Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I have spent my life amongst sages
And found nothing better
For a soul than silence
~Rav Shimeon Ben Gamliel

For Jews around the world, sunset marks the beginning of the new year, 5772. The holiday is known as Rosh Hashana meaning “head of the year” in Hebrew. Rosh Hashana begins a 10 day period of deep reflection known as the 10 Days of Awe culminating the highest of holy days called Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a day of atonement.


As a shamanic practitioner and intuitive medium, I honor the traditions of my ancestors and use this time to deepen my connection to my soul and divine spirit.  Because Rosh Hashanah is a time to listen deeply to the truths of ourselves, I honor this call. This is a time to reflect and realign with our bodies, our breath, our spirit; with one another; with the earth and the divine mystery unfolding in all life. 


We can all use this time to reflect no matter what religious or spiritual path we honor. The Akashic Records are open for review for this 10 Day period and I so I conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory of my life. I reflect on my relationship with the divine, my soul's purpose and contemplate on how to bring that purpose into consistent meaningful action. I contemplate in meditation and shamanic journey questions like:
  • How can I best live my life with deep loving compassion for all and reflect this in all my actions?
  • Where have I avoided knowing myself and have fallen away from my soul’s truth?
  • Where have I denied the cries of another?
  • How can I better cultivate mindfulness?
  • What habits no longer serve me that can be now put to rest? And how do I do so soulfully?
  • How can I best serve the divine and life on earth? What does the divine need me to know?
This year, I will begin the holiday feasting with family and listening to my daughter sing at the opening services for Rosh Hashana. On Saturday I will be engaging in an indigenous sweat lodge to mark the process of opening, clearing, forgiveness and healing for me, the participants and for all suffering throughout humanity and life. I will reflect all week mindfully and then quiet myself on Yom Kippur, fasting in silent mindfulness meditation and prayerful communion with spirit which culminates in a festive break-fast celebration with family.


One does not need to celebrate this holiday to take time for deep reflection. Today you can choose to breathe deeply into your body, elongate your breath and feel into your being.
  • Who are you?
  • What is your soul’s deepest desire?
  • What brings you joy?
  • What moves you?
  • Who do you love? And how do you express this love?
  • How can you honor your soul’s truth today?
  • If you knew you could not fail, what would you do differently?
  • How can you nurture your being compassionately now?
  • How can you express kindness in your life today?
  • What do you appreciate? How do you express appreciation?
  • Who are you? 

May this time and year be one of deep renewal, abundant blessings and loving grace for all. “LaShana Tova Tikatevu” and Namaste ~



Monday, September 26, 2011

Laughter: Medicine for the Soul

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards.
I got a full house and four people died.
-- Steven Wright



Ever notice how good you feel after a bold, hearty laugh? Laughter is medicine for the soul. Its positive effects can remain with you even once laughter itself passes. Laughter is an antidote to pain, stress and conflict. At a time on the planet where energies are urging us to release all patterns that limit our divine potentials, finding the humor within ourselves and life can be liberating.


Laughter can help us see the absurd within trying situations. Ever drop something or slip and start laughing? Humor can help us discover new ways to experience ourselves. When we laugh, we shift our perceptions about life.  This breaks up denser energies that clog our creative flow and allows us to see things from a fresh perspective.


Laughter relaxes our whole being. Deep, hearty laughter can relieve stress and reduce tension within our muscles. That effect within the body lasts far beyond the laughter experience.


Every time we laugh our immune system receives a boost. Laughter decreases the production of hormones associated with stress while increasing the production of cells that fight disease. Laughter improves our overall resistance to disease.


"A cheerful heart does good medicine, but a broken spirit makes you sick."

Proverbs 17:22

Laughter promotes positive feelings and reduces the presence of pain. When my daughter was recently injured, she was crying from the trauma of the incident as the fear and the physical pain from her injury set in. While compassionately comforting her, I introduced small bits of humor which made her laugh. That laughter gave her energy system a noticeable boost and soon her overall experience shifted.


Laughter protects the heart. When you deliberately access the infinite well of love and bliss within your heart chakra, you promote genuine benefits in the mind, body and emotions. Laughter has a powerful impact on your hearts health. It improves blood vessels’ functionality and increases blood flow. Laughter expands the heart chakra and allows constricted or blocked energies within the human energy system to be cleared with little effort.


There is an appropriate time and place for humor. If you have attended one of my workshops or seminars, you will likely experience a flow of humor woven into the discussions. But if you have only experienced me within the context of a private intuitive consultation, it is quite possible you have never witnessed my sense of humor. Some things are not funny. Sensitivity to when and where can build or break trust within relationships. 


So how do we cultivate laughter in our lives?


Become willing to laugh at yourself. Some of the funniest moments in my life are when I have taken myself far too seriously and have stepped back to notice! When I can witness myself with humor, it relieves the anxiety and opens me to the silliness of a given perspective. As a teacher, I often share the stores of my intuitive journey and resistances to following divine guidance with a great deal of humor.


Discover the humor within a stressful situation. Have you ever found yourself unable to contain laughter at a funeral or in a religious service? Fairies and other divine beings often tweak our sense of humor to free us from how we perceive a situation. My father’s death was one of the most challenging losses of my lifetime. But during the eulogy, I told one of his favorite jokes to honor his bold sense of humor. When you laugh, your entire mood shifts and so does your perspective.


Introduce laughter into your day. Read or tell a joke. Keep something that makes you chuckle at work; in your purse or in your car. Surround yourself with photos of you and your loved ones laughing. Watch a funny program or read a humorous book. Years ago when I was in the midst of a deep depression, I asked my helping spirits to relieve my suffering. Three angelic guides appeared and told me to take a walk outdoors; “but first” they said, “turn on the television”. They guided me to turn on a specific channel in that moment where a comedian was delivering the funniest routine. I immediately burst into laughter with tears streaming from my eyes as they then said “ok, now go for your walk”. I walked with a new spring in my step, simply from allowing that momentary laughter into my perception.


Distinguish between hurtful humor and helpful humor. Humor that promotes health engages our deep sense of joy. It bonds us with others and improves intimacy. Humor that hurts creates pain and distance within relationships. Humor at the expense of another pokes fun at individuals or groups and leaves the other feeling lousy. Sarcasm, put downs, ethnic and anti-jokes do not promote health. Healthy humor builds connections with others. Sarcasm or sensitive jokes can be funny when they poke fun at yourself, your own personal situation or a situation from which others have appropriate emotional distance.


Humor and laughter benefit us in many ways. When we laugh with others our connections deepen, we feel more relaxed, and we open to a new perspective. Laughter elevates your energetic vibration. You cannot remain angry while laughing. Laughter opens the heart chakra increasing your capacity for love, forgiveness and compassion.  It uplifts your emotional experience, positively influences your choices and improves your health. And laughter feels great!

Now dance like a psychic and do the Crystal Ball  ;)




Monday, September 19, 2011

Facing Down Our Shadow

Recently I read a book called Esoteric Healing written by new age spiritualist Alice Bailey. Within her work, Bailey makes bold assertions that the Jews created their demise in the Holocaust because of their unchecked collective karmic history. She weaves her anti-Semitic rhetoric throughout her supposed channeled works and stands largely unchallenged amongst her followers. Bailey has a vast library of esoteric writings, most of which never mention such explosively harmful diatribe. But like our own personal shadows hidden within our unconsciousness, Bailey’s unbridled bias pours plainly onto the written page in this particular work.

While reading her words, I noticed my breathing become shallow, my skin grew prickly and a haunting sadness rose into my heart. Memories of personal encounters with discrimination merged with the ancestral suffering of my Jewish inheritance and challenged me to pay attention and breathe.

I grew up in a Jewish home knowing many in my family and community who had lost so much under the insanity of Nazi-Europe. And my favorite Polish Grandmother was sent to America as a young teen, all alone, to escape the horrors of the Russian Pogroms. She often shared stories about her youth, describing how her family was terrorized simply for being Jewish. Can you imagine living under that kind of constant threat simply for observing a religion other than the majority?


I was raised to be hyper vigilant regarding anti-Semitic rhetoric and even became a member of the Anti-Defamation League as a young college student. My entire family embodied this fear, having lived through death of loved ones and other hurtful acts all due to prejudices against Jews. Fear of persecution had become imbedded in our psyche and if there is such a thing as a collective psyche, then it exists within the Jewish consciousness too.


Perhaps we have all encountered prejudices and in my life it has shown up in numerous forms: some connect to being Jewish and others do not. Here are some examples:


*When a former corporate boss learned I was Jewish, he turned pale and said “all this time I thought you were one of us”.

*While on a casual date with a fellow student from a college political science course, I shared that I was Jewish. His face grew red as he announced I was a Jew spy, he then ran out and left me alone at the restaurant.

*While walking home from elementary school the Catholic school children often screamed offensive terms to my friends and me: “kike; Heb” and one group pushed my books right out of my hands calling me a “Christ killer”.

*One of my dear childhood friends announced during carpool on the way to elementary school, that her mother had told her that I was not a real Jew, because I had been adopted.

*A puppeteer I hired for my daughter’s birthday party canceled via voicemail message the day before her party, claiming her church had declared me a witch and a danger because I was a medium.

*While attending my husband’s high school reunion, a couple began asking me about my work. Upon learning that I was a medium, they called me an abomination to Judaism and God. Then pursed a relentless attack on my gifts and character that left me balling in the parking lot.

*I once referred a very close friend to my revered shaman mentor and he announced that he could not go to her because his family decided she was really a “white witch”. She is not a witch; not even a “white” witch. That is a common claim for individuals who work shamanically or directly with spirit. But if she was, why would that be grounds for such fearful bias?

*Several fellow graduate students claimed to be Christians and told me that I was working with the devil because I could communicate with the spiritual world and did so professionally.

*My daughter came home from first grade crying “mommy, one of the girls in my class today told me that we killed Jesus. Why is she saying that mommy?”

*At her Montessori pre-school, my daughter was told by her teacher “to stop saying she could see fairies and angels” since they are not real.

Have you ever encountered bias so directly?
Have you ever noticed your own bias toward others?

When I read Alice Bailey’s book that a new acquaintance greatly valued, only to discover the spiritualist leader’s words proclaiming genocide as a manifestation of Jewish prior bad acts, my intuitive dander stood at attention. This happens for me, when I am faced with someone’s projection wrapped in seemingly glib presentation. I needed to know if he was aware of what she had written and was he willing to denounce her insanity.


I have pasted some of Bailey’s quotes below. But before reading them, I'd like to invite you to please find a comfortable position, take a deep cleansing breath and elongate your exhale. Call divine light to you and let the light expand throughout your body until every cell of your being is radiant. As you continue to breathe deeply into your lower abdomen and elongate your exhale,close your eyes and connect to the peacefulness of your own true center coming into your conscious awareness. Then open your eyes read the few excerpts from Bailey’s book, Esoteric Healing written during the Holocaust:


  • Today (1949) the law of racial karma is working and the Jews are paying the price, factually and symbolically 
  • Jewish religious history has been built around a materialistic Jehovah, possessive, greedy, and endorsing and encouraging aggression
  • They (the Jews) have never faced candidly and honestly as a race the problem of WHY the many nations, from the time of the Egyptians, have neither liked nor wanted them... Yet there must be some reason, inherent in the people themselves, when the reaction is so general and universal. 
  • The Jews are the reincarnation of spiritual failures or residues from another planet... The Jew represents materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism, under the domination of the separative, selfish mind, that from which all good New Age disciples want to emerge. 
  • The word "love" for others is lacking in Judaism... The Jew has never grasped the love of God. The God of the Jews is possessive and greedy. Jehovah is not God.
  • Christ came to bring an end to the Jewish dispensation which should have climaxed and passed away as a religion with the [astrological] movement of the sun out of Aries into Pisces....
  • They [the Jews] rejected that which was new and spiritual in the desert
  • Bailey also states: The line that [the Nazis] have taken against the Jewish people, might be turned with almost equal justification against the Jews themselves. The latter have always been separative and have regarded themselves as "the chosen of the Lord" and have never proved assimilable in any nation.


     
As you continue to breathe in and out, notice how you feel when you read those words. Where is your energy in your body now? Do these words resonate as a spiritual truth within your being? What do you notice?


Breathe deeply and let go of the words completely. Can you? If so, notice this. If not, notice this too.


If Bailey had replaced the word Jew with any other religious or cultural group, my soul’s intuitive dander would still have risen. Would yours? When we don’t catch our own skewed perceptions they pour into the world and have a creative impact. Though Bailey's works didn't lead to the holocaust, her words reflect the Nazi rhetoric that ended in the death of millions. And Bailey continues to be revered as profound. As a new age spiritualist, she should have been confronted then and now.  This is where loving friends can challenge us to take a clear, compassionate look at where we are stuck. But in this case, Bailey and her foundation did neither.


After reading her work fully, I raised my concerns with the acquaintance who pointed me in the direction of Bailey’s work sensing this individual was not anti-Semitic nor was he hyper-vigilant with the imprinted fears of Jewish history. My concerns were challenged and I was told that I didn’t really get it and her and was urged to see Bailey's concepts about Jews within the context of all the great works she provided the world. Couldn't I just see how loving and important a figure she was?  He claimed to abhor separatism but would not go as far as denouncing Bailey’s words about the Jews.  

Can a responsible spiritual teacher truly justify Bailey's stereotypes; false representation of Jewish spiritual constructs;  calling the Jewish people ‘the reincarnation of spiritual failures or residues from another planet? Does a responsible spiritual teacher tolerate the rationalizations of genocide as though it was a karmic destiny; urging Jews to assimilate into the culture to alleviate discrimination and requesting Jews to stop taking away so many opportunities from those who are not Jewish?

I wondered, would only Jewish people be concerned about this? 


Needless to say, I was tweaked about the work itself and the lack of compassion regarding my concerns. I had some work to do to set myself free. So I engaged in mindfulness practice and then I journeyed. Journeying is the shamanic act of directly connecting with the spiritual worlds to access healing, wisdom and guidance. I sought the healing and guidance from my divine helping spirits. While connecting with my divine master teachers in one journey last week, the spirits of Alice Bailey and her teacher, Dwal Khul showed up. To say I was stunned is a gross understatement. Alice Bailey approached me with the aids of two of my master teachers in spirit. To my amazement she offered me direct amends for her spiteful words. She shared in depth how deeply this reflected a trauma within her family story and why spiritual concepts were filtered through her pain. She actually showed me how she was tethered by her father and how this tainted her perceptions. Bailey shared that she did not realized how gravely wrong she had been at the time and was truly contrite while sharing her insight. Her compassion flowed toward me as she encouraged me to stand up to her words and not be swayed by those fearful of challenging her.


And then Dwal spoke. He seemed to be a Buddhist type teacher, draped in simple robes. He told me that he worked with Alice from the spirit realm while she was living in the body because they had known each other in other lifetimes. He was quite austere proclaiming that he never shared insights with her about karma and the Jews. He told me that his words were gravely distorted when she wrote about karma. He told me “karma does not make anyone pay. For once in the light or nirvana, there is only understanding and responding from that awareness or lack of understanding and responding from that lack of awareness. There is no payback. There is no pay forward. There is only now.” While radiating pure compassion toward Alice and me, he wanted me to know that her understanding of his channelings was correct in many cases and incorrect in others – specifically speaking in this encounter about her references to Jews. I turned to my divine helping spirits asking them, “Is this really Alice and Dwal?” They gently reassured me, “Yes. Listen and learn”. So I did. In this journey, both spirits offered me amends and then guided me on the next steps for my healing and communication with my friends and others.


We are all capable of allowing our shadowy wounds to rule our choices. If you are human (and I’ll go out on a limb and assume that you are), you have unconscious wounds that are dictating your thoughts, words and actions right now. As my guides like to say it is those unconscious wounds, also known as imprints within your energy field, that create reality for you. Another way to say it - you create reality through these illusions. Very often we don’t notice their existence until we experience the effects of these imprints as unwanted experiences. But it is these experiences that allow the shadow to be illuminated so we can embrace ourselves compassionately, heal and evolve.


I now feel greater compassion for Bailey. From spirit she urged me to stand in the truth and fearlessly challenge the shadows within her work. She was now willing to see where she had been stuck while living and was still evolving in after-life. And that is a hopeful prospect.


I too am a work in progress. I am cultivating compassion for all of us who may be lost in the dictates of the unconscious shadow. I am grateful for a wakeful community of friends who willingly observe themselves, share when they are stuck or have been and process deeply within relationship in ways that allow transcendence to emerge gracefully. And I am grateful when I can be stuck without judgment, witnessed and urged to clearly see myself, open my heart and transcend any limitation that feels all too real for a moment…or two. For today, I am grateful that I met Alice Bailey when she had healed from where she had been trapped. I too choose to face down my personal shadows compassionately and fearlessly, while alive – healing and evolving one conscious breath at a time.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Meditating to the Nightly News

I have often encouraged Intuitive Empowerment students to practice listening to their innate intuitive truth in the midst of daily life chaos. But can you imagine meditating while watching The Bachelor? Recently a close friend told me about his teacher's suggestion that he deliberately meditate while watching an agitating television show. He was given specific instruction to watch the television show, then turn it off and on while practicing mindfulness.



can you imagine meditating while watching the nightly news?


It is so much easier to cultivate equanimity and honor our soul's wisdom within the perfect setting, without interruptions or obligations that stir our chattering mind. But we live in a world that is in constant motion and much of it chaotic. It takes consistent practice to cultivate calmness while our environment tempts us into distractions.

Meditation is the foundation of peace and intuitive living. Meditation practice positively impacts the autonomic nervous system that regulates the body's primary functions. Research studies show that digestion, blood pressure, heart health, diabetes, infertility, concentration and general wellbeing can be improved through the practice of meditation.

sounds nice Lori, but I cannot sit quietly for that long! Do I have to sit for hours chanting Ohm?

Our culture is highly focused on doing, so cultivating a practice non-doing is understandbly uncomfortable for most. But if one is willing to learn and practice, the benefits will be vast and deep - and they will outweigh the initial discomforts.

yes, you can do this.

Meditation is a deliberate state of full attentiveness to what is present without any judgment, evaluation or attempt to change what is witnessed. Usually, one sits, lays or walks while focusing on the breath, a word or phrase; or an intention. This is done for a sustained period of time.


I first began to meditate with no formal instruction. I sat upright in a chair, relaxed my facial muscles, and rested my hands on my lap. I took several deep breaths, into my lower abdomen and elongated my exhale. Allowing my breath to find its natural rhythm, I began to simply observe its flow. I imagined myself on a riverbank watching my thoughts float downstream. Concerned about my ability to "stop my thoughts", I instead held the intention to stay on the bank and let my thoughts float by without judgment. Occasionally I discovered myself swimming in the river and without evaluation; I pulled myself back on shore and continued my practice.


my first session lasted three minutes. woo hoo!

But the next day I meditated for five minutes. Five grew into fifteen and that soon became thirty minutes. Before long, my spirit longed for my meditation practice to open up and stretch into my body, mind and emotions.


I had to establish a schedule that included meditation. To date, I awaken, engage in a yoga and/or qi gong exercise flow, breathing preparations and meditation.

There are many ways to practice meditation. I engage in a variety of approaches. And like tools in a tool-kit, I draw the one needed at each sitting. But I practice in silence most every day, to cultivate intuitive processing, insight and equanimity.  And then practice my meditative presence throughout the day. 

what you cultivate on the cushion
will grow into your life off the cushion



Like all new skills, meditation simply takes practice until the body, mind and spirit become synchronistic. It takes time to be willing to witness the chattering mind without that becoming engaging. Eventually allow it to dissipate. And it can be so much easier to practice in a group.

Meditation is the foundation of intuitive empowerment. The willingness to be in the stillness of one's being allows the soul's wisdom to surface into consciousness. It makes it possible to experience Shamanic Journeying, Mindfulness and other experiences that directly link one to spirit. Engaging in meditation daily allows you to grow your compassion for self and humanity, free yourself from the drama of life's ups and downs and release yourself from internalized projections that limit your thriving.

Through meditation practice you will grow more confident in your ability to trust your spirit's guidance, enhance your health, improve your relationships and cultivate equanimity. And your psychic and intuitive skills will grow in direct proportion to your practice.

intuitive skill grows through the practice of meditation

I teach various methods for meditation to enhance one's intuitive connection to the divine including shamanic journeying; contemplative and mindfulness practices; guided imagery; heart centered meditation. Intuitive Empowerment workshops are now being offered as a weekend intensive this fall in Royal Oak and Oxford Michigan. For details check www.lorilipten.com