Posts Tagged ‘spirituality’

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On this episode of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show, Kala speaks with Duann Kier about her book, Fundamentalisman: Resurrecting the Fundamentals of Relationship from the Fundamentalism of Religion. In the book, Duann asks the following questions: If you are a Christian fundamentalist and your beliefs are working for you because you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are right and real, this book is probably not for you. If you are a Christian fundamentalist and are beginning to question some of the beliefs you’ve been taught along the way, this book may be for you. If you are—or once were—a Christian fundamentalist and your beliefs just aren’t working for you anymore, this book is definitely for you.

She then asks these soul-searching questions:
• Would you be a Christian if there were no heaven or hell?
• Is the fear of hell the main reason you are a Christian?
• Do you sometimes wonder whether you are really saved from hell?
• Do you really have the peace that passes all understanding?
• Do you find no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to be the person that you want to be?
• Do you truly feel loved and cherished by your creator?

These are not comfortable questions to ask oneself, but if you are ready, Duann encourages you to stay with her to read the book to its end…

More About Duann Kier:
Duann Kier is a spiritual intuitive or psychic whose life path has carried her from Christian fundamentalism to the belief that spiritual revelations are ongoing and can be received by all. Trusting that the teacher will come when the student is ready, Duann actively engages individuals in the process of finding and following their own spiritual path. She is known for her high energy and sense of humor, and has over 25 years experience in training and development. While serving as Organizational Development Specialist at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Duann was selected as Educator of the Year. She created the Personal and Professional Development Center in Morganton, North Carolina as well as the Career Consultation Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. She also served as Program Director for the YWCA of Middle Tennessee in Nashville where her programs won multiple state and national awards. She obtained the Master of Religious Education degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is an ordained minister. She has worked for a Southern Baptist college, church and newspaper as well as for the Southern Baptist Convention. Fondly known as The Skeptical Psychic because she continuously examines her intuitive gift, Duann offers private and confidential spiritual or psychic readings known as Seer Sessions. You can contact her through her website at www.TheSkepticalPsychic.net

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Lisa Williams

On this episode of Explore Your Spirit TV Kala speaks with Lisa Williams, an internationally acclaimed medium and clairvoyant with an amazing ability to communicate with loved ones and friends who have passed on to the Other Side. Born in England, Lisa was discovered by Merv Griffin and introduced to audiences through two seasons of her own hit show, Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead, and her second series, Voices from the Other Side. Both series are now airing around the world.

Kala and Lisa discuss Williams’ new book, The Survival of the Soul. Many of us have questions about the passage of life and often wonder what happens when we die. Through various channels such as meditation, psychic readings, communication with her Spirit Guide, and a personal near-death experience, Lisa delves into the journey of the soul, discusses the different stages of the afterlife, and reveals what life is really like on the other side.

Watch the Episode with Kala and Lisa Williams here on Explore Your Spirit TV.

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This week on the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show, Kala speaks with Z. Budapest, author of Summoning the Fates. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Z. Budapest narrowly escaped a massacre. Was it chance that spared her life, or destiny? In Summoning the Fates, Budapest, a pioneer of the women’s spirituality movement, introduces us to the three Fates that rule our lives. Not even the gods and goddesses can escape these raw forces of nature presiding over the past, present, and future. Budapest uses fairy tales, historical lore, and personal anecdotes to describe the three sacred sisters who are especially active during our thirty-year life cycles: Urdh (youth), Verdandi (adulthood), and Skuld (the crone years). Want a taste of the cosmic soup bubbling in Fate’s cauldron? Budapest also offers heartfelt advice, exercises, and rituals to help you connect with the Fates and embrace your own unique destiny.

More About Z Budapest:
Zsuzsanna Emese Budapest was born in Budapest, Hungary, during a big winter storm on January 30, 1940. Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium and a practicing witch who supported herself and her daughter with her art, as a sculptress. Masika’s themes always celebrated the Triple Goddess and the Fates, and Zsuzsanna, “Z,” grew up respecting and appreciating Mother Nature as a god. The poverty of postwar Europe and political oppression under the Russian occupation made Z fiercely political, so when the Hungarian Revolution broke out in 1956, she took her destiny into her own hands and became one of those sixty-five thousand political refugees who left the country, mostly young workers and students like herself. She finished high school in Innsbruck, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied languages.

Z emigrated to the United States in 1959, became a student at the University of Chicago, married, and gave birth to two sons. Her family’s spiritual tradition, however, started seeping back into her life, and she practiced solo worship of the Goddess at her home altar in her backyard. When she entered her Saturn cycle at the age of thirty, she became involved with the women’s liberation movement in Los Angeles and became an activist herself, staffing the Women’s Center there for many years. There she recognized a need for a spiritual dimension so far lacking in the feminist movement and started the Women’s Spirituality Movement. She founded the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number l, the first feminist witches’ coven, which became the role model for thousands of other spiritual groups being born and spreading across the nation. She wrote The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries (Weiser Publishers, 1989) which was originally published in 1975 as The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows. This book served as the first hands-on book to lead women into their own spiritual/Goddess heritage. Z was arrested in 1975 for reading Tarot cards to an undercover policewoman. She lost the trial but won the issue, and the law against psychics was struck down nine years later. Z has led rituals, lectured, taught classes, given workshops, written articles tirelessly, and published in hundreds of women’s newspapers across the country. She has powerfully influenced many of the future teachers and writers about the Goddess. She is the star of her own cable TV show called 13th Heaven and acts as the director of the Women’s Spirituality Forum, a nonprofit organization sponsoring a monthly lecture series in the Bay Area about the Goddess, spirituality retreats, and annual spiral dances on Halloween. Z founded and sponsors the Dianic University Online, a vagina-friendly online school for Dianic Wicca and Goddess studies for women. More info: www.zbudapest.com

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Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.

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Author Eve Baumohl Neuhaus studied and worked with Shri Mahant Swami Ganeshanand Saraswati Giri (known to students and friends as Ganesh Baba. Ganesh was initiated through the same Kriya Yoga lineage as Paramahansa Yogananda (see one of my all time favorite books – (Autobiography of a Yogi)

In Eve’s book, The Crazy Wisdom of Ganesh Baba: Psychedelic, Sadhana, Kriya Yoga, Kundalini and the Cosmic Energy in Man, she shares the core principles and teachings of Ganesh Baba including the conscious control of prana and breath, and how to expand the consciousness and connect with universal energy.

Ganesh Baba’s teachings are known as Crea Yoga and evolved from several practices including tantric practices from Kriya Yoga and his life experiences with the Naga Babas and their connection with Lord Shiva.

For Yoga aficionado’s, the book is a wonderful addition to your library, filled with pearls of wisdom and reminders of how daily practice of the body and the mind lead to living in spirit, beyond the illusion of time.

A personal favorite in the book for me is on page 89-90, which discusses the third level of Crea, which is defined as… ‘conscious action. This is the heart of practice: using your free will, your attention, consciously, to the greatest benefit of all’.

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Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

Join Kala in July 2010 as she teaches at the Omega Institute for a weekend workshop entitled:
Energy Anatomy: Exploring and Healing Your Auras and Chakras.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala’s Guided Meditations CD’s include a sacred site trilogy including Spirit of Hawaii, Egyptian Mystery Temple and Tibetan Mountain Journey. Kala lectures on Wisdom Teachings, Developing Business Intuition, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom (also known as the Divine Feminine).

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What is Consciousness? I spoke recently with friend Eva Herr about this very question. In her experience as a radio host and author, she has asked more than fifty learned people to respond, scholars in the study of the mind and consciousness. She said that she received fifty different answers. But I have a short and concise answer that she just may not have heard uttered. I want to share this with you.

Today, as I cut the grass on a beautiful and warm Hawaiian day, I didn’t think of consciousness as I steered the riding mower around the couple of lawn acres, not thought of it at all until I had to trim along the fences with a self propelled hand mower which, on the uphill grades, is not always effortless. Then it hit me: To have two gas-powered machines, let alone the fact that one can be mounted like a horse and has a drink receptacle, was truly a gift. I could have had to push some old-fashioned reel mower which would have required days of effort and may have stressed my heart. Well, it came soon on the heels of that thought that just to be able to ponder such a question is another gift, just as is my stopping to view the beautiful fluffy white clouds in an azure Hawaiian sky. So, what is consciousness?

My friend Robert Bruce, author of Astral Dynamics, asked me a dozen years ago if I could fashion an appendix for his book. He wanted me, as a brain surgeon, to describe the location of consciousness and the seat of the soul. I did this for him, taking time to study the work of great scholars.

There were many guesses as to the location of consciousness, but none seemed to be correct. According to Gerald M. Edelman, “Consciousness is neither a thing nor a simple property.” Edelman has asserted that a fundamental property of consciousness is that it cannot be broken down into independent components. That is to say, consciousness is integrated within the brain, and involves many widely separated areas.

I began my study with the work of the famous neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield (Montreal Neurological Institute), who found that vast areas of the cerebral cortex can be removed without affecting consciousness. However, small areas of the brainstem, when destroyed, will seriously affect or abolish consciousness. Brain stimulation cases show that found that the “mind,” not the brain, watches and directs human cognition and function.

Thanks to Robert’s request for my opinion, I came across something that allowed me to finish my book, Medicine, Miracles and Manifestations as it seems to prove that we incarnate on Earth to follow a carefully crafted plan. That critical piece of information is the Bereitschaftspotential and as demonstrated by the work of Dr. Benjamin Libet, (University of California, San Francisco). Libet described it as a “readiness potential” that can be picked up by EEG electrodes (a la Libet) or in modern times, functional MRI studies. It is a brain signal that precedes a consciously-made motor movement by roughly 350 milliseconds and it indicates that what we seemingly do of our own volition is actually initiated in the subconscious mind. Although we feel we have made a conscious decision to do perform an act, it is not so.

I investigated the work of many other luminaries in the field and was left with the thought that can be best described by the following quotation:

On the surface of things, nothing appears as it is.

And yet, everything that appears unreal,

is more real than the surface of things appears to be.

Now, after having a few years to reflect on consciousness, to study the work of others and to listen to their learned discourses, I have reached a concise description of what consciousness is. Perhaps in a few years my thoughts will change, but for now, I will say this:

“Consciousness is a gift.  Consciousness is a miracle”.

Dr. John L. Turner was a guest on The Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show Listen to his interview here: http://exploreyourspirit.com/Media/shows8.shtml#TURNERMEDICINE

More About Dr. John L. Turner:
After graduating from the Ohio State University with a degree in engineering physics, Dr. Turner continued in graduate school at the Ohio State University, Department of Physics. Three years into the PhD program, he was given a book about Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet. This changed the course of his life! He was excited about the existence of a spiritual world and made immediate plans to attend the Ohio State University’s College of Medicine where he earned his M.D. He completed his internship year in general surgery and his first year neurosurgical residency at Ohio State University. He completed the remaining four years of neurosurgical training at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. For eighteen years, he served as the sole neurosurgeon on the island of Hawai’i, initially performing lifesaving procedures with a marginally trained staff and substandard equipment. By all measures, John L. Turner is a surgeon with classic western medical credentials. From his first day on call in Hilo, Hawai’i, metaphysical events appeared for his edification and continue to the present day.

Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations, is the twenty-year story of Dr. Turner’s contributions to the field of neurosurgery through Integral Medicine. The concept of Integral Medicine has been written about by notable members of the medical community, including Andrew Weil, Larry Dossey, Deepak Chopra, Mehmet Oz and Dean Ornish. Each of these writers is a physician who specializes in internal medicine or surgery. What makes John Turner similar to these writers is that he, too, is a physician. What makes him different from these writers is that he is a neurosurgeon. In fact, he is the only brain surgeon to write of medicine from this perspective: hand’s on use of complementary techniques prior to, during and after surgery, and exploration of pathways that lead to the spiritual world. The tools of the surgeon normally have more immediate, measurable results on patients’ health and well-being. With the opportunity to study and operate on the brain, Dr. Turner was in a perfect position to explore the mind-body connection. Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations reveals how metaphysical events such as remote viewing, telepathy, consciousness and life-after-death are verifiable manifestations of the manner in which the human brain interfaces with the universal consciousness that author Lynne McTaggart refers to as The Field. More info at: www.johnlturner.com

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(Condensed from the book The Soul of Autism: Looking Beyond Labels to Unveil Spiritual Secrets of the Heart Savants, published by New Page Books,
© 2008, William Stillman)

The world needs autism. Of this, I am convinced. The world needs autism now more than ever. Don’t believe me? Look around…look closely and carefully. Contemplate a global awareness. Consider the call to action we’ve received in recent times by way of grand-scale, devastating natural disasters and international terrorist attacks—which drastically spiked an online “rapture” index, a Christian speedometer that measures how quickly the world is careening toward the day of reckoning. Popular culture has relaxed ethical conduct so much so that films and television programming have desensitized us to sex, violence, and abusive language to the point of no further room in which to push the proverbial envelope. Motion pictures like Saw and its sequels, Wolfcreek, The Devil’s Rejects, Turistas, and Hostel have given rise to a pornographic franchise: human beings mutilating other human beings with sadistic ardor in gratuitous, graphic depictions of torture. Witness, too, the celebrity behavior we have come to condone as acceptable due to “wardrobe malfunctions,” racial rants and sordid misconduct. Although this book was written during wartime, it is the irresponsible misbehavior of certain public figures that made top news. There is vague accountability and fewer repercussions in consequence for one’s misdeeds which may, in fact, be rewarded post “rehab.” Further, the premise of most reality television is predicated upon lust, greed, manipulation, deceit, and the endeavor for physical beauty at all costs. Such cultural poison has anesthetized us to our own humanity.

Think people don’t emulate what they see? A recent Associated Press article speculates there’s an astounding drop in social etiquette—rudeness and amorality is on the rise. Corporate corruption has fostered employee disloyalty. Email has taken passive-aggressive interactions to new heights. The 2006 National Violent Crime Summit concluded that “crime is coming back” in a big way. USA Today recently cited an FBI estimate for a 94 percent increase in hate crime attacks against persons with developmental disabilities. Reports of “road rage” are a daily occurrence. “Happy Slapping” has become the latest craze: someone physically accosts an unsuspecting victim while another perpetrator records the assault with a camera-phone, and posts the attack online for all to see. Internet child sex predators are rampant, and child pornography has become more brutal with the number of images depicting violent abuse rising fourfold since 2003. Americans are insulated with artificial complacency from heinous international human-rights violations perpetrated by megalomaniac dictators. Instead, self-absorbed and selfish behavior without consideration of others has become the norm, it would seem. A “messiah complex” has emerged; we have become a narcissistic society bent on gratifying our own needs because “it’s all about me.” Violators of this pursuit are perceived as rivals. And it’s autistics that, clinically, are defined, in part, as lacking empathy and social reciprocity!

In early 2007, the Centers for Disease Control revised its autism statistics from the previous tally of 1 in every 166 children (which excludes countless untabulated adults), now suggesting that the national figures are closer to 1 in every 150. But perhaps the reverse statistic signifies the greater epidemic: of every 150 individuals, 149 are “normal” or neuro-typical! We so dearly need people with autism and other differences—in their mild, unaffected manner—to lend balance to the world, and refocus us on what’s truly important. Perhaps this principle resonates most with parents who have been obliged to undergo a personal transformation as a result of their child’s diagnosis—parents who otherwise may have succumbed to the messiah complex. One mother confessed, “I think [autism] has humbled me. I think I’m a pretty good parent, and I can do that sort of stuff well; but with autism, that ego is taken down a few pegs. I think it has helped me be more accepting of people with disabilities. Not that I was a complete anti-handicapped person before, but now I think more in terms of what people can do.”

Dwindling are the days of parental shame and self-deprecating guilt, as underscored by the mother who wrote, “Autism for me was a challenge not a defeat.” A new evolution is compelling parents to re-envision their lives, to see clearly their own transcendence, and to hold greater hope for the future. This is supported by research such as the “Qualitative Investigation of Changes in the Belief Systems of Families of Children with Autism or Down Syndrome,” a document that concludes, “Although parents may grapple with lost dreams, over time positive adaptations can occur in the form of changed world views concerning life and disability, and an appreciation of the positive contributions made by children to family members and society as a whole. Parents’ experiences indicate the importance of hope and of seeing possibilities that lie ahead.”

One parent rejoiced and opened her heart by telling her circle of parent-friends, “I was just thinking about all the reasons I am ticked that my child is autistic and then thought, you know, if autism had not happened to our family I would not have learned so many things! So many people I would have never known! I believe it has taught me courage beyond words…As much as I hate it, it has made me a better person and better parent to my child. Anyone here feel as though you were helped on some level by this diagnosis?” She received an avalanche of glowing responses.

I have yet to meet a person with autism who has not in some capacity declared their desire to give back of themselves, to share their gifts, and to teach others. In their gentle way—as befits their nature—people with autism compel us to higher standards of deference and respect for humanity. Being present with the autistic individual requires us to be calm and refrain, to be silent and truly listen. What do you suppose people with autism have indicated they’re here to teach? The most salient themes of the human experience: tolerance, patience, sensitivity, compassion, and, of course, unconditional love. These themes consistently emerge in my work as a consultant no matter where I go.
We need people with autism in the numbers with which they’ve increased, especially if we’re to unite in a renaissance for what is right and true and good and kind. It is coming. And the next major human rights movement to shatter myths and tear down walls of hate will be lead by those meek of voice but strong of will.

More about William Stillman…

William Stillman is the author of Demystifying the Autistic Experience: A Humanistic Introduction for Parents, Caregivers and Educators (2002) which has been highly praised by the autism and self-advocacy communities. His other books include The Autism Answer Book (2007), The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with Asperger’s Syndrome: Help, Hope and Guidance (2005) [a condensed version of which was published in 2008 as When Your Child has Asperger's Syndrome], The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with Bipolar Disorder: Professional, Reassuring Advice to Help You Understand and Cope (2005), and his groundbreaking work, Autism and the God Connection: Redefining the Autistic Experience Through Extraordinary Accounts of Spiritual Giftedness (2006). Stillman also writes a column, “Through the Looking Glass,” for the national quarterly publication The Autism Perspective, is a regular contributing writer, and is on that magazine’s advisory board. His editorial essays, posted to the authors’ blog BasilandSpice.com, have received favorable reader feedback and have been carried by national news services Google News, Ask News and Reuters. In 2008, Stillman was one of fifteen authors selected to contribute to Autism Today’s Autism Expert Report, a monthly publication designed to provide premier advice and recommendations to parents and professionals. (Stillman is also coauthor of several successful books about his life-long passion, The Wizard of Oz.) Stillman has a B.S. in Education from Millersville University in Pennsylvania, and has worked to support people with different ways of being since 1987. He was formerly the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Office of Mental Retardation’s statewide point person for children with intellectual impairment, mental health issues, and autism.

Listen to William Stillman’s Interview Now on The Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show

by clicking on this link: http://exploreyourspirit.com/Media/shows3.shtml#STILLMAN

More info at: www.williamstillman.com

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