Though I am always ready to challenge religions and New Age therapies, I run my life on two working assumptions:
1) To get what I need, I send out a message to the Universe.
2) Unease is Nature’s way to get me to do something.
Re (1): Time and again, I have found that as soon as I can formulate my need with reasonable clarity, and pursue it to my own limited ability, then I am helped the rest of the way. Is it like phoning to order a pizza? Simpler. Are there all sorts of conditions attached? I expect so. Have I always known this? Not consciously. Have I always practised this ability? Absolutely not. Discovered it very late in life. What’s the catch? Well, we are constantly sending out messages to the Universe, so when many of them are negative, we suffer as a result. So does this mean that actually I am one of those who believe in “positive thinking”? No, a definite NO. Why not? I’ll explain another time.
Re (2): We accept the message of pain as a warning not to cut or burn ourselves. If something in my head nags at me, it’s a message to take action, and so on. And yet we are complicit in a conspiracy which treats the unease as something for which we can obtain (usually purchase) a Solution. If I am not mistaken, the idea “You can get something for that [problem]” is a modern idea, and owes everything to marketing.
I’m not saying that unease is anyone’s fault. I’m certainly not saying that those who suffer oppression and hunger have themselves to blame. I am not selling a solution. I am not saying that there is a universal law which validates my working assumptions. That would be presumption, a quite different thing. Sometimes I would like to take those who go on about the “law of abundance”, bundle them into a sack with nothing in their pockets and parachute them into the Sahara Desert, so that they could demonstrate their principles to the local residents.
PS 7th June: I stated the other day my working assumption that all I have to do is tell the Universe what I need and it seems to arrive as easily as pizza. I’d been musing that it would be nice to earn something whilst doing my old trade. There is no way I can really advertise and when I apply for jobs, whether through agencies or direct, they see my age and don’t bother to reply.
So it was not a surprise that within an hour, the telephone rang from a long-time colleague who had passed my name to someone who is now keeping me too busy to spend my day blagging, sorry, blogging.
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
PPS 8th June:
Dictionary.com (American) does not have an entry for the word blag, a useful English slang word with a wonderful range of meanings:
“BLAG” – British slang for bluff. “Blagging” – pretending to know all about a subject, attempting to impress or con others by using verbal gymnastics. In this sense “blag” means the same as the British slang word “flannel”.
Alternatively, “blagging” can also mean attempting to obtain goods, services, favours, by “blagging” them. In this second definition “blagging” means the same as the British slang word “scrounging”.
(Submitted by Peter Briden to a discussion on the website of Matthew G Kirschenbaum.)
PPPS, 19th June:
I have written here about how I’ve beamed out my needs to the Universe, and had them promptly delivered, like pizza to the doorstep. I was careful not to join the chorus of New Age coaches who proclaim, “You, too, can learn the age-old secrets of how to tap into life’s abundance!” I always wonder how it is they can be so confident that just because it works for them it can work for anyone else. I even suggested here that they be parachuted into an African desert where people have to walk miles for water, for that’s where their coaching talents might be most needed.
Jim in one of his comments adds “. . . but there always seems to be a hitch” and goes on to tell the Universe his need, by an appropriate method, i.e. the Internet. So by that same method comes a possible answer to the problem of those hitches.
The other day I found myself in Ottakar’s, the town’s bookshop, and as usual headed for the “spirituality” section—just to keep in touch with trends. There, staring me in the face, was The Cosmic Ordering Service by Barbel Mohr. I flicked through briefly, confirming that its sole topic is telling your needs to the Universe and getting them pronto. It gives detailed instructions, but I felt that it already works for me and I did not want to pollute my understanding with someone else’s ideas. But it might be worth checking out, Jim…
Comments
Hayden
…especially considering that, in the babble of stimulation, we only “see” that which we have named, or are looking for….
Hayden
“Sometimes I would like to take those who go on about the “law of abundance”, bundle them into a sack with nothing in their pockets and parachute them into the Sahara Desert, so that they could demonstrate their principles to the local residents.”
…laughing, spitting coffee on that one, Vincent! It’s good to know you don’t react harshly when you’re annoyed! I don’t think of it as “sending a message” to the universe, but I do know that if I think carefully and define what I need, synchronicities happen. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just because, having defined it, I’m awake enough to notice that its in front of my hand. Do you think we’re on a similar wave length here? (this should have been the first of my comments, but I messed up and had to garbage the other and reprint correctly here. sorry
Vincent
Oh, I am sure we are on same wavelength. I thought to myself this morning that it was time to “list” my needs & two of those synchronicities have happened already, the first within half an hour of being put on the imaginary list.
Hayden
you make it sound so simple. I expect that you will respond that it is. but it does not seem that way to me.
Vincent
I don’t know if it is simple. It just happens. Sometimes the wished-for thing, especially if it’s a long-term goal, does not actually come about quickly, but there is what I call a “sign”. This has the effect of stopping me from continually asking, because I know the request has been heard and will be fulfilled in its due time. One thing I read in an angel book was that angels want nothing more than to help us, but they are completely unable to do anything that is not for the good of all.
Jim
hope you don’t mind, I get those ‘signs’ all the time when there is something at stake. It is an indicator of the process of the Angelic fulfilment of the need. I watch for this continually in daily life, but not to the extent it interrupts my normal living activities. It is a real phenomenon. You are onto something.
Vincent
Thanks for this, Jim. I feel sure it is a phenomenon offered to everyone, though we don’t see the signs unless we are tuned to them. Someone who told me about angels said they drop white feathers in front of you as signs. So that happened a bit. But one day at the end of our road, white feathers were strewn over a wide area. I think a fox had eaten a pigeon. I took this as a sign that feathers were no longer the method of sending signs!
Hayden
*burst of uncontrollable laughter*
Darius
My working assumption is related to yours I think. It’s that we’re meaning makers. Life itself is both order and chaos, but we can work with, and benefit from, some of each, to some extent. On the other hand, I also recognize that chaos (and possibly order) can be “too much” and overwhelm our creative abilities re. meaning. I’m not saying that meaning is subjective. Civilization itself is a result of collective strivings toward meaning Well, Ok, I thought so until the current administration.
Hayden
more laughter… Darius, do you think that the administration is demonstrating that evolution’s direction is variable, moving sometimes towards increased complexity, and at others beating a full-scale retreat back to the jungle?
Vincent
“the current administration” refers to the US, I presume. Though it has certain effects on the whole world, it does not infect philosophy outside its own borders, as far as I am aware. Not for the first time, Darius & Hayden, you inspire me to a new post, but let’s see if I can sum up here. “Civilisation” as a word and concept can be traced back to the glory days of the Romans. Permit me to renounce civilisation and all its works as an unjustified slur on what what they called “barbarism”. As a white man born into Christianity, I think independently enough to renounce and denounce both civilisation and religion: not so much for what they have achieved but for what they have crushed. What the American administration does so crassly now under the world spotlight, the British Empire did with its own self-righteous swagger in an age where ethical awareness was fettered by tradition.
Bob
The first point interests me but leaves me feeling a little sceptical. The idea is too cosy, in my view, to fit with reality.The second point makes good sense to me. The problem I find, however, is that it is so DIFFICULT to recognise the signs of unease. Often I feel uneasy without recognising it.
a wayfarer’s notes 