of clarity for a moment, but it doesn’t mean we can sustain it or necessarily benefit from it. Even if we sit in meditation for 10 days and eat vegetarian food while focused on our navel, the positive effects will easily wear off if we do not upkeep the efforts. Consistency in positive, transformative, and cleansing action is what returns us to ourselves and keeps us there.

You can breathe white light out your crown chakra all day long, but there’s no guarantee your mind will not consume you in the hours that follow.

Slowing down for long enough to achieve lasting transformation is a challenge we all face. There are few systems in place that can give us true transformation. Most of the spiritual teachings we regularly consume are bundles of candy. They feel so good, they’re pretty, they’re delivered by sexy yogis, they create positive vibrations and they inspire a sense of openness for a moment. But a week later, what has truly changed? Very little.

The path of the Shaman and spiritual aspirant consists of an equal balance of exploring the light and opening the doors to the shadows. This path takes into account the balance of light and dark inherent in the universe. We cannot sit in the light and expect lasting change.

The universe is everything, both light, and dark. If, while consuming the light, we are not dancing with the dark, we are missing the point. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. He wasn’t playing charades or writing positive thoughts on index cards. He was dealing with his shit and the shit in all of the universes. We all have the same opportunity but rarely pursue it.

The Work

6 years in development, Paul’s The Personality Cards, and Blended Soul app, are tools that can help you deepen your process of self-exploration. If you wish to do the work without a toolset, here’s what I recommend:

  1. Sit quietly with your journal and write down a list of your positive attributes.
  2. Write down a list of people who you believe are personifications of these attributes.
  3. Write down a list of your negative and bizarre attributes.
  4. Write down a list of the people who are reflections of these attributes.
  5. Pick the 3 most-exaggerated people from each list.
  6. One by one, look into each personality and be honest about how you resemble each person. Explore each attribute and look at how you have behaved in similar ways.
  7. Be honest with yourself about your ugliness. Express regret, find your anger, find the sadness beneath your anger and let it all go.
  8. Find forgiveness for yourself and others in every instance related to these 6 personalities.
  9. Contemplate the images that have haunted you or oppressed you. Focus on the emotions and let them out. Release your attached to the images and the emotions. Clear the slate so that you can become new.
  10. Celebrate your positive attributes and commit to realigning with them in all of your future endeavors.
  11. Write down your thinking and emotional processes as you go through this activity.
  12. Allow several hours or several days to complete a thorough exploration and full-body release. Do whatever it takes.
  13. Once complete, keep a list of the attributes you are hoping to embody throughout the rest of your life.
  14. Repeat this process when you feel cloudy or uncertain about who you are.

Enjoy Your Clarity

After going through this process, you will have a newfound clarity. Your mind will be more at ease and your heart will be open and full. Go deep and find clarity.

The purpose here is to embody a high level of acceptance for who you really are, who other people are and what reality is. There is no quick path to remove all of our false projections. There is only the expanding of your awareness, which most often comes through an intensely emotional experience. Without emotion, there is little chance wisdom will prevail.

Seek to know all parts of you. Do not run away from the shadows and challenges deep within your psyche. Cleanse them by opening the doors to the light. While the pain might feel unbearable, it is temporary.

This is an ongoing process. Continue to explore and release emotions around the imagery you obsess about. Grieve every image and every personality. Always seek the release of negative attributes and allow for the deepest awareness around every situation.

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The Potential Changes

The more you are able to cleanse the emotions from your physical body and the more you are able to shed light on your shadows, the more you will evolve. This evolution will create greater simplicity in your life. It will be a letting go on every level. The value is that by climbing all of these emotional mountains, you give yourself the ability to climb every mountain and face every obstacle in your physical reality.

The more you go through these processes, the more you will see changes in your jobs, security, love life, personal life, and relationships. Upon every letting go of emotion, you’ll release or change your magnets. With fewer magnets, there are fewer attachments.

By going through these types of processes, you will change at a core level. This means that some of the people in your life may leave, new people may emerge and life will feel different. The degree to which you commit to this process will be equal to the level of peace that will emerge in your life.

Throughout this process, you will learn whether or not your family is an age-old addiction or a valuable tribe of compatriots. You will learn about your inner monsters and their ill-effects in your life. Most importantly, you will learn how to be connected to the Source of all life. While this takes time, each step can be freeing, illuminating, and exciting.

Born From a Divine Spark

We are all born from divine sparks. These sparks, however pure, cannot prevent us from adopting debilitating characteristics and attitudes. However difficult, healing these aspects helps us evolve.

You are invited to explore, embrace, forgive, and celebrate all aspects within yourself and others. Imagine the personalities living in your core. See each of them as a reflection of you and the people in your life. See each one as a representation of an aspect of the universe calling you to love, heal, and master it. May this process help you move successfully past your stories and closer to emotional and spiritual freedom.

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.

Stanislav Grof And His Famous Holotropic Breathwork

holotropic breath - Paul Wagner

Stanislav Grof

Holotropic breathwork of Stanislav Grof can change your life. A Shutterstock Licensed Image.

If you’ve ever stared into the backs of your eyelids and breathed white light into your navel, you’ve done breathwork. Breathwork is a new-age term that refers to rejuvenating breathing techniques aimed at awakening the body’s life force. In many circles, breathwork is a key modality utilized to inspire peacefulness, healing, and the embodiment of the divine. Stan Grof, MD, Ph.D., a clinical psychiatrist from Czechoslovakia and one the founding forefathers of research in transpersonal psychology for non-ordinary states of consciousness and the therapeutic potential of LSD, has turned breathwork into a psychedelic, and the benefits are profound.

Dr. Grof says his “holotropic” technique, i.e., turning or directing inwardly or healing toward wholeness, helps practitioners expand their consciousness through rapid, repetitive breathing.

Naysayers regard this activity as potentially dangerous, noting that it resembles hyperventilation. Regardless, thousands of people throughout the world claim Grof’s technique has reduced their stress- and mind-related ailments, and helps them access the inner wisdom of their bodies and core Self.

“Meditation is to understand that one breath connects all beings.”

― Amit Ray

What Is The Holotropic Mind?

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Stanislav Grof’s “holotropic mind” refers to the concept that from any fragment of any aspect of the universe, the whole can be reconstructed. Given that the fabric of the universe and all its attributes are continuously expanding and birthing, the holotropic mind might also be referred to as the “eternal mind” or “one mind.”

David Bohm, a theoretical physicist, and partner of Einstein’s explored the complexities and paradoxes of this concept. Grof writes of Bohm, he “describes reality as an unbroken, coherent whole that is involved in an unending process of change, called “holomovement.” He continues with Bohm’s ideas, stating, “matter and life are both abstractions that have been extracted from the holomovement,” and “matter and consciousness are both aspects of the same undivided whole.”

This brings to mind the ancient Sanskrit prayer:

Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Puurnnam-Udacyate

Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih

This translates roughly to:

“That is the whole, this is the whole;

from the whole,

the whole becomes manifest;

taking away the whole from the whole,

the whole remains,

Om peace, peace, peace,”

as noted in the prayerbook from Amma “The Hugging Saint.”

Who Is Stan Grof?

Stanislav Grof grew up in Czechoslovakia and received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, before later completing a Ph.D. in medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences eight years later, while studying Freudian psychoanalysis.

Grof held the positions of Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Clinical and Research Fellow at the Henry Phipps Clinic, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He teaches as a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and his Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT). Dr. Grof has authored several books, including “Psychology of the Future,” “LSD Psychotherapy,” “Beyond the Brain,” “The Cosmic Game,” and “When the Impossible Happens.”

Transpersonal Psychology

Grof is one of the chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology, a method that incorporates spirituality and unorthodox elements of the human experience into more traditional psychology. In the early 19070s, Grof’s work was recognized by other academics working in the field of alternative branches of psychology, including Michael Murphy and Dick Price who founded the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, an alternative psychological research institution inspired by psychedelic research, eastern philosophy and the ideas of famous minds, such as Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts. It was there that Grof would live for several years doing his early research and living as scholar-in-residence.

In the late 1970s, Grof furthered the development of the field of transpersonal psychology and became the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association, or ITA, in San Francisco as international attention grew for his pioneering work. He and his wife Christina Grof devoted their lives to modern consciousness research, where they made major contributions to this alternative field of psychology, most notably their concepts and works titled “The Stormy Search for the Self,” “The Ultimate Journey,” “Healing Our Deepest Wounds,” “Realms of the Human Unconscious,” and the “Spiritual Emergency.”

In addition to holotropic breathwork, Grof’s work incorporates psychedelic experiences from guided sessions involving psychedelic substances such as LSD. In fact, Grof has guided over 4,500 therapeutic LSD sessions with his patients.

The 16 Benefits Of Holotropic Breathing

It’s no secret that through the breath, we can access the all-pervasive consciousness and heal ourselves. With consistent effort, we can release anger, anxiety, grief, depression, and chronic pain. With pranayama (breath control), we might also deepen our connection to the eternal I Am.

Here are some of the benefits of Holotropic Breathwork:

  1. Release stored tension
  2. Access and release old and chronic emotions
  3. Dissolve energy blocks
  4. Awaken your core Self-identity and pure nature
  5. Bring past traumas into the light for recognition, healing, and emotional release
  6. Invigorate your body and clear your mind
  7. Break-free of mental chatter
  8. Break your patterns around perseveration
  9. Improve your attitude and intentions
  10. Set yourself on a more proactive life course
  11. Clarify and improve your self-worth so that you can set better boundaries
  12. Learn to love yourself and others without codependence or subservience
  13. Move past your ego for more enlightened interactions and pursuits
  14. Enrich your creativity
  15. Invite greater positivity
  16. Improve your chances of overcoming addiction

If you’re ready to experience your prenatal universe (your core Self before this birth), you’re ready for Holotropic Breathwork. This type of self-exploration is the crux of Grof’s philosophy.

How To Do Holotropic Breathing

While there is no definitive way to practice this technique, and the ancient masters have provided several ways to achieve the same results, here is a set of suggestions that you may find helpful:

  1. Lay on your back, with your head slightly elevated with a thin pillow.
  2. Relax and empty your mind of thoughts.
  3. Take a few deep breaths through your nose and allow the air to fill all areas of your lungs. Slowly and peacefully exhale through your nose.
  4. Here forward, breathe solely through your mouth. Begin gently with several inhales of fresh air. Allow the air to activate your diaphragm and fill your belly. When your lungs and belly are full, slowly and peacefully exhale. Allow any emotions to arise and release.
  5. Once you’re comfortable breathing in and out, increase your breathing rate. While some might feel inspired to breathe as fast as they can, the idea here is to remain peaceful. It might be best to slowly accelerate your breathing so that you give rise to a stress-free pace.
  6. After 3 to 5 minutes, you’ll naturally find your rhythm and style of breathing. If you haven’t pushed yourself too hard, you’ll find that your body will enjoy the rapidity of your breathing. Throughout the process, be careful to remain conscious and attend to your breath.
  7. If possible, maintain your deep, speedy breathing for up to 20 minutes. If this is your first time, it might be best to stop at 5 to 10 minutes, or less. If you have found comfort in your pace and are feeling safe and fully conscious, consider extending this ritual for up to 2 hours.

“When the breath is unsteady, all is unsteady; when the breath is still, all is still. Control the breath carefully. Inhalation gives strength and a controlled body; retention gives steadiness of mind and longevity; exhalation purifies body and spirit.”– Goraksasathakam

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Powerful Breathwork Techniques

Whether you’re a hippie on a beach breathing ocean air to open your mind’s eye, a Hesychastic Christian on Mt. Athos breathing the eternal Christ into your earth-nature, or a Kundalini ashram-yogi doing “Breath of Fire” to awaken into the eternal Self, you’re experiencing the purest modality for self- and divine-connection: inhaling and exhaling to deepen your connection to the one boundless, non-dual reality.

Here are a few of the most wonderful breathing technique to inspire your awareness and awakening:

  1. Breath of Fire: Seated in lotus pose, relax into measured breathing. When you’re ready, begin increasing your inhalations and exhalations to reach over 60 breaths per minute. As you grow into this experience, you might build toward 120 breaths per minute.
  2. Sama Vritti: Sit in lotus pose, gently breathe inward and outward in equal durations, and focus on stillness.
  3. Nadi Shodhana (nostril breathing): A pranayama breathing technique that uses alternate nostrils. This is helpful when preparing for meditation as it stimulates the third eye, crown chakra, and root chakra while balancing the mind and heart.
  4. Wim Hof Method: A robust process whereby you aggressively inhale through your nose or mouth and then exhale through your mouth. These short, powerful bursts are followed by brief periods of holding one’s breath. The total length of a sitting might be around 15 minutes.
  5. Abdominal Breathing: This is an essential and effective breathing technique that awakens the body and mind. Sit comfortably and use your diaphragm for breathing inward and outward. Focus on the expansion of the belly, rather than on the rise of the chest.
  6. Gentle Breathing: Sit or stand in a comfortable position and allow a relaxed breath to fill your lower lungs and belly.

While there are many forms of breathwork and many styles of concentrated breathing, the above list will get you started.

 

“Without full awareness of breathing, there can be no development of meditative stability and understanding.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

The Breathing Bottom Line

The key to awakening your peacefulness and awareness is breath. If you can spend 5 minutes per day solely focused on your breathing, you will be doing more for your soul’s expansion than 99.9% of the planet’s population.

Breathwork is also the perfect precursor to meditation. It gets your blood flowing, initiates the release of the mind, and creates space for your unfoldment. Since you are continuously unfolding back into your pre-birth nature and the eternal consciousness, the more space you can create for yourself, the better.

Breathe in light, exhale tension and toxins.

Breathe into love and know yourself.

Breathe and expand.

I am wishing you the most delicious breathing and meditation for all time!

About The Author:

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Paul is a spiritual healer and coach with more than 30 years of experience. He is the founder of The Shankara Experience, and creator of The Shankara Oracle and The Personality Cards.

His work is focused on guiding seekers to inner freedom and awakening.