Category Archives: Personal Growth

Access Consciousness

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At the end of last year, Padmasambhava, channelled by a friend, suggested that having my Bars run would clear out some junk at the rear of my brain and enhance my ability to maintain focus as I meditate. (The Bars are a hands-on body process developed by Access Consciousness.) At the time, I thought shamata was a critical component of my spiritual development and welcomed any opportunity to improve my focus. Since the prices were reasonable, and scheduled to go up into 2015, I decided to sign up for two Bars classes. In addition, I decided to take their foundation and level one course. It was quite a commitment but I got an intuitive hit that it would contribute to a brighter future for me.

I have been wanting to write about Access Consciousness for a while. However, the task of describing Access Consciousness in a meaningful way has seemed daunting.

I could talk about the history of Access Consciousnes and how it was developed from a question. The answer to Gary Douglas’s question, “How can I create a right livelihood and contribute to the world,” was the Bars. But Access Consciousness has grown far beyond that first body process. And despite witnessing miracles as a result of running that process, I am more impressed with other aspects of the system.

Access consciousness is a set of tools and body processes that are designed to remove limitations to complete awareness. While there are many modalities that are designed to remove limitations and further us, Access Consciousness is unique in that the founder challenges people to let go of all constructs. In most spiritual systems there is an unspoken undertone that there is a right or good way to go about things. Or the focus is on getting rid of the bad or wrong in favor of utopian ideals. Access is the first system I’ve encountered that not only is dedicated to moving beyond judgment, but has effective tools for doing so.

For instance, consider a lot of religious sects (Christian, Buddhist, etc) that emphasize cultivating compassion, loving-kindness, and generosity. It seems that these systems have adopted a “being kind and generous is good” attitude. So if you are not generous, then you are by default “bad”. Yet, Buddhism, in particular, also teaches that ultimate reality is beyond duality or the constructs of good and bad. Enlightened beings abide beyond the constructs of good and bad. This is what I mean by undertone of judgment. The goal is to live free of constructs, but the teachings frequently include judgments and the idea of a “correct way”.

Access is refreshing in that, despite what individual facilitators may do and say, the core material, books and course manuals, are all about challenging limiting beliefs, both “good” and “bad”. Sure there are some stories in the materials, like the Golden Planet and Humans vs Humanoids, but Gary advises against taking the Golden Planet seriously and everyone is encouraged to use their own innate knowing to determine if something is just Gary’s interesting point of view or something that contributes to the expansion of consciousness. In addition, the coursework is continually evolving. The material matches the capacity of the students in Access at the time it was generated.  For instance, the coure classes have hundreds of pages of archived “reference” material that were once taught, but have been replaced with more pertinent material.

Despite my thrill with Access, I have been hesitant to endorse it without qualification. The most valuable part of the system is the general philosophy. Here are some of my favorite components condensed for brevity (which may reduce their meaning somewhat):

  • Everything is a choice. If you don’t like your life, choose something different.
  • It is more expansive to choose something different than to try to change or fix something.
  • Answers, decisions, conclusions, and judgments all limit possibilities.
  • Having judgments limits our ability to recieve.
  • Choosing and asking a question leads to greater awareness and greater possibilities.
  • In order to keep all possibilities open, view everything as an interesting point of view instead of an answer, conclusion or “right” or “wrong”.
  • The universe and everything in it is available to contribute to us. All we need to do is ask.
  • Our ability to contribute to the earth and “universe” is greater than many of us realize.

In practical terms it seems like making a choice would then naturally lead to action. This is not the case. If I choose to travel, I do not have to start figuring out my budget. I simply make the choice. Then I ask a question like: “What stands in the way of travel happening?” I can also question every excuse I give for not being able to travel. I do not try to “change” anything. I simple affirm my choice, ask questions and be aware of the possibilities that will spontaneously arise.

This is such a different approach to figuring out what to do. In my old system, I would figure out ways to not get sick. Or if I got sick I would try to figure out what I did wrong or what I could have done differently.  In this system, I simply choose to not get sick. The choice increases my awareness of how to accomplish that. It also recruites the universe to work for me.  If I get sick, I simply ask, “how did I create this?” and let my subconsious work on it.  The purpose of asking the question is not to get an answer, but to increase awareness and possibilities.

What I love most about Access are the questions that Gary asks. I am experienced with asking questions to clear limiting beliefs from my ThetaHealing practice. Gary takes the questioning to a level that pentrates the structures I have erected within me. His questions go right to the subconscious and start tearing things down. One from the book I am reading right now, Beyond the Utopian Ideal:

What are you refusing to lose, that if you would lose it, would give you all of you?

If you would like a taste of Access, I would recommend this book as a starter.

If you decide to try out an Access Consciousness class, be forewarned that there are personalities in Access, just as in any spiritual system. Even though the target is to be completely aware and non-judgmental, I have found facilitators often have strong opinions and can be rigid in their view especially of words. Take what you like and leave the rest.

I have read quite a few Access Consciousness books. They seem to usually be transcripts of teleseminars with minimal editing. Below are some links to books. My favorite book so far is Beyond the Utopian Ideal. I am partial to Gary Douglas’s writings. I know several people that loved Being You, Changing the World by Dain Heer, but I could not even finish it. Different strokes for different folks.

Look at the links below and ask: “What will my life be like in five years if I read this?” Or, “If I choose this will it contribute to me?”  The kindle editions are usually $9.99, but they go on sale for a buck occasionally.  If you would like to borrow a copy, just let me know…

 

Confusion

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For many years I would use the wordconfusion confusion to describe the state of mind I was frequently in.  Then I began using the Twelve Steps as a blueprint for dealing with things that arose in my life and I realized the state that I called confusion was really me being in resistance to what I already knew.  Since then I have stopped using the word confusion.  When I am tempted to think I am “confused”, I ask myself, “What do I know that I am denying I know?”

A lot of times what I think is me being confused about a situation or what action to take is actually me struggling against time.  I may not yet have the information I need;  more may need to be revealed.  Alternatively, something may be in the process of shifting, either internally or externally, that will provide clarity about the situation or what “right” action is.  I am confused simply because I am fighting with the clear message of “wait”.  This recognition releases my mind from continuing to loop and loop as it tries to figure out the situation and come to a conclusion.  Sometimes the mind just needs to be given a explanation in order to stop looping.  Telling it, “It is not time to know yet” can be quite liberating.

For example, I live in Phoenix, yet, I prefer the Bay Area.  I could be “confused” about this predicament or I could be “confused” about why I am here and why I am not actively trying to move back home.  Instead, I am aware that my desire to be in the Bay Area is “action” enough to create that possibility.  Right now nothing else is required of me.

Less frequently I am confused because I know what action to take and do not want to.  Perhaps I am “confused” about a relationship.  It could mean that the relationship really doesn’t work for me and I am trying to pretend it does in order to avoid what I have concluded will occur if I take appropriate action.  I say, “I am confused about what to do.”  Which is a lie.  It is more like I am procrastinating or avoiding taking “right” action because of my judgments of what that action is or represents.

About twenty-five years ago I was in a relationship that was confusing.  I was confused about whether to go or stay.  Everyday I would debate the pros and cons and try to figure it out.  Finally I decided I would stay.  I decided I would put the energy into making it work.  I wanted a relationship with this person (who was the father of my daughter) and I committed myself to it.  Interestingly, within six months I was filing for divorce.  It wasn’t a “decision” I came to.  I just woke up one morning and it was simply the next right thing to do.  How freeing!

Freedom from confusion requires me to be aware of what is going on and move beyond judgment.  The above example shows that making a choice, even it if turns out to create a completely different outcome than expected, breaks the energy drain of looping.  The key point to realize is that a choice is only good for one moment.  You can always choose something different in the next moment.  Choice creates possibilities.

Useful questions:

  • What is this?
  • Can I change this?
  • Can I change this now?
  • What is really possible here?
  • Does this work for me?
  • What can I choose that would change all of this?
  • What am I denying or pretending not to know?
  • What is beyond this?
  • Have you confused choice with commitment?

 

Provoking Pain

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I recently talked about false flag operations and how people ignore obvious discrepancies in the media’s reporting.  It is not uncommon for humans to shut down their awareness in the face of uncomfortable and/or unpleasant realities.  We simply cannot see what doesn’t fit into our world view or what we think is unbearable or undesirable. This is also apparent in our lifestyle choices.  Many people ignore or deny the awareness they have about their food choices, for instance.  Hence two thirds of the US is overweight and one third is obese.

One of the speakers at the Global Women’s Summit emphasized this point.  This neuroscientist/chiropractor pointed out that no one every came into his office saying, “I want to optimize my nervous system.  I want to make sure it is working at its best.”  Everyone that came into his office was motivated by pain.  They all wanted to alleviate pain. dorena-at-WINI am a little different. I am all about choosing today in a way that will create the highest amount of possibility.  People find themselves with high blood pressure or a heart attack in middle age and act as if it is not something that could have been prevented.  Instead of having an awareness of how they created it, they often attribute it to “old age”.  Other people in the same circumstances use the sudden decline in “imagined” health as an opportunity to choose differently.

At the Summit, I ran into the woman, Sandy,  I hired to promote my upcoming Women’s Health Workshop at the conference.  I mentioned to her that I had no sign-ups yet.  As the price was ridiculously low, she agreed with me that raising the price might help.  Still, at the end of the day not one woman had signed up for the class despite it being the last day at the low price.  Sandy looked at my flyer and said it seemed soft.  She suggested I get “outrageous”, along the veins of “DO THIS OR DIE”.

She was right.  Many of the speakers that day had talked about breast cancer as being a wake up call. Frightening people into acting was a sure fire way to get sign-ups.  It is easy to ignore the dangers of pharmaceuticals because they have the blessing of the government.  Here I was teaching a class on using alternative medicines to alleviate female complaints.  I was hoping for people to choose something that was for their health, but I was not providing them with any motivation.  With no pain they had no reason to choose something different.

If I wanted to fill that class I would need to remind them of the possible pain they would fall into in the future based on their choices today.  Unfortunately, that is just not my style.  I am trying to support people in being active, not reactive.  Still, I am curious, what am I judging to be so wrong about provoking people into taking a particular action that I am unwilling to employ that method to help them create more health in their life.  Hmmmm…. while I do judge being “sensational” as somewhat wrong, I also notice that do not feel that choosing to be healthy is such a rightness that I would want to use “skillful means” to recruit people.  I do not attribute inherent value to what I am teaching or to “creating more health in their life”.  Interesting.  What are your thoughts?