Socrates is given credit for saying "the unexamined life is not worth living."  And Albert (recoverer) and I have been having an interesting conversation in an another thread about the need to confront issues from one's past, one's past life (perhaps), and release these things in order to function better and progress in spirit.

Many believe that we chose the basics of our earthly life in generalities, that we or our guides had a hand in the planning of it (in a basic but not all inclusive way).  Others doubt any pre-planning and see our lives as diving into the physical like scuba divers, exploring, living, and then returning to spirit (almost like a vacation - I think Bruce used that analogy before).

For many, becoming self aware is vital, as the person feels that they must understand all past traumas, and the origins of their past fears in order to release them, and progress in spirit.  This often leads to introspection, and in my experience, many people do not release these traumas, but relive them again and again.

As an example, I have an aunt, whom I love dearly, yet at the dinner table, she often recounts how her mother favored her sister (my mother) as a child, offering her the choicest sweets, etc.  I knew my grandmother well, and I believe she loved my aunt equally to my mother, but it is all past history.  My aunt however feels that some parts of her adult behavior were based on a perceived lack of love or coming in "second."  At this stage, she (my aunt) is in near 80, and her mother long dead.  She feels that keeping in touch with this insight will help her progress.  For me, it is a giant weight that she carries around - if she hasn't let go of it at age 80, when will she?

All of this does lead to a point from my perspective.  That is, that I don't believe that a person must confront all previous psychic wounds and traumas one by one in order to progress spiritually.  The formula of the universe, framed by the golden rule and insight into loving others is a beautiful and simple one.  I believe that to some extent, getting in touch with love means giving up on ego based thinking, without giving up on individuality.  Yet going over and over past traumas in order to release them makes one search through indulge and confront one's ego.  Of course this may be one way to release fears and hindering beliefs.

However, fear and hindering beliefs may be removed by understanding and accepting the principle of PUL, and expressing it to others.  Bruce and others have noted success when, in meditation they ask for help in removing a hindering belief system from their higher self.  Applying intent to progress and improve may (in my opinion), be more important than delving into the past in detail.  To each his/her own.  For me, it may be that the unexamined life is not worth living.  Yet the over-examined life might drive one crazy. 

My thoughts for this morning.

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

I agree with you about the over-examining of life for sure. I know I go through periods where I don't ask for guidance much and I guess its because at times I find the guidance is there whether I like it or not.

And also I talk about how "its all one to me," but I don't mean to imply by that that one should give up on individuality as surely that is a great part of the reason for "scuba diving" down here in the first place. Getting rid of individuality will simply be a byproduct of escaping the physical...and I don't think the effects of merging are anything like what we imagine them to be. I'd still say we're who we are no matter what. But that's not really what your discussion is about, of course.

I know what its like to have a relative who harps on the same thing over and over and often it is the ones who feel they are a bit further along than the rest of us. That's what I find anyway.

Live in the NOW as best you can and leave the past...even past lives, be. Awareness should be enough and even that is probably not necessary to growth as long as we are focussed with intent in the now.

Thanks for sharing!

Yours,
Beau

Doc,
Perhaps we need to progress spiritually in order to heal past traumas, rather than the other way around. For myself, I know there is some sticky black stuff around me, and I feel that it is a by-product of a past trauma of some kind.  But I am not focusing on the past issues as a way to future growth. I am trying to follow the golden rule of PUL, and grow in the hope of clearing that detritus away as I expand. Perhaps there is a middle way....The life examined and put in perspective...

Hi

I tried working with a couple of psychologists before I came here.  It's so difficult for strangers/psychologists to get into the fabric of someone else's life. Their methods are based upon their own views.

Eventually I came here and found an utter belief in PUL that gave me the strength to examine some of my own issues. I'm still working on it.  Just facing up to the issues can be traumatic, then there are the attempts at forgiveness that may only progress  a stitch at a time, it seems.

It's been important to me to have belief in a higher purpose. With that I can weave together the unravelings I pulled from the whole of my life. I'm not sorry that I'm trying it.

Bets
;) I had to work on this metaphor, corny as it seems, but I think it helps to explain the processes.

In the first part of Moen's third book, a helper tells Moen that he has several purposes in life, many which would not be exposed at the time of his F 27 TMI course exploration, as it wouldn't give him the full emotional impact when these event would occur.

But the helper told Moen that he had at least two mission, one was to learn more about Love and the second was to retrieve previous Selves from his own Disk, and some other discarnates (other Selves (?!!)) with other Disks of origin, see page 53.

As a 6 year child, Moen pulled the plug to Love, as it also stopped the pain from the M-Band noise, see page 31.

So our missions will probably be mysteries, but perhaps we can make best guesses and set some limited time goals?

Matthew

Yeah the too examined life can make one neurotic I'm probably proof from time to time!

I was thinking about the concept that's brought up here that sometimes asking for oversoul help when the examining is going on can lead to progress, but it doesn't always lead to progress. I don't know why not. But I was thinking of something I've posted here before, that once when I was at a point of dispair, I read in Pat Rodegast?emmanual's work, the idea that anything could be healed if one stood in the Light. Of course, the question is, how do you get yourself to that beam of light!

So sometimes whne I have something that really troubles me or is really creating havoc, I am able to sort of meditate on standing in the light, and if I am able to fully feel whatever it is while I simultaneously imagine I am standing in the Light, well, something changes, usually for the positive.

But it isn't as easy as it sounds. Part of the problem is that it is easier to think about the trauma (and complain about it) than it is to really re-experience it. Re-experiencing is very difficult. It is also difficult to hold my conciousness in that place. But it seems to make a difference to "stand in the Light" that way.

So then I was thinking about the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which I have not read but associate with the process of dying conciously. Dying conciously is supposed to be a different experience than just dying.

I am wondering if the difference between reliving the traumas conciously as opposed to reliving them and becoming more neurotic is what is important. But it takes a kind of focus I barely understand.

I don’t believe it’s a good idea to keep bringing up or reliving past pain.  It only puts you right back into the vibration of the pain, an endless cycle.  Why relive it unless one is prone to victimhood or masochism.  Energy that may need to be released can get released in other ways.

I believe there are occasions when we can let go of a limiting thought pattern without examining it, and there are occasions when examination is required. What it comes down to is whether or not we are willing to let go of the limiting pattern so we can live more according to love.

When it comes to patterns we let go of without examining them consciously, one night I had a dream where I couldn't remember any of the details after I woke up, but I knew it had to do with inner hurt. I felt negative energy leave my stomach area. Perhaps in this case it wasn't necessary for me to become conscious of the particulars because I dealt with them at an unconscious level. I figure that during the night we learn a lot of things we don't remember immediately after waking up. Eventually the knowledge will come to us without our clearly understanding where the knowledge came from.

There are some issues I had to examine before I could let go of them. For example, much to my surprise, I eventually found that I had some ideas that were fundamentalist in nature even though I wasn't raised as a Christian fundamentalist. I wonder if this was some past life related lack of clarity.

When it comes to getting over my fear of unfriendly spirits, I had to approach doing so from all angles. I had to reason about the matter as best as I could, my spirit guidance enabled me to have a number of experiences with imaginary unfriendly beings, I had experiences with actual unfriendly beings, and I opened up to a level of being where an unfriendly being couldn't mess with me. The experiences with both imaginary and unfriendly beings played a key role in helping me overcome my fear. It was very important for me to do so. A sweeping the issue under the carpet approach would not had worked. This fear caused me to have a noticeable heart chakra block and lower back pain. There's more to the lower back pain issue, but I don't want to divert too much from the main topic.

Some issues require only a little reflection. For example, on one occasion I had pain by my right shoulder blade. I found that I had an energetic block there due to how I viewed sharing love with my mom. I was buying into this pattern where I have to act as if I need her, because this is how she expected to share love with me. But then I opened up and saw that I can love her completely and unconditionally without supporting her need based approach. The energetic block and pain went away.