August 4, 2013 Sunday Morning, Trainings Workshop two

Barbara: We're here at the lake, just after meditation, a sunny but cool and windy August morning. Opening to questions and answers and discussion. Q has just said that yesterday was a real gift, in the guided meditation, opening to the guides. She's always experienced them as background, but there was such a strong feeling of the guides' presence. It was a real gift.

Q: The question I have is, it was such a strong presence. Is it a singular guide that comes in or a group coming in? Does it matter?

Barbara: It doesn't matter. Now that it's there strongly, it is available. It's natural that you felt it so strongly, because your strong intention invited it. We go through several steps with the process of learning to open to guidance. Before, you had unlocked but not opened the door. You had said, “Yeah, I assume there's some guidance there. They can come in if they want to.” But now you've opened the door and said, “Come on in! I would really appreciate your help.”

It's important before you open the door and invite them in that you state your highest intention. There is negative energy out there. I don't want to scare people as I say this, but obviously, just like in the world, you don't open the front door of your house and say, “Free beer; come on in.” You say, “This is the reason for the gathering, and anybody who wants to gather in this spirit is welcome.”

When you felt your guide come in that strongly, it would be appropriate in that moment to challenge it. To say, “Do you come for the highest good of all beings, with love, in service to all?” Make sure you get an affirmative response. It may sound strange to you, but part of the metaphysical law here is that if it is a negative entity, they can't just say, “Oh yes, I come in service to all beings.” They might hem and haw a bit. If you say, “Do you come in love?” “Well, I love you, I love myself.” But it's not unconditional love. So they can be evasive but they cannot lie outright, not even negatively polarized beings.

Challenge it in that way. And then after you've felt its presence and it has met your challenge and you have talked a bit,  you can ask, “Do you have a name? If I want to be with you again, what name shall I use?” It may give you a single name or a group name. It may just say “Friend” or “Teacher.”

Q: The energy, when it came forth, of course you had already guided us to ask for the most positive things to come forth. But it felt so positive and light. Can negative energy feel that way?

Barbara: It can. After almost 25 years of my knowing Aaron, I still always challenge. I make the statement, and as I feel him about to come into my body, and now I'm leaving the body and he's coming in, but in that moment when I feel his energy there before I leave the body, I challenge. A very highly negatively polarized being has the same energy weight as a positively polarized being. And if it's a very highly negatively polarized being, it knows how to use pretense, so it can briefly envelope you with loving energy as a manipulative device. So we protect ourselves.

Q: What do you mean, highly negatively polarized? Do you mean high in vibration?

Barbara: Well, Aaron is a 6th density positively polarized entity. A 6th density negatively polarized entity can feel much like Aaron. I've experienced this only 3 or 4 times in these over 20 years, but it has been very frightening when I realized that it was not Aaron and that I was about to let it into my energy field.

Q2: Thank you. You answered the question I was going to ask. I don't want to frighten people, but that happened to me. And I'm very frightened, because I fell deeply in love, and now I don't trust the challenging process.

Barbara: I'm not sure when you say you fell deeply in love and now you don't trust the challenging process, do you mean you fell deeply in love with a human that turned out to be negative?

Q: It's a guru who was very convincing and very, very powerful and loving, but manipulative.

Barbara: I hear you. Remember, we have different priorities of things we're learning. For some of us, the most important thing we seek to learn at that moment may actually involve moving into a relationship with a very negative being in order to learn deeper discernment, to learn how to say no. At some level and for some reason we've opened ourselves to that negativity. Rather than not trusting from then on, can that experience become a ground for taking greater care, for looking at the question, what is there still remaining in me that could be open to this kind of negativity, that could be inviting this kind of negativity, and asking for help to purify that, working to purify that?

(Barbara tells a story of working with a person expressing extreme negativity)

Basically, there are negatively polarized beings, human and other. The one statement that we continue to make to them is, love is the strongest force in the universe, and I will not be pulled into your way of negative thinking that we must destroy, even to destroy evil. It's so easy to slip into that “destroy evil.” But it's just more negativity. We say no to “evil,” but that's different than destroying evil.

So for me, the times when I've met with this kind of negativity have all been very hugely instructive times for me. For that incident, it really led me to look at any remaining beliefs I had of “destroy evil” which had been ingrained in me as a child. Destroy Hitler's regime. Destroying these hating people because they were destroying others. How do we relate to that kind of negativity? But it can be a very different kind of thing for you with your guru. I don't know what it was. But the question is what is this human being with his or her negativity teaching me? Why am I in this situation? Not “I'Il never trust again.” Does that give you something to work with? (Q: Yes.)

Q: I'd like to add something. One thing that I learned from Aaron, and it was relating to a past life but something that I've carried over, is that, in this past life I was a shaman and I had the ability to work with spirit and help people heal and find water and things for people. The community I lived in, the tribe was in a drought. So I had the thought as a shaman, “Oh, if I can find the water for the people, I'll really be cherished.” And part of me wouldn't allow that kind of thought to be in, so I cut that part of myself off, the part that would say, “Oh, I want to be cherished,” even though at some level I had that, but I pushed it away. So Aaron said to me the problem wasn't that I wanted to be cherished. The problem was how I dealt with that energy as I cut it off from myself. What I ended up doing as I did that was I opened myself up to these highly negatively polarized beings who came in like they would be helpful, but actually were there for self-serving purposes. And I allowed myself to be hooked into that because I was trying to separate myself from myself.

So that dealing with, not that I had those feelings or even that I associated with the negativity, but then what did I do with that? So in this life, then, I've worked with a lot of forgiveness meditation about forgiving that person that I was, that I tried to get rid of part of myself, and that I associated with that negativity. In this life since I was very young, if I saw somebody manipulating someone in the name of love, like “Oh I love you, but I'm twisting it and I'm getting what I want because you're hooked in, because you think I love you,” that's something that just makes my blood boil. Like, ooh, I can't stand it! Well part of that was because I had those experiences myself.

So I would just add to what Barbara said, that when you're working with this, work with forgiveness for yourself and for all beings who were related to this, because that forgiveness piece I think really helps to heal and allows for that natural trust to start to blossom again. Not to have to pull the trust out of somewhere where it's buried so deep. But the forgiveness is what kind of allows that to open up again.

Q: Thank you... (inaudible) I'm working on that. (inaudible) Very grateful.

Barbara: Forgiveness and lovingkindness. Perhaps the only creature with whom I have not really made peace in this life is the spider! It's no surprise that I've got this severe spider bite, maybe brown recluse,which is very rare. Googling it, it says maybe only one person in ten thousand will ever get a brown recluse spider bite, if you live in the north in Michigan. Why do I have spiders in my cabin?

So I've spent a lot of time these last two nights just doing metta with spiders, forgiving spiders, forgiving the spider that bit me, trying to open my heart to it. Because my highest intention is to really express unconditional love toward every being, not every being but spiders! Everything! How do I become inclusive? Well, it took this spider coming along and biting me to bring my attention to, “Hey, you're leaving us out of this field of compassion. We want in, too.”

Q: As I listened to Q's question this morning, it made me aware of something I am feeling. I'm not exactly sure of the details, but one whom I have been told is a power guide for me, has been around a long time, and something has been happening lately where I seem to be more open to really believing that he is a guide for me and that I am worthy of him. And so much is happening that I'm paying attention to and listening to, and just sitting here, it seems so real this morning (inaudible). I'm just trying my best to accept it and really believe it, that it's going on right now (inaudible).

Barbara: Aaron would like to speak to that. He says he doesn't really hear a question, but he'd like to speak. Right now I'm paraphrasing Aaron. He is saying before he incorporates he wants to share with you the process that he and I are going through right here.

I feel his energy saying, “I wish to incorporate.” I say, “Thank you.” Then I challenge him. Basically Aaron and I now have a short cut. I say, “Three times,” and that simply means three questions. “Do you come for the highest good of all beings, with love, and fully resonant with the Christ?” That for me is the challenge I give. But instead of spelling the whole thing out, our shorthand is “Three times.” He hears the three questions three times and he says, “Yes, yes, yes.” And I feel his strong yes. And at that point I say, “This mind and body are consecrated to the light.” As I say that, I literally project my energy out of the body and Aaron comes in. I do that every single time Aaron incorporates.

Q: When do you feel the “Yes, yes, yes.”?

Barbara: When I ask the question, I feel the “Yes, yes, yes.” And then I say, “This mind and body are consecrated to the light,” and I release and he comes in.

Q: But how do you feel the yes?

Barbara: I hear it. I channel Aaron two different ways. One is with him incorporated, and one is just passing thoughts back and forth. So we pass thoughts back and forth. And if I feel even the slightest, most subtle hemming and hawing, anything other than that very clear “yes,” I pull back and say, “I challenge you further. Are you the Aaron who is my teacher, with whom I have this long relationship? And it might say, “Well, a part of that Aaron.” Well, of course, Aaron just like all the rest of us can have a negative aspect, or at one time did have a negative aspect. Probably not anymore. He says no, not anymore. If I feel even the slightest doubt, I say no, you may not incorporate in this body. You may remain and listen.

Sometimes when I'm working with a large group where there are people that I don't know, and some people who are skeptical or who come with a lot of anger or a lot of fear, I feel that energy in the room. Aaron is there, but I also feel how pervasive this energy is and that I'm not strongly enough tuned to Aaron to make sure that that connection is what happens. So I need to pause, to ground myself. What are my own highest values? I go deeply into my strong intention never to do harm, to always serve others, including myself in that circle of service, with love. To be a vehicle of light, to live from an uncontracted, openhearted place. I look deeply into myself and ask, is there anything in me right now that's not resolved? Any anger, any fear, whatever, that's not resolved, and is inviting in negative energy? Others have brought this negativity into that circle, into that particular group where whatever the talk is going to happen, but it can stay there in the background. But if it's pushing at me and I push back, I'm immediately pulled into a relationship with it. If it pushes at me and I just kind of duck aside and let it past, sit it down and serve it tea, then I'm not pulled into a relationship with it.

So immediately, if I feel that energy coming in strongly enough that it could pull me away from Aaron, I see that there's something I have to do: just to open my heart to it, to offer forgiveness to it. And I do that for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, as long as it takes until I'm back completely connected to Aaron. I've learned I must do this, even if I keep 200 people waiting! And then I go through the same challenge process again. I do this every time I channel Aaron, every time he incorporates, or any other entity incorporates.

Some of you have seen the movement of one spirit to another. Aaron said it happened last night when one entity was in the body and then another one came in. Basically I've set up a system where I have certain guides who I ask to always stand guard-- if one entity is in the body, it's hard on the body for me to come back and then challenge and then invite another entity in. It's much easier for them to pass the body from one to another. But I've asked Aaron and Jeshua to serve as guardians. And I trust the two of them to be able to say no to anything negative that might want to come in as this transfer is being made.

But other than that, I always challenge Aaron. And it's only happened maybe one time in a thousand that I've felt something different there. But I have to be responsible for that. If I'm going to do this kind of work, then I'm responsible for what comes into me. If something even subtly negative comes in and starts to talk, pretending to be Aaron but giving a slightly distorted message, and you all get that distorted message, I'm responsible. So I need to be very careful. But it doesn't matter whether it's me channeling for a group of people or you simply living your lives and opening to guidance. If you open to guidance that is subtly negative and you don't say, “No, now wait a minute. This is not my intention,” then its subtle influence is your responsibility. Even if it's not incorporating, just there, present with you, we need to say no.

Aaron is saying, for example, maybe you're very angry at somebody and you think, “I need to be able to forgive them. I want guidance to help me forgive.” And you feel some guidance coming in and saying, “Well, maybe you shouldn't fully forgive him. What he did was terrible.”—it's pretty subtle! “Maybe you could just open your heart to him a little, but you shouldn't forgive him.” “Now wait a minute. Is that really harmonious with my highest values? What part of me doesn't want to forgive this person?” And so I'm susceptible to spirit coming in and saying, “Hmm, maybe we shouldn't forgive him.”

This is how we learn. For me, channeling has been such a powerful learning medium because it always puts me right at the edge of the rough places, and I always need to attend to those rough places if I'm going to be responsible not to do harm through the channeling I do.

Okay. Aaron was going to come in, so we're going through this challenging process....

(laughing) He's teasing me and saying, “Is it me? Are you sure?”

(Aaron incorporates)

Aaron: Good morning. My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. So many of you in your culture experience feelings of unworthiness and I want to speak of it here. The question did not indicate unworthiness, only surprise at the presence of loving guidance, but why be surprised? Feelings of unworthiness are frequent in your culture. At a Buddhist teachers' conference some years ago with the Dalai Lama, somebody asked the Dalai Lama, what do we do about people who feel unworthy, who feel they're not good, not worthy of love? And the Dalai Lama looked at the person asking the question and said, “Do you mean people in mental institutions?” The person looked around, smiled, and said, “No, I'm talking about some of us dharma teachers right here in the meeting.” The Dalai Lama couldn't understand it. He said, “How can you feel you're not worthy?”

It's simply, I don't want to call it a cultural difference. You incarnated into this culture in part because this was something you wanted to overcome. If you had incarnated into a culture like his Tibetan culture where people were taught their inherent value, each to cherish themselves not more than others but not less than others, you may have had stirrings underneath of unworthiness but they wouldn't really have come up. But in your culture it's very familiar.

Each time this feeling of unworthiness comes up, stop. Give it tea. Say, “Thank you. You have come as an honored guest here to teach me. I will sit with you in your presence without believing your stories, but also without taking a stick and trying to chase you away. I intend to see through the myth that you keep throwing at me.”

Ask yourself, “Why do I believe I'm unworthy?” Ask for spirit's help to answer the question. And challenge it.

What if there is no unworthiness? No soul at the essential level is lacking. Maybe you're angry. Maybe you're even a very negative person in some ways, confused, greedy, impatient, but not unworthy. What does unworthy mean?

For many of you, the idea of unworthiness comes because anger arises in you, as is normal for a human being, and you have not fully learned to hold space for the anger. You're still trying to control the anger. Then you get into the myth, “If I were truly worthy I would no longer be angry.” Oh? If you were truly worthy and you took your shoes off and walked barefoot on the grass, would you feel the texture of the grass under your feet? You're human. You have physical sensations. If you stepped on something sharp, would there be pain? If the conditions are present, sensation will arise; anger will arise. If the anger continues to arise, it's because the conditions have not been resolved. You cannot resolve the conditions for anger by saying, “No more anger!” Of course not. “Ah, here is anger. Come and have tea.”

Let us take these thoughts a second step. So many of you at your present level of consciousness really aspire to a higher non-dual consciousness. You see the divine as a radiant, clear light and yourself as a shadow superimposed on that light. You want to merge fully with that light, but there is still the shadow, so you indirectly believe, “I must destroy the shadow.” But that attacking habit is just more shadow. Instead can you say, “Yes, there is shadow. Where is the radiance? I love and honor the radiance. I am the radiance. And as much as possible I will express that radiance in the world. And when the shadow comes up, I will serve it tea. I will not be afraid of it. I will not move into the negative out of fear that I might move into the negative.”

You must be responsible when negative thoughts arise not to enact them. But that's different than trying to fix them or to stop them, or judging them as “bad.” So as long as you have this belief, “I must eradicate all the negative stain in order to be the luminosity that can fully merge with the divine,” as long as you hold that belief you can never merge with the divine.

There are two issues here. One is that you want to merge with the divine, and yet there's fear. If I do fully merge and move into that non-dual consciousness, will I annihilate myself? What will happen to this human being? So there's fear that you might do it, and there's fear, “I can't do it. What will I have to give up to fully merge with the divine? My personality? My anger? My opinions?” The feelings of unworthiness are one of the predominant places where this confusion expresses.

If you see the big picture like this, when unworthiness comes up you can simply take a breath and say, “Is that so? Is there really anybody unworthy here?” Here is just this human having some doubting or angry or confused thoughts. Ahhh, offering love to this human. Right there with the doubt, the anger, the confusion, the greed, where is the loving heart? Keep coming back to it.

That's what I wished to say. I thank you for the opening, Q. I'm happy to answer other questions.

Q: Earlier Barbara said that you were a 6th density being but that there are also 6th density negatively polarized beings? I don't understand that.

Aaron: I suggest you read the introduction that I present in both the book Presence, Kindness, and Freedom and I think also in Cosmic Healing. In Presence, Kindness and Freedom there is a chapter or appendix, “The Universe According to Aaron.” Read that and then I'll be happy to expand further on it if you have questions.

I see your world in terms of eight densities. Human is 3rd density. Many of you and the Earth are moving into a higher density. Briefly into 4th, but I think very quickly into 5th density. Fifth density is a very broad density, as is 6th. At the end of 6th density, one either chooses to hold oneself there, as I do, so as to be accessible to any density lower than 6th, or one releases fully any-- not attachment to the mental body, I am no longer attached to the mental body into the all-that-is. One literally releases the mental body like releasing a drop of water into the lake. If I have a dropper full of water and I drop that liquid it into the lake, does it cease to exist? No! Can you find that drop of water in the lake? No. So the move into 7th density is like that. If I do that, I can no longer incorporate in this way and be accessible. It's not fear that holds me back but love and a commitment to teach in this way.

Upper sixth density is the furthest negatively polarized beings can go, because unless negativity has been fully purified, that drop of water cannot merge with the divine. It, itself, holds itself separate. Negatively polarized beings that have followed a negative track until highest 6th density find they cannot go any further. They're looking for some way to become the divine, the negative side of the divine; to have the power of the divine. But at this stage, negative and positive cease to have meaning. There is only That in all its completeness.

Within that Love there is no longer possibility for negative arising, for there is no longer self and other, contraction and non-contraction.  So negative polarity must at that point backtrack all the way back, probably to 3rd density, move through and shift itself to 3rd density positive polarity and then move on, if it wishes to move on to 7th and 8th density.

There are a number of very negatively polarized upper 6th density beings that would choose to wreak havoc on the world. They're frustrated. They can't go on and they don't want to go back. So they think if they can bring enough of the world, enough beings of all the lower densities, to where they are, somehow together they can forge a way through. You cannot ignore them. Just give them tea and say no to them.

We learn to say no to them in many ways. Each of you will have your places of vulnerability. A person who has felt impoverished may be able to say no to a bribe of a few dollars or even $100, but if someone tries to bribe that person to do something really hurtful for $100,000, at what point is he finally going to do this deed? Where is the breaking point?

Barbara's son is a photojournalist and has done a lot of study of fracking. He's talked to a number of people who hold land. He's talked to a number of people whose neighbors have sold out. They know their land is going to be damaged anyhow. They firmly believe, “I cannot do this,” and destroy the family land, and then finally they've said, “I guess I have to sell out. They're offering me now not $50,000 but five million dollars. Okay, I can sell out and go and buy some beautiful home somewhere else.”

For somebody else it may not be about money, it may be about power. Being offered a new job that's going to give you a lot more authority, but the boss says, “You're going to have to be very firm with people. You're going to have to fire a lot of people,” not because they're not doing a good job but for this or that reason. In a sense your boss is asking you to take that power and abuse that power to do harm, to value the company above the people. But you're going to be the vice president. Are you going to do it? Some of you can very easily say no, just as some of you can very easily say no to the money.

Somebody comes to you and says, “Unless you kill these people, I'm going to kill your children.” Where do you get caught? At what point are you able to say no? What fears remain? What are your weak points?

Negative polarity is constantly trying to play on these weak points, and in some ways they are cooperating with positive polarity, because if I want to clarify a weak point and somebody comes up and offers me $10,000,000 for my land and they're going to do the fracking there, and it's going to poison the wells and water of all my neighbors, then I need to come to terms with this moral decision and with my own greed and desire for the money. So instead of hating the person who's coming to invite me to the fracking, instead of hating that seeming negativity, can I say thank you to it but no thank you? And finally resolve that part of my own personality and distortion, until I trust that no matter what comes along, I cannot be bought.

I think we have time for one more question.

Q: I guess I'm looking for confirmation or another suggestion. I have decided that the best way to take care of myself, since I don't know how to tell how the entity answers my challenge, I just simply don't invite entities in. So I come to a group like this, where I feel protection provided, to experience a little more. But when I'm by myself, I hold the door closed. It seems the best thing to do at this point. Yes?

Aaron: I understand, daughter, the intention not to let negativity in so I will hold the door closed. Now imagine yourself, you have just moved into a new city, into a new neighborhood, into a new house. You don't know any of your neighbors. Some of them seem very pleasant and some of them seem a bit rowdy. You're lonely. You really miss your old friends. You used to invite your old neighbors over to have a meal, to have tea, conversation, sit out on your front porch and talk. Now you've got your door locked. People come and knock on your door. This one's carrying a pie. But what if it's not really a nice person? Shh, I'm not home. This one looks angry. I'll definitely keep the door locked for this one. This one has three lovely children with her and she's carrying flowers. But it might not be a nice person.

Begin to regard that distrust of your own discernment. The willingness to say, “This feels okay. This entity whose presence I experience feels loving. It answers my questions. Can I just go a little way into it?” You're not going to invite this neighbor with the flowers and the children to come live in your house. You're saying, “Yes, come in. Let's have some milk and cookies for the children and a cup of tea.” And then feel, how does this neighbor seem to you? Is this person pleasant? If the neighbor starts talking in a very negative way about other neighbors and is filled with hatred and prejudice then you don't want to invite that person back. You show her to the door quickly. You've learned something. If they seem kindly and openhearted as you get to know them, trust deepens. In the same way, do invite the entity. Challenge it, and if it feels positive -you're not inviting it to incorporate, like I'm incorporated, you're just inviting it to talk to you - just listen and share.

One of the things I suggest to people is they first do a dialogue with spirit with writing. Ask a question and use almost automatic writing. Ask it to reply. “What do I do in this situation?” Start to write. When the energy runs out, then read what's been written. If it feels positive, ask it a further follow-up question. If it feels negative, then say, “No, this is not the guidance I'm looking for. I want a higher guidance that will be more loving.” Thusly,  trust develops gradually. You don't keep the door locked. Okay?

Q: How do you get rid of it?

Aaron: You let it sit there drinking tea until it's bored and decides to go. (laughter) How do you get rid of it? How could you get rid of it?

The neighbor comes in and she's filled with prejudice and bitterness, and you thank her for the flowers and draw it to a little bit quicker conclusion and send her out. “Thank you for coming to visit. We must end here.” Or even more directly, “I really don't want to hear the negative things about the neighbors, so thank you but we'll part now.” With the negative entity, you hear what it has to say and you say—let's use a hypothetical example.

I'm angry at a person. I'm asking spirit for help. This person deceived me. I don't think this person is trustworthy, and yet they're part of my family and I have to deal with them. What shall I do? You invite in spirit for guidance and feel spirit saying, “Well you shouldn't forgive them. You shouldn't open your heart to them.”

You would then say to spirit, “This is not the kind of answer that's consistent with my values, because I'm looking for a way to learn how to open my heart and still say no with compassion. Can you guide me in that direction?”

“You shouldn't forgive them.”

“Thank you, but yours is not the guidance I'm looking for. I ask for a different entity to come in, one that is more aligned with my values.”

And another entity comes in and says, “Oh, you should just forgive them and let them come in whenever they want, and if they walk all over you, just keep forgiving them.”

This is also not aligned with my values. I'm looking for another entity, one that can speak with balanced compassion. Thus, you're asked to clarify your values. “I will not hate this person. I will also not let this person walk over me. I'm looking for an entity that can guide me how to hold my heart open to this person without permitting abuse.” It is your clarification that draws forth the communication you seek. Finally the third entity comes in and gives you some really useful information.

Discernment builds on listening and asking, “Is this what I am asking for?” If I'm asking for confirmation that I should continue to let myself be abused, and spirit comes in and says that, I buy into it and then I suffer. If I'm looking for confirmation that I should hate this person and spirit comes in and advises that, then I'm caught deeper into the hatred. If I am very clear, “I do not want to hate another. I do not want to be abused by another. I don't know how to handle this,” spirit will offer the help you seek. By your statement of intention, you screen out the negative. Read my guidance to Barbara in Cosmic Healing. Her husband was so angry about her deafness and she kept asking, “How can I make peace with him, fully love him and hear his pain, and not hate him for his anger about my deafness. How can I say no to this anger in a compassionate way?” And eventually she was able to hear me and work with my guidance and they were both able to resolve the problem.

You have to know what you're asking for. You will get what you're asking for. Okay?

Q: So just to clarify, for those of us who do not hear their guide auditorally, writing the question and answer can be a way to get clearer about what the guide is saying. Is that true?

Aaron: Your guidance will guide you in different ways. You have to give it time and opportunity to speak to you. It may not speak in words. You may come into meditation and just have a deep feeling of the heart opening, of connection with this previously antagonist person, seeing compassionately into that person, and that somehow spirit is helping you open to that part of your heart, to really hear that. There are no words coming forth.

You may, as happened to a friend of mine who was asking spirit a simple question. The person had a well on his property. He was asking, “Is this well water safe to drink or should I start drinking bottled spring water?” because there was some concern about the well. He didn't really get an answer from spirit. He didn't expect to. He couldn't hear in that way. But that day when he went out in his car, he passed a big billboard that said “Spring Water”. And then at the intersection, a truck went by carrying spring water, with “Spring Water” written on the side. And a third source, he walked into a supermarket, I believe, and there was a big display of spring water. Spirit was trying to come through with the answer. If you don't pay attention, you won't get the answer. Spirit will come through however is necessary.

This goes back many years, before Barbara met me. She was struggling with her deafness and her anger at her deafness. She didn't know what kind of answer she wanted. She didn't know where to turn. She had been through several years of therapy, and she and the therapist agreed that her anger at being deaf was appropriate, that it was appropriate to say, “No, I don't like this.” But she was still angry. Why me?

She went into a bookstore in Ann Arbor. This must be over 30 years ago. She was browsing the shelves for a book. She had no idea what book. But she had made a clear statement in meditation, “I invite help to begin to open my heart and move past this anger.” A man walked up to her in the store where she was browsing, handed her a book and said, “This is the book you need.” He turned around and walked out. She looked at the book. It was Stephen Levine's A Gradual Awakening. She looked at a page or two. She turned around; there was nobody else in the store. She turned to the clerk at the counter. “Did you see the man who handed me this book?” The clerk said, “Nobody else has been in the store.” Well, she bought the book and took it home, of course, and it was just what she needed. Who knows? My suspicion is that it was Mahara-ji coming down and handing her the book she needed, because he has the ability to do that, to move into a human persona, take on an appearance, hand somebody a book, and then go out.

A similar situation with Mahara-ji, with a woman who eventually became a long-time student, who lives in another state now. She walked into I believe the same bookstore in Ann Arbor, must be a haunted bookstore. One of Barbara's simple flyers for her Wednesday nights with me was on the floor, and she stepped on it and slipped. As she grabbed the shelf to balance herself, Ram Dass' book Miracle of Love, about Mahara-ji, fell down on top of her. Being a wise woman, she picked up the flyer; she picked up the book, and she bought the book. She called Barbara and said, “I think I'm supposed to come see you.” Spirit can work in many ways.

Let us end here for lunch. I release the body to Barbara.

(session ends)