Fix This Broken Heart

So I am going out on a limb (again)
I desire to reach out in order to reach inside myself.


To be quite blunt, I am really down and grey.
I have many things on my mind in efforts to process and make sense of things, but the reality of it all is that it doesn't make sense with my heart.
Once again, (surprise, surprise) I decided to open up my heart to some people with "my" truth and visions,  only to be belittled and swashed.
In all my 32 years of my life the reoccurring nightmare of being rejected has continually manifested itself somewhere in my life. It sneaks up on me out of nowhere and blasts me in the chest.
I have tried everything that has crossed my path to heal my emotional ailments: church, faith, counseling, yoga, meditation, spiritual healing, reiki, acupuncture, and psychiatric medications...(and on and on it goes...)
With faith, spiritual healings, yoga and meditation, I have found these things to be the most effective in every area of my life, except this one: 
Rejection. 
Social rejection.
I just have no answers or modalities that are enlightening for this... 


Here is an interesting article I read about this... explains a lot about what I have felt in the past week or longer (not to mention other times in my life)..."In this study, scientists discovered that the autonomic nervous system responds to emotional pain by slowing the heart rate"...and..."The emotional feelings of being socially rejected caused physical reactions to the heart. The physical reactions to the heart are what we think of as our “heart breaking.”"


Before you read the article, I give my apologies for the rather downer of a blog today... it was more of a need to put it out there, in hopes that I could "jump start" my heart again.  Everyone craves friends (and good friends at that), so when I lose one that I love so very much, or when someone that I love says something that hurts me.... it f***king hurts. I am just human after all.

Skinned Knees are Easier to Fix Than Broken Hearts

BY JEANETTE GUARDINO

Tears, depression, loneliness, disappointment, and insomnia; these all are symptoms of rejection. Having to deal with the emotions that go along with social rejection is enough and now we have to deal with a physical one as well. Not only do we emotionally get down but our hearts are getting down too! Social acceptance is very important in our society, whether it’s being liked from friends, teachers, family, or especially a significant other. We all want to gain approval. When we don’t get that feeling of acceptance we feel bad about ourselves. We can all relate to feeling the pain of being left out, rejected, or isolation sometime in our lives. The term “heartbroken” is usually thought as a figure of speech. But what if our hearts really do have a role in this whole rejection process?

A study conducted, by Bregtje Gunther Moor, Eveline A. Crone, and Maurits W. van der Molen of the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University in the Netherlands, with 27 volunteers found that when rejected heart rate actually slows down. The volunteers were asked to send a photograph of themselves and told that the study was on first impressions. They thought that students would look at the photos to decide whether they liked them or not based on their picture. This was a hoax for the volunteers. The actual experiment was to see the physical and emotional reactions of the volunteers once they found out the students’ opinions about them. The volunteers were hooked up to electrocardiograms and had to look at pictures of unfamiliar people. They then had to guess whether or not they thought the person in the picture would liked them or not. They were then told if the person liked them. The researchers found that in anticipation to finding out what the other person said about them, the volunteer’s heart rate dropped. When told they weren’t liked, the volunteer’s heart rate dropped even more. It was found that heart rate took longer to return back to normal when the volunteers were told they were not liked. The heart rates were even slower in the volunteers that were surprised to find out the other student didn’t like them. They were expecting to be liked.

In this study, scientists discovered that the autonomic nervous system responds to emotional pain by slowing the heart rate. Pervious research has shown that the brain processes social and physical pain in the same region. In this study the researchers wanted to see if social pain could cause physical reactions. They found out it was true. The emotional feelings of being socially rejected caused physical reactions to the heart. The physical reactions to the heart are what we think of as our “hearting breaking.”

George Salvich, from a different study found social rejection to lead to inflammation. The participants had to do certain tasks in front of an audience and they were sensitive to being judged. They had an increase in two proteins associated with inflammation, interleukin-6 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). This suggests that social rejection, or stress, triggers activity in the brain, which then triggers the inflammation in the body. Like with an injury inflammation occurs to repair it, in the case of social rejection the inflammation is activated in response to the pain of rejection.

Social support is a huge part of our well-being. It affects not only emotional, and psychological aspects but also physical ones. I agree with the findings because if you’ve ever felt rejected you’ve experience the low energy and lack of motivation. This can relate to the decrease in heart rate you get from being socially rejected.  Social rejection can cause many other problems in a person’s life. The more rejection a person faces the more likely they are to be “down in the dumps” which also accounts for their heart rate to be slower. I think gender and age play a huge role in the outcomes of this study. A male might not feel as rejected by another male as he would by a female, for example. Although I do not necessarily see a decrease in heart rate as a health issue because the heart is going back to normal after sometime, but when thinking about the elderly or someone with a heart condition, rejection may cause more of an affect. The study is not clear on who their volunteers were, I think they should be further research done on the elderly and those with heart problems. But all in all, this study slows that our hearts really do physically play a part in heartbreak and rejection. It also shows how important social support influences our self-esteem. 

The Way

The past month has been a roller coaster of emotions, realizations, accepting truths, denying truths, being enlightened, and then becoming angry with disbelief and refusing enlightenment…. and so on and so forth. 

I loath confusion and long for something in life to be just simple enough to accept it and run with it without having to change it or throw it away further down the road.

There are so many things that I want to express and write about today because I just haven’t and it is making a mess in my brain.  My head is swirling with ideas, epiphanies, and the realization of my stubbornness to see, see again, learn, re-learn and remember something simple.

All of these thoughts were provoked by some conversations with my new found friends (and you know who you are!).

With this I digress and begin again with the question:

What is the “Way”?

What is the way of life?

The way to be?

The way to not be?

The way to love?

 The way to do anything and nothing?

What is the “Way” in which we are to live?

First of all a text book definition of the word “way” is:  “a method, style, or manner of doing something; a thoroughfare for travel or transportation from place to place; an opening for passage; characteristic, regular, or habitual manner or mode of being, behaving, or happening;…..” the definitions and synonyms go on and on….

So what is the “way”…is it a method? A Style? An opening? A passage? A mode of being and doing? Is the “WAY” a characteristic or tone of all that is? I say YES to all.

With knowing this, I am going to define the “WAY” OF LIFE OR BEING as a “CHARACTERISTIC/TONE” OF LIFE OR BEING.

In efforts to explain what I am pondering I will go to my spiritual roots…..

In Genisis 18:19 it says “…keep the way {characteristic or tone} of the LORD (Yehweh) by doing what is right and just…”

In 2 Samuel 22:22 & 31& 33 it says… “For I have kept the ways  {characteristic or tone} of the LORD; I am not guilty of turning from my God.”

“As for God, his way {characteristic or tone} is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”

“It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way {characteristic or tone} secure.”

John 14:: 5 -7 says,  “Jesus (Yeshua) answered, “I am the way  {characteristic or tone} and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Now, keep this in mind and let’s explore another point of view….The Tao.

Just in case you don’t know about the Tao or the Tao Te Ching is a small collection of 81 verses of wisdom authored by a Chinese prophet by name of Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching means to “live and apply the Great Way”.

According to the Tao the Way (characteristic or tone of life) is nameless, an origin of life, a mystery, the ancestor of all, the Father of all things, the supreme nourishing of good, deep nature, deep in the heart, leading without control or domination, discovery of truth.

The Tao gives shape to everything. The Way is the Tao.  The Toa is the Way. The Father of All Things is the Tao.  The way is the Father.  The Tao is discovering Truth. The Truth is the way of God.

Wow.  That is phenomenal.  So let’s apply the Tao and the biblical references together…

Here is the original verse:

In 2 Samuel 22:22 & 31& 33

“For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I am not guilty of turning from my God.”

“As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”

“It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.”

Let’s rewrite this verse according to what the Tao and the Bible says….

“For I have kept the Tao of the LORD; I am not guilty of turning from my God.”

“As for God, his Tao is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”

“It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my Tao secure.”

And we could do this on and on with every verse of the Bible and every verse of other religious texts and ascended Masters.

The WAY or the CHARACTERISTIC/TONE of Life/Being is right, just, perfect, flawless, secure, strong, truthful and full of life. The WAY is nameless, an origin of life, a mystery, the ancestor of all, the Father of all things, the supreme nourishing of good, deep nature, deep in the heart, leading without control or domination, discovery of truth.

The Tao says,

“Discovering how things have always been bring One into harmony with the Way.” verse 14

“He who keeps the Tao does not want to be full. But precisely because he is never full, he can remain a hidden sprout and does not rush to early ripening.” Verse 15

“Being Divine, you will be at one with the Tao. Being at One with the Tao is eternal.  This way is everlasting, not endangered by physical death.” Verse 16

Again, this is phenomenal.  Do you see all this fitting together?

Let’s move on….

Consider Buddha’s words,

"You should do your own work, for I can teach only the way."

“Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.”

“If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”

In Buddhism, it is taught to take the “Middle Way”.

The ‘Middle Way’ is the Buddhist way of life; a self-development progression through the Noble Eight Fold Path which comprises Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. 

So….

Yehweh says His Way is secure…

Yeshua says He is the Way to Yehweh…

The Tao says the Way is eternal, nameless, Divine and the Origin of Life…

Buddha says he can teach the Way through the practice of pure virtues…

Do you see a common thread here?

A common Way?  The same Tone.  The same Characteristic?

You might ask yourself at this point…. Can we define this Tone? Can we define this Characteristic?

Of course we can….

Ask yourself what is the most powerful force on Earth and the Universe? 

What does everyone desire?

What is the one characteristic that no one can live without?

LOVE.

Let’s see what our ascended Masters have said about this.

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.” 1Corinthians 14:1

“and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us…” Ephesians 5:2
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13:3-5  

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  Galatians 5:21-23

 “Love vanquishes all attackers, it is impregnable in defense.  When heaven wants to protect someone, does it send an army? No, it protects him with love.”  - Tao Te Ching Verse 67

“Love is the fruit of sacrifice.”  - Tao Te Ching verse 44

“The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.”  - Buddha

“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.” - Buddha

Again, I am speechless.  The realization is profound.

Yehweh, Yeshua, Lao-tzu, and Buddha all say the same thing.  The eternal way is Love. 

The Way is Love. 

The characteristic is love.

The tone is Love.

The vibration is Love.

God is Love.

The tone is God.

The characteristic is God.

Love is God.

How simple is that.

We are to live in Love, with Love, about Love.

In efforts to make a conclusion that is Universal.

I give you this….

“If we live, we live for the Lord {i.e.  LOVE}; and if we die, we die for the Lord {LOVE}. So, whether we live or die, we belong to (the) Lord {LOVE}. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ {LOVE} died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord {LOVE} of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s {LOVE’s}  judgment seat. It is written:  “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Yeshua {LOVE},
‘every knee will bow before Me {LOVE}; every tongue will acknowledge God {LOVE}.’”  --Romans 14:8-12

The Way is Love.

‎" Believe in Loves infinite journey,
for it is your own , for you are Love "
Love is Life.~Rumi

It appears that Love was born from me,
But don't believe that!
In fact, I was born from that Love.
~Rumi

Break The Silence

I haven't written in awhile for many reasons.....the most important one being that I have had a very strong sense to be silent.

So to break the silence I will say, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

It is the long awaited year of 2012.....

I have many beliefs about what might happen this year, however nothing scares me and one thing is for certain, there is no such thing as a permanent end to existence.

I am excited for many things to expanded and grow in my personal life, in addition to many things dissolving and leaving room for the new. Please keep this thought in your meditations and prayers for me.

With this said, I ask for all my Light Worker brothers and sisters to lift me up in the best and highest way in the Creator's Love and Light as I move forward into a new Being. If you desire me to do this for you as well, contact me.  This is my purpose on the Earth. Remember we are all ONE.

The words for 2012 are Freedom and Peace. In addition to these words....the mantra for this year is to "BREAK THE SILENCE".

Wake up brothers and sisters and claim the universe for yourself and be One with our Almighty Creator.  Put aside FEAR and speak YOUR TRUTH.

"BREAK THE SILENCE"

Mending The Whole

Some Rogue Thoughts From Me and more

More Rogue Thoughts from me and a friend.
Enjoy!


***


"I don't feel like my time is short. I feel an intense need to prepare. I want to be self sustaining. For example, growing my own food, educating my children, staying out of the city, not having to rely on commercialism....etc." ~ Me


"This is the first year, I haven't self destructed. I haven't torn everything in my life apart to start over.  It feels really good." ~Me


"People that think that we are alone in the Universe are blind and arrogant." ~Me


"I am easily entertained. Always have been." ~Me


"I don't like teaching my kids to believe in Santa Claus and the like. But I do enforce the tooth fairy. Ha! I still believe in fairies, even though I am putting the money under the pillow!" ~Me


"Change is coming fast, behind it fear of the unknown, but in front of it, excitement." ~Me


"You are healing and growing very fast.... Concentrate here." ~Me


"Bless the sickness...it is an ill feeling safe guard of sort." ~My friend


"I am so used to being reclusive....it feels like the first day of school" ~My friend


"You must consciously accept what subconsciously seem like a defeat." ~My friend


***


So with all that said....
I was reading some things this morning that have nothing to do with the above said things.
Enjoy some much higher wisdom below.


***

"If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.  

If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.  

There is always a lord of death.  

He who takes the place of the lord of death is like one who cuts with the blade of a master carpenter.  

Whoever cuts with the blade of a master carpenter is sure to cut his own hands." 

~Tao Te Ching, 74th Verse

***

"In a world become blind,
I beat the drum of the Deathless."

~Buddha

"Everything changes, nothing remains without change."

~Buddha

***

"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 

The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  

The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 

As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 

And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 

“Where, O death, is your victory? 

Where, O death, is your sting?”

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  

But thanks be to God! 

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. 

Let nothing move you. 

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 

1 Corinthians 15:45-58

***

Psychics, Seers & Prophets, Oh My!

Good Morning!

I had a short conversation with someone about what it is I have chosen to do with my life (ThetaHealing and Healing Medium).  As I have been practicing and molding things to my faith in the past six months, I have found that certain things have come out that can only be referred to as psychic phenomenon. That's right, folks, psychic!  I love it and I wouldn't trade it for any amount of anything remotely valuable.  I do it in the name of the Creator of All That Is and to me that is Yahweh and Yeshua.  I don't believe that it is evil or from any other manifestation other than my God. I know that to some this scares people, just for the fact that they fear punishment from God.  So let me tell you something about me....I do not live in this fear.  I know that certain actions have consequences, but I do not live in Fear of my Loving Creator.  I embrace Creator's warmth and Love and live inside of this everyday and in every situation that my fleshly body will allow me.  It is wonderful and the new perspective of Life on Earth is phenomenal. 

However, I will say this.... I don't practice majic and I don't refer to myself as fortune teller. I am just human, just like you.  However, I got tired of being pressed down inside the box and I cried out to God with desire to do something fantastic for Him and Earth.  One rule of thumb that I always follow is I never do anything without Creator's permission.  And I will say that Creator says "no" quite often. LOL!

So with all this said, I found an article that wraps some things up in an educated way.  I always say...."when in doubt, educated yourself." Don't believe it just because someone told or taught you it was right or wrong. Decide for yourself. Read. Read. Read.

Lastly, do all these things with Love.  If you choose not to do them with Love, it will always turn up a big mess and then you just might have to cry about it. Ha!

What Does The Bible Really Say About Psychics And Seers?
by Doc Edwards 

Posted: 23:45 June 9, 2009

I am often amazed --- and admittedly somewhat dumbfounded --- when, well-intentioned but obviously misguided, Christians ask whether or not it is spiritually permissible for one to look into the future or to talk to someone who can demonstrate this amazing, ancient spiritual practice. Many ask, Does not the Bible expressly prohibit psychics, seers, and others who claim to see into the future?

This question comes up again and again simply because most Christians (and surprisingly this includes many ministers) only have a cursory, superficial, and religiously biased understanding of the Bible and the depth of spiritual information and instructions that it contains. Like blind men trying to describe an elephant based upon where they happen to be touching the animal at the time, they confuse not only themselves but everyone else with misinformation, often presented as gospel-fact: One, mistaking the animals rear for its front, speaks of the animal's little curly nose, while another at the front describes an animal with a great swinging tail almost as long and thick as its legs, with two big floppy wings on top of its rear quarters. 

Of course, much like the preachers, they are both right --- that is,… in a way --- they are just seeing things from the wrong end.


If we are seeking our answers strictly from the Bible, then as you will soon come to understand, the Bible not only condones and sanctions the gifts of foreknowledge and foresight, which it calls by its ancient name, prophecy, but actually encourages its use as emphasized by the Apostle Paul when he said," Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy." (1 Cr 14:1). Yet in spite of this overwhelming Biblical evidence, many itinerant preachers and well-meaning, but misinformed, ministers would try and lead you to believe otherwise, perhaps for no other reason than that they, like most Christians today, cannot do what was so commonly done in the Bible by those first Christian Apostles who founded the spiritual practices of this ancient Faith.
There is simply no other way to view it: after they were taught and instructed by Jesus, the Apostles and their followers continued to practice the examples that Jesus set as to what one should and should not do as a practitioner of Christianity; and to the embarrassment of many ministers today, this includes the display and manifestation of miracles, signs, spiritual gifts, and most especially, prophecy, which is nothing less than seeing and predicting future events.


The Apostles and their followers performed miracles and prophesied about the future, not just occasionally --- as sometimes happens today --- but on a daily basis, so as to prove the efficacy and validity of the Christian message, so as to prove the power of God over physical limitation, over time and space.


Knowing this is true, it amazes me how many in modern day Christianity so easily dismiss and excuse away these early, supernatural practices and methods, which was the normal, everyday practice of these earliest followers. The Apostles displayed this incredible, spiritual power through what the New Testament calls, "miracles and wonders and signs." (Acts 2:22) Yet so many today deny the appropriateness of such supernatural demonstrations, if not outright, then subjectively by their very absence in the practices and teachings of the modern church. So, before we explore what the Bible truly says about psychics and seers, it is important that we get an overview of how and why Christianity has come to this dearth of spiritual demonstration.


Why Has Christianity Changed Since The Time Of Jesus?
Christianity, as it is practiced today, has devolved into, what one can only call, a bare skeleton of its former, spiritually-filled self. Today's church is a spiritually thin, bony structure picked clean of the flesh and muscle that once empowered its practitioners with spiritual and supernatural might over human circumstances and problems. Challenged by its continuously declining numbers of parishioners, it has adopted the recruiting policies of modern insurance salesmen, begging and pleading for warm bodies in its pews and signatures of membership on the bottom line of its attendance rolls, rather than matured and reasoned conversions. No longer are miracles necessary to convince one of the absolute validity of its teachings and tenets, rather they have been replaced by the constant harangue of those who would simply ask you, "Have you been saved?" It is as if the answer to this question followed by a quick dunk or sprinkle in the baptistry water is all that is needed to set your heavenly insurance policy into effect. It does not seem to bother them that there is no physical or spiritual precedent for this activity in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, there is not one place or one example in the entire Bible where one is asked this question, either directly or indirectly.



"Being saved," has become a catch-all term that simply means that you accept the modern church and all that it says as true without any recourse to testingthose truths for any spiritual and/or physical verification. Now, I do not say this to diminish in any way the importance of conversion and spiritual dedication through what most Christians call "being-born again" or "being saved." No, the expression of this "born-again" or "saved" state is a natural consequence when one seeks God above all other things. But I believe that we must also experience a real conviction as well as conversion; and I would simply suggest, as Jesus and the early Apostles knew, that nothing convicts and convinces quite as effectively as a hands-on demonstration of what the Holy Spirit can supernaturally do in the here and now, in the immediate events and circumstances of your life, and not just promises about the life to come.

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as manifested through the spiritual gifts, was the only deal-clincher that Jesus and the Apostles needed to first convince and then convert someone to the Christian path. It is unfortunate that most all of modern Christianity has lost or forgotten how to produce and manifest these supernatural manifestations of healings, miracles, prophecy, signs, and wonders. The early church came together and was held together by these powerful, spiritual demonstrations; it was part and party to what being a Christian represented, to what a real Christian was and is all about.


Seemingly as a consequence of this loss of power and the ability to demonstrate it, most of Christianity has become a spiritual vacuum, devoid of any resemblance whatsoever to what we see and read about in the New Testament. It may come as a spiritual surprise to many who would wish otherwise, but the Bible states outright that there are certain signs that mark a believer as a true Christian from the non-believer. The book of Mark, which scholars say is the oldest, extant document of the New Testament, clearly and pointedly tells the earnest seeker how he or she can recognize a true follower of Jesus; the following quote is in the words of Jesus:
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;


They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16: 17 through 18)


Of course, some have mistakenly taken this to mean that we should actively seek out to do these things, which is a distorted and mistaken interpretation of this passage. Perhaps this explains why so many, so-called, ecclesiastical scholars and ministers have tried throughout history to discredit or remove these verses as they are found in the last chapter of the book of Mark. Of course, what the verses literally mean is that should one (that is, one who is a true, practicing Christian) come face to face with any extreme situation where their well being and welfare comes into conflict with the physical circumstances at hand, then, as Christians, if they are following the example set by Jesus and the Apostles, have access to a supernatural power that can immediately alter and change these physical events and circumstances, whether they be sickness, poverty, unhappiness,… or even snakes, or any of the other million and one, physical things that can afflict we humans here in this old world of want and woe.


Of course this, too, has presented the historical church, since the time of Jesus and the Apostles, with another set of problems: no one ( at least to the degreethat the Apostles did) seems able to do or perform these miraculous feats any more. And I am sure the glaring obviousness of this lack of supernatural validation has added to the church's, and its clergy's, desire to remove or change these verses. I suggest that they have attempted to do this for no other good reason than the inclusion of such texts causes a problem and presents a very obvious embarrassment to the clergy since they themselves cannot exhibit these signs, or perform any miracles and wonders. And yet there the verses are, standing out at us from the end of the book of Mark, taunting and haunting all who would read and know the importance of their meaning.


While it is a fact that many ministers and preachers, as well as some scholars, try to discredit and minimize their portentous importance, the most recent and authoritative Biblical scholarship agrees that these verses were most definitely in the original New Testament text and that the churches attempts at their removalhas been an ongoing quest of manipulation and obfuscation for centuries. But to those of you who, like myself, are purest in the search and preservation of the original, ancient Greek texts, be assured, the King James Version includes them and recognizes their absolute authenticity and authority.


This controversy is but one more glaring example of how the church, since the time of the Council of Nice in 325 A.D. , has sought to rob Christianity of its display and practice of the supernatural gifts and power that real spiritual contact with God can and does produce. To put the whole matter quite simply and objectively, because of the manipulation of a few, modern Christianity seems to have lost its supernatural punch.


Christianity is not the only religion that has experienced this spiritual erosion; it has happened to all of the world's great religions: Islam, Hinduism, etc. After their spiritual founders die, most all religions gradually move away from the phenomenal displays of the miraculous events that led to their establishment, leaving only a watered-down, man-made version of what once connected directly to the power and might of God. When worldly, and less than fully spiritual, men take over the stewardship of any religion (and this is nowhere more true than in the history of Christianity), the teachings become distorted, perverted, compromised, watered-down, devolving into what looks more like a political agenda of power and worldly domination, rather than a spiritual path of personal evolvement.

Human nature kicks-in and mere men, hiding under the cloak and cloth of a church, politically manipulate in the carnal, physical world which was originally founded on spiritual, supernatural perceptions, practices, and phenomena. Ofcourse, as time goes along, and as history bears out, their worldly actions become the accepted religious norm, the spiritual status quo, if you will, operating and sanctioning themselves under the safe and acceptable umbrella of religion and the clerical trappings of the church, under the euphemism that we have come to call, "mainstream religion." Spiritual truth and power recedes as worldly involvement moves to the forefront,... ever how moral, appropriate, necessary, or righteous it might seem at the time. If true supernatural power is our desire, then again and again, we must never forget the admonition of Jesus: "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36)


Modern Christians, for the most part, seem to want their religion organized, measured, and dependably predictable, comfortably practiced on certain days of the week, at certain hours, and in repeatable rituals, with practical, down-to-earth dogmas; there is little room left in such a sterile, unspiritual environment for the random, unorganized, and certainly unpredictable display of supernatural sensationalism that was so commonly practiced and displayed by the Apostles. You only have to look at the stories in the New Testament to see the difference between the way things were done then and the way modern churches do them now.


Unfortunately so much of Christianity has developed into individual camps of, what I can only call, spiritual prejudice, exclusivity, and pious self-righteousness, ...and even, at least if we judge by modern American politics, outright political manipulation, which, like the seventeenth century Puritanism out of which it came, busies itself with the politics of the country and the world, the judgment of other people's morality, or the lack thereof, rather than the true spirituality of rendering only unto Caesar what is Caesar's and judging not lest they be judged.. Once again, they seem to have forgotten the words of Christianity's founder which I quoted above: "My kingdom is not of this world."


To truly see this, we only have to ask ourselves, when did Jesus ever endorse a political candidate or soap-box any worldly view for any purpose or reason, morally justified or otherwise. This type of carnally-oriented worldliness is focused on the "seen" rather than the "unseen" , the physical world rather than the spiritual. True Christianity is a message that constantly tells us, as the Apostle Paul emphasizes, not to focus on that which is seen, because "…things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb 11:1) Unfortunately modern Christianity has put the proverbial, spiritual cart before the spiritual horse.


If they truly follow the examples set forth by Christ Himself, then they, like the Apostles before them, will earnestly seek to practice and display spiritual gifts, power, and phenomena in their lives and the lives of others through the production and display of miracles, signs, and wonders. They will not be satisfied to just go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, and live the rest of the week in mere, mundane human existence. They will seek out and find the deeper spiritual answers and their methods of implementation; they will eat the spiritual "meat" that the Apostle Paul speaks of rather than the tepid milk of half-truths and empty rituals. Then they no longer will live as simply carnal, physical human beings, but rather as spiritual, supernatural entities imbued and empowered by the supernatural might of God.


Supernatural Phenomena Was The Evidence Of Real Christian Power
The Apostles demonstrated incredible and amazing spiritual powers, powers that we would clearly categorize today, using modern English, as nothing less than "psychic", otherworldly power. Of course, they never used the term psychic to describe or name this power and its phenomena because the word itself did not then exist, though again, many preachers would lead you to believe otherwise. Nowhere in the entire Bible will you find the word psychic or any reference, positive or negative, to the term psychics. Psychic or psychic power is a relatively modern, English word ,derived, of course, from the Ancient Greek ( the language the New Testament was originally written in), meaning of or from the soul (psykos). In the Bible, and particularly in the New Testament, they simply called these powerful, supernatural demonstrations, gifts of the spirit, prophecy, discernment, and miracles. It is we in modern times who have coined the term "psychic" to describe these types of spiritual manifestations.


As it is recorded in the New Testament, these incredible psychic or spiritual manifestations were not only performed and done by the Apostles, but also by both known (Stephen, Silas, etc.) and countless unknown followers as well. They performed instantaneous healings, manifested incredible ''signs and miracles", saw into future events, using what the Bible calls discernment of the spirit --- what we might call in modern terms, doing a psychic reading or, as some Christian churches refer to it "giving a word of knowledge. " The early Christians did this as a natural , everyday practice to simply advise their fellow Christians on thedirections and paths they should take in approaching these future events and circumstances.

Perhaps this misunderstanding of words and terms has arisen simply because, as I earlier pointed out, there are so few Christian preachers and ministers today who follow the examples and methods set forth by our early church fathers. Perhaps this is so simply out of embarrassment, even feelings of spiritual inadequacy, in not being able to do and perform these incredible spiritual (psychic) things as their Apostolic predecessors once so easily and commonly did . The lack of recent examples of real spiritual power in the modern church today are so glaringly obvious that one has to wonder, have we not lost the deeper secrets of its use and demonstration, secrets which were so commonly practiced by those who established the very foundation of Christian spirituality.



No matter how uncomfortable it might make some preachers and parishioners feel, the Bible ( the very book upon which Christianity rests) is, if anything, a document based entirely upon the evidence of the supernatural and the prediction and revelation of events that have occurred and/or are to occur in the future, in other words, seeing into the future. Perhaps some of the explanation for the confusion and misunderstanding of this subject lies , as I have pointed out, simply in the difference in the choice of words we use to describe the same spiritual phenomena. The ancients called the one who predicted future events a prophet, we in modern times also refer to it as being psychic. Perhaps the distinction should be made, not in the nomenclature of the one predicting these futureevents, but rather in their intent and purpose: is their intent good or bad, positive or negative? Of course, it is not to be denied that any of the spiritual gifts can be used for either good or bad. As strange as it may sound to those of you, who have been steeped in strict, church orthodoxy, Paul reminds us that spiritual power, like the rain that falls on the "just and unjust" is no respecter of persons. You might go to church, tithe, give alms to the poor, and do all the things that you think you should do as a Christian, but there is no spiritual guarantee that only good things are going to happen to you simply because you are a devoted Christian. Looking around at some of your Christian neighbors and their lives will prove this to you. Spiritual laws, like the lesser physical laws of nature, will work just as well for an evil person as they will for a good person. Remember, the physical laws governing the flight of airplanes works as well for bad as it does good: You can use an airplane to bomb a nation or deliver food and relief supplies to its starving inhabitants. The outcome is determined by the mind-set of the operator. Law, either physical or spiritual, is not operational depending on one's morality. It is the intent of the practitioner that determines the results of either physical or spiritual manifestations.


What Is The Difference Between A Psychic And A Prophet?
The word used in the book of First Corinthians by the Apostle Paul to describe the spiritual (psychic) gift of seeing into the future is the ancient, New Testament, Greek word for prophet, which literally means in modern English to prophesy, to predict the future; and therefore the one who does this foretelling of futureevents is called in the English of the King James Bible, a prophet or seer. The modern English word psychic means exactly the same thing. Some ministers and preachers would lead you to think that the word itself is somehow evil and contrary to Christian doctrine; though, as you are coming to see, this is simply not true: words are simply words, nothing more. One term means the same as the other; one's intent and purpose for its use determines whether it be for evil or good. Of course, in their defense, I have to say that most mistaken and misguided Christians have been erroneously led to believe and think this by other, perhaps less educated, itinerant preachers. who are simply not familiar with the meanings and derivations of modern English words, well-less translating ancient, New Testament Greek into modern English. Better educated ministers (those who have been to a legitimate, academically certified seminary know this is true; though, even many of them are reluctant to admit this truth simply because of the overwhelming attitude of those Christians and preachers who mistakenly think it is evil.


In considering all of this, it would be helpful to remember what the English poet, Shakespeare said, " What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." In other words why does it matter if we use a modern English term such as the word psychic or a somewhat archaic word such as the word prophet or seer, that is, if by definition, as well as intent and purpose, we are describing and defining one and the same spiritual phenomena, the prediction of future events and circumstances. The Apostle Paul himself seems to make this same point clear when he tells us that there are many different ways of experiencing and manifesting the spiritual gifts, but that they all come out of the same source, God:
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.
And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal. (1 Cr 12:4-7)
The Apostle Paul goes even farther when he states for us what is the legitimate and appropriate use of this spiritual gift, whether we call the person doing it a prophet, a psychic, or a seer:
"But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men (to) edification, and exhortation, and comfort." 
(1 Cr 14:3)


So, I think it is pretty clear here exactly what he is saying. Whether you call the one telling you about future events in your life or the world in general, a psychic, seer, or prophet, is of little relevance; the important thing is the nature of what they are telling you. Are they telling you positive things that will enrich, enhance, and give comfort to you, or are they telling you negative things that worry you and make you dread the future? A true psychic or prophet, at least if he is following the admonition given by Saint Paul, will never tell you bad things, rather only those things that will give you comfort and joy, making you to look forward tothe future and the experiences it holds for you. After all, is this not the goal of all, true spiritual practices?


Notice: If you have any comments about this article, or would simply like to get in contact with Doc Edwards, you may do so at either his website,www.docedwards.webs.com, or directly at his email address, 1luxdei@gmail.com