We don’t need to accept toxic thoughts

Toxic thoughts create Toxic Forests in the mind

Dr. Carolyn Leaf, a cognitive neuroscientist, has been researching the brain since 1981. She explains that toxic memories take up space and affect the way you think as well as the way the brain functions. If you accept toxic thoughts, “you push it into a ‘memory tree’ of toxic chemicals.” She shows a picture of the brain that has accepted a toxic thought. It looks like a tree, having many branches and looks dark and troubled. She says it contains toxic emotions and toxic chemicals that can be a precursor to disease.

Dr. Leaf says an unforgiving attitude can cause such things as high blood pressure, angina, strokes and aneurysms. Saying or thinking things like “I can’t do it”, “I always mess up”, “things will never change”, and “that’s not fair” overtime can make you sick. [1]

As we journey through life, we must actively make choices about what thoughts we accept. How do you accept a thought or belief? You’ve accepted one when “you choose to ask, answer, discuss, and analyze to give meaning to”. Toxic thoughts create a forest of tangled trees that take up space in your brain, preventing the easy flow and development of creative thoughts.

Our life actions are based upon our internal thought life and the forest of trees. We react to life circumstances because our thought life is based on being a victim to our environment and ruminating on problems. A fully realized person does not react.  They act. Freed from self-destructive behavior patterns, beliefs and judgments, one acts, creating effortlessly from the direct perception of the need of the moment. This is freedom.

Making “good” choices is more than just positive thinking.  We can look for the “good things of life”, but miss the Source of Life.  We miss Life itself.  If we think that peace and joy is the goal of life, we miss the point.  If we are devoted to material gains or material posses­sions, the focus is on the temporary. All attention goes to the changing and not to that which never changes.

The Source of Life is Omnipresent, it is universal. It never changes. It exists inside every human heart, inside every human mind. It fills all of space and all of time with its wonderful radiance; there is no place it cannot be seen and fully known. Our role as self-conscious beings is to choose to look first for the Source of Life.

What control we have over our world may be limited. But we do have complete control over how we use our own minds. We may have completely forgotten this fact; we may feel we are victims of forces, external and internal, that are quite beyond our control. But it is not so.

A regular practice of Art of Ascension not only roots out these troubled trees, but takes the mind to the Source. Using the eyes-open practice gives a simple way to retrain the mind to look toward the Source of all Life. As a result, the old trees of duality and toxicity atrophy and wither away.

[1] Leaf, C. P. (2008). Who Switched Off My Brain? Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions.

Did you know humans make their own cannabinoid?

Did you know humans make their own cannabinoid?

Did you know there is a bliss chemical in human beings? Anandamide, the bliss chemical, is produced naturally when we pray, meditate, breath correctly, and are at peace with the world.  The name anandamide is taken from the Sanskrit word ananda, which means bliss.

In lay terms, research has found that the body has natural cannabis receptors.  This bliss chemical, a cannabinoid, is produced and consumed by your own system and has wondrous effects for your health and well-being, with no bad side effects. 

 What does anandamide do in the human? For starters: anxiety relief, appetite enhancement (compounds similar to anandamide have been discovered in dark chocolate), suppression of nausea, relief from the symptoms of glaucoma.  Anandamide is the chemical that gives you the "chills", the little orgasmic thrill you get from noticing something beautiful. It is the supreme pain killer and much stronger and more effective than morphine.   A study published in 1998 shows that anandamide inhibits human breast cancer cell proliferation.

How does that connect with the Art of Ascension?  MSI said “Praise leads to Bliss in the shortest possible time”.  We begin to live Praise, and life unfolds for us in ways that we previously could not imagine.  More of this human manufactured cannabinoid is being produced.  The first Ascension Attitude one learns is the Praise Attitude; that cuts away at our judgements about our experience of life, replacing judgement with appreciation.  Every time we use it, we are beginning to structure the highest state of consciousness.   

AGAPE is my word for 2020. My word to meditate upon and to bring into every area of my life.

The Greek word AGAPE has no real English equivalent. Sometimes, AGAPE is translated as Love, but Love in English could be said to apply to your love for hot dogs, or any passing fancy that you “love” for a while but later dislike. Greek has at least 4 words that translate into the English word “love”.

The famous Love Chapter in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13) is about AGAPE/Love, coming from the original Greek. Some translations of AGAPE in that chapter use the word charity, for it comes from the space of giving compassion, with kindness and patience. This chapter clearly reminds us that without AGAPE/Love, we are nothing. Also, that perfect love that casts out fear (1 John 4:18), that's AGAPE /love, too, in the original Greek.

Jesus taught that someone seeking the Kingdom of God would:

· AGAPE/love God,

· AGAPE/love our neighbor as we AGAPE /love ourselves (and treat our neighbor as we treat ourselves)

· AGAPE/love our enemies.


Throughout the New Testament use of the word AGAPE brings the essence of never ending unconditional love, loving-kindness and mercy that is unfailing and totally undeserved. AGAPE is unconditional love; it is unfailing love. God is the source of AGAPE. God is AGAPE. Through AGAPE, we recognize that there is a force that connects us all, and if we allow that AGAPE/love to flow within that circle, it requires no reciprocation. 

With any ineffable word or concept, it often seems easier or more important to say what it is NOT. AGAPE/Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, and doesn’t keep a record of wrong-doings, is not easily angered, and is not self-seeking.

It has been said that AGAPE comes more from your will than from a feeling. I wholeheartedly agree with that. Unlike popular culture which believes it is a romantic feeling, it must be based on a voluntary choice followed by action, doing what is best for all no matter how you feel.

No matter what we feel, we can still ask for God's AGAPE/Love to fill us and to overflow into every area of our life. All we have to do then is accept and allow it to be. While it may be difficult to forgive within our own humanity, when we rely on God’s AGAPE/Love, forgiveness becomes an act of will.