Pep talk!

If you have been feeling in a low mood or in low physical health, write a recovery journal. 

When you wake up in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy and to love. Give your day structure. Keep a positive mindset. Give your mental physical and emotional life priority. Give your mental physical and emotional life priority. Work on ways to improve your health. Pay attention to good quality nutrition: avoid salt, fats and sugars, cut out alcohol for one month. Avoid processed meats. Eat fruit and vegetables. Get good nourishing sleep. Read a book. Go swimming. Practice some yoga stretching. Write a list of everything you are grateful for. Breathe. Meditate. Be mindful. Work on reducing any long-term stresses. Take exercise, listen to music, walk in nature, declutter, speak to friends, build a more simplistic lifestyle. Be intentional with the things that matter. Decide what your current life purpose is and how you will achieve your current aims. To lead a functional life, you need a daily routine of health care and wellbeing. Focus on listening skills, conflict resolution if required. 

Spiritualism

 Spiritualism has an illustrious past! It was once the religion of the elite, promoted by prominent intellectuals, such as those who supported women’s rights and animal welfare. We want to be friendly, open and kind, especially to those who attend meetings for the first time and might be nervous. As people approach a religious centre, they expect to meet with those who walk a spiritual path and practice spiritual values. Religious institutions must be at the centre of eliminating discrimination and victimisation. Most of all people must be able to expect the law to protect them!

Each centre should have an equality, a diversity, a complaints and a disciplinary procedure that includes an anti-bullying policy that insists on the equality of gender, race, religion, orientation, age, ability and colour. The Committee has the responsibility to ensure that safe and fair behaviour takes place on their church premises. 

Prejudice and bullying is unacceptable and must be reported and dealt with promptly by the Committee. Prejudices are illegal as are threats, demands, intimidation, exclusions, slander, circulating untrue or unverified rumours, blackmail and harassment. Anyone witnessing victimisation should record it and report it because often the victim is too traumatised to deal with it and avoids the church and the church members in future.    

Women and Spirituality

Despite the Equality Rights Laws, women are in an unfair position, as they still earn far less than men for exactly the same work! 

Have you ever wondered why places of spirituality are filled with women, yet so few men? Often 80 per cent of the attenders are women, and women are involved with tasks requiring commitment, skills and time! 
Are women more able to appreciate aspects of spirituality: communion with the divine in meditation; appreciate the concept of service and caring; understand the importance of community and learning about others; and take part in something bigger than the self?

Semiotics

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Semiotics is the study of symbols. What are symbols? The word comes from the Greek, symbolon, which translates as 'to throw together’, and means an emblem, mark or token which connects to a larger body of information. Many people learn the meaning of symbols by rote rather than through true understanding. 

A mark, sign or word is just that, nothing more. However, like 'beauty' symbols 'lie in the eye of the beholder'. For instance U can be an accidental mark, but if it is a symbol, such as the letter of the alphabet, U, it carries a meaning. Just as the image can be a sign for a cup of coffee and, if outside a shop that sells hot drinks, it could mean coffee is available. For some, personal associations could mean a comfortable place to relax, make friends, and have an enjoyable experience. The connections to the mark are dependent on the person’s personal experience, and what meaning they place on the mark. Some  might have prejudices or judgments about that symbol or might not want a drink at that time. What might be a clear meaning for one person might confuse another, and what might attract one person, might not attract another. What might have one meaning in one country, might mean something entirely different in another, and what might have meaning in one era, might have a different meaning in another. Symbols are personal according to our knowledge, our past associations, and the meaning that it has acquired.

Questions from my Two Worlds Postbag

In a conversation with Karyn, she thinks that if everything in the world was created by God, so was evil - so God is not entirely good. Does wholeness involve both good and bad?

No I don’t think so. I believe that God is entirely good. His wholeness demonstrates a positive direction towards holiness, purity, healing, and the relief of suffering. As everything has its equal and opposite, I also believe that there is a devil, a demonic like energy which opposes God’s direction and is therefore hateful and destructive. 

In our society, we attempt to catch evil people, punish them and lock them away from doing any further harm. This is in order to protect those who wish to live in accordance with the laws of a caring and just society. These two energies cannot live comfortably together. Therefore they are permanently in conflict. On a personal level, we also need to fight against all kinds of selfishness, such as resentment, jealousy, hatred, and greed, or any other emotion or action that can harm another person. Yes, the devil does exist and those who enjoy time in his company will spend eternity with him. 

Psychic Development

A Mystical Masterclass in Psychic Development by Wendy Stokes

Everyone has psychic abilities of which there are many kinds. Whether you think the psychic world is a place from which Spirits communicates, or whether you think it is our Higher Self making contact, the ability to access guidance is possible especially when you cease to try!

There are three main types of abilities, described as psychic because they are outside the ‘normal’ range. There is no hierarchy.

Seeing a vision of the spirit world or a symbol is called clairvoyance (this means clear seeing and is sometimes called ‘second sight’)

Hearing words from the spirit world which is called, clairaudience (this means clear hearing)

Feeling sensation somewhere in the body related to contact from the spirit world is called clairsentience (this means clear feeling). Sometimes, this  ability can be akin to a ‘knowing’ on an intellectual level and is also referred to as claircognisance, that is clear knowledge or awareness.

Influencing the Mind

Speakers use words to influence the minds of their listerners. Writers use language to affect and influence their readers. 

Connotation: A connotation is an implied meaning. Words can have associations other than their literal meaning.

Emotive Language: Writers often seek to arouse certain feelings or emotions in the reader, for example, pity or anger. This can be done by using emotive language e.g. words and phrases that have certain connotations. A reporter writing about a crime could write for example, “a burglar stole some jewellery from Mr Bolton’s house.” This just tells us the facts. If a writer wanted to influence our emotions, they  might write, for example, “a heartless burglar stole jewellery of great sentimental value from the frail pensioner, Albert Bolton.” The word ‘heartless’ makes someone sound deliberately cruel. The word “frail” implies vulnerability and helpless. The term ‘of great sentimental value’ tells us how important the jewellery was to Mr Bolton, and increases our sympathy for him. 

Left and right brain hemispheres

Though it is generally accepted by the New Age that the right and left hemispheres perform different tasks, and are different in males and females, this is untrue. Sadly, the New Age has no education in many of the disciplines it speaks so knowledgeably about such as this complex area of brain anatomy and action. 

The right and left hemispheres are not distinct areas, there is a great deal of interaction required. There are areas of the brain that lie dormant, some are overactive, some only active at certain times. If one area is damaged, another area is brought into action to compensate. People who are right handed have a dominant left hemisphere and those who are left handed have a left hemisphere dominance. 

There are some male/female differences. Males are often more visual and therefore are architects, artists, surgeons, engineers, car drivers, and those who work with a 3D ability, though some women also have this area of the brain highly developed. Women often have greater speech abilities and writing skills, though the same applies, that men also can develop this area and use it skillfully. 

Trauma Bonding

What is trauma bonding? 

Dysfunctional behaviour as a result of mental instability or addictions such as alcohol, drugs or gambling can result in distress for both parties, and all parties within the relationship, whether family, friends or work colleagues, neighbours, health services and strangers. Those who have these traits, eg., unreliability, selfishness, negative thinking, blaming and not taking responsibility, manipulation, attention seeking, lying, demanding and/or aggressive behaviour have often had a childhood of confusing and destabiling messages from carers and take the confusion and chaos into their adult relationships. Addictions exacerbate these traits.

Alessandra Belloni

I would like to introduce my readers to Alessandra Belloni, a female performer born in Italy but living in New York. Over 35 years she has made pilgrimages to the sites of the mysterious Black Madonnas in Southern Italy. Her work is extremely impressive and known across the world. She has traced the mysteries back to the Earth Goddess and the long lost deities of Greece, Rome Egypt and Africa. The sacred places pre-date Christianity and many places have retained their magic. Saints days involve meditation, sacred chanting and ecstatic dancing in the sea or walking barefoot in the mountains, some of the rites continue for many hours throughout the night, and the trances produced can be licentious when men and women dance together! The dance of the Tarantella, a dance that mimics the bite of the tarantula spider, are from this region of Europe and relate to the 'bite' of passionate and unfulfilled love. Its complex rhythms have been used for healing abuse, addiction, trauma and depression.