I received an email from my brother this afternoon that had the words “INSTANTLY, WHEN YOU RECEIVE THIS PAGE, YOU MUST SEND IT TO AT LEAST 5 PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU!!!“  This normally indicates that I won’t receive some special grace from God, The Divine Universe etc if I don’t participate and please don’t break the chain and ruin it for another.  I just receive them in the spirit it was given and delete it because I don’t play those games that prey on the fear that if I don’t do something someone tells me that nothing good will come to me or by my lack of it will cause another to be victimized by my unwillingness to participate in some Chain Letter of Fear.

The message was about how everyone could use a hug of some kind and was a nice message.  Originally I figured I would at least send it back to him as he’s going through a tough time and could use a hug, even if it was a cyber-hug.

Because I was busy and doing a quick scroll of it, I didn’t originally notice a photo named the same as the Subject of the email, “Rescuing Hug”, with two newborn infants, one with its arm around the other.  The copy associated with the picture is what entirely turned me around and gave this email a brand new definition.

It said, “This is a picture from an article called “The Rescuing Hug.” The article details the first week of life of a set of twins. Apparently, each were in their respective incubators, and one was not expected to live. A hospital nurse fought against hospital rules and placed the babies in one incubator. When they were placed together the healthier of the two threw an arm over her sister in a endearing embrace. The smaller baby’s heart rate stabilized and her temperature rose to normal.  Let us not forget to embrace those whom we love.”

What an absolutely incredible story!! I had to know more, so I did a search for “Rescuing Hug”.  The first results was to snopes.com which for those of you that aren’t familiar with it is a great place for validating rumors and “Urban Legends”.  I’ve debunked many emails with all sorts of fantastic claims as well as proving them.  Snopes verifies that this is the real deal from a story that was originally published in the Worcester Telegraph & Gazette on November 18, 1995 and reprinted in condensed form in both Reader’s Digest May 1996 (Pgs 155-156) and Life Magazine June 1996 (Pg 18).
(Snopes link. Reprint of RD & Life)

Seeing that this is 14 yrs old, it may be an old picture for some yet I’ve never seen it so I’m sure it will be new for others.  Even if you’ve seen it before, did you ponder this about what is in this picture?  It clearly demonstrates that the Expression of Love is Innate in everyone of us!! These premature newborn infants were born 12 weeks early, their eyes are not open yet, they don’t really have any control of their body and need to be taken care of to survive; yet when the healthier of these two girls is put in with the other she “knows” that not only something is wrong with her twin sister but is “aware” enough to “know” what to do which is offer the only expression of love her premature newborn body can do by giving her a hug.  Not only that but the healing was instantaneous!!

From the Readers Digest reprint:

“Suddenly, on November 12, Brielle went into critical condition. She began gasping for breath, and her face and stick-thin arms and legs turned bluish-gray. Her heart rate was way up, and she got hiccups, a dangerous sign that her body was under stress. Her parents watched, terrified that she might die….No sooner had the door of the incubator closed then Brielle snuggled up to Kyrie – and calmed right down. Within minutes Brielle’s blood-oxygen readings were the best they had been since she was born. As she dozed, Kyrie wrapped her tiny arm around her smaller sibling.”  The girls ended up going home sooner than expected.

Love can truly heal this quick but the reason that it doesn’t for so many of us is that we’ve learned to put up blocks and resistances to it.  For anyone who has witnessed the growth of a child from the womb, they are just bundles of Joy and Love.  Emotions like Fear, Hate, Prejudice, etc have to be learned.  Because these two had not yet learned these Love Blocking Emotions, the Power of Love was able to demonstrate itself instantaneously.

So the next time someone offers to give you a hug, no matter who they are, accept it with unabated Joy knowing full well that the Expression of Love is Innate in everyone of us and that alone can heal an aching heart, if you just let it.  Also don’t be afraid to truly embrace the person because then your Heart Chakras will be touching allowing the Love to flow more freely!!!

A Life in measured by the amount of Love given and received.  Hugs are one of the best expressions of Love one can give to another and as the song says, “What the world needs now is Love, sweet Love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of”.  It is what will heal the world.

BE THE MIRACLE!!

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“A date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.”…”Very many American lives have been lost.”…“Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us.”…“I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

On Monday December 8, 1941, Theodore Roosevelt spoke these words about the bombing of an American military base on Pearl Harbor in Oahu Hawaii the day before. (Listen to President Roosevelt’s actual speech)

Sound familiar?

Today is the eighth anniversary of what some have referred to as the “New Pearl Harbor” and what has simply become known as 9-11. Both involved surprise attacks killing many Americans that resulted in war with the main difference being that the 2001 event was entirely civilians and the 1941 event was a World War versus a Global War on Terrorism which has mainly been an “American War” with some support from other countries initially but these days it seems like it’s only our war; one that some say is more about American Imperialism than protecting us from terrorists, an enemy that we can’t see or apparently find well enough to finally end a war that’s been going on for most of the past 8 yrs with some saying no real end in sight anytime soon.

Heroics and bravery are somewhat expected of soldiers but what about a business man/woman? Or a janitor, security guard, salesman? Aka civilians. This comment is not meant to detract from soldiers but that it’s part of their job but not really for the average civilian. Men and women of all race, creed, color, social status, and occupation were suddenly required to find within them this heroics and bravery.

This is what I noticed watching all of the coverage of the aftermath. That regardless of who they were, they rose to the challenge of assisting not only a fellow American, but most importantly a fellow Human without any question of who they were, what their social/economic status, etc was. It was Humans helping Humans. I was watching The Collective in Action!!

What followed was a very serious question. If we could drop all of our supposed boundaries that make us different, from which myriad judgments and condemnations result, for one day, just what would it take for that to happen permanently? Would it then take humanity to be on the brink of annihilation in order for this to occur permanently? It almost seemed too much to ask much less consider because that day was a lot of Death, Devastation, Destruction, and Mayhem much less the latter question; but that wouldn’t ever happen right? If you truly look at the world over the last 8 yrs it seems to be a lot worse. Not just this endless GWOT (which BTW is still killing endless civilians, just not “ours”) but economic collapse resulting in job losses, foreclosures, growing loss of individual freedoms; the list seems to get longer and longer as time goes on.

As a result of this, last year I wrote a blog post called “The Spirituality Behind 9-11” where I explored in detail this idea in conjunction with the other “aftermath”; many, many people seeking the reasons for this horrific event by looking to whatever their idea of God was. It essentially was the beginning of a Spiritual Revolution because due to how technology connects us to the entire world, we were not the only ones witnessing this event as it was happening on live television so as The Collective it was a single occurrence that aligned us all via the horror of Death, Devastation and Destruction and now the question is just what are we still doing about that?

I have witnessed an explosion of this Spiritual Revolution over the past 8 yrs and thanks to places like Twitter we can come together and communicate with each other but I still have to ask if it’s enough because there still seems to be so much apathy in the world in conjunction with so much destruction. Is it really someone else’s problem when it’s so rapidly approaching your backyard (literally!) Sure there are people like Kimberly May Jones who is organizing “One Minute for Peace: The 11:11 Global Peace Project” to occur on 11/11/2009 @ 11:11 which should be a very powerful demonstration for and of The Collective. The question still remains as to whether it’s enough to result in a permanent shift. Only time is going to tell the Real Story.

I’m observing that we are at a tipping point and the future of Humanity is at stake which is why I stated in my The Spirituality Behind 9-11 post that “a storm is coming” because if we’re not actually killing each other, we are also killing our way of life via greed and corruption resulting is the slow degradation of what we believe to be freedom. It is only with The Collective standing up and speaking as a whole that things will truly and totally change but from my perspective this requires Personal Responsibility in a world that appears to continue to scream to be “saved” by either their government and/or their religion neither of which is doing a very good job.

So I first invite you to read The Spirituality Behind 9-11 and again ask you, What level of Death, Devastation, Destruction, and Mayhem will it take for us to permanently drop our boundaries of Separation and live as The Collective?…and then ponder if it really has to happen at this level or can we come together before it gets to that point. Free Will is a God given Gift so we all must make the same choice and it’s as simple as that. A Course in Miracles teaches that your life is the result of your choices and if you don’t like the results to keep on choosing until you do.

The Choice is ours to make.

BE THE MIRACLE!!!

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Have you heard about the “Holy War” that is currently going on in cyberspace, which was initiated at YouTube?

About a month ago I received an email with a link to the video discussed below. Like so many other people I had a reaction to it but it was nothing like the thousands that have commented on it because they were taking sides. Instead, I realized that I had an understanding of BOTH sides. The number of views of this video is currently pushing towards 8 million with over 7,000 comments and this is not counting the numerous videos created in response to it (the most recent being one week ago)!!! While in the midst of building this blog I realized it would make a great first post. I originally expected it to be a quick commentary based on some of my initial reactions. When researching it I soon realized that there is a phenomenon going on that is actually representing us as a whole (a.k.a. The Collective), reflecting who we are as a society. First a quick synopsis of the more controversial parts.

This highly stylized video promo for the book “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid” starts with the question “Have you heard about the largest church in the world?” followed by statements of the extremely rapid growth of it’s congregation. This is then followed by a few sayings, spoken as beliefs, of this new church threatening the Christian concepts of Heaven, Sin, and Salvation. The most serious one threatens the cornerstone of Christianity, “The Man on the Cross” referring to him as an archetypal image and eventually calls it a pathetic error of clinging to “this old rugged cross” with the final insult that this cross has only one message and dying for your sins it is not.

This church and its leader is then identified to be Oprah Winfrey with this segment ending with “Years ago she denied Jesus is the only way”.

A video clip now demonstrates this starting with Oprah saying, “One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live”. (Not according to John 14:6, which is quoted throughout the numerous comments). As she responds to a rebuttal, when someone tries to make a comment, she holds up her hand with a “Let me speak” gesture and continues talking (or is it insinuating her opinion upon her audience?). She completes her “argument” with “to what you call God”. Oprah cuts off another rebuke with “There couldn’t possibly be but one way” again attacking the crucibles of Christianity. Now comes the condemning question, when asked “What about Jesus?!?” Oprah replies “What about Jesus!?!” She does not directly deny Jesus; per this crucible, this expression of doubt and lack of declaration in Jesus must be deemed as denial of Jesus.

“Christians are being deceived” are the final words you see before showing portions of her web cast with Eckart Tolle and the now famous book, “A New Earth”, as he leads the participants in silence giving the air of priestly presence taking the audience into a trance or was that meditation? Regardless, it is not part of the Christian way.

When questioned on how she reconciles these spiritual teachings with her Christian beliefs, her reply is “well thought out” as is evidenced by the way her eyes wander around occasionally looking at the camera and then wanders around again with a series of “Um’s” inserted throughout. All of these gestures are indicative of someone pulling an idea from their head, in other words “Mental Belief”. This mental excursion, that is not really all that convincing, eventually ends up with her now famous “Jealous God” story.

The final part of this section shows Oprah saying, with Tolle’s agreement,

“God is a feeling experience not a believing experience,
if your religion is a believing experience,
if God for you is still about a belief, then it’s not truly God.

This is, for me, one of the more incendiary comments made by her whether in or out of context, because this comment alone takes a pickax to the core of any religious belief.

1. A video clip showed her saying to her audience that the way they believe is a mistake
2. Any inherent clinging to the “Old rugged Cross” is pathetic.
3. In her webcast, she said if you believe a certain way then it cannot truly be God

This is nothing short of blasphemous for anyone regardless of their faith. Being told that denies them of the quest and actuation of their own personal truths.

Plain and Simple: These are fighting words and the masses that follow whatever religion/faith have come out fighting with Volleys of Judgment coming from both camps!

Standing back and taking a look at the Big Picture, something begins to become obvious; Every one of these reactions to this sales video, whether it’s buying into the full emotional fervor and responding with a rampage of judgment or trying to bring it all into perspective, whether that is good, bad, or ugly is expressing their personal belief in God and they’re doing it with unmitigated emotional fervor regardless of what “camp” they come from!!!

So let’s take another look at the previous comment that says God is a feeling experience, not a believing experience. I choose to contextually disagree. Yes, God is a feeling, absolutely, but that feeling is come to by the believing and for as long as you’re a human being that is the process for coming to the feeling of God.

The Feeling is come to by The Believing, but it is The Believing that is being attacked here. In response to this, The Believing is being used to support The Feeling because as a general rule, The Believing was and continues to be the source used to acquire The Feeling.

It is as simple as “Seek and ye shall find” or “Knock and it is answered”. God is only hidden from those that do not seek God for without that seeking there would not be the quest for knowing which eventually flourishes The Feeling.

It is the resulting Feeling that keeps you coming back to The Believing, from which you strive to learn more about The Believing for when you do The Feeling intensifies. The more you come to Know God, the more you come to Love God and thus begins the Love Affair of and for God. If either of these is attacked for what ever reason, they will be vehemently defended.

The Collective, or society as a whole, is all of us reacting to this emotionally driven video fervor. No matter what our reaction, we stop and do a Quality Check on The Believing. Wherever that is in jeopardy, then many parts of The Collective are choosing to attack back with the amorous verve that only a Love for God can invigorate.

From The Big Picture, the one experience that The Collective can take away from this is re-viewing their foundations of The Believing. Regardless of the argumentative aspects surrounding the sayings of Jesus, the one thing I very rarely see in any of the comments is WWJD. Lambasting Judgment and Condemnation is not WWJD. From what I have come to learn of the deeds of Jesus, love, acceptance, and forgiveness were primary. Judgment was not even a thought but “Love thy neighbor as thyself” was. Jesus even has a comment about doing works greater than he (just 6 verses after John 14:6!) yet much of these reactions are not even close to standing up to his works. Perhaps we all should just drop our Swords of Judgment and Condemnation and pick back up the Books, Documents, and Processes of The Believing and re-ignite and re-invigorate the connection to The Feeling for it is in the Core of The Feeling that The Truth Lives Eternal!

Then maybe, just maybe, if enough of The Collective can do that they can begin to see that The Feeling is The Feeling, so yes there is only one God, and therefore it is only The Believing that differentiates us. This “My God” “Your God” stuff comes from only one place, The Believing with absolute disregard for The Feeling in the opposing beliefs. This is evidenced by the Rampaging Judgment coming from BOTH CAMPS!!!

When you are in The Feeling and witness another in The Feeling you both just know that it is The Feeling and at that moment The Believing will disappear thus removing your differences and leaving only The Feeling. This will happen regardless of the differentiations in The Believing. I know this is true because I have personally experienced it.

Before there was a Pantheon of Gods or The One True God or The Only Way to God there was the evolving human being whose consciousness developed to the point of being aware of its surroundings which resulted in a quest to understand its role in existence. This was The First Seeking which turned into The First Quest which led to The First Believing which then flourished into The First Feeling of, to paraphrase Oprah, “that which we call God”.

BE THE MIRACLE!

In case you have not seen this video, here it is.
The original video with over 7 million views was not playing correctly.
This is one of the many re-submissions to keep it at the top of the list.

This a newer version which was created by a different person and uses many of the same clips
along with some additional images and words, namely Bible quotes without using a narrator

Would you like to see the entire YouTube “Church of Oprah” frenzy?
CLICK HERE

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