Visual: Mind Voyages I
Here’s a gif I made of what I see when I meditate, attempting to traverse space consciousness.
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
— Robert Jastrow, The Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe
No one cares — pass it on
Some things are learned through osmosis. Ideas and messages bounce around the universal consciousness waiting for their turn to materialize.
You'll know it when it happens to you — a seemingly accidental download into your head. You'll store it away in a folder or write it off as malware and forget it about it. Then it'll pop up again, and then again. It will try to wear you down, beg you to take momentary ownership — to pass it on in some form.
Most of these ideas are neglected and then recede into the ether in search of a new conduit. All because you were scared or doubtful or distracted or "not ready."
No one cares — pass it on.
I started this blog because I am a writer. I have been since I was five. The first thing I remember writing was an unintelligible love letter. The next thing I remember writing was a story about a bunny who was afraid because her parents were fighting. My teacher was so concerned she called a conference.
And that's what writing is for me — a medium for love and a way to process grief and trauma and obstacles. I would have not survived adolescence or my twenties without my journals. It is my tool for deep diving into my inner self.
I started this blog to share ideas and resources and art that makes me happy, that makes me curious, that makes me wonder. I wanted to keep these things in one space — like a digital garden.
Only beautiful things will bloom here.
It's been a few months and I have yet to post anything deeply personal. But the message "No one cares" kept popping up and up again and it was so damn liberating, because it's true.
So I'm here. In my own space. Sending love letters out into the world, passing on messages from the universe. Reiterating what the collective consciousness wants you to know.
No one cares — pass it on.
Wormhole wonderings and other things
An ad hoc list of what’s been happening:
YouTube: #MeditativeMind soundscapes
Reading: Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection (while staying grounded in this reality)
Internet: CIA Electronic Reading Room, Analysis and Assessment of the Gateway Process + Vice, How to Escape the Confines of Time and Space According to the CIA
“Brain change willed is as close to magic as we’re going to get.”
Workspace:
We installed a new, larger window in my home office. My first thought: “View is about to get expansive AF.”
Message from meditation:
“One channel only.”
Advice about difficult friendships
It shouldn't be hard to be friends with someone. The sooner you realize this the sooner you'll start making real friends.
Cute and short explainer video about empathy
Making emotionally intelligent decisions
You should never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion.
— 33 Quotes That Will Inspire You to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
Five steps for creating a new idea
This short, creative self-help book was written in the 1930s by an ad exec and it is, by far, the most useful text I’ve come across on the subject of creating new ideas.
“An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements … This technique of the mind follows five steps. I am sure that you will all recognize them individually. But the important thing is to recognize their relationship and to grasp the fact that the mind follows these five steps in definite order — that by no possibility can one of them be taken before the preceding one is completed, if an idea is to be produced.”
The steps — summarized as succinctly as possible — are:
Gather raw material — specific and general. In advertising an idea results from a new combination of specific knowledge about products and people with general knowledge about life and events.
Masticate your material — take the different bits of material which you have gathered and feel them all over, as it were, with the tentacles of the mind. Make connections. Write every new thought down. Do this until you are beyond tired and even then go further.
Make absolutely no effort of a direct nature — drop the whole subject and put the problem out of your mind. Watch a movie. Listen to music. Go for a walk. Sleep.
Out of nowhere the Idea will appear — this is the way ideas come: after you have stopped straining for them and have passed through a period of rest and relaxation from the search.
Take your little newborn idea out into the world of reality — do not make the mistake of holding your idea close to your chest at this stage. Submit it to the criticism of the judicious.
“When you do this, a surprising thing will happen. You will find that a good idea has, as it were, self-expanding qualities. It stimulates those who see it to add to it. Thus possibilities in it which you have overlooked will come to light.”
A chart for finding your reason for being
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that translates roughly to “reason for being.” Your Ikigai is found at the intersection where your passions and talents converge with the things that the world needs and is willing to pay for. Make a list of all the things you're curious about and figure out where they intersect. Then, find a medium through which you can express that passion.
On fulfilling your potential and self-esteem
When I notice myself worrying about “what other people will think” I find I’m usually not worried about any single person’s opinion. If I pick a specific person, I‘m rarely concerned about what they will think. What I fear is the collective opinion in my head. It’s imaginary. — James Clear
Old horoscope — what kind of woman to be
Be a woman who knows her own magic and in that self-awareness find a potent confidence with which to live.
— Old horoscope, 2003
Create dangerously
“To create today means to create dangerously. Every publication is a deliberate act, and that act makes us vulnerable to the passions of a century that forgives nothing.” —Albert Camus
Favorite quotes: Warrior Goddess Training by HeatherAsh Amara
The first step to claiming your strength and igniting your will is to get clear about what you want. Not what your victim wants, or what your judge wants, or what you would like, but what your highest vision and purpose is for yourself. What I have found is that when you get clear about your heart's desire, the Universe steps up in magnificent ways to support you!
So I say, if you are burning, burn. If you can stand it, the shame will burn away and leave you shining, radiant, and righteously shameless. —Elizabeth Cunningham
What is your main taproot? Make it deep and solid. Redirect it if it has grown attached to a person or ideal. Anchor yourself in infinity, in earth, to the life-force. Where is your true source of energy and stability? Reach deep.
How to clear old emotions: Take five minutes each day, whether you feel like it or not, to move through some emotions. You can also do this by dancing vigorously and yelling. Use your voice; scream, cry, om, growl . . . let your emotions move!
Life does not personally punish people or seek to cause suffering; it simply moves.
When you let go of who you wish you were, you reclaim your power to be radiantly, magnetically, and creatively who you are.
High school wisdom
Here are scanned pages from my high school notebook where I collected what I considered to be sage advice and quotes.
A lot of these quotes, which now seem banal, really helped me survive the discomfort of high school and bullies and a broken heart.
Here are the quotes that still resonate with me twenty years later:
“Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.” — Natalie Goldberg
"Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question. The superior person settles her mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky. By connecting her mind with the subtle origin, she calms it. Once calmed, it naturally expands, and ultimately her mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.” — Lao Tzu (apparently refuted)
“The greatest unexplored territory is the space between our ears.” — unknown (to me)