August 27, 2009 AM<br>Venture Fourth Fall Intensive

Barbara: We are energy bodies tuned to different vibrations. We're not alone. Regardless of whether or not you feel open to a spirit plane, certainly there are planes beyond this heavy material one. Each of you are aware of feeling the energy of other people, so each give off beyond our physical being, our whole spiritual and energetic being. And we want that to be of as high a vibration as possible. It's part of the whole intention to service to all beings, for the good of all beings.

So we'll start with a simple tuning exercise here, on page 5. Before we do that, let's start with this on page 6. The Lord's Prayer translated from the Aramaic. This is a direct translation of that prayer.

Aaron says if you have trouble with the term "cosmic birther" simply substitute "love, which is the core of everything." Okay? Please read it with me.

A Translation of "Our Father" directly from the Aramaic into English
(rather than from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to old English to modern English)

O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide.

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.

Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration, soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your presence can abide. (This is where love's presence can abide.) Fill us with your creativity so we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.

He's saying you can fill the self with love's creativity, so we may be empowered to bear the fruit of love's mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire. Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish. Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us as we release others from the entanglements of past mistakes. Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment. For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power, and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.

As we're sitting here on this Thursday morning, a number of you, about a third of you, have been to Brazil with me. The Current meditation room is happening now. By current, I mean simply the whole flow of energy as you can feel it in this room. There is a universal current, if I can call it that, a universal flow of loving energy. There is also negative energy. When you walk into a room that's filled with negative energy, you feel it immediately.

In Brazil at the Casa, when people sit in Current, they ask people not to cross their arms or legs so as to keep this positive energy flowing smoothly. Now, a number of you are seated on zafus so I'm not going to enforce that; if you need to sit with your legs crossed in that way that's okay. But where it's possible, where it's comfortable for you, especially those sitting in the chairs, sit without your legs and arms crossed, especially now, this morning, as we meditate and feel ourselves connecting, not just to the Casa current but to this positive energetic flow all over the world.

Aaron, do you want to lead this? Yes. Okay, Aaron is going to come in and lead this tuning and then we'll meditate.

Aaron: This is written out more so so you can use it for yourself at a future time, but put the pages aside and let me just speak to you and lead you through this guided meditation. And then you sit in silence.

I'm going mostly to follow this form so when you read it for yourselves at another time, it will be familiar.

Relax the body, tension leaving with the exhalation, mind letting go, coming into THIS breath, THIS moment.

Make yourself at home in the universe, resting in that space which truly is yours,

If something hangs on, or if there is aversion, it's okay; it will go on its own; nothing to do but touch all arising lightly, with choiceless awareness.

Opening into this precious moment, allow to arise in yourself the awareness of your connection with all that is - no longer your joy or your pain but OUR joy, OUR pain.

Seeing the joy and pain of all beings, allow to arise in you the aspiration to serve all beings, to move beyond your own small fears and troubles and instead, to use energy, courage and awareness to alleviate suffering throughout the world.

This statement of intention is important, bringing awareness from "my" suffering to "ours", and offering the self as instrument for the alleviation of suffering.

Rest in that intention for several minutes, allowing awareness to spread, moving beyond the small self.

As you expand outward and come to rest in the divine self, the Eternal and Pure Awareness, feel the presence of the Divine in all its aspects.

Now the second step; to ask for help from all that surrounds you. Open to the spirit plane, and to the divine in your own nature.

In your own words, ask for the ability to hear that wisdom, and to share it for the alleviation of suffering of all beings.

Offer yourself as receptive instrument, not for your own benefit only, but for all beings.

Rest in that space, open and attentive, heart unbounded, ready to listen with a loving heart.

Finally, offer thanks for whatever you will be given. Then sit for several minutes in silence.

To begin, draw in and exhale several deep breaths... Invite relaxation of the body. Feel any places of tension and touch them with love. Tension leaving with the exhalation. Mind letting go, present with this breath, this moment...

Make yourself at home in the universe. Resting in that space which truly is home and is your home...

Be present for this one eternal now. This present moment which has never been before and will never be again in your linear flow of time, and yet is always present, always now. Opening, relaxing...

If some tension of mind or body hangs on, or if there is aversion, it's okay, it will go on its own. Nothing to do but touch all arising lightly with choiceless awareness...

Opening into this precious moment, allow to arise in yourself the awareness the connection with all that is. No longer your joy or your pain but our joy, the joy, the pain. Seeing the joy and pain of all beings, allow to arise in you the aspiration to serve all beings. To move beyond your own fears and troubles and instead, to use energy, courage, and awareness to alleviate suffering throughout the world.

This statement of intention is vital. Moving the awareness from my suffering to ours, the suffering of all sentient beings, and offering the self as instrument for the alleviation of suffering.

When you offer in that way, the ego says, "No, wait!" And then love can speak to that ego, quieting it as one would quiet a frightened child. Here one has the opportunity to learn the power of love.

Rest in that intention for several minutes, allowing awareness to spread, moving beyond the small self. If there is fear, touch it with love. Allow the mind and heart to become aware of the suffering in the world, and the commitment to attend to that suffering with love.

As you expand outward and come to rest in the divine self, the eternal and pure awareness, feel the presence of the divine in all aspects. Rest in the nature of pure mind. Allow yourself to rest in that space, to be at home in that space, feeling the energy that surrounds you.

State your own highest truth. For example, one might say, "I consecrate this mind and body to the light, to the highest good of all beings and with harm to none. I hold the intention to be an instrument of light, to serve the light, to serve love. I come in service to those great beings of the past, the Buddha, the Christ, and others who have thusly served. I walk in their footsteps as best I can."

Having stated that intention, ask for help from all that surrounds you. Open to the spirit plane and to the divine that is your own in nature. In your own words, ask for the ability to hear whatever wisdom may guide you in this intention to service. Offer yourself as receptive instrument, not for your own benefit only but for all beings.

Remember, you are not trying to hear something here, you are simply opening yourself. What comes may be clear spirit guidance or it may simply be a strong feeling of love. Don't try to make it something, just be open.

Rest in that space, open and attentive. Heart unbounded, ready to listen with this loving heart. And offer thanks for whatever you will be given. Gratitude is a wonderful way to invite the heart to stay open.

August 27, 2009 Venture Fourth, Thursday AM, Session 1 with Aaron; Morning session, 9:30AM

Keywords: liberation, levels of consciousness, healing, co-creation, densities, 4^th density children, Earth history

Aaron has ended the meditation with the prayer, "May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings be happy and find perfect peace." D has asked, isn't it better to state in the positive way, to focus on the experience of freedom and not to try to fix suffering? Aaron and D are talking about it.

Aaron: Once again, good morning... Let us begin at the beginning. Let us begin first with D's question. I think you're right, D, that, "May all beings be free of suffering" is the traditional blessing. But when we aspire to manifest something in our lives and in the world, it's more helpful to envision the positive. I had not thought about the traditional blessing in that way before. How could we phrase it?

Aaron: Liberation, "May all beings be liberated from suffering," and envision the liberation.?

Aaron: There's also a value in seeing the suffering in the world, acknowledging it, because it inspires you to do the hard work necessary in yourself and in the world to help to release that suffering. Is there a difference, do you think, between release of suffering, which I say is the gradual process of its being released, and liberation, which is freedom? So there's a process.

"May all beings be liberated" speaks of the end but it's also useful to acknowledge, "There is suffering and I visualize my own efforts and the efforts of my brothers and sisters throughout the world as helping to release that suffering."

Envision yourselves disembarking from a train into a busy plaza, courtyard. Around that courtyard many beings are sitting huddled, cold, hungry, and in pain. You see some beings walking around that courtyard, knocking a piece of bread out of somebody's hand and into a filthy gutter, kicking somebody else, even spitting on somebody. Hitting somebody who is wailing loudly. And you also see beings who are very quietly moving around the courtyard handing out some water, putting an arm around somebody's shoulder in comfort. They don't have much in material terms but they have love and the willingness to extend that love.

I know it's very clear to all of you which group you're going to join! The ground for that choice is the determination to alleviate suffering. You're not trying in that moment to liberate beings so much as just to alleviate suffering. We need to hold both intentions, I think-- the intention for liberation for oneself and all beings and a deep inner knowing that such liberation is indeed possible. And the intention in this moment to do what's necessary to just give the sip of water, just the hug, the giving of which and the receiving of which by the other person are part of the pathway to liberation.

So I do understand your statement and your concern, and I think it's very important to hold that active vision of a world, I don't know how to say it in a positive sense, not just liberated but free from suffering. Free from suffering equates to liberated, and yet in a more mundane sense a world in which beings' hearts are open to one another in love, a world-- we sometimes contrast love and fear, I don't want to say a world in which there is no fear because that's just like saying no suffering-- a world in which love predominates. Even though there is still fear, still pain, still confusion, love predominates. "May you be loved."

Aaron: Yes, I think we need to use both steps. One is the mundane and one is the supramundane. Part of what we're doing here as a group is learning better to integrate the mundane and the supramundane, how to live both at the same time. Which brings us back to Venture Fourth.

According to the schedule, I'm to start with describing in a deeper sense what we're doing here.

There is a transition of consciousness in your world. For great spans of your linear time you lived in a kind of magical consciousness. When I say "you", perhaps not you as you know yourself now but the karmic ancestors of whom you are the present expression, lived in a magical consciousness in which they believed if they prayed to the right gods, certain things would happen. If they lit the right incense or did the right dance, there was the belief certain kinds of magic would be opened.

Eventually humans evolved to an understanding that there was no magic, that it was all about your effort and what opened was the natural result of conditions. But there was a misunderstanding there, that took this opening as "my" personal effort, not that I am connected to everything-"human, spirit, and the earth-"but a very rational, "If I do this, then that will happen." This rational did not take the vast interplay into consideration.

This age of reason was an important response to what I would call an age of magic and pure passion, if I might call it that way, but it was still very unbalanced. Visionaries began to see the need to step beyond the rational mind without excluding the rational mind. To envision, as D has pointed out, a world of peace, a world of love, where the deepest connections between beings are known and lived, but to bring in the balance of reason and the power of the mind. We might call this the stage of vision logic consciousness.

We are going to go through all of this in much more depth in a future intensive, I think in Intensive 3, perhaps in Intensive 2, we have not worked out the details yet. You will be reading Putting on the Mind of Christ by Jim Marion. He talks at length about this transition of consciousness.

We'll be exploring states and stages of consciousness in oneself, because as you can identify it clearly in yourself in meditation, you can better understand it in the world, and how to bring balance in those places where consciousness is out of balance. How to invite-"I don't want to use to term bring, you're not doing, you're inviting.

So the world is moving toward a new and higher consciousness. When we talk about Christ Consciousness, this is not specifically a Christian thing or about Jesus. Jesus was a great example of the Christ consciousness and we can thank Him for his courage to come and express this Christ consciousness on the earth. The Buddha also expressed Christ consciousness, awakened consciousness. The Buddha was a Christ and the Christ was a Buddha, if we can say it that way.

This is about finding that highest level of consciousness in yourself, about awakening, which all of you have been working toward for many years in your vipassana practice. But it's about a fuller level of awakening where one is aware that the whole world is waking up. It's been sleeping and suddenly waking up and looking at the dawn, literally the dawn of a new age, rubbing its eyes and looking around. And becoming aware, "This can be the Eden we've been promised. This beautiful Earth that we have, with its gentle clean rains and its beautiful lakes, the trees, the blue sky (or gray sky, as it is today), the beauty of all of these. This earth that when treated with kindness bears fruit enough to feed every being on the earth. This earth that has the potential that nobody will thirst. This consciousness that has the potential that nobody shall lack for love."

When we envision a world in which there truly is peace, in which there is no terrible physical need of hunger or thirst, in which a growing awareness of the energy bodies and/in the physical body leads to the eventual extinction of illness-"I'm not exaggerating, the eventual extinction of illness. These bodies don't have to break down in this way. When you understand why the bodies break down, you can learn how to heal the body.

Last summer Barbara broke her big toe. It swelled, it was very painful, turned blue and black and purple. The doctor said in 6 to 8 weeks it will heal. So she came back to her cabin rather miserable, sad that she was going to miss walking in her woods and her long swims and be incapacitated for the summer and in pain. I said to her, "Why do you envision it's going to take 6 to 8 weeks just because he said it would?"

Now I'm getting out of order here, I see Barbara has created a plan whereby I talk about Venture Fourth and then I talk about moving beyond limits, but instead I'm going to use the whole morning and to mix it all up a bit.

She elevated the foot; she put ice on it. She also soaked it in the special high vibrational water she had brought back from the Casa. And Spirit said to her, not me but a wise and loving being who was quite aware of healing, said to her, "Sing to it." Sing to it? "Just the syllable OM, that sacred syllable, in any tone that the toe seems to want."

She has a set of tuning forks so she struck a tuning fork. She decided on the heart chakra at first. (Tones OM in F) And she could feel this vibration going down into the toe. She sang for several hours. When it seemed more suitable to use a different tone, she changed tones. She listened to the toe.

Human bodies are made in such a way that yes, a bone can break. If you hit a sharp piece of glass, the skin is going to break. It doesn't have to be stitched up and take weeks to heal. If you hit something hard, a toe can break or a leg can break. But you believe in the limited progression of healing. You think that's how it will be so of course that's how it is.

So Barbara sang to this toe many hours a day for 3 days. She slept quite fitfully at night; it was throbbing and painful. But the third night she was aware that she slept soundly. She awakened feeling refreshed and there was no throbbing in the toe. She looked at it. The discoloration was mostly gone. And spirit said to her, "It's healed. You can remove the tape."

When she went back to the doctor to ask him to X-ray it, the X-ray only did not show a healed toe, it showed no break. He looked at the X-ray and he couldn't believe it, there was no line where the break had been. There was no scar tissue. It just had completely healed.

Your bodies are capable of this, if you understand that you can work with your bodies from this higher level of consciousness, inviting healing for the highest good.

Now sometimes it's a slower progression. Barbara asked me after that, "If my toe could heal in 3 days, why do I not yet hear?" For whatever reason, there is a slower progression. The hearing is beginning but it's small as yet. Perhaps because she does not yet fully believe that she will fully hear. Who knows, this is her work.

Your work is to look at the places where you hold limiting beliefs about yourself and about the world and challenge those beliefs in a loving way. In this way we support this move of the whole earth into a higher vibration and a higher consciousness. You look at the beliefs that no matter what one does there will be war in parts of the world, there will be famine in parts of the world. For now, yes, there will be floods, there will be droughts. For now.

Eventually I think that you as humans will learn to co-create with the world. If one can sing to a broken toe and co-create healing, could not a whole world sing to a place where the earth is unstable and invite the earthquake not to happen? Invite the earth ridges to settle in a smooth way, gently? One can invite the earth to co-create for the highest good.

There are in fact groups who are working in that direction. There was a large group of which Barbara was a part with thousands of members in perhaps 60 or 70 countries, and by email they sent out urgent requests for prayers – for physical violence that's going on in the area, for some earth trauma that is expected, for example a place where the waters are rising and bad floods are predicted. So people from all over the earth, not all meditating at one time, it was not set up that way, but just the attention was brought to this area that needs love, and thousands of people sent love out into that area.

There's no way of telling how effective it was. It has not been attempted to say, "We'll send love here but not there, and see what happens." There's too much that there's no ability to gauge. Why did the earthquake happen here and not there? But very often in the areas where attention was called to this urgent need, the need was resolved without violence of humans or the earth. It's very powerful to watch this.

So these light centers throughout the world are simply beings who are each working as you are working, to bring yourself into a higher level of consciousness and learn how to use your own energy in such a way as to co-create the peace and well-being for sentient beings and for the earth itself, which you begin to know is possible.

There are 2 parts here, the knowing of it and the intention to help it manifest.

You've all heard me talk about densities and that the earth is presently a 3^rd density plane. We've described 1^st as gas and mineral, 2^nd density as vegetable and lower animal consciousness. Some of your more mature animals, like the personal pets, are at the lowest level of 3^rd density, and many humans presently are at 3^rd density although some are now 4^th density. We use the term density simply to describe the density of your energy field. An energy field that is of a higher density can vibrate faster and higher. It can hold a higher vibration.

The whole earth is emerging into 4^th density. Most of you have heard me speak of this before. It's going to happen regardless of whether you support it or not internally and in the world. The world IS moving into 4^th density. The question is, is it going to be a smooth transition or a very ragged and unpleasant transition. You have a lot to do with that choice.

Venture Fourth, then, was chosen as the name to speak of this venture into 4^th density.

Many changes will happen as the earth becomes a 4^th density planet. Already many of your children are taking birth as 4^th density beings. Let me explain further by what I mean by 4^th density being.

There is a physical component, a mental one, an emotional one, and spiritual one. For the most part these young 4^th density children have reached a level where they were not called back karmically into incarnation in the earth but chose to come to support this earth transition. I do not mean that there is no unwholesome karma to be resolved; certainly they will have work to do. They are not arahats. But the level of work they had to do could have been done on another plane other than the material plane.

Let's go back one step and let me explain this more fully. I've said to you repeatedly, you are not incarnate to stop emotion from happening but to shift the relationship with emotion and not build self-based stories on it. If anger arises, it's the result of conditions. If anger about the anger arises, it's just more anger. But when you are able to see that anger and note how it arose out of conditions, how it's impermanent, not to build a self, an ego, around it but just make space for it, it will resolve. The same is true with greed, fear or any other strong negative emotion. It will resolve.

Fourth density beings by nature are telepathic. For most of you there is still shame about your own negative emotions and discomfort with other people's negative emotions. If I asked in this room right now, "Is it okay with all of you, at the click of my fingers, that you become fully telepathic, knowing that everybody can read your thoughts and you can read everybody else's, is that okay with you?" Is there anybody comfortable with that? A few. Good. At the end of 2 years I hope you'll all be comfortable with it.

So the beginning of the work, which you've been doing for many years, is to watch the arising of negative thought and not create these self-stories around it. It just has arisen from conditions and is impermanent. You must take care of it, you must be responsible to it, but you don't have to be afraid of it.

When there is no longer shame around negative thoughts but simply the willingness to attend to negative impulse and negative thought, you stop feeding energy to the negative patterns of thinking. Negative thought may still arise but it's not being fed, and eventually it will die out. Meanwhile, in the time it takes to die out, and that may not happen in this lifetime, you're no longer feeding the impulses with more negativity. At that point, if you are telepathic and you picked up another person's negative thought, "Oh, I don't like her white shirt," or, "She should've gotten her hair cut," or whatever the thought might be, the person reading that thought would just smile inwardly. They have the same kinds of thoughts. This is what comes up to mind. It's okay.

When you have such thoughts, you know that others will not condemn you for them and you will not condemn others. Here we are changing the vibration so that what arises is viewed with love. It's a very powerful shift. You've all seen this happening in your vipassana practice, and while it is not yet completed, you all know you are on this path and how powerful it is. Shame still comes, I know, and discomfort with emotion, but I think for all of you it's much less than it was 10 years ago. So you've learned to trust the path of practice.

So 4^th density beings are telepathic, and in order to be telepathic with comfort, in order to invite such telepathic ability, there has to be a reconciliation with the emotional body and spaciousness with it.

As this change happens in the emotional and mental body, the physical body has a corresponding change. Fourth density babies being born today have a different DNA structure than most of you were born with, a more evolved DNA structure. This takes us back a bit to some Earth history.

I'm going to give it to you in a brief capsule. There's more complete material available on the website. In the ancient time of Lemuria, Lemuria was more or less a crystal-based land and beings had a crystal-based body, a more crystalline structure. Everything was of a very high vibration. Everyone was telepathic. Everyone was in deep communication not only with each other but with the Earth itself.

If one wanted a fire for cooking, wanted not to rub sticks together or strike a match, one simply invited the wood to pile up, and envisioned it alighting with energy. Then again, back in that time, if one wanted to cook, one would simply envision the food cooked! But let's say you wanted the comfort and beauty of the fire.

If one was working with giant blocks of stone to build a structure, one did not need tools and leverage, one simply lifted a stone energetically. Blocks of crystal, let us say. Lemuria had great towers and buildings formed of many large blocks of crystal that were simply levitated into place energetically.

The fatal flaw with Lemuria for beings who desired growth was that there was no catalyst that brought forth any kind of negative response. So there was no catalyst for compassion to grow. So it was a heavenly realm of sorts but it also was stagnant. There was the strong intention among the Lemurians for the growth of compassion but there was nothing to catalyze that compassion.

Beings then began to work with imagined scenarios and the form of drama to try to create stories that might evoke compassion. I'm drastically capsulizing here, but the result of this new direction eventually was the creation of Atlantis. There was an overlap between Lemuria and Atlantis.

Atlantis had a lower vibration. There was a mixed crystalline and more carbon based structure to it. Atlantis was still a very evolved society but beings began to shift into the whole delusion of a separate self and get caught there, which idea was impossible in Lemuria.

It's as if you came out, you played a role in a stage play repeatedly for many centuries, playing the same role until you began to not only act the character role and understand the character, which is necessary for such good acting, but to truly believe you were that character. So people got caught. And this was where the karma began to grab at people.

This is a whole different talk. I'm not going to go deeply into karma and how that shift happened in Atlantis, not today, or not now. But if there's no sense of a separate self, if everything knows its full connection with everything else, then there's no karma. When people move into the illusion of separation, then whether it's wholesome or unwholesome karma, there's a delusion of a self, and that self experiences the effects of karma.

You've heard me talk about resting in rigpa, resting in pure awareness, and how in that moment of resting in pure awareness, one is free of karma. But since you don't stay there, the everyday mind returns to its involvement in the karmic field! So for the Atlanteans, there was the experience of increasing karma and yet these beings still had the ability of telepathic thought and of the immense power to energetically manipulate their environment. I'm using that word specifically: no longer to co-create their environment but now it was to manipulate the environment.

There was much discussion of this among the Brother/Sisterhood of Light, who were and are simply a guiding and not a governing body, spirit plane beings. These are ones to whom your spirit guides relate. This Brother/Sisterhood of Light and humans of the time, the Lemurians, the Atlanteans, decided that as this progression came forth and people got more and more caught up in the drama, the personal drama of being, that they needed to carry that drama through. They couldn't just say, "Whoops, let's leave this path. Let's go back to being Lemurians."

This consciousness shift, in a sense, is the apple from the Garden of Eden, the forbidden fruit, the fruit of knowledge. Until you have knowledge of your power to do harm or good, there cannot be personal choice to choose the good, and personal responsibility.

This is part of your evolution. So in some ways the Lemurians were children. Can you see that? They were very immature in some ways. There was no choice given them, they simply followed the course of a flowing stream of energy, a loving stream, but there was nothing to challenge.

As beings progressed, the choice was made, not individually-"let me say this differently. The choice was made to limit the DNA structure in humans, to cut certain strands of DNA in such a way that there was no longer the ability to levitate giant rocks or change the course of underwater streams, or move the earth in these ways, or other people, because that power was too dangerous. The Earth would have been destroyed.

Those who chose then to incarnate chose to do so willingly knowing that the now-human body they would incarnate into, going through all the historical phases of humankind, that this new body would have this more limited DNA structure.

Now, new children being born are being born with those DNA linkages completed, and many of you are experiencing a shift in your own DNA; perhaps over a period of a year or two, it happens. It's something we'll talk more in detail about at another time; today I'm just giving you an overview.

The shift in DNA can be very disorienting both physically and emotionally. The vipassana practice is a strong platform from which to address this shift. Such shift is never done TO you, it is something you evoke in yourselves as you feel ready. In other words, you see that you are ready to hold more power because you have tamed the emotions, the personal relationship with the emotions. You are no longer afraid of your power and because of the strong intention to do good in the world, you invite whatever shifts are necessary-"physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual-"in order to do the work that you came to do. To move beyond the limits of the small human and into this large, can we call it Self with a capital S, that aspect of you that is totally connected to everything else.

In a sense you've come full circle but you're no longer the innocent that the Lemurian was, but you understand both power and responsibility and you are ready to take responsibility for that power because of the strong commitment to the highest good, and because of your strong sense of the interbeing of all that is, and knowing that if you do harm to another, it's harm to yourself. It's harm to all.

We come then to the idea of the bodhisattva. A number of you have expressed concern about taking a specifically bodhisattva vow and said, "I don't feel ready to do that." Well first, this is a traditional terminology; let's drop the traditional terminology of bodhisattva as the one who vows to return until all beings are liberated. Second, it's not a vow, it's a statement of intention.

A vow cannot be taken unless you know that you can give what's needed. Taking the vow can inspire you but it may also be too daunting. It's fine to simply say, "This is my intention," and gradually the intention deepens into what might be thought of as a vow. We don't need to use the term vow; there can just be stronger and stronger intention, inner promise, deep commitment.

The traditional bodhisattva in Buddhist terminology is the being that while already a non-returner, that is, already within 4^th density and not needing to return to Earth to personally resolve karma, that being resolves to return to Earth because it sees the suffering on Earth and to help alleviate that suffering in whatever ways are possible.

It's a useful idea but I think we need to go further here. This is just one meaning of the term bodhisattva. Let us call this an intention to service to all beings for the highest good, and also because this is the path for the resolution of one's own personal karma. What you do to serve others also leads to your own liberation.

I think you've all done the practice of tonglen. Anybody here who has not done tonglen? (one) You bring in light and send it out to where there is suffering. We take that suffering into ourselves, into our hearts, and then release it.

As we practice this in a place of deep suffering, we see that there's some fear. People have asked me, "When I'm doing this with somebody who's ill, what if I take that illness into myself and it clings to me and I become ill?" Of course, one has to release the energy. One brings the illness in and then releases it. One doesn't think, "Oh, I'm big, I can carry it." No. "I am just the vehicle. I bring it in and I release it."

But one sees how the ego steps in and says, "I'm not sure I want that." Or bringing in that which is good, "I'm not sure I want to give it away." Liberation asks us constantly to address this ego with kindness, with love, with patience. This is the whole reason for this 24-step, program with, shall we call them character traits? You've seen in your work just with humility, with respect, with honor and responsibility, how you are challenged, looking at the small ego self and finding that which is radiant and beautiful and strong and clear. That balances the small ego. You don't stomp on the small ego; you hold it with love.

But your self-identity shifts from the small ego to that which is radiant and beautiful. You start to know, "This is what I am in my essence and I can trust this in myself" because you begin to experience if just for a moment what true humility feels like, what true respect feels like.

The taking of this statement of intention to service for all beings does not necessarily a certain kind of service. It could simply mean to get up in the morning and make eggs for your family for breakfast. That's service. You watch the part of you that says, "Oh, I want to meditate another half hour. The children can pour themselves cereal.... No, I'll get up and make some eggs. Everybody would appreciate that." That's service.

So we're not specifying the kind of service you're going to do but the expression of that service as coming from a loving place that's empty of self-centered fear. Or, if that self-centered fear has arisen, simply to touch it with kindness.

Barbara has a story in the new book that has not yet been publish that she has written about going down to her basement to meditate one morning, and she asked her children first, "Do you want breakfast?" One was playing a video game and one was reading a book and they said, "No, no." So after a few minutes of meditation, a little hand tapped her shoulder-"this was many years ago, the children were young, and said, "Mom, where's my bagel?" She said to him, "You said you didn't want any. Now I'm meditating." I think she was writing in her journal, not meditating, but, "Now I'm working."

So he left a bit despondent. She said, "Go make it for yourself," but she saw she needed to do it for him. This was perhaps an 11-year-old boy but he'd been home sick for the week and was feeling a bit needy and wanted some love and she recognized that. So she went up and made him a bagel.

She asked the younger brother again, "Do you want a bagel?" No, still playing a videogame. Five minutes later, though, he came down and said...

(beeping) I don't know what I'm to do with this-"we're an hour into my talk and I suppose that means I'm supposed to stop. I'll continue (lost to group laughing) if you'll indulge me for another 10 or 15 minutes. You're probably needing to stretch.

The second boy came in, having finished his videogame and said, "Where's my bagel?" Again, up she went. Do it with love or not at all. I have told her that a hundred times. Do it with love. She could see the resentment coming up. Make space for the resentment and find that which is loving, right there with the resentment. She made the bagel, poured him a glass of milk, set it out on the table for him. This one was a 6 year old so he really couldn't slice the bagel himself.

She went back downstairs and just as she was about to start down the steps, the oldest son came in and said, "Do you have a bagel for me?" And she got his bagel. She went back downstairs. Her husband came in and saw the boys sitting around the table with their breakfast and instead of slicing himself a bagel, he came downstairs and said, "Will you make one for me too?"

She could have said no to her husband; she could compassionately have said, "No, I'm working right now, please make your own." That would be a loving thing to do. She could also go up and make the bagel for him; that would be a loving thing to do. It's not about which she does but with what attitude. Do it with love.

If resentment comes up, attend to the resentment. This is the work of the being evolving into 4^th density. Now I'm coming back to the DNA shifts. As these shifts happen in you-"first, they will not happen until you feel the maturity to invite them. Second, they will progress at whatever level feels appropriate to you. Not faster and not slower. You are in charge. Third, you will find yourself being offered greater and greater responsibility and find with each incremental step that you feel strongly capable of making wise and loving choices. That you feel capable of holding this power, of moving beyond the limitation in which you previously have perceived yourself, moving beyond this small self and coming to know your full power in the world.

The bodhisattva intention is simply a statement of your inner readiness to move through this progression at the speed to which it feels appropriate to you. All of you know how to drive a car. If I said to you, "There's a racetrack down the road and I need some people to drive some of these cars at 120 mph on a rainy day, to test drive. You all know how to drive a car; who volunteers?" Well, no one. You know you're not ready to do that.

If I said, "It's a sunny clear day and they desperately need a few drivers willing to drive these cars at 60 mph," are there a few of you who might say, "Well, that sounds interesting, I'll try that"? Then a month later, "We need somebody at 70 mph." A year later we're up to 90 mph but you've been doing it gradually. You've learned, "I can do that." You will never be pushed beyond what you can do.

I'm curious, I know a number of you have talked to me about this kind of DNA shift. How many of you have experienced even a little bit of it personally? (many hands raised) Many of you. Okay.

So this is what the bodhisattva intention is about. It's about finding that within which is deeply intentioned to attend to suffering in your immediate world around you, in the extended world around you, for sentient beings and for the Earth, in whatever ways are most appropriate, which may be simply, I can't say watering your thirsty garden on a day like today but on those days when it's been very hot and dry, simply seeing the plants wilting and watering the garden. This is a way of alleviating suffering. This is a form of service.

There is so much to cover here but I don't want to knock you out with too much material and too long a sitting period. Let's break here for 10 minutes and when we come back I will hear your questions. Thank you.

August 27, 2009 Venture Fourth, Fall Intensive, Thursday full day, Heather/Shamanic journey

Heather: So, hi everybody. I'm going to start with a brief sort of history of shamanism, which is of course in all of our roots. The intention of this workshop, as I have been praying to the compassionate spirits, is for all of us to connect with our guardian spirits that want to work with us, in this your 2-year course and onwards, or have been working with you probably for many years. My understanding is that Aaron has wanted you all to have a deeper connection with your compassionate guardian spirit, usually a spirit who has lived on this earth and has transcended. You would not have a guardian spirit who is alive at this time. It would not necessarily be anybody you've known, and is actually waiting with you here right now to have this connection.

In the beginning we're going to ask our guardian spirits to come to us in their form state so that we can see a visual. Usually I see very clearly, sometimes just from the head up, sometimes a whole scene; so that we can really make that connection, and then afterwards we'll be going to a more formless, light state. But I'd like us to have this form state in the beginning so you can really experience the contrast, which was really profound for me when I was able to connect in a different way.

But for today's work we'll be asking the helping spirits to be with us in their form. If you do see them just as light, that's perfect too, you can always ask them, "Is it possible for you to show me your form?" Perhaps they're already evolved in their work with you and they won't think that necessary but we'll let that transpire.

Shamanism is a word, it's actually <tungas> from the <Tungas> tribe in Siberia, and it's used to kind of describe this kind of work. Shamanism is cross-cultural, global, recorded over 40,000 years. It's the basis, if you will, of yoga, Qi Gong, many practices. When we practice yoga, we originally would have been dancing to honor our spirit guides, except we're not dancing, we're using these postures to bring through healing for us, right, stretches... But the original form was the community dancing to honor their animal spirit guides, the same with Qi Gong.

We've all at some point, I think, come from a tribal community, and the role of the shaman was manifold, usually taught either through an apprenticeship to a shaman or taught through direct revelation to the spirits. This is actually the case with John of God and the spirits in Brazil who work with us mostly through direct revelation; when we are sitting in the current they are empowering us.

I think as well, using the journey helps us really to connect to our source, really to have that deep friendship, deep alliance with the helping spirit, animal or human form, both, several of each, but usually a steady one that you use for specific work. Jaguar works specifically for me with soul retrieval. I have other spirit guides that work on other occasions.

But going back, the role of the shaman was to divination so if it was a tribe that moved on with the seasons, then the shamans role would be to find out which moon, before or after a certain moon, you know, waxing, waning, full moon, new moon, that the spirits would like the tribe to move on, which direction would there be plenty of water, food, and of course protection, friendly neighbors, and plenty of hunting for their survival. And as we know, indigenous cultures kill only for what is needed at the time, for warmth, clothing, food; they don't just shoot or kill for the hunting pleasure but really only when the tribe is in need of food or, you know, skins for warmth, or teepees. So the shaman would have to have a very deep connection with the spirit guide to be able to trust this information, and to give it to the leaders so that they could move on. And of course, if it didn't turn out right, back in the old days he or she probably would no longer be the shaman.

The other shamanic role was as the healer, and the word shaman means "one who sees in the dark" or "healer" in Russian and Siberian. Interestingly, across all cultures, whether it be Australian, Celtic, Native American of this country, South American, Norwegian, Swedish, every culture has a shamanic culture. And they all use the same forms for healing. All healing is spiritual. There could be loss of power, so the shaman would journey to bring back an animal spirit guide, to fill the person with spiritual power, to re-inspirit them with the image of a strong animal or even an animal that was connected to the light,.

If a person had lost power through perhaps loss of a loved one, grieving, an accident, they would experience soul loss. A little part of their essence would jump out. I'm sure we've all had the experience where perhaps we were in a car, and you kind of feel, "Oops, I'm going to hit," or be hit, and in that moment a part of us jumps out to survive.

In indigenous cultures, if somebody fell off their horse or had a hunting accident or fighting, then part of the healing would also be to journey to bring back the soul essence and blow it back into the field as soon as possible, usually within 2 or 3 days. So there was no space.

And when there's a space there's a vacuum. And the universe doesn't like a space within us and so what is often is called an intrusion of energy, can take place. We would see that as a virus or a bacteria, when our immune system is low, grieving, etc, and the shaman would look in with his or her strong eye and see in that space perhaps a spider or ants or something and then go in and symbolically be pulling that out from where the shaman is seeing it, and then they would throw it through a body of water into the spiritual realms to be returned to the right and perfect place. That's called extraction.

So if a person is disconnected from their spiritual power, through drugs, alcohol, loss of a loved one, many reasons, they could experience soul loss and would need a power animal retrieval, soul retrieval, and perhaps an extraction to take out what the shaman would see as having found a nice warm place in the physical body and taken up home, filling up your spiritual power. Very potent, all 3 of those, and they're practiced in all cultures everywhere, in shamanism, Korea is a big place as well, of course Russia.

There was no fax, there was no email, and there was no telephone in those days so the shamans in this level communicated. Aaron would be able to explain better to us but on some level we're communicating so that this <past> continues to be practiced in all cultures.

In Russia during the communist regime, the shamans had to go into hiding. Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman started the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. They were invited to re-teach shamanism to the Siberians from information they had managed to smuggle out or people had smuggled out. And they went back to Russia and in a theater, many shamans came from outlying regions after the fall of communism and several shamanic practitioners from the foundation were asked to perform a healing on a particular actor that was quite ill in Russia at the time. And their memory came back and they realized this actually was how their practice had been, and the history then was repeated.

The type of drumming that I'm going to be using today is foundational, Foundation for Shaman Studies rhythm. The drumming and the rattling is a monotonous sound that manages to shift our focus, to take us into a light trance state, so that we're aware of noises around us but we're actually journeying and seeing images, sort of disconnected, sort of bypasses the ego nicely so we can take this journey.

he best way to journey is using your own drum or rattle but if you want to buy a CD you can buy one from the Foundation. I'll demonstrate the callback for you so that afterwards if you buy a tape of drumming, you'll know that when the drumbeat changes, this is the time to thank your spirit guide and say, "This is the callback" and retrace your steps, and come back and sit up in the room. If you want to continue your journey you can just press it down again for another 15 minutes on those CDs. After awhile or even at the beginning you'll find it quite easy to rattle for yourself, and it's a nice way to take this journey.

There's been quite a lot of interest in shamanism, I think, in the last 15 years. I was at the Omega Institute when John Perkins brought many shamans from South America, and the following year I was translator for the Guatemala shamans. It was very interesting to see these different cultures coming together but all with the same belief and all with the same practices, just a different language.

Listening to Aaron over the years, and our meetings regarding this class, I think journeying marries very nicely with the beautiful work that you're doing with Aaron and Barbara, to have a deeper connection. And I know that you've all merged with elements in your work together. This is another tool to use to go a little deeper sometimes.

I meditate a lot. I don't use the drum in Brazil. But I find that when I have clients I'm often drawn to use the drum to go to a deeper place and it makes a deeper connection, often for me making channeling easier, just to get to that deeper place and let the ego settle down and not get involved.

Of course in these journeys the ego's always trying to say, "Oh this is silly, this is imagination." And yes it is; these are journeys of the imagination, if you will, but it's through the imagination that we connect to source, to the divine, to God, to Buddha, however you see that divine source from which we're all created. And nobody can say that you're wrong in however you feel that that power that created us and created the universe is to them. So you don't get into an argument about it, just say, "Yes, I'm going on a journey of the imagination," and just to let this happen. I'm sure you have this in meditation as well.

In journeying, and I'll be using slight guided steps to get you down from the mind to the heart, we sink from the heart, and the heart gives out these beautiful images as well. Some people will talk about leaving the body to journey. I think that we journey the universe within us. We're not leaving the body, don't need to worry about that. But sometimes it feels like we are. So when I call you back, it feels like we're coming from outside back inside, but then I'll always remind you that the journey is actually taking place internally and the universe within. So you're just coming back up, I suppose you could say.

The shaman usually tries to be a hollow bone in the healing work. Very important the alliance with the helping spirit, that bond that is created. Just as you see Barbara as Aaron enters her, and her body takes a slight shudder as the energy of Aaron is using her body to communicate with us, is Barbara becoming the vehicle to receive Aaron's presence.

We won't be incorporating to that extent although many of you will at some point. We're looking more for journeying to meet with a spirit guide and then we'll be merging with that energy. And you're bringing down information and experiencing that merging in the spiritual realms. I'll be guiding you through this.

We bring down that information for healing of the planet, for service to the planet, and for the highest good, for our community, a friend, a family member, ourselves, always with intention for the highest good. We are connecting to guides of the highest vibration that we are able to communicate with and asking for assistance, bringing it down. It's never us doing the work but rather the spirit realm bringing the energy through for us.

As for John of God, who I can say is THE shaman of shamans as he incorporates the spirits that come through him, he always says he does not do the work, he has never healed anybody. Who heals are the good spirits or the compassionate spirits, and God, as he refers to it. He also refers to the Architect of the Universe, the Great Oneness that is Love. So always in our humbleness, remember that it is not us doing the work. So the deeper we can create that alliance with the helping spirit then the healing work that can come through for our communities or the person we're journeying for to bring back information.

In this class I'm going to be focusing more on journeys that you can really connect with your spirit guides, both human form and animal spirit guides, and also on merging with the elements as well, as Aaron had wanted to have. If it's a nice day tomorrow perhaps to be in water and on the earth and feeling that merging with the sound of the drum or the rattle or whatever instrument you have with you.

So your instruments that you have, and that's a very nice rattle that Barbara has, we want to and we will over this weekend journey to the spirit of them so you can connect to them because they are helping spirits and they are part of helping us to journey. In shamanism everything has spirit, every flower, every tree, and it's reconnecting to that web of life. There is no separation, that Aaron always talks about separation; that is all an illusion. Every act that we have here affects the whole, so it helps us through journeying to experience that web of life and that interconnectedness.

I forgot to bring down the book, I'll bring it later tonight, Sandra Ingerman wrote Soul Retrieval but also a wonderful book called Medicine for the Earth. Sandra was my teacher for many years and continues to be my teacher and mentor. She's been to Brazil with me 3 times. She is one of the co-founders of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Her work was very much on how to clear pollution in water, and so her book, Medicine for the Earth, as well, using the shamanic journey. Many scientific studies, polluting the water with a specific chemical and actually having scientists doing that on site, and then some were hidden where we weren't focusing on it. Then as a group we would go through the different exercises to get to a transfigured state and then see the water as divine and holy and perfect. The water would actually change back to a potable pH with a substance that would normally take 5 or 6 days to happen, and it would happen during the ceremonies. So after many years of scientific studies, we know that it works and we can focus on bodies of water, focusing on their divinity, their perfection, and seeing them as healthy and holy.

This works as well as when you're thinking of people. Two of the issues that Aaron talked about today, one was the bone in Barbara's foot and seeing the perfection in the broken bone. And rather than focusing on the broken bone, rather seeing the perfect state and that the break comes back into vibrational harmony with its divine essence. So more and more the shamanic healing that we have been doing is focusing more on the person's absolute wellness.

The same thing happens in Brazil when somebody identifies their illness that they're asking for help with, the entity will say, "I'll help you, give it no more thought." What he's saying there is, "Let us help you, and different issues will come up during meditations that need to be taken care of, which is our work," and not to focus on the illness anymore. Rather, focus on the absolute wellness. And that comes, as Aaron was saying so beautifully today; everything is healable and body parts can change and bones can heal. We just don't believe it.

An example of that was a young man in Brazil who had to have a big surgery, have his spleen removed. There were concerns about the anesthesia and his heart condition. Eventually when they did the surgery in the hospital, the entities said not to worry, it would be okay. And underneath was another spleen growing. So, a replacement part was available.

So a lot of the work in shamanism is seeing things as divine, perfect, and holy, and not giving too much focus at all to the issue that's creating the suffering, rather than the wellness. Does that make sense?

Okay, the first two journeys that we're going to do today are dismemberment journeys. I promise you it doesn't hurt. Dismemberment is performed by shamans over and over again on themselves. It's a way of shining the crystal, if you will, releasing and going deeper into their awakening spiritual evolution. Asking the spiritual realms to remove that which keeps us separate from a deeper divine expression or a deeper connection to our divinity. So lack of self worth or different issues, those obstacles that are between us and our essence.

So the shaman continues to do these dismemberment journeys in their in-between time to evolve spiritually, just as you use meditation to go further and further and evolve. So you might see yourself being torn apart by lions or wolves or hung up. The first time I did it I felt myself being torn apart by crows and then bits and pieces hung up on a line. Didn't hurt at all. And then at the callback, miraculously everything is re-membered, because our intention is to be re-membered in our divinity. So you can trust that the spirits will re-member you in just the perfect way, getting rid of those issues that no longer serve us a purpose. Perhaps we've already worked through them karmically, and we're able to evolve.

So the intention of our first 2 journeys is to witness. In the shamanic journey for touching we'll go on a very similar journey. If I'm doing a soul retrieval for somebody then I'm touching them, at least with my intention. On this journey then you'll just be touching knees or perhaps a hand so that the person that is going to experience the dismemberment will be witnessed by their partner with their eyes closed so that you're both using the strong eye to see from. You'll share afterwards and the journeys are always very similar. Sometimes you'll say, "Gosh, I saw you with a big wind around you," or "I saw big flames coming," or "You became dust and then a big wind came." Usually the elements are the same. The person will say, "I felt as if I was in a volcano and I came out on the other side in a river." Just allow it to be, don't judge it, and give permission for your imagination to really expand.

One other thing about shamanism. The role of the shaman during the long winter nights – no TV, no entertainment – was to journey out loud and to tell his journey to the community. They'd huddle around the fire and he'd rattle a drum or use the didgeridoo and talk his journey out. They would use little bits of perhaps hide or the Siberian curtain so that they could walk around with their eyes slightly open but they were keeping out the outside light. The reason we're using the bandana is if you wish to help you to have a deeper experience without the light. We've got big windows here. You don't have to use them, or if you're lying down you can just put your hand over your eyes to see a little deeper.

Heather: It's to remove from us those patterns, traits, obstacles, belief systems, that are keeping us from having a deeper connection with our spirit guides and with our essence. Okay? So perhaps, you know, we kind of think, "Oh, guides? This is against what my belief was as a child," I'm, you know, letting the family down. Your adult isn't saying that but there might be an aspect of somebody –this is just an example – "how can I?" but you don't even need to worry about it because the spirits know better than we do what it is we need to release.

So whatever it is that's like a veil between us and having this experience of a deepened experience with your guides, which is the focus of these 2 days, is going to be relieved from us. So we don't need to worry about it, you don't need to say, "It's got to be this." Just surrender and know it doesn't hurt.

Heather: Not really. Sometimes it's just like a big wind. I'm just using that in case you come out and say, "Oh! I'm being pulled apart by a ..." ... I often don't use the word dismemberment, I just say we're asking the elements to clear from us that which keeps us separate from shining our divinity, from shining our light, and having a closer relationship with our spirit guides.

Like it or not, we all have spirit guides. We are born with spirit guides and angels that are here to help us on our earthly journey, help it to be a journey of joy and comfort and ease. We also have animal spirit guides. In our tribal days we had symbolically an animal spirit that was there to give us spiritual strength. Nowadays in a Christian-Judeo community we talk about angels and guides. When we lived in a tribal community, it was about having the strength of jaguar to see in the dark, because that was our world, it was living in community and animals were our friends. Sometimes we needed that strength to keep us protected.

When children are born we give them rattles, we give them drums, and we give them stuffed animals. So it is in our consciousness... I think it's a wonderful thing to have guides and angels, animal spirit guides... I know that we're never alone. Oftentimes when we connect to our guides, I'll ask people, "Did you connect?" and they'll say yes, and I'll ask, "What did you say?" "Well I didn't say anything." But let's put it this way. We're going on a journey to connect to a guide that we know we're probably not aware of. One of you has written a beautiful book guided by your guides.

(My) book on John of God, I was woken up at 2 in the morning every day and it just flowed out of me until about 9 in the morning. I had to get up and get to the computer. My whole concept of the book was radically changed to how it came out in the end. And I was very grateful. It took a month, which was the deadline given to us by the publisher. But I had a lot of translations to do, the whole thing to get it done on time.

It's sort of like having a best friend. If I were to go to lunch, if I'm sitting talking and you're talking to me in Japanese, I would say, "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Can you speak to me in English because otherwise I have no idea what you're talking about."

And just as Aaron and Barbara, who's an incredible example, you know, talking louder, talking softer, sometimes you can't hear, you say to the guide, "Listen, I can't hear you. Can you change your frequency to a little louder so I can hear," a little softer, that's how Barbara and Aaron have such great communication. And Abraham, does anybody listen to Abraham, Esther Hicks? Remember in the beginning she used to talk kind of metallically? Now it's just seamless, as Aaron and Barbara are. It's because she's fine-tuned it, that vibration that comes down as vibration is transformed to words to come out of our vehicles. Does that makes sense? And I'm sure Aaron could put that far more eloquently than I can but we can ask him these questions afterwards, how he communicates with Barbara, whether it's by vibration that comes down, frequency that changed.

The same way that our spirit guides are going to change their frequency, they're going to compact themselves to be form for us. Later on we'll ask them to drop form and you'll have an incredible experience-"for me, anyway, it was, when that happened, and so now I don't need to worry about the form, the light. But we want them to come to us in form these first journeys so we can have that connection. Just as you would a friend, "Where have you come from? Have I known you in a past life? I'm grateful that you're coming to help me in this work. Have you been working with me before?" You know the deal, how to find out things, how you would make a friendship. And it's that friendship and that deep trust and connection and compassion that creates a wonderful channel in your work, in your meditation, in your service, and in everything else. Does that make sense?

Q: I want this so badly, there's a part of me that's afraid my spirit guides aren't going to show up. Is that possible? You keep talking as if it's going to happen for all of us.

Heather: It's going to happen, I'm sure. As I mentioned yesterday, these workshops are often 3-day events or 4-day events, and I've been asked or invited, for 2 ½ days, or a day and a half, to talk in a bookstore and connect with people and so I speak to the spirits of the land to make this as comfortable as possible. And the spirits don't want us to have a hard time; they want it to be easy and seamless. And that is a very normal feeling: you want it so badly, is it going to happen. Is there some way this is going to not happen.

In Brazil I was and I was engaged to a man who was opening farms in the interior of Brazil. We were out riding at about 5 in the morning and he shot a jaguar. As the jaguar dropped down between us or to the side of us, I was just horrified. There was this beautiful black jaguar, fallen to the ground. I knew in that moment I couldn't marry him -- he now only does photographic safaris.

And so many years later when I did a workshop and we were out dancing and rattling to bring through us an animal spirit guide, and I felt my body going into a sort of crouch, not crawling but feeling that, and feeling myself in the Amazon or in a forest, or feeling like a jaguar, my egoic response was "Oh, sure, right. If you are a jaguar, if this is what's coming through me, let me see through your eyes." And everything, my perception changed, and I was really quite startled. "If I created you harm," you know, part of that alliance that brought the demise of this beautiful animal, "why would you be with me?"

And I realized afterwards that it was in the consciousness of, I didn't want to be participating in the demise of any animals like that, that that connection was made. This beautiful animal's spirit is what guides me through all soul retrievals, bringing back information that I would have absolutely no idea about, over the last 12, 15 years.

So trust, and in that journey, when you're setting that intention for the journey, "Help to remove this issue which is giving me doubt, that I'm..." because a part of it is sort of like, you know, self-worth, something like that... We all have it, right?

Heather: You're not going to have to rattle. We're going to call in the spirits. I've already called them in but I'd like you to experience that. So that's something that we do. And then we're going to do the journey. And then I'll stop drumming, I'll do a change in the drum and say, "Now we're going to be returning." In this way, in your experience you don't need to go backwards again, you're just going to come out of it and just wait for the drumming to stop, because you are then re-membered in a spiritual way in your divinity. Does that make sense?

Q: (off mic, background noise) <inaudible> led to address that < > before I came here < >. And part of it is because I've been taught by my teachers that I have all the wisdom inherent in my own being. < > own being, not the ego, but the < > but going to spirit guides and animals and so on is a step removed from that. And also something that <inaudible, ego> is involved in, not going directly to my own wisdom.

Heather: You can go directly to your own wisdom. That's fine. Journey to your higher self. And you can do that.

Heather: Because I believe that entities and power animals are part of the divine, they're coming to use in a way that is, or spirit guides that are coming to us in ways that they're communicating with us. Like Aaron coming through Barbara, you can absolutely tell the difference when it's Barbara and when it's Aaron. You could say it's a divine aspect of her, which of course it is because we are all part of the divine, so we are connecting to a divine aspect to us, in a sense, if you want. It's just the way we say it. We're asking to connect with a spirit guide that's helping us along the way. You can think of it as your higher self that's helping you along the way. Does that make sense?

Q: Not entirely. So like, there are main spirit guides that we each have, something other than our divine self but a different expression of that?

Heather: Well, anything I say that doesn't feel right for you, absolutely challenge me or ask me because the way I believe, the way I see it and John of God as well, from my own background being born and raised in Brazil, this is something that connects me to spirit, in a way. I do mostly meditation now but I use a drum and rattle oftentimes to go a little deeper.

But what got me to where I was in the space that I know work with John of God was my foundation in shamanism, and my deep connection with my spirit guides who guided the way for me, if you would. You could say that that's maybe a divine aspect of me but I communicate with them and ask for their guidance. So the way I look at things, that when we leave this world, it's just another door opening and we go into the other world where we can then serve as well either by as Aaron does, remaining in spirit, or coming back and serving again through another lifetime. That we have these pods that work with us, you know, we choose our family, we choose our spiritual teachers, and we hope to meet up with them without forgetting too much. And as Aaron talked about the Indigo children today, many more of these children, I've come in contact with and know several parents whose children are often diagnosed as ADD but they talk about their guides. When we are children we have our invisible friends. We've talked about rattles and drums and our heritage. So it's a tool, let's put it that way. It's a tool, it works for some and it doesn't work for others. So if it's not something you're drawn to, then let it go...

Q: < > be helpful, for some people (they) can get led into < > more egoic state < >.

Heather: Right, but this is all depending on how you set it up. Maybe Aaron would like to answer this.

Barbara: I'm paraphrasing Aaron... He says, envision yourself falling off a ravine into a rushing river, into a fast-moving river. You're being pulled downstream fast and suddenly you see a rope hanging from a tree near shore. You feel like you're going to drown, you're being swept down this river, and then you see this rope.

You grab hold of the rope but you're still being pulled. It's all you can do to hold on and you feel like you just can't pull yourself into shore with it. The current is too strong. Suddenly you feel something nudging at your back. You turn around and there's some kind of big moving object, dolphins or whatever, nudging, pushing you. So you're holding onto the rope, you say, "I can't do this, I'm not strong enough. I need help." And here is help. And then somebody comes up on shore and he sees your dilemma and he starts pulling on the other end of the rope, helping you to come in.

He's saying, these are not other-than you. Remember that these dolphins are in some way a manifestation of your energy that has arrived because of your intention, and the helper on shore is in some way a manifestation of your energy, helping you. But it all comes from you. He suggests not to think of these as separate beings. He says, while in fact he is a separate karmic stream than I am, we are not the same being, also, nothing is separate.

So think of these guides as something that you have invited and that are expressions of your intention but are also acting out and fulfilling their own free will and action. But there's nothing separate there.

Heather: Yes, don't let's worry about animals right now. First of all we're going to do this connecting to the elements and asking the universe and the elements to take from us-- think about, you went through a snowstorm, right? You go through a snowstorm and the car is covered in snow and then it freezes up. The next day you get out, you have to scrape out the windshield, and you can see a little but patches of ice remain. You take it to the car wash. Now you can see better.

Same thing, we're going to have a little spiritual car wash. We're going to ask the universe to be helping us with the elements because we are the elements. Our life here on Earth is inseparable from the elements. We are 75% water or 80% water. Our body, the earth, air, we can't live without air, and fire, the passion within us, our hearts, passion to be in life, to be inspirited. So in shamanism it's about remembering that, remembering our connection. You're all very shamanic in your outlook, I can see here. So this is going to be just taking away the dust that keeps us separate from having a fuller meditational experience, if you will.

Q: And the idea of journeying with a sense of form to it is to give us a more recognizable image of what we're talking to.

Heather: Right, exactly, because, you know, you'll see as it goes on it's nice to have that. These paintings of Dr. Augusto in the Casa were taken from medium's views. Like we all saw the same image of that particular spirit. And there are others that nobody has photographs of but we would see them in the current room. So somehow we're connecting to that spirit on that level that's giving the same image.

And he actually looked at this painting that a friend of mine did and made a few corrections, like the color of his eyes when he was last in this lifetime, stuff like that. But many people had seen those images exactly as she painted. So then we get connected to that, but after awhile I'm going to ask the form to drop for you to see the contrast. I don't want to tell you about it because it will be a surprise and you'll feel different, and then you don't need to worry about the form anymore because then you're more connected to the light.

Heather: Yes, we're going to be doing several journeys together. That particular journey that we're going to do later on is usually people who have been on the shamanic practice for quite awhile. I'm going to be bringing it in. But first we have to get the foundation going before jump into the end of the game. Or, not the end of the game but to a more, it's not that you're connecting to the light, you're always connecting to the light. They are always the light because when we leave the form, the physical body, we are formless. But bringing their vibrations in so we can see something so we can say, "Oh, I'm doing something," otherwise it's like, "Oh, I'm not seeing anything." Right?

Q: To what extent does this connection now depend on our state of mind? Just before coming in here I got some very upsetting (news) and I just felt, here, coming in, contracted, and I've been sitting here this whole time working with it. Having a hard time shaking it... I'm thinking, "Boy, this just doesn't feel like the best time for me to be here, at the same time, maybe this is the best time for me to be here."

Heather: I would say, I think we'll get into the more experiential work now, not talk, I think it's exactly that, this is part of it is the fear is coming up. So, perfect to do this journey for the fear to be removed by the higher self, if you will, by your divine self, to help you to wash away that fear so that you can be totally centered and deal with whatever this issue is that's come up for you. Does that make sense? Just try it out and see.

Some people say, "Oh, shamanism is going down, it's not as elevated as this or that." It's a tool. We're not dealing with lower vibrational beings, we're connecting to beings of the highest level that we are working with and for our highest good. And so it's a tool that one can use. Some people use it instead of meditation, or shamanism takes them to meditation or vice versa. It's used as a tool to deepen your present practice, okay? There's no lesser than or better than. Sometimes you get people talking about, "Oh, Reiki's no good, you've got to do some other type of Reiki that comes from Honolulu," or somewhere, you know? A mother that's wishing to bring through energy for her child to remove their headache or something, her love and intention as whatever she's practicing is what counts. It doesn't matter, I don't even like to use the word Master, I only use it because people want to learn Reiki and if you don't put that down, they don't know that you teach. But, you know, I'm master of nothing.

It's really our intention and we've set the intention for this class to be as Aaron had asked, to connect to a spirit guide that is helping us or already has been helping us or is ready and willing to help us in this Venture Fourth program that you're doing, to help you. And you can think of that as being your higher self or a spirit guide like Aaron, and in fact later on, with Aaron's permission, we could journey to Aaron. I think he said earlier that that would be all right, so that you could see that 20 of us can journey to Aaron and we'll all have different experiences because it's timeless and seamless and there is no just Aaron talking to us, and because he's talking to you we can't all be experiencing a connection to him.

Q: The thing I want to add is, we may not know shamanism but we know Aaron and Barbara, and Aaron is bringing this to us. Aaron wouldn't bring anything to us that was a problem or was going to cause us any kind of issues. So if it bothers you, just go with that. Aaron is bringing this.

Heather: Right, ask Aaron to guide you. Okay? So in this we ask Aaron to bless this journey. I'm just going to call in so that you see how I do it, since I've already called in the spirits. John of God – I'm using him as an example because many of you know him – Before he incorporates, he always says, "I give up my body to the helping spirits and for the practice of good." So that is just a few minutes before he incorporates.

Because if we have a party, we invite in our friends. Our children when they were teenagers would invite in the whole neighborhood and the town but they soon learned that that wasn't really successful, that you don't always have people that are on the same vibrational harmony as you when you open up your house to the whole neighborhood. And often parents' belongings get wrecked. So as they get into their 20s, now they're very specific who they invite to their houses and homes.

Any kind of healing work that we do, we are specific on how we set it up. So we always set a foundation up, calling in the spirits, praying in gratitude, however you do it with Aaron. Aaron has asked me to share this because he comes from a shamanic background in one of his lives. So he's overseeing all of this in a way that I hope feels comfortable for you all.

So we always first of all honor the helping spirits and the ancestors spirits of this land and home. We are very grateful to this beautiful land and the spirit of this land. In shamanism, and our belief is, that everything has spirit. We are all connected to the divine, all come from the One Source, one Creator, we are all filaments, threads of that divine energy. So the land likewise is a thread of divine source and creator. We're grateful for the hospitality of this beautiful land, the home, the lake, creating this sacred space. We call upon the descendent spirits to receive this as already happened, being here <inaudible>. The highest level of each one of us <> something that we are absolutely comfortable <> and it comes from our very essence, our divine essence. We call upon our guardian spirits or higher selves <>. <> make this connection, this alliance with our guardian spirits. <><calling on the elements to come into harmony><remainder not transcribed, too difficult to hear clearly>

Okay, so if you'd like to pair up in 2s and you're just going to begin; the best things for husbands and wives not to journey together because you kind of know each other... It's going to be a short journey...

(post-journey sharing? informal conversation not transcribed, question not recorded)

Heather: ...Does that make sense to you? So, releasing the shame from the past, letting those papers be taken by the wind, you no longer need them because in order to have a deeper sense of connection with your higher self, your divine aspect, your essence, the shame keeps you separate... In the end you're going to work with all the senses or you may, but everybody has a stronger sense, some people see more, hear more, do you know what I'm saying? So whatever each person is going to... Some people have a visual sense, some people hear more, so we're going to shift partners now for the...

Heather: Usually at the beginning when people experience a journey, a lot of self-doubt comes up. What if I don't see anything? Feel anything? However, the compassionate spirits always give us the right and perfect experience. And we're trying to develop a very close relationship with, we can either see it as the divine aspect of ourselves or a guide; their only concern is for our spiritual growth, to help us, to treat us with compassion, nurture, love, non-judgment, to a deep relationship that we can talk to about anything, and receive love and support. This is empowering for the work that we do in service, and helps us to feel more whole and complete within ourselves, and to know with a certainty that we are never alone, whether we see that presence as the divine or our divine essence or a helping spirit.

Barbara: The whole point of all of this work is to find our own power and not to have somebody else that we need to lean on. And whether it's with Aaron, at the Casa, wherever it may be, when we surrender, what we're surrendering is the small ego self and all its fears, to allow that all-powerful divine core-self to come forth.

As Aaron tells me he was saying this morning, because we're old souls with a deep aspiration to do good in the world and not to do harm, we developed way back in the times of Atlantis some fear of our power because we saw how easily we could use that power to do harm. So we cut our own power both by the cuts in the DNA linkages and in many other ways. And now we're having to remember/re-member that, to remember who we are and remember our power. And until we remember our power we can't do anything. When we remember our power there's nobody doing anything, it's just love.

Heather: Exactly. I think as Barbara just said, we forgot and are re-membering. This experience we just had was, we released those fears and we are remembering our divinity and that place. So all those things that came up, other experiences of that past and those fears and "Maybe I can't do this," that's all the energy that comes up just before a journey. It's very normal for this to happen.

Did you all notice how hot it got in here? We called in the compassionate spirits, and we're calling in the spirits of this beautiful land and home. And they are here to support us because the compassionate spirits, – whether we want to see that as a part of our divine nature, aspects of ourselves from previous lives, or something separate, everything has spirit. We're all created from the One Source – we are being supported by the divine nature of each and every one of us and the source of all that is. And we are being re-empowered because in journeying, we find our answers. My teachers always, – we'd come back with a question from a journey, and the reply was always, "I don't know, it's your journey. Go back and do another journey on it." You can go back into dreams, anything, you just go back with a question and an intention. Go to your guide and ask for clarity. Because it is our journey on life so we want to be empowered by that so we're journeying to our higher selves, if you will, asking, "what did that mean?" and you get an answer.

Okay? I can give you some guidance but I can't give you answers to your journeys because that's your inner self telling you where you need to release. And so it's very empowering to have this as a tool in your pocket to use every once in a while, to go deeper. Especially if you've had a dream and you want to go back in, you can go back into the dream where you left off. "What did this dream mean? The intention of my journey is to find out the meaning of this dream. What did it mean?"

So that you come back and then go back and say, "I didn't quite get that. I need to know deeper." So you're constantly having this dialogue, if you will, and getting answers. It's a very powerful tool, and it's coming from you, not somebody else. You know you're all very lucky here having Aaron on tap, so to speak, and my work with the entities, you know the entities say to us all the time, "Sit in the current and I'll give you the intuition." And then we sit in current, close our eyes, and do a journey of sorts through meditation to see where we need to release or what comes up. But they want us to be empowered rather than going to them for constant counseling. They keep sending us back to be re-empowered. Does that make sense?

Heather: Yes you can, so at the end of this, the time that we finish here you'll have some guidance on it. So it's sort of, you know, there are ways of going and coming back and all of that. So we're just starting now.

So this next journey, I want you before the dinner break to have a journey. I'm going to guide you on this journey, guided visualization. We're going to go and connect with some dolphin energy, which is very nice.

Think about dolphins. When you think about dolphins, you kind of have to smile, don't you? They're just so beautiful, breaking the water and coming to us. So we're going to join up with some dolphins and just trust, dolphins, you know, so gentle, they carry a very high vibration. We're going to ask the dolphins, we always state our intention first before a journey.

So the intention of this journey is to connect to the dolphins and for them to help us to raise our vibrations so that we can release fears about really connecting to our divine guidance, to our divinity, or to a guide that is coming to us. And to help us to release that so that we can have a deep experience with this spirit helper. Again, I don't need to keep repeating it, but whatever way you want to see it, whether it's an aspect of your divine self, or a separate being, spirit is there to help us. So if we want to see it as an aspect of ourselves, to compassionately love us, help us, show us where we need to heal or release or trust or surrender, and forgive ourselves, first and primarily and then others, so that we can have a joyful experience on this earth, right? And to do the beautiful work that you're doing with Aaron and Barbara.

So Aaron wants us to have a deep experience with our spirit guides, or higher self, if you will, for the work that goes ahead, and to be re-empowered, to feel more empowered. Does that make sense? So in a non-egoic way, just to trust, because when we get to that stage, it's really all about love.

I've had the great good fortune of taking many people before the entities, people that I considered to be very evolved people, and sometimes they'll say, "How can I be of more service?" And I used to prick up my ears and think, "Whoa, I should have a notepad here, there'll be step 1, 2, 3," and it's always, "Love yourself and then love others." Always. Of course, because we're always trying to be more awakened, right? And in order to do that we have to love that divine aspect instead of constantly saying, "Oh, there's another way that I can beat myself up," in whatever different way.

The more we can love the divine within us, the more we can love other people. And that's our path on Earth; to see everybody as brothers and sisters. So forgiving ourselves, forgiving others, that's the sort of message from the spirits at the Casa, is, "Love yourself as God loves you, and then love your brothers and sisters." The divine loves us too because we're all interrelated.

So this experience that we're going to have now is to have a loving experience with the dolphins to heal, that they'll take away-- again, we can, our divine essence, can release another aspect of Saran Wrap, if you will, that's covering us so that we can't see the divine light quite as clearly. Okay? It's not a chunk of ourselves that's going, it's just spiritual debris or emotional debris that's in the way.

It's like wearing dirty glasses, you know, you clean the glasses and you put them on and know, "Oh, I don't need my eyes tested, my glasses were dirty." Right? So we're going to go and get our glasses cleaned off. And having a loving, joyful experience with the dolphins.

When we come out, I'll guide you, and your guides are waiting for you, a guide for each one of you is waiting. And you can see that again as an aspect of yourself or as a guide, as Barbara has Aaron...

This is ordinary reality, this is Middle World. Upper World and Lower World, we call it, I don't even like to refer to it like that, it's just that the world is round, the universe is round, and we're experiencing here. And non-ordinary reality is a very real reality that is going on and we're journeying to that reality. But I see it as being the universe within us so you're not leaving the body, you're just having this journey. The unconscious is bringing it up for us, does that make sense?

Okay, so this will be a guided visualization so it will be nice and easy, hopefully. So you can lie down if you wish. Don't be touching each other because you want to have your own separate journey this time...

We're going to ask our spirit guides to come to us in their form so that we can see them. You'll get a sense of this presence and then you can say, "Could you change your vibration so I can see you more clearly?" Because our spirit guides are vibration and they're very kind and they come to us in form so that we can have an image. If they don't and you're seeing color, that's okay, so trust that because everything is vibration...

All right? Everybody comfy? If you're lying down, have one arm up at right angles like this so if you fall asleep, it will fall to the ground and wake you...

So let's just take a moment to feel ourselves fully present. Taking a big deep breath, and just say to our ego consciousness, "We're going on a journey of the imagination." Connect to the divine through the imagination. Imagination is healing. Soon we're going to again honor our brilliant analytical minds.

Imagine taking 4 steps down from the mind into the very center of your being. That place where you are connected to All That Is, where you're connected to your divine self, to the essence, the Oneness. Just feeling that for a moment.

And then in your imagination, in your mind's eye, without doing so in the physical but just in your mind's eye, imagine extending your left hand out. We ask our higher selves or our spiritual guides to take us gently by the hand. You'll feel this loving presence taking you gently by the hand. You feel the energy, the love, the support.

And now you feel yourself in a beautiful meadow where you're completely safe. You still feel this gentle loving support.

Set our intention on this healing journey to release aspects and energies that are <> <walking> the way of a deeper connection with our spirit guide or with our higher self. For our highest healing, for the highest good, divinely guided and <>.

So look around this beautiful meadow of wildflowers. You look around and see.... wildflowers everywhere <> wide, clear, gently on the feet. <>... You feel completely safe.

This is not ordinary reality so there is no pollen or allergy problems. You find yourself guided gently along the path, the pace going faster and faster <>. You feel excited for the next step, to see the beautiful dolphins.

You notice the path is leading to a beautiful pristine beach. You walk on this clear, clear white sand. And you go down to the water's edge, very gentle waves, barely perceptible, it's almost like a lake, only gentle waves...

And in the distance you see the water breaking and some beautiful dolphins coming towards you. They invite you to step into the water; all the while your guide or your higher self is beside you whenever you wish to see it.

When you get about waist deep into the water you realize that it never gets any deeper than waist deep. The water is beautifully clear; you can see your toes, absolutely clear water, sandy bottom.

The dolphins come closer; you can feel their high beautiful vibrations. They invite you to trust them and to release any energies that are blocking a deeper connection to your higher self, meeting your guide.

Let your inner vision let you release any fears or lack of confidence you might be experiencing. <>

You notice that there are 7 dolphins. You feel completely safe. You find yourself reaching out and touching <>. Their high frequencies and vibrations seem to elevate your spirits. You feel joy and elation. You feel like you want to laugh. You feel that they are laughing with you. You feel immense love radiating from them.

You feel their gentleness... You can understand how they are a <> highly evolved species. And now you move to <>. How refreshing the water is. You realize that the water is the light. You are bathing in a bay of light. You feel yourself supported, floating in this beautiful bay of light, colors, the quality has changed. You feel yourself expansive. You feel like your cells and tissues are lighting up, coming into coherence with the divine light, with their divinity, their perfection, their divine code of perfection.

You feel completely safe. As you look around the bay, you feel like you're expanding outward. You look at your hand and you can see the auric field around your hand. Take a moment, if you feel like it, to immerse yourself, wet your hair in this beautiful bay of light.

You see now that the dolphins are almost translucent. You feel so closely connected to them. You can understand we are all related in a much deeper way.

Let's continue to enjoy this experience of being bathed in the light, connected to the light. See where you may be holding some contracted energy in the physical form. You give permission to the light to go to that space and fill it with light. Releasing that fear or contraction of energy.

You communicate with the dolphins telepathically. They seem to be responding to you. Remembering that dolphins respond to our authentic selves. Ask them to help us see where we're holding fear or lack of confidence. Feel their playfulness. They invite you to swim with them, knowing that you're supported in the light.

Practice some communication with the dolphins, talking with your heart. Ask for help and assistance.

In you mind now, setting the intention when you leave this bay, this beautiful bay of light, you'll be able to connect your body and spirit to an aspect of your higher self that is waiting on the shore. Once more, immerse yourself completely... bathing yourself in the light. Let yourself be gently guided to the edge of the water, perhaps imagining yourself with your eyes closed, and as you release and walk away from the water, the bay of light, coming onto the shore, you get a sense that the dolphins are all supporting you.

And as you open your eyes, (drumming ceases) you see standing before you your guardian spirit, your spiritual guide that is here to help you in the work that you'll be doing with Aaron.

Now I'm going to drum for you as you as you deepen this relationship, just as you would when meeting a person. Ask questions. How can you help me? How can I see and understand you more clearly? Ask for the vibrations (drumming begins) to be changed. Give feedback to your guide-"I can't hear you well, I can't see you, please change your vibration. Now I see you perfectly. Can you talk a little louder, softer...

Now thanking your guide, explaining the callback is coming but you would like to connect later this evening to deepen this relationship, this alliance. That you know and trust now that you'll meet again in exactly the same place. This beautiful bay of light, this beautiful sandy beach is the place where you can call upon your guides. It is your sacred space. You can come to connect, to heal, feel a deeper connection to your higher self.

You can feel yourself now, looking out to sea with gratitude in your heart for the beautiful 7 dolphins as they're swimming away. <> You feel more lighthearted as you turn around and walk through the beautiful meadow of wildflowers, a familiar place that you feel safe.

Feeling yourself fully present in this room, time, space, reality, knowing that this whole journey took place in the universe within you. You are <>.

If you want to take a few notes or feel you can hold this, you don't want to close your eyes again because you'll journey back in. Okay? So you want to keep your eyes open now.

Journeying is a discipline. When you come back you bring yourself fully back, to take your bandanas off, sit up, and be fully present because it's very easy to drift back off. And if you feel like you're not fully present... just rattle a little bit or use a box of matches as a rattle; bring yourself back, open your eyes and be fully present.

Images and communications that you had very quickly disappear so it's good to write things down. If you look at that tomorrow you'll know you couldn't have written it, but you did have this experience recorded...

And so... once you start deepening this connection, deepening this experience – going down there to connect to the dolphins, if you felt that that was something that you enjoyed doing, or go to the pool of light, the bay of light – then you're constantly clearing away old stuff, healing old emotional energy around old emotional stuff. We can't take away the memory but we can take away the energy around it so it's no longer a button, you know, the button gets less and less pressed. So this is always part of a dismemberment journey too. We're no longer feeling the energy of some past issues, or we're compassionate about it, forgiving and loving about it.

(personal sharing and Heather's comments it, ~half hour, not transcribed, excerpts follow)

Heather: One time I was teaching a class and we were going to an animal spirit guide. The person said, "As long as mine's not a snake because I'm afraid of snakes," and I was like, "Oh, oops." So as I drummed I could see her after about 10 minutes sitting up, eyes open. And then the rest of the class and then hers was, a snake came to her. So I asked her, "What happened?" Well she just sat up. So I said, "Could you go back and tell the snake that you're afraid of snakes?" And how could the snake be helping you, you know, is there some way that you can come to terms with the fear.

And she did. And then the next journey I could see her smiling. And this was about 8 years ago. She works with this energy all the time, she has her own healing practice. So you know the answer from snake was, "This is about transformation, you don't need to be afraid of me. I won't come close; don't touch me until, when you feel secure you can touch me." Now she has snake around her neck, that's part of her connecting. So very gently they transformed this relationship. I said, "Perhaps you could ask snake to transform into another animal until you get comfortable with this." But it really taught her about transformation and her judgment on that.

Barbara:... The level of guidance you need is always there. After I met Aaron but before I could really hear him clearly, I connected with my grandfather who had transitioned. And I found that he's been my guide for all this time since his transition when I was about 19. And I felt very warm energy from him. He suggested things like to focus on a certain color of light or on a certain tone, things that helped me to tune so I could hear Aaron better.

So because my grandfather had a lower vibration, I was able to hear him and he was able to teach me how to hear Aaron. In the beginning there was not as much clarity with Aaron. I had to learn how to develop it and, not just my grandfather but several other guides who came in, helped me to develop the level of high vibration, like tuning a radio, and through which I could really tune into Aaron's vibration. And Aaron also had to learn how to tune in to me, how to adjust his high frequency down to a level that I could hear it clearly.

Heather: I'll give just one other little explanation of high vibration. St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuit movement, he comes through John of God. And through John of God's service, which is now 53 years, St. Ignatius has been able to raise in consciousness, and his vibrations have raised and his level through his service... In the spirit realms, St. Ignatius was a guide to, is the sort of patron saint of John of God's work. And he used to come through a lot but he, through his service, he's gone up on the scale in the spirit realms. So we're all evolving, not only here but in the spirit realms. So he's chosen not to reincarnate but doing his work through spirit.

He said that thanks to John of God, who has given his body for 53 years at this level, every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and sometimes the weekend, that he's very grateful because he's able to evolve. And as he evolves, all the group that work with him in this group consciousness, where there are thousands, they're all brought up.

Heather: No, not all Jesuits, they're some brought up, but different spirit guides. So they come up. So here's one, this is a doctor, St. Ignatius. This was him. So he used to drag his leg because he was still in the denseness, but in the last 3 years, I was right behind him, he suddenly fell to his knees in John of God's body, looked up and said he was going up another level. He's so evolved now, his energy is so vast, he doesn't drag his leg. He'd had a wound in a previous life. But he also can't stay in very long because he's such an evolved being. So he only stays in about 10 minutes.

So just about 6 weeks ago, he called for me and he was talking to them and said, "Who am I?" And I said, "St. Ignatius." I could tell it was him. And then he took my hand and walked and gave answers to various people who hadn't even presented their questions yet, and told them. And he said, "Now, I can't stay for very long," because his energy now is so light or high vibration that he only can stay 10 minutes. And he said, "Now I'm leaving," he was holding my hand just as Barbara does, and then the other entity dropped through and came through. So sometimes the spirits are raising in their evolution as well. Well not sometimes, they always are. That is their quest.

Heather: Afterwards we're going to journey to the spirit of your rattle so that you see the essence of the rattle and the divinity of it, and how you should work with the rattle, to honor every aspect. Oftentimes I feel like I'm not really beating it. Sometimes you can actually hear the descendent spirits singing with us when we call in the descendent spirits, sometimes you can hear their joyful singing. Because they come from the future. There is no future, past, but they come to tell us that we are all really okay, and it's very supportive. So I always call in the descendent spirits, too.

So we're going to do 2 journeys and then try and aim for 9 o'clock so that you can have some time with Aaron and meditation. Aaron would like you all to have some time with meditation. And tomorrow we have some nice things if the weather holds. We can work outside as well, which is part of the holistic shamanic approach, working with nature and feeling that connection with nature.

I'd like us to go back to where we were. We've created that as a safe space, walking through the meadow, and I'll walk you through it again. Getting to that beautiful bay. And the bay could be seawater or you could ask it to become light. It's a place where we can always go to feel safe. It's a place where we can go to connect to our guides, to have counseling, to have communication, or also asking our guides if there's anybody they would like us to meet, or an aspect of our higher self. So this is a place where we can continue to do our ceremony and spiritual connection.

In core shamanism it's taught to kind of go through a tree or a hole in the ground but that takes a lot of time. So I've kind of developed this way, because it's basically finding a leaping off place, a place where you go from to connect to your spirit guides. And after awhile you just get there like that; you don't need that interim space. But in the beginning I suggest you walk through the meadow. Each time you'll feel that more and more colorful; you'll feel more and more connected. And you'll notice that each time after you've had a connection or a merging with your spirit guide or whatever it is that you've been working on in that sacred space and non-ordinary reality, but when you walk through the meadow you'll feel more and more connected. And then you feel more and more connected in this ordinary reality as well.

And tomorrow there are 2 powerful journeys we're going to do which will, I think, help us to feel much more connected to this web of life and light that we are all connected to.

So I'm going to guide you back on this journey. I want us to merge with your higher self, I'll guide you through it. And then we're going to set your intention for your guides that you've worked with just now, to be back there working with them. I think you're going to work with the one that we discussed earlier, and deepen that connection and ask those questions. Remember, plenty of questions that you can ask. We're working with divine consciousness and these guides that we've asked to connect with are of the highest vibrations and consciousness to work with us. You are always in charge and you can say, if anything comes in that you feel is not right, you just say, "This doesn't feel right," and as Aaron was saying, just re-center yourself. Intention is everything. I think of intention as being like the accelerator on a car. When you get stuck, just repeat the intention, it's like putting your foot on the accelerator and moving through any resistance.

I wouldn't get too comfortable, especially after dinner, because you might fall asleep! Go ahead and do that but have your arm up just in case. Alright?

And then our second journey, we'll come back from this, have a little break, and discuss it and then our second journey we'll merge with or meet up with somebody that you would like to, it could be a writer or painter that's no longer in this plane. It could be with Aaron, Aaron said that it would be okay. It could be with a particular deity that you like or something, but we'll do that in the second journey and finish on that note.

Heather: The animals are tomorrow. You know, you're doing a lot today, you're moving stuff on a very deep level. So they may not feel it but these are profound inner journeys that are taking place for you.

Aaron: My love to you, Q. I was watching you this time, and your guide is there. I know you don't perceive it. I think this relates to the old meditation experience and some fear that you're holding. On one level you're trying too hard and on another level there's fear that you're not really attending to, and that is a very reasonable fear considering the power of that past meditation experience and how upsetting it was to your life. It's okay. The guide is there. Don't worry about it. What I'd like you to do when you get in with the dolphins and in an open space – if all you do is sit in the water with the dolphins and from the most sincere and loving place in your heart, invite the guide's presence and invite yourself to be present with the guide, it will happen. It may take a little time but it will happen.

Do observe any tension and how you are relating to that tension. See if you're relating to it by trying to control it or force it away, or if you're relating to it from a place of a very open heart. Even while the tension is there, come back to the open heart. You might also ask the dolphins, "Can you help me connect with the guides? Can you help me past the resistance?" Okay? Do you have question? (No.)

Aaron: She is a positively polarized guide. Again, I was watching. She holds your highest intentions with you. She is of positive polarity. It's important for you to trust your intuition. If you ask and she says yes but you're still not comfortable, it's fine to say, "I am not comfortable. Please leave." As you did.

But I think it would be more helpful if she comes back for you to simply ask her, "Why are you here? What are you here to teach me?" Just hear her for a bit. If what she says does not feel true to your own deepest truth then ask her to leave. If you feel some subtle resistance and yet you can't quite put your finger on it, ask her, "Why am I feeling resistance to you? What is that about?"

You are in charge. She cannot force you in any direction. And she is a safe being for you to be with. While she is a positively polarized being, she is not of a very high vibration, so I think she's here to teach you something specific and help you meet a higher level guide. But first you have to go through her. If anything feels really off that she says then end it, but I don't think that will happen. I think you'll find that there's something happening within your own vibration that's causing the feelings of dis-ease. Okay?

Aaron: I am talking about the one who came, she said "Yes" but you said, "I want you to leave."

I understand. You need to go through the first one to get to the second. You turned the first one away. The second is the higher level guide, the first is to help you connect to the higher level guide. But to get to the second, you need to go through the first.

Now let me explain this for a moment. It's not that you have to go through the first to get to the second. You are experiencing the second. You have the ability to meet the vibrational frequency of the second. But you have some unfinished work with the first. The second will simply direct you back to the first to finish your work with the first. The first will-"let me put this in a different way.

Sometimes we experience something that feels unpleasant to us and we want to leave it, and yet we realize at some level it's been a learning experience and that there is some shift that's happening in us as we work with that unpleasant experience.

That shift then allows us to move to a greater depth. You don't have to go through the first to get to the second but this is one clear pathway. Even the second is not your highest level guide but it's an accessible guide, this Azalea.

Go back to the first. You sent her away. In another journey if she comes back, ask her as I suggested, "Why are you here?" First challenge her. The challenge of course comes before you begin the journey, stating your highest intention. "Whatever being comes must come resonant to my own highest values in service of the light and love." And if you wish you can add, "Harmonious in vibration to Jesus or to the Buddha," to whatever revered being holds a place of center in your heart. "Are you harmonious in your intentions and vibrations to this beloved being? If so, then you may come." Then you begin and go into the journey. Then when the guide comes you challenge it again.

If there's any reservation, you ask again. "This is my own highest value and intention. I am a servant of the Light. Are you a servant of the Light? Are you here in service of love and for the highest good for all beings?" And if you get a Yes again, 3 times, 3 questions, go ahead. If you feel any hesitancy, any trickery, then say no. But if you feel no hesitancy, just a clear yes, then ask, "This is the third time you have come. What are you here to tell me? What are you here to teach me?"

Heather: Could she ask Azalea if there's any unfinished business that she needs to take care of with the other one?

Aaron: She can ask Azalea but I don't think she'll get an answer! She already knows and guidance will not coddle you.

Aaron: Relax. You are simply trying too hard. The door is open. Just relax. First, you said you fell asleep. And part of that is simply tiredness. There is such a deep aspiration to connect with spirit and there's grasping and sadness. There's a feeling of unworthiness for that connection. So I would ask you just to relax. Trust that that love is there.

I'd also ask you to trust that this is just what you need to experience, to help bring more into the attention feelings of unworthiness that still exist. And in the next journey, perhaps to ask for support to break through those feelings, to learn a deeper love of the self and experience guidance that encourages that love and supports that love.

One is never finished. One is always in process. I have seen how far you've come and that's why you're here this week.

Heather: I was thinking since this was a lot of work that maybe to do a journey now to a supportive deity like a Buddha Consciousness, to Christ, or to Aaron. So you can choose a particular being that you revere or would like to go to, just to bask in unconditional love. Just to go to that divine being or helping spirit and just ask for support and nurturance, because you're doing a lot of work, a lot of deep journeys and you're all doing really great...So does that feel right to you, Aaron?

Aaron: May I tell a short story? This is a story that came to Barbara a few weeks ago and I can verity it's veracity. I can confirm that it is true.

A woman who was a lifelong devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, with whom Barbara also has a strong connection, she had never physically met Neem Karoli Baba but had a strong energetic connection with him.

She became ill and was in the hospital in a coma. When she came out of the coma, the nurses and doctors said to her, "Your father was here."

"Well, maybe he's an uncle or some old friend. He was wearing simple white clothes and he was carrying a plaid blanket, and he sat in the chair by your bed day and night. He would not leave, he just sat here. He held your hand until you began to come back to consciousness, and then he got up and nodded and left. He would go out for a few hours at night, come back very early in the morning."

She showed them a picture of Neem Karoli Baba and they looked at it and said, "Yes, that was him."

Now of course this is over 20 years after he transitioned. Spirit is there, so much so that many others saw it.

Heather: We have 2 options, we'll have a vote on it, shall we? If you'd like to journey to a revered presence and know that they'll be there and have a blessing and receive a really gentle, with the intention of the journey, to feel the unconditional love and support of a particular, is there anybody in particular that you would like to go to, or maybe you'd like to go to Aaron?

Heather: ...I was going to suggest that you journey to the spirit of your rattles and if you don't have a rattle then you can journey to the spirit of a flower. I just don't want you to do any hard work with your guides tonight, I think you've done, it's a lot to do that. So I want you to have a nice gentle journey where you're there to experience the sense of well-being. So you can journey specifically to somebody, right? Would you all like to do that then?

Heather: Yes, of course, we've got plenty of time tomorrow. It's just that we've done some really deep journeying...Tomorrow we're doing a Salish spirit canoe healing journey, where you'll be rowing the canoe for the healing. It's a really nice group so we'll be working together and you'll actually be symbolically rowing in this reality. And if anybody would like a healing tomorrow, let me know.

And if it's a nice day we can be doing some of this around the deck too. When you're more outside it's easier to journey when you've got some fresh air...

You can go back to your guide if you want...If you want to have 2 or ask us both to be there, we'll set up the intention. But you're going to journey direct to them. So you go to your same place and then they'll be waiting there for you. And if they're not there, repeat your intention, "Thank you for coming to me. I'm here to receive blessings and to receive nurturance and a sense of unconditional love from" –you fill in the blank.

Heather: To go to him? He had said yes but you could ask him again now... Aaron is here.

Aaron: I was going to release the body to Barbara. Would you prefer me to stay in the body for this purpose?

Heather: You would know better! I've never had this experience before! (of the entity being incorporated as we journey)... If they're going to journey in non-ordinary it would probably be better to release.

Aaron: I will release. But I am not going anywhere, just to continue here with you!

Heather: Okay... would you like me to guide you or do you think you're ready to go on your own to your sacred beach? (Group: Guide us!) Okay, so I'll guide you there, I'll take you to that point and then you can continue on your own. You can always feel free to go into the bay of light, call upon the healing dolphins, whatever you feel like, but set your intention now, I'll leave a blank when we're setting intention to be connecting to that particular being-"Aaron or a deity, Buddha consciousness, divine consciousness, Baba... does that make sense?...

This will be the last journey of the evening and then I'm going to hand it over to Barbara and Aaron...

Q: When Aaron said that he would be available for me to meet with him, I wonder what he meant. I mean, he wouldn't speak to me, would he? He didn't.

Barbara: My guess is simply that he meant his energy presence would be there, not necessarily to speak to you. His vibration is probably too high for you to directly telepathically hear a response. But you can feel his energy presence and love.

Q: Well that fits. I felt good energy and at one point, the harmonics, the overtones on the drum, I said, "Holy cow! This is from Aaron." Although it's also, I think, realistically coming from the drum. And then at another point I thought I heard, almost like a voice. I thought maybe that was Aaron's energy. It was very, very energetic. So I think I felt his energy.

Heather: You felt his energetic field all around you, connecting to that, yes.

August 27, 2009 AMVenture Fourth Fall Intensive

August 27, 2009 AM
Venture Fourth Fall Intensive