The secret of healing is the same as the secret of all success: What you think is what you get.  As Henry Ford noted,  “Think you can, or think you can’t, and either way you’ll be correct.”  Healing doesn’t ask whether you have been in pain for 30 minutes or 30 years. It is always available in the now moment. Consider two rocks that have sat underwater in a streambed; one has been submerged for 10,000 years and other for 10 days. If you place both rocks in the sun, they will take the same amount of time to dry off. Likewise, if you turn on a light in a dark room, it matters not whether the room has been dark for five minutes or five years; the room is just as light the moment you flip the switch.

Bad Ju Ju, Vulcans, and Purses on the Floor

As I am writing this, it is Friday, the 13 of January. I hadn't given it much thought until this morning. Following my semi-ritual, I woke up around 6 am or so, opened my I-pad and checked email. Aarrgh, 56 pieces of mail and only 20 "real" ones and of those, only a few I wanted to look at. I'll save my cooking.com, and such for later. Much spam, in spite of spam filters. No, I'm NOT interested in barnyard babes, or helping a Nigerian Prince put millions in my bank account. Next I checked my sales status for ebooks on Amazon and Barnes and Noble—yay! another sale in the UK— then went to Flip, a central place for my Twitter, Facebook, and News. Lots of stuff about Friday the 13th. 

Excerpted from the newly released "Practical Conscious Creation: Daily Techniques to Manifest Your Desires" (Findhorn Press, Fall 2011)

When most people think of fear, they conjure pictures of screaming women in slasher movies, horrible mindless villains, or heroes chased by zombies. But, for most of us, fear feels more like an insidious virus that our minds and emotions create to stop us from moving forward.

Fear is the mind/ego's way of saying "I'm not going there! I like being right where I am. I'm familiar with my current state. If I plunk myself right down here, nothing can hurt me because I already know this territory. I'm not worthy and if I stretch myself, I might get rejected."

December marks the beginning of whale season in Hawaii. Around this time majestic humpback whales appear in Hawaiian waters, having traversed 3,000 miles of deep blue sea from offshore Alaska. The whales stay through the winter, mating and bearing their young. To watch them cavort is a spectacle for the senses and the heart. 

Last Valentine’s Day Michael Fishbach and Gershon Cohen were fishing off the coast of Baja when they encountered a humpback whale tangled in a myriad of fishing nets. The animal’s fins were encumbered to the point that she could not swim and, if she remained fettered, would soon die. Armed with but a pen knife, Fishbach and Cohen worked diligently for over three hours, cutting away one small section of netting at a time, until “Valentina” was free. As soon as she gained a distance from the small boat, Valentina put on a freedom show to bring tears to any eye. (Check out the YouTube record of the event by searching “Saving Valentina.6.8.11.h264.mov”.)

The Way is in the Unknowing.*

Some of us have the courage to free ourselves from blind, ignorant unquestioning loyalty to long-held identity-entangled beliefs, and, to stare into the vast abyss of uncertainty which consequently unfolds before us. For me the unraveling began with a belief that God wanted to be known, and would allow me to ask any question I wanted, to explore any path I chose, even if it meant questioning his existence in the pursuit of knowing him personally, deeply, intimately. I could struggle and argue with God, in the tradition of Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah. If God were God indeed, he would withstand the assault of my scrutiny. He would never abandon me. I could leap into the Void, not as a test, but as a yearning to know the truth of him, and he would catch me in his arms.