Hey Folks.........
I bet You don't know what America's No. 1 Addiction is!
Now before You go making up stuff about the Purple Cowboy talking about drugs and all that kind of stuff; ClikHere and see for Yourself......because You are probably hooked on it too!
Be sure and clik on the Video called The Wisdom Of The Dogon.....I guarantee You will be surprised to hear what Julian T. Nettles Bey has to say.
My Mind Is Burning With Ideas.....
as I listen to the video No.1 A New Life In 30 Days! As I imagine what I will say when I speak with the people next Wednesday about the Save Our Community Project. OMG.....I just realized .... I AM in that workshop that Ester is talking about as I begin listening to No. 2 The Creation Workshop Exercise.
I remember the sound of M.J. singing in the middle of Man In The Mirror where he just keeps singing "Whoo Whoo, Whoo....over and over again and I AM getting really pumped up.
Listening to Ester about "collecting data",I start turning my life experiences, my lemons, into a lemonade.... a nectar of pure substance. The "stuff of my life" is becoming the elixir of my life. As I listen to No.3, the purpose for which I AM currently living and speaking is coming thru more clearly .
No.4 is all about getting clear about what "wanting" really is.
What I AM wanting is more money in my bank account....so I'm now giving thought in the direction of what is wanted; which is.....MORE MONEY....but what the really powerful emotions I AM having are all about are thinking of what I will say to the people on next Wednesday when I make the Marketing Presentation about the Save Our Community Project. Oh yes.... I AM seeing those people writing $1K CHECKS on Wednesday.
She is saying..."from that point of being, You will attract more." Now friend..... as You listen to No. 4 really get Your head wrapped around that one and You truly will be the Creator of Your Experience.
The Power Of The One...... is a thought that keeps floating thru my mind:1. "get happy", she says in No. 5 then step 2. is to go into Your workshop. .....Bodily Conditions??? Huh....my bodily conditions are great from the Yoga and having become a Vegan.....and now she's telling me to "discern exactly what it is that I want and then to act as tho' it is done."
Okay I'M Streaming ...I'M Streaming and the drum is beating!
So here I AM in my workshop looking for clarity and what it is that I want. I AM feeling great in a perfect state of health and now with No. 6 "Sister Ester" is telling me about my vortex and the ultimate experience of thriving....."consider it done ,my manager says....."
God that is powerful.
Imagine more dollars. I collected another $1K this A.M. without even thinking about it......but that's for the "Real Estate Project" and not for my bank account.....but hey wait a minute..... didn't I say I wanted people to be giving me $1K checks?.... well here it is.
Well I'll be.....I AM so grateful. Thank You Ester....Thank You God!!!
clydebatton@gmail.com ...Your comments are welcome.
Levels of Consciousness
On April 7th, 2005 Steve Pavlina posted an article on his blog. The subject matter of that article just happened to be something Clyde Batton spends a lot of time wondering about, pondering about and talking about these days.....this whole matter of one's own Conscious State of Being or Presence. Clyde, having just just recently discovered Steve's blog thru his Purple Cowboy Marketing partner Mo Youngs;became fascinated with the article.
The Purple Cowboys from
997 decided to have Clyde include Steve's entire post here on the SuperStarDay Blogger's page.
997
In the book Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, there’s a hierarchy of levels of human consciousness. It’s an interesting paradigm. If you read the book, it’s also fairly easy to figure out where you fall on this hierarchy based on your current life situation.
From low to high, the levels of consciousness are: shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, enlightenment.
While we can pop in and out of different levels at various times, usually there’s a predominant “normal” state for us. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re at least at the level of courage because if you were at a lower level, you’d likely have no conscious interest in personal growth.
I’ll go over these levels in order, mostly focusing on the ones between courage and reason, since that’s the range where you’re most likely to land. The labels are Hawkins’. The descriptions of each level are based on Hawkins’ descriptions but blended with my own thoughts. Hawkins defines this as a logarithmic scale, so there are far fewer people at the higher levels than at the lower ones. An increase from one level to another will result in enormous change in your life.
Shame - Just a step above death. You’re probably contemplating suicide at this level. Either that or you’re a serial killer. Think of this as self-directed hatred.
Guilt - A step above shame, but you still may be having thoughts of suicide. You think of yourself as a sinner, unable to forgive yourself for past transgressions.
Apathy - Feeling hopeless or victimized. The state of learned helplessness. Many homeless people are stuck here.
Grief - A state of perpetual sadness and loss. You might drop down here after losing a loved one. Depression. Still higher than apathy, since you’re beginning to escape the numbness.
Fear - Seeing the world as dangerous and unsafe. Paranoia. Usually you’ll need help to rise above this level, or you’ll remain trapped for a long time, such as in an abusive relationship.
Desire - Not to be confused with setting and achieving goals, this is the level of addiction, craving, and lust — for money, approval, power, fame, etc. Consumerism. Materialism. This is the level of smoking and drinking and doing drugs.
Anger - the level of frustration, often from not having your desires met at the lower level. This level can spur you to action at higher levels, or it can keep you stuck in hatred. In an abusive relationship, you’ll often see an anger person coupled with a fear person.
Pride - The first level where you start to feel good, but it’s a false feeling. It’s dependent on external circumstances (money, prestige, etc), so it’s vulnerable. Pride can lead to nationalism, racism, and religious wars. Think Nazis. A state of irrational denial and defensiveness. Religious fundamentalism is also stuck at this level. You become so closely enmeshed in your beliefs that you see an attack on your beliefs as an attack on you.
Courage - The first level of true strength. I’ve made a previous post about this level: Courage is the Gateway. This is where you start to see life as challenging and exciting instead of overwhelming. You begin to have an inkling of interest in personal growth, although at this level you’ll probably call it something else like skill-building, career advancement, education, etc. You start to see your future as an improvement upon your past, rather than a continuation of the same.
Neutrality - This level is epitomized by the phrase, “live and let live.” It’s flexible, relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens, you roll with the punches. You don’t have anything to prove. You feel safe and get along well with other people. A lot of self-employed people are at this level. A very comfortable place. The level of complacency and laziness. You’re taking care of your needs, but you don’t push yourself too hard.
Willingness - Now that you’re basically safe and comfortable, you start using your energy more effectively. Just getting by isn’t good enough anymore. You begin caring about doing a good job — perhaps even your best. You think about time management and productivity and getting organized, things that weren’t so important to you at the level of neutrality. Think of this level as the development of willpower and self-discipline. These people are the “troopers” of society; they get things done well and don’t complain much. If you’re in school, then you’re a really good student; you take your studies seriously and put in the time to do a good job. This is the point where your consciousness becomes more organized and disciplined.
Acceptance - Now a powerful shift happens, and you awaken to the possibilities of living proactively. At the level of willingness you’ve become competent, and now you want to put your abilities to good use. This is the level of setting and achieving goals. I don’t like the label “acceptance” that Hawkins uses here, but it basically means that you begin accepting responsibility for your role in the world. If something isn’t right about your life (your career, your health, your relationship), you define your desired outcome and change it. You start to see the big picture of your life more clearly. This level drives many people to switch careers, start a new business, or change their diets.
Reason - At this level you transcend the emotional aspects of the lower levels and begin to think clearly and rationally. Hawkins defines this as the level of medicine and science. The way I see it, when you reach this level, you become capable of using your reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. You now have the discipline and the proactivity to fully exploit your natural abilities. You’ve reached the point where you say, “Wow. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to good use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” You take a look around the world and start making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud. It’s probably obvious that most people never reach this level in their entire lives.
Love - I don’t like Hawkins’ label “love” here because this isn’t the emotion of love. It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of your connectedness with all that exists. Think compassion. At the level of reason, you live in service to your head. But that eventually becomes a dead end where you fall into the trap of over-intellectualizing. You see that you need a bigger context than just thinking for its own sake. At the level of love, you now place your head and all your other talents and abilities in service to your heart (not your emotions, but your greater sense of right and wrong — your conscience). I see this as the level of awakening to your true purpose. Your motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted by the desires of the ego. This is the level of lifetime service to humanity. Think Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At this level you also begin to be guided by a force greater than yourself. It’s a feeling of letting go. Your intuition becomes extremely strong. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by 1 in 250 people during their entire lifetimes.
Joy - A state of pervasive, unshakable happiness. Eckhart Tolle describes this state in The Power of Now. The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. Just being around people at this level makes you feel incredible. At this level life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make detailed plans — the expansion of your consciousness allows you to operate at a much higher level. A near-death experience can temporarily bump you to this level.
Peace - Total transcendence. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by one person in 10 million.
Enlightenment - The highest level of human consciousness, where humanity blends with divinity. Extremely rare. The level of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. Even just thinking about people at this level can raise your consciousness.
I think you’ll find this model worthy of reflection. Not only people but also objects, events, and whole societies can be ranked at these levels. Within your own life, you’ll see that some parts of your life are at different levels than others, but you should be able to identify your current overall level. You might be at the level of neutrality overall but still be addicted to smoking (level of desire). The lower levels you find within yourself will serve as a drag that holds the rest of you back. But you’ll also find higher levels in your life. You may be at the level of acceptance and read a book at the level of reason and feel really inspired. Think about the strongest influences in your life right now. Which ones raise your consciousness? Which ones lower it?
One thing I like about these levels of consciousness is that I can trace back over my own life and see how I’ve been moving through them. I remember being stuck at the level of guilt for a long time – as a child I was indoctrinated into a belief system where I was a helpless sinner, being judged according to the standards of someone at the level of love or higher. From there I graduated to the state of apathy, feeling numb to the whole thing. By high school I had reached the level of pride — I was a straight-A student, captain of the Academic Decathlon team, showered with accolades and awards, but I became dependent on them. I hit the level of Courage in my late teens, but the courage was very unfocused, and I overdid it and got myself into all sorts of trouble. I then spent about a year in neutrality and moved through willingness and acceptance during my 20s with a lot of conscious effort. At present I’m at the level of reason and getting closer and closer to completing the leap to love. I experience the state of love more and more often, and it’s guiding many of my decisions already, but it hasn’t yet stuck as my natural state. I’ve also experienced the state of joy for days at a time, but never with any permanence yet. That state is a pervasive feeling of natural euphoria, as if I’m exploding on the inside with positive energy. It literally forces me to smile. I’ve been in that state for most of this morning, probably because I haven’t eaten anything yet today (I find it easier to hit that state of consciousness when I eat lightly or not at all).
We’ll naturally fluctuate between multiple states throughout the course of any given week, so you’ll probably see a range of 3-4 levels where you spend most of your time. One way to figure out your “natural” state is to think about how you perform under pressure. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice because that’s what’s inside. What comes out of you when you get squeezed by external events? Do you become paranoid and shut down (fear)? Do you start yelling at people (anger)? Do you become defensive (pride)? What happens to me under pressure is that I become hyper-analytical, but recently I just had a pressure situation where I handled it mostly by intuition, which was a big change for me. This tells me I’m getting close to the unconditional love state because in that state, intuition can be effectively accessed even under pressure.
Everything in your environment will have an effect on your level of consciousness. TV. Movies. Books. Web sites. People. Places. Objects. Food. If you’re at the level of reason, watching TV news (which is predominantly at the levels of fear and desire) will temporarily lower your consciousness. If you’re at the level of guilt, TV news will actually raise it up.
Progressing from one level to the next requires an enormous amount of energy. I wrote about this previously when discussing quantum leaps. Without conscious effort or the help of others, you’ll likely just stay at your current level until some outside force comes into your life.
Notice the natural progression of levels, and consider what happens when you try to short-cut the process. If you try to reach the level of reason before mastering self-discipline (willingness) and goal-setting (acceptance), you’ll be too disorganized and unfocused to use your mind to its full extent. If you try to push yourself to the level of love before you’ve mastered reason, you’ll suffer from gullibility and may end up in a cult.
Going up even one level can be extremely hard; most people don’t do so in their entire lives. A change in just one level can radically alter everything in your life. This is why people below the level of courage aren’t likely to progress without external help. Courage is required to work on this consciously; it comes down to repeatedly betting your whole reality for the chance to become more conscious and aware. But whenever you reach that next level, you realize clearly that it was a good bet. For example, when you hit the level of courage, all your past fears and false pride seem silly to you now. When you reach the level of acceptance (setting and achieving goals), you look back on the level of willingness and see you were like a mouse running on a treadmill — you were a good runner, but you didn’t pick a direction.
I think the most important work we can do as human beings is to raise our individual level of consciousness. When we do this, we spread higher levels of consciousness to everyone around us. Imagine what an incredible world this would be if we could at least get everyone to the level of acceptance. According to Hawkins 85% of the people on earth live below the level of courage.
When you temporarily experience the higher levels, you can see where you must go next. You have one of those moments of clarity where you understand that things have to change. But when you sink into the lower levels, that memory becomes clouded.
We have to keep consciously taking ourselves back to the sources that can help us complete the next leap. Each step requires different solutions. I recall when making the shift from neutrality to willingness, I listened to time management tapes almost every day. I immersed myself in sources created by people at the level of willingness until I eventually shifted. But a book on time management will be of little use to someone who’s at the level of pride; they’ll reject the very notion with a lot of defensiveness. And time management is meaningless to someone at the level of peace. But you can’t hit the higher levels if you haven’t mastered the basics first. Jesus was a carpenter. Gandhi was a lawyer. Buddha was a prince. We all have to start somewhere.
Look at this hierarchy with an open mind and see if it leads you to new insights that may help you take the next leap in your own life. No levels are any more right or wrong than others. Try not to get your ego wrapped up in the idea of being at any particular level, unless you’re currently at the level of pride of course.
7:20-7:30 A.M. Back into the kitchen for my Strawberry Smoothie Drink. If I don't have any left over I will take time to make it. This is my energy drink I use thru-out the day. 2 Oranges cut up go into my Osterizer Blender along with, 3 Bananas and 1/3 of a bag of frozen Strawberries. I add 16 oz. of water to blend it all together. As it is blending I add one pac of Gano Cafe Classic and shake some ground cinnamon on top. When I've got it all working together, I add two trays of ice cubes and it becomes my Smoothies Drink. And now it's downstairs to get the Cardio happening.
Albert Ibanez was a Spanish composer who wrote a beautiful piece of music for two guitars called Granada which is part of his Suite Espanol. I turn on my CD player and begin listening as I commence my Cardio-Vascular Workout. This is also a visualization and breathing exercise. I work with a 50 lb barbell and 10 lb dumb bells for these exercises. You can watch the first video on the right to see most of this routine. I also focus on the Theatre Of The Mind DreamBoard You will see below to mentally picture those "Pecs and Abs to Die For" I keep talking about.
Cardio WorkOut Routine 50 lb Barbell Exercises Shoulder Curls for Abs......25 sets Overhead Lifts.................25 sets StairSteps .....4 sets of 25 each PushUps and SitUps 10 sets of 10 each Bench Press Exercises for the 40+ Males (Prostrate Exercises) 3 Sets with a 50 Count Each.....See Video Below 50 lb Bench Presses.....10 sets 15x's each Are We Having Fun Yet?  Oh Boy Wait'il Ya See What's Coming Up Next!! |
With each of the above routines, I first "mentally practice" doing the routine. I first see the exercise in my Mind's Eye. Once I complete that then I actually do each routine, so I have in effect done each of these exercises 2x's. As I "mentally rehearse" each exercise I actually envision in my mind the muscle group that particular exercise is focusing on.
What we are seeking here is definition which will happen first on the mental/emotional plane and then later actually manifest as real change in the way my body actually shows up on the physical plane. So in my mind, instead of seeing this pudgy 59 year old guy with a round belly.....
I see this 38 year old "hunk" with jet black hair, lying on a beach somewhere with a beautiful tan and a "six-pack" to die for.This is all part of my "mental rehearsal" which is creating a new "level of mind" that my brain will begin to identify with and start to wire up as a new neural network.
I was not really getting an actual mental picture at first but surprisingly after just a couple of days I began to see myself on stage in the Theatre of The Mind actually doing the work and looking exactly the way I AM IMAGING myself to be.
This newly formed mental picture of myself will then be utilized in the Theatre of the Mind as an "embodied image" and action scenario when I begin to play and act out the part of the person I AM Becoming. This in turn will cause me to start to think and act as though I AM actually that 38 year old with the "six-pac" to die for instead of this 59 year old who currently looks more like a keg of beer.
Not Quite a 6-pac Yet!
This by the way is the whole secret behind IMAGING. You can never be successful in changing if you continue to hold on to the old Image of Your Self.....by Self I mean how you mentally and psychologically see yourself.
For Example:
If I AM fat and want to lose weight.....I must first begin to see myself as the slender human being I intend to become. I have pictures of 6-pac abs thru out my house to constantly remind me of the new physical self-image I AM Becoming. It will not be long before my subconscious mind begins to accept the "Mental Rehearsal Image" of myself I AM envisioning. I must also start "to act out" the part. When I walk now....I walk the way a 160 pound man walks....not some guy who is overweight and waddling around carrying a spare tire around his waist.
Now don't get me wrong.....I Love myself for exactly the way I AM right now....and I accept my desire to change as that part of my consciousness which chooses to express itself as a 160 pound man experiencing perfect health and wellness.....wholeness (holiness) and completeness.
SideBar: I actually stopped myself from popping a bowl of popcorn at 1:00 AM and loading it down with melted butter with a voice that asked me......"Now would a 160 pound man who knew he was going to be working out in the morning at 7:00 AM be scarfing down popcorn with butter at 1:00 AM?......Go to bed now and get some sleep."
So when I AM walking....I AM someone who already weighs 160 pounds. The "Mental Rehearsal Image" is coming now in flashes and is part of my meditation thru out the day. I can't hold the image long yet but when I see it.....it is clear. I can actually see myself sitting on my bench press machine looking the way I want with those 6-pac abs and pecs.
As I continue to build my "mental rehearsal" scenarios I will add more and more scenes and activities of me Being, Doing and Having exactly what I want to BE DO and HAVE in my life. So when all is said and done...losing weight or releasing the weight has almost nothing to do with the weight and everything to do with "letting go" of and releasing the old and familiar pictures I have been holding of myself.
By acknowledging daily that in fact I AM "new to myself on this day." Every day in the mirror I see the new man emerging. What a gas this is!! And there is even more coming!!
