Akashic Record Journal

5/02/07 - Europe's Slow Down Culture

(My thanks to Harold Piser and Global Wings in Denver, Colorado for sending this to me.)

EUROPE'S RISING SLOW DOWN CULTURE
Reflections on how 18 years of slowing down has improved everything.

By Erik the Swede 20 April 2007

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes two years to be finalised, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule. Globalised processes have forced (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to possess a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, and Nokia are some of Sweden's renowned companies. The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, and a bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company; he would park far away from the entrance. The first day, I didn't say anything, neither the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think?" Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with their family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalisation, fuelled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity rise 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, the very pupils of the fast and the "do it now!" culture.

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means re-establishing family values, friends, free and leisure time; taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living. It stands for a less coercive work environment, happier, lighter and more productive places where humans enjoy doing what they know best to do.

It's time to stop and think about how companies need to develop serious quality with a no-rush attitude that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit. Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists.

The difference lies in what each one of us does with it. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

4/17/07 - Virginia Tech

For those who don't know, there were shootings that involved the death of 33 people - including the student who reportedly took his own life. I ask for prayers of support and healing for all those involved - students, faculty, family and friends. As one friend pointed out, losing our parents after they have a full life is not that tragic, although we still feel a sense of loss. But losing our kids can leave us asking questions for the rest of our lives trying to make sense out of it.

When something like this happens we want to figure out how this could have been prevented or how we can prevent this in the future. It is easy to start placing blame and trying to control life to stay safe - i.e. the gun laws should be stricter or everyone should have a gun to protect themselves, the school should have locked the campus down after the first shooting, the school, police, counselors, teachers, his own parents, other students could have prevented this if only... All of these "what if" and "if only" questions seem inevitable and part of the process of integrating this kind of event. What I feel is even more important is taking a bigger look at ourselves and what we contribute to the world.

The shooter was described as a loner who didn't relate much to the community around him. The descriptions of the shooters always seem to have common threads - loner, angry but never showed it, not many friends or community for support, didn't feel like they belonged, etc.
I remember when the shooting incident at Columbine High School happened in 1999 (about 20 miles from here), that my father was suprised that something like this could ever happen. I remember feeling sad but not being suprised and even wondering why it hadn't happened earlier. Especially in American culture we can be so removed, anesthetized or in denial of real death and violence that it takes something this shocking to help people see themselves. On one level we get violence and death through tv, movies, video games and news reports that desensitive us, and at the same time, most people don't really deal with death as a part of life - death is made more clean, more distant, or we sweep it under the rug as something to deal with later. As individuals, what is our role in all of this? How do we contribute?

When I first heard of this incident, I recalled the feelings of anger, frustration and sadness from when I was in school, of being ostracized and ridiculed when I moved to a new place, and how I used humor, sports, martial arts and performing arts as a creative release so I wouldn't hurt anyone, including myself. Especially in junior high and high school, I had moments when I felt like I wanted to kill someone or even myself - but I have to say that thinking I would have to come back (reincarnation) and work it all out was always the last safety net that would stop me. "Better to work it out now", I thought back then, "because life might be even worse if I have to come back again." I have hit some pretty low points in life and so I can relate to having a feeling of circumstances being so bad that there is no way out. And I have also lost loved ones, so I can empathize with a feelings of grief and loss.

Now my life is better than ever because I've learned how to honor my needs more and more, but I always take time to reflect when events like this occur to see how similar I might be to a killer/victim, or how I contributed/am contributing to the situation. I thank people like Thich Nat Hanh for helping me want to see this. So what's coming up right now is a reality check about myself that I offer for others too:

Where do I feel lonely, unwanted, misunderstood? How do I handle anger, frustration? Do I release it when it happens or save it up until I explode? How do I relate to my community? Do I have support? Do I communicate my needs or just 'soldier on' the best way I can? Where do I ostracize or judge someone or myself? When and where do I hold back being myself and expressing because of social circumstances or feeling like I don't belong? Do I try to connect with others who might feel strange, different, left out, or simply judge them and push them away so I don't have to feel any emotions around being ostracized myself? And the hardest one - how do I contribute to making someone (including myself) into a killer?

It is my hope, prayer, and intention of my work, that by seeing ourselves more clearly and releasing internal conflict when it arises, that incidents like this can be dissolved before they ever get started. When we know what life is about and how to give ourselves what is truly needed, then we cannot hurt others or ourselves. I look forward to the time when this is a complete Knowing in every person, not just an intellectual consideration, so that this writing and my work become obsolete.

2/12/06 - New Trainings and "The Knowing" Support Group

There are new classes, trainings and a spiritual support group scheduled for 2006. Please check the Event Schedule for more details and new additions throughout the year as other trainings will be added.

The Boulder classes include: Accessing the Akashic Records (5 classes in the series starting Feb 21 - April), Authentic Response (5 classes in the series starting Feb 28 - April), and "The Knowing" Support Group (ongoing starting Feb 23).

An Accessing the Akashic Records weekend training is happening in London, Ontario on April 28-30th. Please contact Sue Maes at 519 471-1174 (and visit www.suemaes.com) to reserve for the training and to receive individual sessions.

1/27/06 - The Secrets of Effortless Life - Part 1

What if effortless life doesn't take tremendous amounts of money, energy or time? What if we could entirely transform our lives by being more internally-validating? Instead of reacting from external circumstances based on limiting beliefs, why not respond from the inside-out by using our total body/mind awareness to release conflict and manifest exactly what we want? How can we truly be in relationship and not just projecting our pain and judgments onto others?

Why is our authentic response so essential to all of this? The Akashic Records, an etheric library of information for human consciousness, reveal that life is composed of an event and a response. Each response creates an outcome which creates circumstances. We shift our circumstances (i.e. manifest what we want) by completely shifting our response. When we don't completely respond, our reaction sets off a chain of events that help us stay on course. For instance, we might find that our new husband acts or even looks just like our old one! Until we completely respond, we find that life keeps repeating itself.

How do we become reactionary? Imagine a father's verbal scolding of his child to not cry so he doesn't have to feel his own feelings; the yearning for approval from our classmates because we don't accept ourselves; the buying-in of beliefs about life from religion and government; the strained acceptance of what corporations define as success. Our lives become a petri dish of inauthentic reaction - overwhelmed since birth from others reactions which we use to stifle ourselves.

How do we get stuck? Most of us have grown so accustomed to the internal noise, the critical "voice", the limiting beliefs, and corresponding physical habits, that we don't recognize the external programming or believe we can change. We believe it is our own voice or seek external distractions (i.e. smoking, eating) to feel occasional relief from our conflict. We trade the joy of responding in every moment for a sense of feeling right/loved/accepted - so that we can then feel some acceptance of ourselves.

Our true response becomes buried under all our reactions. A reaction is an incomplete, partial or frozen mind/body movement based on fear/guilt of a past-oriented event. It can happen only when we are not fully aware in our bodies. Similar reactions performed over time create character strategies, and reinforced strategies create unconscious mental, emotional and physical patterns which become addictions and habits. Our body starts accumulating stuck emotions, movements, and postures from the limiting thoughts, and our physical and emotional patterns reinforce the limiting thoughts. The self-perpetuating pattern of our own internal conflict depletes us of most of our life energy (referred to as chi or ki) and contributes the most to aging, disease and death.

What if we take the energy and consciousness which gets entangled in holding onto internal conflict, judgements, and projections, and used it for total body awareness, envisioning exactly what we want, and responding completely? Let's find out.

8/8/05 - The Sacred Journey

I laughed and smiled when I first met him. He reminded me of some Old Testament version of God - an older man in flowing white robes, a generous white beard, bushy black eyebrows crowning his smiling eyes, and a mane of white hair. He looked like the emperor in the Disney movie "Alladin". I had to laugh when I remembered another teacher saying years before - "You know, God just isn't some old man in white robes!", because clearly in this case, that's how he was appearing in the form of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Sufi Master and Founder of Omega Institute.

I didn't want to waste the time of an enlightened master, even if I was hosting my own tv show. The question I asked was very personal and immediate - "How do I stay in the world, the marketplace, and be on a spiritual path at the same time?" He smiled and slowly said, "Most people spend their lives trying to prove to themselves that they're okay… through their husbands, wives, children, jobs, money, cars, houses, accomplishments. If you can realize that you're intrinsically okay just as you are, it doesn't matter what you do…everything you do is spiritual".

I closed my eyes and realized in that moment that I didn't want to waste life spinning in circles trying to be "good enough". If I could learn how to be more internally-validating, then I could be in relationship with anyone, do any job? Where do I start? How do I stop playing the 'game' and release the 'win/lose' mentality that seems to create a society which uses then discards people based on perceived value? How can I enjoy the journey of life in every moment, diving ever deeper into more love and awareness, no matter what I'm doing? How can I respond from the inside-out, instead of just reacting externally from habit and fear? I didn't realize it at the time, but I was looking for Beatitudes, or Be Attitudes - ways of being - that would help me integrate and be real, successful (in my terms), loving and grateful.

Over time, I learned that conflict seems to be the biggest obstacle on our journey. Conflict stems from doubt and fear, and creates separation, judgement, disease and death. From our ancestors genetics, we receive the internal conflict and the survival strategies from 7 generations back on either side of our parents. This means that in addition to any trauma and relational wounding from growing up, we also have our ancestor's trauma and relational patterns to release. Besides any family issues that get passed on to us, we can also feel invalidated through religion, politics, school, media (women can especially relate to self-image skewing from magazine and tv ads) and our peers. And finally, we can have conflict that is unresolved from past lives that affect this life. For example, a father and son in this life are still playing out an artistic rivalry that started in another life.

With all the possible conflict in our lives, what can help us along our life journey?

4/30/05 - Laughter is the Best Medicine

I recently had a radio interview about how important laughter is in terms of healing and meditative qualities, so I wanted to share more insight here - as well as a humorous audio clip to get you inspired.

The mystic Osho stated that laughter and dancing were the easiest forms of meditation. I have discovered that laughter can only happen in the present moment - and being present is foundational to living an effortless life. Like many stand-up comedians, I have used my sense of humor to help me through some of my darkest moments and to relate to audiences. I learned at Naropa University while peeling through my own personal layers that our ability to laugh, especially to laugh at ourselves, is an accurate gauge to see how healthy we are. If you are not finding much to laugh about in life, then chances are that your seriousness is taking it's toll on your health, work or relationships.

Laughter is helpful in releasing fear, judgement, embarassment, stress, anger, depression, and even in shifting long-term self-critical or negative beliefs. For those of you who enjoyed the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know", laughter produces the positive neuro-peptides and neural connections to keep shifting us out of our very dark moments. When I have spoken to cancer patients, I notice that what they really long for are feelings of love, connection, fulfillment - which moments of laughter can give. The movie "Patch Adams" with Robin Williams, about a doctor who treats cancer patients with more humor and humanity, illustrates this very well. In my public speaking, I have realized that people might remember a sincere message, but they appreciate your message so much more if you make them laugh!

Laughter helps us integrate intense personal experiences and profound personal understanding where we otherwise might hit a brick wall. I use humor and laughter as healing tools on a regular basis in my trainings and client work to help us dive even deeper into territory which might otherwise seem too scary. If I can see that even a humorous story about my own fears, actions, or miscommunication will help, I enjoy sharing. Watching a client shift out of fear into more willingness to see themselves clearly, acknowledge their desires, ask for what they want, and to not take life so personally is a blessing and reward by itself. I've seen appropriately-timed humor work wonders with issues like abuse, trauma, disease, negative self beliefs, relationships, business issues - you name it.

4/22/05 - Military Brat Recovery

(The following excerpt is part of a book manuscript. If you are a military brat, or child of an abusive, alcoholic or authoritarian parent, please feel free to contact me for more resources, and information. Many of the techniques that I have studied and practice were to recover from my own military childhood and abusive background. Also see the Booklist/Resources section.)

There are many "limiting core" legacies that need to be addressed to stop relational re-enactment and create a balanced life. According to "Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress" by Mary Edwards Wertsch, these include but aren't limited to:

4/5/05 - Reclaiming Your Power

Here are some easy ways to Reclaim Your Power:

Live your response fresh in the moment instead of reacting from the past.

Don't take anything personally. The master Osho once said "Nobody is against you - even if it seems they are against you. They are simply for themselves."

Treat yourself as if you were your beloved.

Become what you want to feel from others. If you want to feel loved, become loving. Take out any object as a source for your experience, then you can relate to others and yourself honestly.

Intrinsically you are okay just the way you are. When I asked a Sufi master named Pir Vilayat how to stay on my spiritual path and yet be in the "world", he told me that most people waste their lives trying to prove to themselves that they are okay - through their partner, children, job, money, accomplishments, house, etc. We don't have to do or obtain anything to be okay. Realize this and everything you do is spiritual.

Release the need to be right/accepted by others by accepting yourself fully. Encourage yourself to express truth simply without the need to punish others or make your truth theirs.

Drop any case you have against yourself. If you want peace then release the need for conflict, struggle or drama.

Celebrate all of life - even your doubts and fears - with gratitude, reverence and laughter. We are living in a world full of cosmic jokes - don't be so serious or in such a hurry that you miss the punchline. :-)

4/2/05 - Papal & Church Prophecy
St. Malachy (1094-1148) was an Irish monk/priest who made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1138 where he had a series of ecstatic visions in which he uttered 112 Latin phrases. Each phrase stood as a prediction for the entire succession of 111 popes. Not all of his predictions have been totally accurate, but enough of them have withstood the test of time. After John Paul II (whom Malachy calls "The Labor of the Sun"), there are two more popes left on Malachy's list of total popes. Information from the Akashic Records verifies this as well.

The next pope is characterized by the phrase "Gloria Olivae", interpreted to mean "The glory of the Olive". The Order of St Benedict has claimed by tradition that this pope will come from within their Order. The Order of St Benedict is also known as the OLIVETANS. This pope will probably not last long, for like John Paul I, he is going to try to reveal the secrets, hypocrisy and business dealings of the Church. He will at least get the ball rolling for the next pope after him.

Which means that starting as soon as this year, we could have the last pope in office, who is signified from Malachy by the phrase "Petrus Romanus", or "Peter the Roman", with which St. Malachy concluded with the words "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people". The 'dreadful Judge" in this case is not some outside agency or God judging us, but ourselves facing our own conflict before resolving it. In mystic terms this has been referred to individually as the "dark night of the soul" before enlightenment. Nostradamus also has similar prophetic quatrains describing the last several popes and the conditions at the time. As far-fetched as it might seem, according to the Akashic Records, this final pope is a reincarnation of the Apostle Peter, and he will reveal everything else about the Vatican's business ties, the Church's beginnings, the marketing of the Church, and sacred information and literature that has been supressed.

I don't see this as a time to fear but to celebrate. It is true that the last years of the Church will be marked by wars, famine, etc - but this has been going on for quite some time and are just markers, signposts along the way toward a greater shift in human consciousness. The spiritual rebirth, the renaissance that is now taking place will outweigh the death of the Church. In the beginnings of the Catholic Church, the new church movement could not really get started until the last person who had actually been present to hear Jesus' truth had died. Only then could the church be perpetuated and marketed carefully by integrating other pagan religions into theirs. And so the ending of the Church of Rome will also see the birth of personal understanding. Interestingly enough, many people who belong to organized religions and are willing to release their inner conflict, will have a very direct, personal experience of the truth as well. Our intention, willingness, and release of conflict help shape our experience.

The great news is that finally many of the records held in the Vatican Library will be released over the following years, including the facts about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, their 3 children and the Grail lineage, Paul and his persecution of women - especially Mary Magdalene (i.e. calling her a whore), more information about sexuality within the church, the church's business dealings with the Mafia, information about other mystics, and more. Some of the information in Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" is accurate, like the fact that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had children, which is why there is currently such a fallout over it because this is not what the Church would have a billion faithful followers believe. Just this fact alone goes against almost 2,000 years of marketing.

Once the Catholic Church crumbles, other Christian sects will also start to fade away, and then other organized religions will also become less meaningful before also fading away. By 2011/2012 we will see a more conscious global shift toward having a more personal spiritual experience. At the same time, from 2012-2026 we will see an escalation of religious fervor as especially western religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) struggle to make their version of the End Times come true. This is the beginning of the end to organized religion. There will not be a need for religion once people have a direct experience. Mystics throughout the ages - Egyptians, Chaldeans, Mayans, American Indians, Christian mystics, Sufi's, Zen masters, Kabbalistic healers and more - have been patiently showing us that the sacred way is inside ourselves to become more internally-validating, not outside of ourselves looking for approval. Prayer is a very real and powerful tool, but there is a difference between working with Spirit in a unified manner (such as Jesus and Mary did), and giving our power away to any organization who wants to control us. The vast majority of people will eventually come to a real, personal spiritual understanding and not have to rely on anyone outside of themselves interpreting spiritual practices or enforcing spiritual law.

1/3/05 - Sumatran Earthquake
I'd like to ask for prayers for anyone affected by the 9.0 Sumatran earthquake. Pray for those that have died, will die, and for help for survivors and grieving relatives in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Sumatra, Malaysia, Indonesia and surrounding areas. In case you would like to get involved with Relief Effort, here are a few links:

International Red Cross
& Red Crescent: www.ifrc.org

Disaster Agencies all over the World: www.disastercenter.com/agency.htm

World Vision:
www.WorldVision.org

Unicef: www.unicef.org

Care International:
www.careinternational.org.uk

Medecins Sans Frontiers:
www.msf.org

Save the Children:
www.savethechildren.org.uk

UN World Food Program:
www.wfp.org

Thank you for your prayers & support!