Expecto Patronum

This particular scene from the Harry Potter series has been playing over and over in my head all day:

In the 3rd book, when Harry of the future is standing off in the distance, watching Sirius and himself being attacked by the dementors, he knows that at any moment, someone is going to cast a powerful patronus charm to drive them away. After waiting and waiting for their mysterious savior to show up, he finally realizes nobody is coming, and that it was him all along. Armed with the certainty that he, an inexperienced kid could produce something so powerful, he yells "Expecto Patronum!" and casts the most spectacular corporeal patronus in the form of a stag; using love and light to cast away fear and darkness.

We don't fight fire with fire, and we don't fight hate with hate. We can, but we won't be successful if our goal is to evolve and make this world a better place. Many people in spiritual circles are saying that humanity is in the process of waking up, and the "light" (the truth found within us) is illuminating the crumbling foundations that our old institutions have been built upon. Those shaky institutions will have to be razed and rebuilt on a stronger foundation that will see humanity through its next phase of evolution. 

In other words, it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.

If I learned anything from the last couple months, it's that we've made ourselves vulnerable by becoming dependent on unstable institutions to save us, or tell us what's true, whether it be federal funding, governments, religion, political leaders, lawyers, the media, the stock market, etc. 

And now more than ever, we can clearly see the Voldemorts and Umbridges of the world who seek power and control, just as we can see the Wormtails of the world who are so fearful of losing money, power, status, reputation, etc., that they'll abandon their own values.

But if you subscribe to the idea that we're eternal beings, you may realize that there's really nothing to fear, and if you have nothing to fear, you can't be controlled. And we all hold a power greater than anything or anyone within us: love. So even when we feel helpless, and think we can't make a difference in the world as individuals, we can always start by choosing the way we respond and interact with each other: with love.

I choose love.

Music to listen to: Finale to Mahler: Symphony No. 2

"What was created must perish,

what has perished must rise again.

Tremble no more!

Prepare yourself to live!"

The Near-Death Experience - A Reason to Believe

I can't believe I believe again. And I can't believe how it happened in just a matter of months (well, after 16 years of unbelief, anyway). At church this morning, Pastor JT remarked on the growing number of church members this year, and I've noticed it too. And I wonder if what's happening to me is also happening to many others - finding a reason to believe in something bigger than ourselves after years of rejecting that belief. 

Why now? All I can say is that I simply wanted to believe that there was more than just this life. I guess if you want to believe something enough, you will find ways and reasons to believe it. And I do have a very logical mind...but I'm not dogmatic in my beliefs. Give me a good argument, and I can be persuaded.

Having listened to countless near-death experience (NDE) stories these last couple months, and after reading Dr. Bruce Greyson's book, "After", I have chosen to believe that most of these people are speaking their own truth, and I see no reason to think they're making shit up. Couple this with the recent claims that telepathy is real (go listen to The Telepathy Tapes if you haven't already), and it all starts to unravel beliefs in a materialistic worldview. I think there's too much evidence of there being something more than the purely physical, and some people (and animals) are just more attuned to the frequencies(?) where those non-material things can be sensed.

So, if what these people say is true, then this is what I currently understand about life, death, purpose, God, and the universe. Bear with me...I'm aware of how "out there" this all sounds, but I will say this makes a heck of a lot more sense to me than the Bible ever did.

We all choose to come here (to Earth), and choose our lives, our parents, and have a sort of life blueprint with certain goals we want to meet in that particular lifetime. The purpose is soul growth, experience accumulation, and ultimately remembering who we are (beings of light and pure love), and where we came from (God, the source of light and love). Souls are at different levels of growth, and will experience many lifetimes on Earth to learn those lessons.

There is no judgment on the other side, at least not from anyone other than yourself. When you are taken through your life review, you will experience your life again through the perspectives of everyone you ever interacted with, and learn how your actions affected them, good or bad.

We (living things) are all connected to each other, because we're all little sparks of God. We have the illusion of separateness as we live out our lives here, but we're all one.

Linear time is also an illusion. On the other side, all timelines and possibilities exist concurrently, so what you're focused on is what you see, and you can move through them as we move through 3D space here. It sounds like what you do is shift your focus, and then you're there. But who knows...NDEers have trouble finding words to explain their experiences when it comes to the subject of time, except to say that "time doesn't exist there".

Death is not something to fear. There aren't a lot of hellish NDEs, but the few I did listen to basically said that as soon as they cried out for help, help came. There doesn't seem to be anything tying these bad experiences to religion, good/bad people, or anything you might immediately think of that would send a person to "hell". Most of NDEers say there is no hell, of the eternal damnation kind, anyway. Some say Earth is hell, and some say that the life review could be hell, depending on how you lived your life.

The whole concept of timelessness now has me wondering what the point of it all is, if it's all just there and nothing changes...or do we have the power to change things to make them better? I mean, how would we grow and ascend if everything was all set...is it our job to suss out the best paths back to God? 

Maybe for the fun of it, God blew himself up into gazillions of puzzle pieces, so we could have the pleasure of putting him back together again.

I'm going to continue going to my church, because I think the teachings of Jesus, and the way he lived his life is probably the best example we have to strive for if we want to see humanity move on to greater things. I'll be thinking a lot more about how my actions affect others, and try to be the best version of myself. Hearing these stories has made me more aware of the power I have as an individual to do good.

"Let your light so shine before men, let your light so shine,

So that they might know some kindness again.

We all need help to feel fine (let's have some wine!)"

-Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) / Matthew 5:16