As a race we seem to be obsessed with two things – ‘Bright Shiny Objects’ (more of which another time) and ‘Scary Monsters’.

Of course, fear is one of our basic instincts and back in the day it really was fear of scary monsters – predators that might eat us. Fear would kick in eliciting a fight or flight response – usually the latter!

But although we don’t have to face carnivorous predators on a day to day basis any more, it seems that we can’t live without some form of ‘scary monster’ to be afraid of, or at least worry and speculate about.

Scary Monsters can be imagined in a global, local or personal context.

When I was growing up one global Scary Monster, the Soviet Union had just replaced Nazi Germany as the harbinger of the end of the world.

Mind you, the Soviets and their populace were equally as ‘scared’ of ‘The West’ as we were of them which sort of neutralizes the whole concept.

And of course as it turned out that particular ‘SM’ faded away – only to be replaced by another global SM in the form of ISIS!

And so it goes on; but also this time with another, somewhat different SM in the form of ‘global warming’ and how that is also going to wipe us all out.

Of course, it does keep the ‘end of the world is nigh’ merchants in business.

And I do mean ‘merchants’ – there’s a huge and profitable industry in supplying those ‘survivalist’ individuals preparing for Armageddon just around the corner!

But what about more local Scary Monsters?

To name but a few (not necessarily in order) we’ve had ‘decimalisation’, the ‘common market’, various economic crises seemingly on a regular basis, the EU and ‘Brexit’ (whichever way you look at it)., immigration (several rounds of that one), emigration and ‘the brain drain’, every change of government, ‘Y2K’ when the world was going to end when all the computers stopped, ‘teenagers’, Generation X, Generation Y, Millennials, various energy crises, all sorts of legislation including most recently ‘GDPR’, and of course the weather.

You’d think that by now people would have become used to that fact that it’s cold in winter, warm in summer and rains often – and it’s temporary. But one small change and ‘disaster’ happens.

And then on a personal scale we have relationships, health, body weight, having kids, not having kids, retirement, redundancy, exams, household bills, mortgages, debts and so on and so on.

It seems everything is something to be scared of, everything seems to create its own Scary Monster.

But here’s the thing.

Scary Monsters don’t exist and unless you happen to run into a large wild animal coming at you, they are all imaginary.

But you and I don’t conjure them up out of our own imaginations, they are thrust upon us.

Why? Because it’s ‘Scary Monsters’ that keep the news and current affairs media going. It’s what keeps journalists and pundits in jobs.

Because bad news and fear sell newspapers, they sell news programmes and documentaries, and most of all they sell advertising.

Without which of course we wouldn’t be subjected to all the bad news media and all the fear and scary stories broadcast to us every day. Hmm?

Good news and positivity are a minority interest it seems.

You see – fear and scary monsters make money – lots of money – more than anything else.

If you can frighten people, they’ll pay you to make it go away.

Remember Y2K? Billions of dollars and pounds and all other currencies were spent on consultants and specialists to ‘solve the problem’ and stop the perceived ‘end of technology’. But as it turned out the problem was minute compared with what people, companies and governments had been led to believe.

‘Consultants’ who know perfectly well that there isn’t really much of a problem, are taken on by companies who have been scared out of their wits by the media and the ‘fake news’ purveyors, to resolve these problems before their business fails.

It’s a huge industry, solving a problem or crisis that isn’t really there, usually something to do with changes in technology or compliance with some new regulation.

It’s not down to the consultants, although some do take advantage, but to people’s gullibility and obsession with fear and risk.

And then there are the companies who make fortunes out of peoples’ personal fears, usually about their health or weight, but also about their careers, businesses and relationships. Quite a lot of which is based on the fear of ‘missing out’ – another scary monster in itself.

The thing is however, that you and I don’t have to subscribe to all this.

We don’t have to be on the lookout for the next SM, we don’t have to listen to the ‘news’ (or the fake news), we don’t have to believe what we read in the press or on the internet. We don’t even have to believe what we ‘see’, because sometimes that just isn’t the ‘full story’

You and I don’t have to buy in to the Scary Monster culture we find ourselves in.

What we do have to do though is to remain aware, notice what’s going on around us, because some ‘bad things’ do happen from time to time and there are dangers that we can avoid in every sphere of our lives.

That’s the point – all this stuff can be avoided, put on one side, left for other people to worry or agonise about. If they want to make a problem out of it they can. It’s none of our business.

Don’t let the Scary Monsters get at you, other than perhaps, as a source of amusement.

Stay positive – oh, and look out for yourself!

Most people are obsessed with money.

Having it, making it, saving it, winning it

We live in a culture where money is king – everything seems to revolve around money.

But the thing is, that idea is the wrong way around.

Because what really circulates is money.

It’s as if we’re back in the days when everyone believed the Sun revolved around the Earth and the Earth was the centre of the universe – and you’d have been burnt at the stake or at least locked up if you said anything different.

Everyone (well most people) now knows that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and in the same way it could be said that money makes the world go around.

Because as money circulates it enables everything to happen, but, money doesn’t cause anything, it just enables it when necessary.

Other than that, money is absolutely useless.

When it’s standing still, sitting in a bank vault or stuffed in a pillow case, or anywhere it’s just ‘sitting around’.

The only use for money when it’s not ‘in circulation’ is perhaps to be burnt as fuel or melted down to make something more practical.

Now of course, the way most societies work is to make use of this ‘lubricant’ called money to facilitate the exchange of things that you and I as individuals have, for other things that we don’t have but need or want for some reason or other.

To do that we exchange what we have for money which we give to whoever has whatever it is that we want.

The question is – where does the money come from?

Robert Kiyosaki in his book ‘The Cash Flow Quadrant’ identified four sources of income. not ‘money’ but ‘income’, or in other words the inflow of money required to sustain the corresponding outflow in the exchange process.

Most people are locked into a paradigm whereby they sell their time, skill and knowledge for money which they then recirculate in exchange for the things they really want. Kiyosaki calls it ‘employment’ or ‘self-employment’.

They’re really the same thing, it’s just how the income is paid and who pays it that’s different.

Now that would be fine if the income from this source matched the person’s particular requirements for money to exchange. But it very rarely does.

So another paradigm has developed. In fact, there are two, they are called ‘borrowing’ and ‘saving’.

If income is insufficient for our needs we borrow more money from somewhere else, if the income exceeds our needs we are persuaded to save it – ‘for a rainy day’.

This is where another of Kiyosaki’s income sources plays its part. It’s called ‘investment’.

In this system those with an ‘excess’ of disposable income ‘invest’ in something, maybe just a simple savings account, in return for a small income in the form of ‘interest’.

Those who need extra income can, again through the concept of interest where this time they pay a fee, borrow money from wherever other peoples’ ‘savings’ are held.

In the same way people with excess money can invest in a business which then pays back a ‘dividend’ based on the income that it generates through carrying out its business operations.

Now a business is a curious thing.

It’s an independent entity in law, but it can’t exist without at least one person operating it.

There are many reasons why someone might want to set up a business as explained in my book ‘What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business’, but if the business ‘works’ it will generate income.

The important thing to remember if you own a business is that the income it generates is not directly your income, it’s treated quite differently in law and by the tax authorities.

At the end of the day though, and as Kiyosaki explains, as a business owner you receive income from that source to fund your own outgoings.

The thing is, that it’s not the money itself that’s important, and really, it’s not the income either.

It’s the flow that matters.

It’s the flow of money that makes the world go around.

This is where one of those Laws of the Universe comes in. Often referred to as the Law of Attraction (which is something else) this one is the Law of Reciprocity, sometimes called the Law of Compensation or Abundance – but put more simply – – –

What goes around comes around.

This Law applies to many things, money is just one element, and what it means is that what you and I give, either as a gift or in return for some service or product will, one way or another, be returned in equal or greater measure as income.

But there’s an important point to take note of, and this is where we need to have faith in the Laws if the Universe.

You see, you and I must give first in order to receive, and especially to receive in abundance.

Of course, as usual, this goes against how we are educated to behave in this context.

‘You have to have the money first before you can spend it’

But this is receiving before giving, and although it ‘works’ in a sense it will not lead to abundance.

All it does is generate stress.

Stress to focus on ‘income first’, savings, money in the bank, and not being able to ‘afford’ the things we need or want.

I appreciate this may be a difficult principle for some people to grasp as it really does ‘go against the grain’.

But I have always found it to be true and I’ve always had faith that that would happen.

Give (or pay up front) and you will receive. Don’t wait for the income to be generated before you move forward.

You and I have to be sensible about this of course in that we should have a sustainable source of income in mind, even if it’s only an idea, before we embark on any major expenditure.

And of course, this doesn’t only work with money: time, love, friendship, knowledge and so on. It applies to everything.

Give and you shall receive.

There’s a recent book by Allan and Barbara Pease called “The Answer – How to take charge of your life and become the person you want to be”.

Now this is interesting because what they say is exactly the same as what I’ve been talking about for some time.

But there are two schools of thought on this:

The scientific school, and the spiritual school.

The methods and techniques proposed by each group are exactly the same – what differs are just two aspects – the how it works and the why it happens.

The scientists, as represented in ‘The Answer’ tend to deny any form of extra terrestrial involvement; no Universal energy, no Spirit, no ‘God’.

No external influence whatsoever.

It’s all done by the brain.

Internally.

The human mind is responsible for everything; everything we do individually and everything we do collectively.

And why you and I do things is as a result of external or internal stimuli.

My friend Steve Neale explains this very well in his weekly newsletter Monday Motivation this week.

But I don’t believe that’s the whole story – I sit with the spiritual school on this.

After all, where did we come from, where did the planet we stand on come from, where do our spontaneous thoughts and ideas come from?

Why do several people around the globe get the same idea at the same time? You know, when you discover that someone else has implemented a really good idea that you had a few months ago but ‘haven’t got round to’.

In ‘The Answer’ it’s all explained by reference to the Reticular Activation System (or as they call it on their audio ‘the RAZ’), which is a small, specific area in the brain.

It’s the bit of the brain that helps you to ‘see things’ such as when you decide to buy a new type of car, you suddenly start noticing that car ‘everywhere’ when you hadn’t noticed it before.

The RAS does that.

But, and here’s the thing, it helps with our goals as well.

It’s a strange thing but when you or I make a commitment, a decision, to go for a particular goal we start ‘seeing things’.

We start to recognise circumstances, opportunities and resources – which were ‘there’ all the time – that we hadn’t ‘seen’ before.

It was all there in front of us, but we didn’t notice it.

According to the scientific school the RAS does that, and yes, it is involved because in the spiritual school the RAS is the channel that you and I use to interface with the ‘higher power’ – whatever we want to call it.

However powerful our brains might be, and they are far more powerful that we know or admit, I can’t reconcile with the idea that they are responsible for everything.

Unless –

The brain, through the RAS, is connected with universal energy and thought – the 5^th and 7^th dimensions I spoke of a couple of weeks ago.

But it doesn’t really matter how it all works or why it all works. It doesn’t matter if you are a ’scientist’ or a ‘spiritualist’.

Both schools teach the same thing – and both are based on the same fundamental principle – the same undeniable ‘secret’.

No, not the Law of Attraction, although that does have a port to play along with the 10 other fundamental laws of the Universe.

This secret is described in only one word.

CLARITY

Clarity is fundamental to everything that you and I do, everything that we are or will be, do or have.

Who we are now, what we do now, what we have now, is a direct result of the level of clarity that, up until now, we have had about ourselves.

Whether it’s the RAS by itself or as a channel – you and I get what we ask for.

And our satisfaction with that depends on how clear we were when we thought the thoughts that brought it into being.

Quite often you and I have had a result that was ‘close but no cigar’ and that’s because we weren’t crystal clear about what we wanted.

And of course when we ask for nothing, by using terms like ‘I want’ or ‘I wish’, then we get nothing, because we’ve only made a statement that defines the status quo.

To say “I want more money” means I lack more money – statement of fact – no action required, and a ‘wish’ is the same.

To paraphrase my mentor Peter Thomson, lack of clarity causes resistance to achieving whatever goal or desire it is that we want to achieve.

Now getting clarity isn’t easy and it’s not something you can do quickly on a Sunday afternoon. It takes time, it takes revision, it’s an ongoing growth process.

But the more you do it, the more self-discipline you put into it, the easier it becomes. The most successful people in the world have worked hard on their ‘clarity muscles’ and are experts at gaining clarity.

So here’s an exercise for you.

Write down, by hand, on paper, a statement about one small goal or desire that you have decided to achieve. (Not that you ‘want’ to achieve)

Write in the present/past tense – something like ‘today I did this’, received that, something of that nature. It can be something you’ve just achieved or may be something that you’ve achieved over the past year.

Describe in detail what it is. No ‘dream’ houses, cars or partners please! Be specific, very specific.

Describe your feelings now this goal or desire has been achieved, write about other senses where appropriate, smells, sounds, and so on.

Make it real.

Now some of you may be noticing that I said all this last week, but it’s worth repeating because its really important, critical to our growth and progress.

Make a decision to go with this vision, a commitment, and when you’ve done that you’ll start ‘seeing things’

Act on those opportunities – now.

(Not when you ‘get round to it’)

Everyone has memories

You and I can remember good things and not so good things from our past.

But did you know that we remember everything?

Everything that we’ve ever done, ever said, ever felt, ever heard, ever tasted, ever been – everything.

Trouble is though, that we have significant difficulty accessing it!

How many files, documents, photos and so on do you have on your computer? Probably hundreds of thousands, possibly millions.

Do you know what’s there? Do you know how to find it?

All of it?

Probably not, and the brain, which is far, far, more powerful than any computer, is the same.

Everything is filed away neatly in an archive deep in the subconscious mind – seemingly lost forever.

Until one day when a specific memory will suddenly pop up.

A memory that you’d ‘forgotten’.

But it comes back in vivid HD quality colour and surround sound, and sometimes the smells, the tastes and the feelings come back.

Seemingly out of nowhere.

We’ve devised and built computers which can do some things quicker than our brains can and maybe find things quicker and do a lot of technical and exciting ‘good stuff’.

But as yet, they can’t think for themselves and they can’t retrieve ‘memories’ – files or data – unless we instruct them to and also help them find where it is.

Computers after all can only do stuff that humans have programmed into them – well up until now anyway.

Long ago, if we could ever indeed do it, we lost the power to easily recall all our memories.

Speculating, I would imagine that it was because we didn’t really need to, and that if we could we’d just go into total overload.

Just like the concept of telepathy where everyone can hear what everyone is thinking.

You know, like Facebook, or WhatsApp or Twitter – only a billion times more!

But those memories are all there, thought filed away until such time as it becomes relevant again.

Which it does.

Those ‘old’ memories can help us out from time to time.

The ‘bad’ memories can stop us making the same ‘mistake’ or getting into the same bad situation again, and the ‘good’ memories can remind us of our purpose, help us make the ‘right’ decisions, and of course make us happy.

Now that’s all very well and we don’t need to know ‘how it works’ – but have we really harnessed the power of memory?

Because we’re only ‘looking back’ – we consider ‘memory’ to be something to do with the past and exclusively to do with the past.

We create new memories every day and we file them away the next morning as ‘yesterday’.

But as you and I know, not only is there no such ‘thing’ as time, but also time is not ‘linear’. When we think, the thoughts we come up with most often bear no relation to time.

We can ‘think’ or visualise the ‘future’ – we can create a vision of what we would like our life to be.

We can ‘dream’.

Now there’s the paradigm – the paradigm most people have that dreams never come true and that they, and visions are just fantasy.

The subconscious works by using memories as a ‘test’ of what’s going on and generates thought which become feelings, which generate actions that cause results.

So what if you and I could create ‘future’ memories about some aspect of the life we would love?

Well, we can.

In three steps.

Start with a vision and break it down into specific goals. Goals we believe we can achieve even though, right now, we have no idea how.

Next get really, really clear on each goal – one at a time.

And I mean clear. We must have absolute clarity about each of our goals including all the senses, especially how we feel as that goal is achieved.

Anything that isn’t absolutely clear about the goal will cause resistance to its achievement. (this is the hard bit by the way)

And it’s really important to write this goal down (that’s by hand, on paper) and word it in the present/past tense at the point of achieving that goal.

“Today I achieved . . . [the goal] . . .”

If you use the future tense this won’t work.

The third step is to turn that statement of achievement, along with all the feelings and senses associated with it, into a ‘memory’.

Go past the goal to – “I remember yesterday when . . .”

Now fix it in your mind and reinforce it by regularly reading what you’ve written.

The memory thought will then be planted in your mind.

Now here’s the thing. The subconscious doesn’t like inconsistencies.

It can’t cope with them.

That ‘memory’ isn’t correct, doesn’t ‘compute’.

So what happens?

Your subconscious mind does everything it can to make that ‘false’ memory real.

To show you a way to achieve that goal in reality.

It works.

I know people who’ve done this, especially with small distinct clear goals.

That’s the secret – keep it simple.

Simple and absolutely crystal clear what is was you felt and sensed when you achieved that goal.

Your mind thinks it’s happened already, so it has to happen.

I’m off to clarify my goals

You?

‘Deep Thought’ was the giant computer in Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’ that was tasked with the question of finding the answer to ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything’

Well, I can tell you, it’s not 42!

It’s beyond the 5^th Dimension.

Now everyone ‘knows’ about the first 3 dimensions

‘Length’, ‘Height’ and ‘Depth’. The dimensions which meet when three lines each intersect at a 90 degree angle.

But that gives away the secret doesn’t it?

These three dimensions – the ones taught in school as being the foundation of everything we see and touch, are not real.

They’re just a mathematical construct.

Just a set of ‘rulers’ we use to measure our environment.

We’re familiar with them, we’re comfortable with them – we feel secure because they describe our ‘solidity’.

Although there is no such thing.

And then there’s the fourth dimension.

Usually referred to as ‘time’ but also as ‘space-time’ when the concept of motion is added to it.

And as I’ve referred to in a previous insight most people consider time as another linear measure, but one which has only one direction.

We are taught that you can only go forward in time, we can’t go back, and we can’t stand still.

Wrong again.

Time doesn’t exist, it’s an artificial construct developed by humanity to help us understand what on earth is going on.

These four dimensions, the linear dimensions, help you and I to understand where we are and ‘when’ we are in relation to where we’ve been and where me might be going.

Popularly and also dangerously, it includes the concept of ‘age’, causing us to limit the time we think we should hang around in the form we have now.

Noticeably the concepts of quantity and speed are not seen as dimensions, rather products of the first four.

Significantly, these four dimensions give us no clue as to what we are, who we are and why we are all these things.

“Why are we here”?

That brings us to the fifth dimension.

The first real dimension.

The fifth dimension is the energy dimension – the fifth dimension is about what we are.

Since the end of the last century physicists and mathematicians have come very close to the conclusion that nothing actually exists as a ‘thing’ in its own right.

Not too long ago it was thought that the smallest particle that existed was an atom.

But then this was found to consist of smaller particles – electrons, neutrons and protons.

Digging deeper and deeper into these smaller and smaller particles it has now been concluded that there is nothing ‘solid’ there at all – that everything, everything, is made up of ‘vibrations’ or energy.

There is no ‘matter’ – everything is energy.

And the way that energy vibrates and interacts with itself assembles into what we perceive as particles of solid matter.

And that of course includes us.

All we are, all you and I are, is energy working in a particular way

But as I’ve discussed before, energy also exists and pervades the Universe in non-particulate form as well.

We are within the fifth dimension – the energy dimension – which should perhaps be called the first dimension because without it, there would be no need for the current first four!

But if the fifth dimension is the dimension of energy, the dimension of life, how do we account for the ‘who’ and the ‘why’?

Currently there is a lot of scientific and mathematical research, and speculation, considering the concept of ‘space’.

Science fiction writers as usual have been way ahead on this, creating concepts like ‘warp drive’ and ‘stargates’.

If everything is energy – ‘doing its own thing’ in particulate or non-particulate form, what about the ‘space’ in between?

It has been estimated – on particle-based thinking, that 99.99% (or more) of the universe consists of just ‘space’ – and that includes all the space between all the particles in the atoms that go to make up our bodies.

Or is there really ‘space’ in between – or is all the energy ‘joined up in some way?

If we take the premise that energy exists in space, then ‘space’ becomes the 6^th Dimension. But space isn’t part of ‘where?’ because space is nothing, it’s nowhere.

Space is the nothing between the streams and particles of energy that ‘inhabit’ it.

But there is something odd about space. You and I have to ‘create space’ when we take on something new, whether that’s an idea, a piece of furniture in our home, or a new person in our life.

It’s as if all that empty space is ‘reserved’ for something, as if it has to ‘be there’ in order for everything (which of course is all energy) to exist.

But I haven’t answered ‘who?’ or ‘why?’

Which brings me to my concept of the 7^th Dimension.

What causes energy to behave the way it does?

To form into particles, objects, living creatures; to hold the universe together in the space within which it finds itself?

The 7^th dimension, the dimension that manages and manipulates all this, the dimension that causes ‘things’ to come into being, and that answers both the ‘who?’ and the ‘why?’ questions?

The 7^th Dimension is thought.

“Everything is created twice” says Mary Morrissey echoing the writing of Wallace Wattles. When we think up something that we want to create, a meal for example, we take energy in different forms (remembering that everything is energy) and turn it into something else.

Energy cannot do that by itself – it doesn’t spontaneously reorganize itself. It needs direction, it needs an ‘intention’ to be set before it can generate a change.

What this means is that as energy beings – which we are – we don’t always have to do the ‘doing’ – but we have to do the thinking.

You and I have to set an intention.

If that intention is strong enough, and clear enough and, importantly, consistent with the law that energy can neither be created or destroyed, only ‘reorganised’, and mindful that the energy we want to ‘re-arrange’ into something new has to come from somewhere – then that intention will be realised.

We will likely have to do some things to help it on its way, but once an intention is set then it will be realised – provided – that we continue to be open to the 7^th dimension and act on any further thoughts that we have about the intention.

This is entirely consistent with the idea that everything was created by a supreme being – once one realises that ‘supreme being’ is pure thought (the 7^th dimension) working in the first instance with pure energy (the 5^th dimension) in an empty ‘space’ (the 6^th dimension).

Think on.

Set your intentions.

Act on the thoughts that come to you in order to achieve them.

There are two key levels of activity that have to be exercised to successfully carry out any plan, action or even routine.

‘Command and Control’ are usually applied in a military sense but in fact they apply to pretty much everything else as well.

Most people like to think they are ‘in control’ of their lives, their relationships, their careers, their health and their lifestyle.

But who is actually ‘in command’?

In the military, the ‘command’ is given by a senior officer, and the junior officers control the execution of that command – by giving commands to their subordinates who then control the actions that they need to take.

The trouble that most people have, particularly those who are employed, is that they may be in ‘control’ of what they do and how they do it, but they aren’t in ‘command’.

They do what they are told for the benefit of their employer or the shareholders of the company they work for.

And the same happens with some marriages or partnerships – one person is ‘in command’, and the other goes along with what he or she wants – ‘for a quiet life’.

They are in control of what they do, but they have made a choice.

They’ve chosen to be under the command of a spouse or an employer – and in some cases, those who are self employed, or own their own businesses, find themselves under the command of their customers and clients.

The producers who supply the big supermarkets for example.

You may be in control of the car you’re driving – but if you don’t know where you’re going, or you’re going where someone else is directing you, then you’re not actually in command of the vehicle.

The thing is – you and I can quite easily take control of our lives – but how do we ensure that we’re ‘in command’ as well?

It’s all a matter of choices.

The ‘right’ choices.

Control is about how you and I do stuff – what we do and how we do it, and how long we take to execute our plan to achieve a particular goal or ambition.

It goes wrong when someone else, or some circumstance, interferes with whatever it is we are doing.

When the goalposts are moved during the process, when the playing field is no longer level, and when we run into a fog of uncertainty.

We can get diverted, we can get stuck in a traffic jam, or the weather conditions can suddenly deteriorate.

When these things happen the likelihood of our losing control of our vehicle or our journey increases as the parameters we are working within are disrupted.

But, even if we lose control, we can regain it because the primary goal we are working to achieve remains the same – unless . . .

We receive a new command – that doesn’t originate within ourselves.

When a situation of our own making goes out of control then we can take action by issuing a new command to change the primary goal according to the circumstances we find ourselves in.

If we are stuck in a two-hour traffic jam we can perhaps re-command ourselves to abandon the objective and set an alternative.

If we issued the command in the first place, then we remain in command, whatever the situation.

You and I answer only to our own commanding officer – us.

But what if all is going well and is, as far as our part in the process is concerned, ‘under control – and then we receive a new command, or instruction, from someone else.

An employer, a client, a partner, a colleague, a spouse

And by new command or instruction I do mean something that is not simply a suggestion.

The trouble is, that people do tend to make ‘requests’ or even ‘suggestions’, that are actually thinly disguised commands.

We’ve all been there haven’t we?

There are essentially two ways of dealing with this – and the choice boils down to ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

We can agree to the new command or we can reject it.

But how does our response affect the level of control we have over our lives or just what we’re doing at the time?

Our response will of course depend on who the new instruction comes from and consequently what effect it is likely to have on our relationship with that person.

If we reject all the ‘suggestions’ that come from others we might get fired, we might lose a good client, or we might end up in the divorce court.

And it depends on the level of control we might want to retain – because sometimes, those alternatives are really the ‘right thing to do’ if we really want to take full command of who we are!

On the other hand, if we accept all new commands without question, then we’ll be seen as ‘weak’ or an ‘easy touch’ or as ‘having no backbone’.

‘Giving in’ to avoid a ‘fuss’, or a ‘scene’ or any form of confrontation, however mild that might be, is rarely the right thing to do.

What is needed in the situation when you or I are directed to ‘change course’ in some way, is simple.

It’s called ‘feedback’.

Commanding officers quite often make decisions with a lack of awareness of what is actually going on ‘in the field’.

There are numerous examples in military history of the front line intel being ignored or decisions being made without any information about what is actually going on.

But you and I are not ‘under orders’ so we can feed back our situation and we can question the new direction, and we can discuss the issue with our employer, client, partner to discover why this new command (or ‘suggestion’) has been made.

“If we carry on doing this then the outcome is A, but if we change and do that then the outcome is B. Is that what you want?”

This way, with a client, with an employer or with a spouse or partner, you and I can retain control.

And of course, we can use the same argument with ourselves when we are in command!

By giving feedback like this, most times, relationships will be strengthened and made more equal; and if not then it’s probably time to end that relationship – or if you are the ‘commander’, change the way you think!

Are you in control?

And are you in command?

And if not (to either of these questions) – who is?

Well, this is it, it’s finally arrived.

The ‘blue moon’. The third in a series of ‘super moons’ that have occurred in the last three months.

Dec 3rd, Jan 1^st, and this one coming up today Wednesday 31^st Jan, which will also be a super blood blue moon eclipse (the last time we would have experienced this one would have been 150 years ago).

(Unfortunately the full super moon won’t be visible in the UK as it occurs at 12:51pm during the day when the moon is below our horizon – but take a look if the sky is clear on the morning of February 1^st at 2 am – you might just see the ‘remains’ of that ‘blue moon’)

My friend Julie Silver writes . . .

“ . . . the vibrational frequency of the planet has been dramatically increasing at a very fast speed with these supermoons

If you are feeling as if you’ve been on the fastest spin cycle in a washing machine, maybe hungover together with jetlag, possibly feeling nauseous/having digestive issues, sore throat/infection/virus, aches & pains, wanting to sleep more than usual, waking constantly or feeling too wired to sleep, having vivid/maybe disturbing dreams, possibly feeling more stressed, irritable, fearful, frustrated, anxious, agitated, overwhelmed, emotional with extreme fatigue & tiredness then this could be a valid reason for it.

However, you could be feeling like you’ve been given a new lease of life and filled with excitement & joy for what is happening to you now or in anticipation what is to come into your life.

Also, the way you perceive everything now could have shifted dramatically and you can’t make sense of things as you used to.

If you are particularly sensitive to this energy then you could have been feeling this extreme and heightened energy even more, especially since the end of last November.

These powerful energies can cause a big shake up in your life, helping you to learn some powerful life lessons allowing you to let go of the old (which will be happening whether you instigate it or not) to make some positive shifts that align with your truest nature.

If you can ride the storm and keep your sanity, then you can probably expect amazing synchroncities with opportunities to allow you to come from the heart and for your creative skills to blossom.”

I know several people, including myself, who, for certain, have moved through this process of turbulence and disruption into what can be described as some level as a new beginning.

And there’s more

Thee are major global political, societal, technical and spiritual changes on the way.

I’m advised that this could, or even ‘will’ start to come about in the next two weeks – so you and I need to be ‘ready’.

What do I mean by that?

Well, most people are scared of change, they fear it, they create negative scenarios and build up their stress levels for no reason other than those of their own invention. This leads inevitably to illness or malfunction of one sort or another.

Other people, like you and I, are more excited by change. They ‘can’t wait’ for the ‘old’ to be replaced by the ‘new’. For some people change can’t come soon enough, regardless of what it is.

By the way the emotions of ‘fear’ and ‘excitement’ are initiated by the same hormones. Being ‘scared’ and being ‘excited’ are the same thing – two sides of the same coin.

That’s why a lot of people get ‘mixed up’ when ‘change’ is going on.

Take Julie’s advice, be prepared and be expectant, and most of all be positive about what might happen, or what might not happen, over the coming weeks and months.

At the same time, you and I need to be crystal clear, crystal clear, on our visions for the different domains of our lives and the goals we are setting to realise those visions.

You and I need to know where we stand and where we are going, when just like in Hogwarts, the staircases move, and when the way ahead appears to be shut, and when new paths open up.

You and I need to re-programme the ‘Satnav of our Soul’ to help us find the way to go because there will be some ‘route recalculations’ on the way!

We don’t need to be concerned about hitting the waypoints we have right now, they will change, but if we have full clarity on where we are going we will get there.

Although not necessarily by any route we may have envisaged.

But there is one thing to remember (and thanks to Jason Jackman for this insight).

Many people are strongly attached to the way they are now; embedded in their circumstances; convinced that what they desire, the live they’d love, can only be achieved in a certain way or with certain people around them.

They will get ‘lost ‘as change occurs around them. They will lose their points of reference, they’ll find themselves using an out of date map. And some of the people around them, upon whom they may be relying for some reason or purpose, will just ‘disappear’.

They will end up in the wilderness wondering “what happened?”

So you and I need to adopt a different strategy.

A strategy of detachment or ‘un-attachment’ from all the things and people around us and that are part of our current ‘plan’.

That’s not to say that we should start abandoning people and things for ever or stop caring for and loving them.

The thing is that you and I need to be able to ‘let go’, as and when necessary, of anything and everything, anyone and everyone, that becomes no longer entirely relevant to our journey.

And letting go will often just mean that we go on ahead and allow them to ‘catch up’ in their own time if they aren’t able or willing to ‘keep up’ with us. They can still be ‘there’ in our lives but not necessarily where they were before.

At the same time, we are ‘making space’ for new people, and new concepts, and new things and may also be allowing people and things already in our lives to take on new roles, new positions.

You and I need to be ready to ‘reorganise’ or ‘reshuffle our cabinet’ of companions, associates and advisors.

Exciting isn’t it.

I’m looking forward, ready.

How about you?

Don’t worry – I’m not going to start talking about my favourite multi utility company!

This is about an entirely different kind of ‘energy’.

Except of course that everything is energy, but I’ll come back to that.

“I don’t have the energy” – “I feel really energetic”

“I just feel drained” – “I’m ready for anything”

Phrases that you and I use from time to time according to our ‘mood’ are indicative that we are aware of our own ‘energy’, and it’s the same with everyone else.

But not many people know what this really means or how our ‘energy’ works.

Most people believe that ‘energy’ has to do with fitness, nutrition, lifestyle, health and so on but in fact it’s much more than that.

Our ‘energy’ doesn’t come from what we eat, what exercise we do, or from any other tangible source. These things only help us to sustain our energy.

Our energy comes from ‘outside’ – it flows into and through us – and moves into whatever you and I are ‘doing’ at any time, whether that is something physical or something that requires us to exercise our mind.

You see, the truth is that everything consists of energy, and only energy.

Every atom in the Universe is made up of smaller particles, and these are made up of still smaller particles – all of it held together by energy.

Quantum mechanics and metaphysics and other deep scientific disciplines are now coming to demonstrate that all of these smaller and smaller ‘particles’ are just expressions of energy.

Everything, you and I, our homes, our technology, all our ‘stuff’ and everything on the planet we live on including the planet itself and the solar system, is just energy expressing itself in particular ways – as different dynamics and arrangements of particles.

But the thing is that there are two types of energy.

There is particulate energy that makes up all the ‘stuff’ and there is pure energy.

Pure energy can take different forms, but really, only when you and I use it or interact with it.

You and I have heard of and talk about positive and negative energy, and then there’s physical energy, mental energy and spiritual energy.

Different ways of the energy that makes up the Universe, expressing itself.

Pure energy flows in streams. It flows into us and through us according to what we are thinking and what we are doing.

But like a stream of water there are many things we can do with it.

We can consume it and convert it into activity of some sort which then transfers the energy according to whatever we are doing physically or mentally, into, or onto, something or someone else, thus maintaining the flow.

But we can also pollute the energy.

Pure energy in its native ‘form’ is essentially positive and good; but people can, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently, convert it into negative energy, or in extreme cases ‘dark’ energy.

You see, most people aren’t aware of these energetic flows, they aren’t aware of their position or status within the Universe. They aren’t aware that they, themselves, are energy.

Instead they believe that they are ‘in control’. They believe that their energy is generated by themselves, and they use it for whatever means they think fit.

As particulate energy beings, you and I are in a state of symbiosis with pure Universal energy; which means that the one cannot fully control the other, either way.

Symbiosis means living together for mutual benefit, so a balance should be maintained, and normally it is, except when things go out of balance, accounting for the presence of evil and hostility.

Why this happens is a different story but what you and I should be doing at all times is maintaining the ‘balance’ between our particulate energy and the pure energy flowing through us.

(And I’ll discuss where the pure energy comes from and how it arrives, another time)

The trick is to manage our energy flow in the best way.

Visualise the energy stream flowing through you. It gives you the impetus, intuition and strength to do what you are doing (or thinking) at any particular time.

Imagine you come into conflict or competition with another person – in ‘opposition’ to what you are doing or plan to do. What happens to the energy streams?

They collide, clash, or cross and as a result are disrupted, and just like two cars colliding this will cause damage, sometimes destroying that energy flow, dissipating it back to Source.

What happens instead if you decide to co-operate with someone, to eliminate any conflict and work towards similar objectives or outcomes?

When you work as a ‘team’ in this way the energy streams proceed alongside each other, helping you all towards the place where you want to go.

But in a ‘team’ not all of each individual’s energy is directed towards the team goal, or it’s only directed there for a short time, and so the total energy available from all the ‘players’ is diluted to some extent as people work on or think about other things.

But what happens when you form a partnership, a full connection with another person? (It’s usually 1 to 1, but can be a small group).

What happens then is that the energy streams join together and become stronger. When people are ‘in synch’ this is very powerful as the joint objective can be achieved much more easily

This doesn’t need to be a permanent connection – it depends on the goal.

But if you and I don’t manage our energy and maintain a balance, then there is a price to pay – an ‘energy bill’ as it becomes more difficult to ‘draw down’ on your ‘energy account’ even though unlimited energy is always available.

To make best use of your energy, let it flow, don’t mess it up, and always do your best to co-operate or connect with others rather than getting into conflicts.

And to help, you and I actually have a ‘smart meter’ installed. Our feelings and our ‘mood’ will always tell us when our energy is out of balance.

Watch your ‘energy meter’, notice when you feel ‘drained’ or depressed about something, or anxious, or just lethargic. This means you need to boost your energy flow either by restricting the energy going out or by drawing more in, and one way of doing that is by managing the way you interface with the other particulate energy beings around you.

Energy is everything – everything is energy.

“Sickness and diseases pull you down, pull you down”

So wrote Dave Swarbrick and Richard Thompson in the Fairport Convention song of the same name.

There’s been a lot of it about recently, and I suppose that there is all the time. But there are some times of the year and some occasions when it seems that more people get ‘ill’.

I remember when I was young that my Dad was always, or more often that not, ill in bed over the midwinter ‘holiday’ season and it seems a lot of people are the same.

When the ‘work pressure’ comes off for a brief period it has been suggested that the body or the subconscious decides that it’s time for a rest; it’s time to ‘stop’.

This seems to lower the defences and allow bacteria or those strands of RNA called viruses to invade, or if they are inside already to spark into action and cause the havoc that they do so well (for their point of view – if they had one).

Because the normal ‘balance’ of activity has changed, because the ‘routine’ has changed, you and I become susceptible to dis-ease and allow ‘illness’ to creep in.

Not consciously of course although there is evidence that some people psychologically attract illness because that’s the state in which they feel ‘comfortable’.

Hypochondriacs are always looking for something that’s ‘wrong’ with them and they aren’t ‘happy’ unless they have something to complain about.

This will usually result from a belief pattern that has developed from childhood. The idea that you can skip school by being ‘ill’ which then develops into the ‘sick note’ culture of work avoidance.

In that mindset being ‘ill’ is good because it enables the avoidance of something else. Trouble is that it can get out of hand.

There are also people that ‘like’ to be ‘ill’ in some way because then other people will look after them, take care of them and probably do stuff that they don’t want to do themselves.

But for you and I and for most people illness is ‘bad’ or at best a nuisance as it distracts us from what we want to do, and often actually prevents us from doing things.

Sickness and diseases do ‘pull you down’, but why? Everything happens for a reason so what is the reason that you and I sometimes get sick?

Those of a religious nature would ask why does God allow these things to happen, so many people to become ill, so many people to die prematurely from illnesses?

And as an aside is not age itself an illness? There are several scientific papers espousing that theory.

If as some scientists are now coming to understand, the whole universe is just made up of pure energy expressing itself in different forms, why do these dis-ease anomalies occur?

Some religions would say that it is a form of retribution or punishment for something we have done or sometimes something that we intend to do, and to my mind there may be some truth in this, although not expressed in that way.

You see, it’s more of a balancing mechanism.

To remain ‘well’ our energy has to be in balance, in equilibrium with the energy of everything around us and if we do something, or plan to do something, that will upset that equilibrium, then we can become ill.

What I have found, and something that many others have commented on, is that being ill, being out of the normal routine, being ‘laid up’, gives you time to think. To think about what you are doing, what you have done, and any changes you plan to make.

Yes, it can be painful but making mistakes, really important big mistakes, is also painful and the healing process that takes place during and after illness gives us pause for thought about how we are directing our lives.

But what about those illnesses that don’t heal, that persist and grow, or those illnesses that cause a rapid termination of life?

The truth, although most people don’t believe it, is that any dis-ease can be healed by the correct direction of spiritual energy at the correct time, and in the same way immunities can also be put in place.

But of course, it does require an awareness that this is possible and the belief that it is true.

But ‘science’ cannot find a way of proving this so sadly the medical profession in most instances dismiss it as, at best ‘nonsense’ or at worst ‘witchcraft’, thus labelling natural spiritual healing as ‘bad’.

‘Natural remedies’ are similarly treated. The pharmaceutical industry makes vast amounts of money extracting what hey believe are the ‘active’ components of natural remedies and refining them into drugs – not realizing that natural remedies wok holistically!

Then there’s the power of the mind. I know personally and have heard about many people given a few months to live by doctors who could do nothing for them who have completely resolved the ‘terminal’ condition they were supposed to be in.

Just by ‘deciding’ – deciding, or becoming aware of, their purpose.

And there are others who, although they have not entirely resolved their condition but are still alive and active long after the doctors prophesied their imminent death – Stephen Hawking springs to mind.

Sickness and diseases are part of the natural order of things.

They are part of the process of our personal evolution, they force us to stop and re-evaluate what we’ve done, what we’re doing and what we plan to do.

So here’s the thing – to avoid becoming ill too often, you and I need to do just that, on a regular basis. Add ‘why?’ to each of these and we’ll soon develop a good level of immunity – unless we get it horribly wrong.

Illness is a sign, a sign that we’re not in balance with ourselves or with the energy of the universe.

That we’ve made an error of judgment, made a wrong decision, are on the ‘wrong’ path or are planning something contrary to our purpose.

It’s usually a pretty clear ‘Stop’ sign!

Learn how to manage the energy in you and around you. Find a spiritual healer who can help you with that. Use hygiene and conventional medicine as well, that can deal quite well with some of the ‘mechanics’, but don’t assume that they know everything.

Stay well.