What is meditation?

Simply stated, meditation is a way to relax the mind. 

If it’s that simple, why meditate? The most common reasons why people learn to meditate is for anxiety, depression, relaxation, or spiritual awakening. Research has shown that meditation can have physical and emotional benefits with things such as improving the immune system, reducing cognitive decline, helping with conditions such as stress, heart disease, chronic pain, high blood pressure, trauma, addictions, and much more. 

However, just as there are a multitude of ways to exercise the body, there are many different forms and types of meditation. Generally speaking, all meditations will provide some improvement in health. But it is important to understand, each meditation is different and provides different benefits. For example, one meditation may help relieve anxiety, but it may do little to relieve depression. 

Many meditations address only the mind and body. These will provide some health benefits over time. But one must realize, a human being is more than body and mind; they also have a third aspect. Each person may talk about their experience of that third aspect with different words such as Spirit, Unconditional Love and compassion, or even expanded consciousness or awareness. 

Addressing only the mind and body with a meditative practice is like topping off the oil in your car daily rather than addressing the leak. The car will continue to operate, but the leak remains and may cause further issues down the line if the leak is not found and corrected. 

Every human being comes with a built-in desire. We all desire to connect with the third aspect, to bring more love and light into our life through direct experience. You may have noticed when someone falls in love and commits to a loving relationship, you see a great positive change in them. This happens because one is resonating with that third aspect and they are expanding their boundaries. 

Finding and committing to a meditation that addresses all three aspects, body/mind/spirit provides greater foundational support and helps to address more chronic dis-ease, depression, addictions, trauma, etc. For a person learning a new meditative practice, again the analogy to physical exercise fits. One may not see the benefits immediately. Most likely, benefits will be seen when used regularly for about 6 weeks. Meditations, like exercise, work best when used daily and consistently. The more hours you meditate over a lifetime, the wider the array of benefits you will notice and the stronger these benefits become.

For more information, check out these articles:

Helpful Meditation Tips

Power of Love

Ascension Attitudes

Can a weekend of meditation change my life?

Source and Goal: The Ascendant

Many techniques lead to higher consciousness because they touch ever so briefly on the Ascendant.  However, the goal of these techniques is the external outcome – the healing, the loving feeling, the revelation, in other words, the experience.  Because that is the intent, or goal, reaching higher consciousness takes longer.

The Ascendant is the unbounded consciousness that everything comes from. It has many names or even could be called the nameless One. The name, Ascendant, just allows each of us to have a new experience of it, rather than come from all the ideas and beliefs about it that have come down through the eons.

In Ascension, we begin the Teaching with talking about innocence.  As we teach Ascension, we remind the student that we do not look for, or try to have certain experiences.  We just allow whatever happens to happen.  This allows us to begin to move deeper into the Source – the Ascendant.  Yes, there will be by-products in the manifest world when we Ascend.  However, our goal is to move ever more deeply into the Source, have a direct experience of It, become more familiar with That, and begin to live life from the Center of the Universe.

Ascension works because it is completely natural and follows natural laws. Nature provides an excellent example of how Ascension works.  In the Midwest, there exists almost no original prairie lands.   Where there is now just clay, rocks and relatively lifeless lands, people are beginning to replant prairie grasses. The first year, very little growth is seen above the surface.  Underneath however, begins to grow an entire root structure with large tap roots.  This completely changes the nature of the ground underneath, softens it, and makes nutrients more available.  The second year, with this foundation in place, the prairie may grow up to 18 feet high, new wild life is attracted and everything begins to be enlivened around it.

This is an excellent example of how Ascension works – developing tap roots and developing higher consciousness. Ascension actually restructures the mind to tap into higher consciousness.  The more we practice, the more we can tap into that Infinite Source that brings All Good to our lives.   From that, the by-products are endless because they are all coming from the Source – the Ascendant.

Peak Experience

Peak Experience 

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Bruce Lee had a birth defect that may have precluded him for martial arts; one leg was 1 ½ inches longer than the other. In a field that considers balance and symmetry a requirement, Bruce Lee pushed beyond all limitations; he developed his own style of martial arts that could accommodate his “weakness” and became the top of his field.

Our limitations live only in our mind. Some people are testing and breaking previously held limits. This article explores a way to jump start the process of living your ultimate potential. Going past the norm has some shared neurological processes that can be sped up, honed, and supported with simple mental techniques known as The Art of Ascension as taught by the Ishayas.

In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow studied some the most successful people, those that lived outside the norm. He found they all had similar experiences and from that he coined the term, peak experience. The peak experience is universal; it is experienced across all cultures. It appears at the most unpredictable times -- staring at the stars in the mountains, listening to the ocean waves at sunset, while jogging, and an endless number and variety of other human experiences. An individual in a peak experience perceives:

·        no time and space

·        functioning effortlessly and easily without strain or struggle, all separateness from the world disappears

·        being without inhibition, fear, doubt, and self-criticism

·        a free mind that is flexible and open to creative thoughts and ideas

The above words describe the experience of expanded awareness.

 

After studying the peak experience for about 20 years, Maslow created a new theory; he believed individuals climbed a ladder, what he called a “Hierarchy of Needs.”  Some people eventually reach the top need, to self-actualize. Later in life, he recognized that not all the lower rungs needed to be fulfilled. In studying self-actualizers, Maslow found they had more peak experiences than most people. Self-actualizing people are interested in moving from one peak experience to another, realizing their ultimate potential. As they pursue their personal evolution, they flow their ever-expanding growth out and into the lives of others.

Figure 1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Figure 1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

You may believe you have not had a peak experience; but consider the quite common experience of “falling in love.”  The experience of overlooking the flaws of your loved one and of seeing “the best” in the loved one also fits within the description of expanded awareness. When you fall in love, your brain releases chemicals such as dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin. They produce a physiological response that includes an expansion of awareness. In expansion you are pumped up with neurotransmitters that feel good. They make your brain function at its best.

A suggestion that peak experiences can become the ordinary experience of life may seem surpris­ing. As one finds the peak experience rewarding, and begins seeking more of that experience, this becomes a skill. A neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Huberman describes this continual expansion as a skill that can be leveraged to keep expanding. Continual expansion is a skill developed by a regular practice of the Art of Ascension.

Maslow considered the top rung of expansion to be a by-product of stress dissolving. As stress dissolves, one develops emotional intelligence, is more spontaneous, humorous, appreciative, and accepting of self and others.

Stress is a common experience in modern life. Stress is a physiological response when our perceived needs are not met. In a Yale 2012 study, a major stress event such as the death of a loved one or job loss was shown to shrink the prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate and the insula, parts of the brain that are responsible for emotion, decision making, self-control and goal achievement. These continued to shrink for each additional major stress event a person experienced. Dr. Daniel Goleman said, “Stress makes us stupid” because stress, in a nutshell, shuts down the thinking part of the brain so that we can respond to threats instinctively and reflexively. This leaves few resources for creativity, a functioning immune system, good digestion, the anti-aging process, or self-actualizing.

In order to move from the life of stress to the experience of expanding awareness requires a change in the structure of the brain and the nervous system. It must change from an experience of stress and limitations to perceive it as an opportunity to gain experience. Carol Dweck, a research neurologist from Stanford University, in her book, Growth Mindset says, it requires erasing or supplanting old limiting belief patterns into a new expanded way of being, with the desire to expand being a bigger desire than the desire to be right.

Rewiring the brain and nervous system based on new experience is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form new connections and pathways and change how its circuits are wired; neurogenesis is the even more amazing ability of the brain to grow new neurons (Bergland, 2017). Our brains are truly extraordinary; unlike computers, which are built to certain specifications and receive software updates periodically, our brains can actually receive hardware updates in addition to software updates. Different pathways form and fall dormant, are created, and are discarded, according to our experiences.

Unlike past beliefs in brain science, Eric Knudsen showed in his research that the mind can be equally malleable in a 40-year-old as in a child!  It is possible to become our own neurosurgeon at any age, to change the way the brain operates. Carol Dweck  put it this way, “It’s not that we are born smart, average, or dumb, but the brain is more like a muscle, it changes and gets stronger when you use it… You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.” The difference between the adult’s malleability and the child’s is one of focus and inner direction. The child’s malleability is non-focused, but the adult brain’s malleability requires focus.

According to Dr. Andrew Huberman, “For people that want to change their brain, the power of focus is really the entry point—and the ability to access deep rest.” The repetitive change in neural activity patterns lead to a reorganization in neural circuits, which produces long lasting functional change. As we adapt, our brains dispose of unused or unnecessary neural connections while strengthening and preserving those that are used frequently. This activity is called synaptic pruning and occurs only during deep rest.

Dr. Huberman goes on to note specifically, “PET (Positron Emission Tomography) studies support the idea that a period of stillness each day, anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes of physical stillness, combined with some gratitude, creates a neurochemical signature in us that involves dopamine release as well as serotonin and oxytocin release. It’s kind of like [what] MDMA or ecstasy is designed to do but obviously without ingesting anything.”

The Art of Ascension is unlike other meditations. While many meditations and relaxation techniques are now available promoting the ability to improve our lives, each one has a different aim and research shows they have different outcomes. The purpose of Ascension is to rewire the brain and nervous system, bringing it to optimal levels. It expands awareness and produces alertness while giving deeper rest than is possible with sleep, all while it is opening awareness to an experience of orderliness that lies deep within yourself.

The deep rest can be measured as decreased blood pressure, decreased oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and a lower respiratory rate, all exceed what is possible in sleep, mindfulness, hypnosis, apps, etc. A review of 37 studies shows it is an integrated psychophysiological response and is successful in erasing stress, thereby reducing hypertension, insomnia, anxiety, pain, and medication use across multiple populations.

It also incorporates praise, gratitude, love, and compassion, upward spiraling emotions that assist in the expansion of awareness. So, the Art of Ascension charms the mind during every phase of transformation. The mind is always greedy for more experience, more love, more peace, more knowledge. When used regularly, the Ascension techniques facilitate continued expansion.

It is one thing to experience periods of stillness with the eyes closed in periods of meditation. It is quite another thing to incorporate a tool that can be used throughout a busy, hectic life. Neuroscience has coined Hebb’s rule which states, “neurons that fire together wire together.”  Rick Hanson explains, first, as your brain changes, your mind changes. Second, as your mind changes, your brain changes. Many of those changes are fleeting, as your brain changes moment to moment to support the movement of information. But many are lasting, as neurons wire together: structure builds in the brain. Mental activity is like a spring shower, leaving little traces of neural structure behind. Over time, the little tracks in the hillside draw in more water down, deepening their course. A kind of circular self-organizing dynamic gradually develops, and then the mind tends to move increasingly down that channel, and soon enough you have a gully.

To add to the power of the Art of Ascension, you can use these mental techniques throughout the day, interrupting any negative “gully” patterns. It is possible to retrain the mind so that the deepest gullies are those that lead to expansion of consciousness, to liberation rather than stress.

We know that what we focus on grows. In the beginning workshop of The Art of Ascension, you learn 4 perfect thoughts, called Ascension Attitudes, which align with all the forces of good in the universe. The three-fold structure of the Ascension Attitudes, used consistently, causes each of the three primary aspects of our personality -- our hearts, our minds, our bodies -- to move in the direc­tion of growth.

These 4 perfect thoughts are universal to all humans and are taught in a First Sphere course, over 2 ½ days. Shining Light On Life Events provides a list of events to learn this practice.

TOXIC EMOTIONS AND THINKING

Every time you have a thought, it is changing your brain and your body – for better or for worse. 

Dr. Carolyn Leaf has studied the human brain since 1981 and wrote a book about the effects of toxic thoughts. Below is a list from her book of common toxic thoughts: 

• "could-have", "would-have", "should-have" statements

• "if only" statements

• replaying situations that pained you or that haven't even occurred yet

• creating the unpredictable future

• making comments like "nothing ever goes right for me"; "everything I touch fails"; "I always mess up"

• Are you at cross-purposes with yourself - going through the motions, but not really committed to the goal, saying one thing but meaning another? How honest are you with yourself?

• How distorted is your thinking? Are you forming a personal identity around for example, a disease? Do you speak about "my arthritis", "my multiple sclerosis", "my heart problem"? [1]

On a surprising note, Dr. Aaron Beck believed that toxic emotions arise from three negative and incorrect beliefs that people commonly think:

1. I must do well

2. You must treat me well

3. The world must be easy [2]

Dr. Marion Diamond, another groundbreaking brain researcher, describes memory networks. In effect, these networks create "copies" of your "thought life" along with the emotions that the chemicals coursing through your bloodstream literally carry around your whole body like an information highway. Information molecules are then able to cause changes at the cellular level, actually restructuring the cell's makeup on the outside and the DNA on the inside. This is how diseases are able to take hold in the body. [3] The toxic waste that builds up actually distorts your memories!

The list of diseases and chronic disorders caused by toxic thoughts and emotions is quite long and includes all the major maladies of the day.

Unmaking or unlearning old belief patterns is extraordinarily difficult by consciously attempting to unmake them or change them.

But it is possible to change deep-seated belief patterns easily and effortlessly. This is done by the introduction of a few new seed thoughts. These seed thoughts have the unique and invaluable characteristic of systematically and effortlessly expanding the conscious boundaries of the individual’s mind. Each of these seed thoughts has the result of unmaking past belief patterns that keep our lives from unfolding in a healthy and harmonious way. Each of these seed thoughts, correctly practiced, causes the entire range of the personality to become aligned with the most basic force in the Universe.

"The Ascension Attitudes are designed to clear out past beliefs and behavior patterns that inhibit full mental and physical functioning. By effortlessly introducing these seed thoughts at a deep and refined level of thinking, the entire structure of the mental framework gradually and gracefully transforms to reflect Reality." [4]

_________________________________________________

[1]  Leaf, C. PhD, 2007.  Who Switched Off My Brain; controlling toxic thoughts and emotions.

[2]  Beck, A. et al., 1979. "Cognitive Therapy and Depression." New York: Gilford Press.

[3]  Diamond, M. and Hopson, J. 1999.  "Magic Trees of the Mind: How to nurture your child’s intelligence, creativity and healthy emotions from birth through adolescence." England: Plume.

[4]  MSI, Ascension

3 helpful meditation tips

Advice from Researchers on Meditation -

 3 Helpful Tips 

Daniel Goleman, a science writer twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize got together with Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davidson was one of the first researchers to demonstrate neuroplasticity of the brain — its ability to change in response to new information — and has been researching meditation for years. 

They looked at 6,000 published peer-reviewed articles about the benefits of meditation. Together they wrote The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body. 

These are just some of the findings: 

• Benefits emerge in the beginning hours, days, and weeks of meditation.
• “Other payoffs for novices are an increased ability to focus, less mind-wandering, and improved memory,” Goleman says. 
• The more hours you meditate over a lifetime, the wider the array of benefits you will notice and the stronger these benefits become. 
• With long-term meditators, there was a lower reactivity to stress as well as lessened inflammation. 
• For those who think they can’t meditate, you may think, ‘Oh, I can’t control my mind,’ but it’s not about controlling your mind. Meditation brings discipline to the mind. 

The authors shared this advice: 

1. It is important for novice meditators to have a good teacher. 
2. Go on a retreat where someone can guide you because the data suggests that’s when people make the most measurable progress. “Feedback from a teacher is important because you can get stuck. Even though I’ve meditated for many years, I can still improve.” Goleman says. 
3. A few minutes a day is better than nothing. “Ten minutes in the morning, ten at lunch and ten at night is a good way to start,” he suggests. Money worries, family issues or health problems may remain, but meditation helps many people to work towards creating an unworried mind.

If you are searching for a proven, simple technique that is taught by a qualified instructor, please view courses available to learn a great practice that is based in Praise, Gratitude, Love, and Compassion.

Meditation or Vacation, Which is Better?

No time for vacation?

 Meditation found to have similar effect 

Many studies show the benefits of vacation as well as the benefits of Meditation. However now we have 2 studies (one in 2016, one in 2018) that show the two side by side. Also, one of the studies includes what other people perceive about the person meditating and the difference between days they meditate or don't meditate.

The 2016 research included both new meditators and regular meditators’ benefits over time. Researchers employed blood samples from the beginning, in 1 month and at the 10 month mark. They also used self-reported wellness surveys at the same time intervals. Everybody showed equally large immediate improvements in well-being (reduced stress reactions, improved immune function, and amyloid beta (Aβ) metabolism) but the beginners at meditation showed greater maintenance of lower distress over time compared with those who went on vacation. Regular meditators showed a trend toward increased telomerase activity not seen in the other groups. Increased telomerase activity has been shown to be an indicator for longevity.

The 2018 research worked only with new meditators. Over an 8 week period, the participants completed a survey that assessed their well-being, emotions, and mindfulness. People around them also completed a survey noting their reactiveness. On days the participants meditated, they reported lower levels of negative emotions such as irritation and higher levels of positive emotions such as gratefulness. They also scored higher on several facets of mindfulness. The researchers found similar associations on days the participants were on vacation. Christopher May, the author of the study said, “We found that just 15-minutes of meditation was associated with similar effects as a day of vacation on aspects of mindfulness. Both meditators and vacationers reported heightened awareness of their environment and greater equanimity in experiencing their emotions.”

While this quote is from the researchers in the second study, it mirrors similar statements from the first study: "However, we should be clear that these results only demonstrate similarities for beginning meditators. They do not speak to the unique, cumulative effects of long-term meditation practice, the benefits of which may outweigh those of vacation.”

If you are looking for a simple, yet profound meditation practice, The Art of Ascension as taught by the Ishayas can be used anywhere, anytime by anybody, even while on vacation! A free audio introduction is available online, or you can sign up for a free live Zoom introduction.

Video Introduction to the Art of Ascension

Tired of “trying” to meditate but still want the benefits?


Do you desire a life lived from LOVE rather than FEAR?


What IF you could do this easily, effortlessly?

The Art of Ascension provides simple, yet extremely effective tools that can be used anywhere, anytime and work for anybody to speed and refine the process of growth of consciousness. They can be used as a meditation with the eyes closed which provides more rest than sleep...also they can be used throughout the day with eyes open, allowing you to be more effective and efficient. 

Here's more information.....

 The Lord's Prayer 

This is the Lord's Prayer translated from its traditional Aramaic prayer. (While Jesus actually spoke Aramaic, the New Testament was actually written in Greek). This was translated by Aramati Ishaya

Accepting Toxic Thoughts Creates Twisted Forests in Nervous System

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.

The Effects of Love on Bunnies

Oh, the power of love!  Odes and sonnets have been written, yet the power of love to heal is just beginning to be researched by science. 

Here is a favorite story that astonished the scientific community in the 1970’s. This is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra's Quantum Healing: "An Ohio University study of heart disease in the 1970's was conducted by feeding quite toxic, high cholesterol diets to rabbits in order to block their arteries. Consistent results began to appear in all of the rabbit groups except for one, which strangely displayed 60 percent fewer symptoms. Nothing in the rabbits' physiology could account for their high tolerance to the diet until it was discovered by accident that the student who was in charge of feeding these particular rabbits liked to fondle and pet them. He would hold each rabbit lovingly for a few minutes before feeding it; astonishingly, this alone seemed to enable the animals to overcome the toxic diet. Repeat experiments, in which one group of rabbits was treated neutrally while the others were loved, came up with similar results."

Who would have believed that feelings of love can reach out and affect diseases to create healing? …Even when the intent of the experiment was to bring about illness!

Depending on the study, lonely and depressed people have been shown in numerous studies to be 3 to 10 times more likely to get sick and die prematurely compared with people who have a strong sense of love, connection, and community.

The cardiologist, Dean Ornish, who first proved that hearts can self-repair in his book, Reversing Heart Disease, said, “Love and intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves and others, is at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well”.

Furthermore, our unresolved issues are mirrored in our world. Gregg Braden gives a key saying, “The ancient key to allowing our love to heal us is to let it into our lives. To do so, we must find a way to change our greatest hurts into our deepest wisdom.” When we change by transforming our unresolved issues into love and acceptance, we change chemically, change our DNA, and that transformation becomes mirrored in our world.

The Ishayas teach that the healing of the world begins with the healing of the self. This healing does not occur from working on our issues, because what we focus on grows. It comes from a daily practice of love and acceptance in all our life situations.

Ishayas’ Ascension (aka the Art of Ascension) is made of simple and effective techniques.  They are not just for meditation but also for daily life.  The practice utilizes and then generates more Appreciation, Gratitude, and Love in the user’s life. Appreciation is the force, the driving emotion that causes Ascension. You might look at this as a continuum, that there is some appreciation in Praise, more appreciation in Gratitude, and more appreciation in love. It is just appreciation expanding and building on itself. It is a natural by-product of using the techniques taught in the Art of Ascension.

If you are interested in learning more about this practice, visit "Learn to Ascend" for more information. Also the book by MSI, An Analysis of the Art of Ascension, provides a good overview of the workings of the mind and love.

Power of choice

Dr. Carolyn Leaf, a cognitive neuroscientist, has been researching the brain since 1981. She explains that as we journey through life, we must actively make choices about what thoughts to accept. 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 up to 200,000 branches. 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.

Toxic thoughts spread through the body like a virus or vine, growing and twisting through other thoughts, all impacting your mind and body. Your immune system must activate and respond to it. She says it contains toxic emotions and toxic chemicals, increasing toxic load, creating abnormal brain patterns, foggy thinking, all of which are precursors to disease.

How do you accept a thought or belief? You’ve accepted a thought or belief 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.

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”, “that’s not fair”, and “you always hurt me” overtime can make you sick. [1]


Dr. Leaf says everyone has the ability to become their own neurosurgeon! By our thinking and choosing, moment by moment, we are redesigning the landscape of our brain. Matter does not control us; we control matter through our thinking. Constantly thinking or talking about some pain reinforces those neuro-pathways and increases the number of receptors for pain in the body!

In Quantum Physics, the Copenhagen definition says, “you the observer outside the system have the power to collapse a probability into an actuality.” What we think and choose happens. Everything that happens in our life begins with a thought.

Most often choices come from a reaction to life circumstances; they are not truly creative, but originate from habits, co-dependence, and addictions. A fully realized person does not react. They act. Freed from self-destructive behavior patterns, beliefs, and judgments; one acts, creating flawlessly from the direct perception of the need of the moment. This is freedom.

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 to forces, external and internal, that are quite beyond our control. But it is not so.

Making choices for freedom is more than just positive thinking. We can look for the “good things of life”, but we miss the Source of Life. We miss Life itself. If we think that peace & 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.

Regular practice of the 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 actively choose for Praise, Gratitude, Love or Compassion that will magnify the root of all Life; as a result, the old trees of duality atrophy and wither away. 

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

 

What Lies Do You Believe?

Our senses lie to us! You may not have ever thought about this concept. We don’t discuss it very often. Many may not even realize that our senses lie to us. And even more important, why do we care? 

· If we were to believe our senses, we would believe that the sun revolves around the earth, right?

· Our senses report that our desk, our possessions, even our body is solid, but physics tells us that is not true. Physical matter is more energy than substance. In fact, if you were to take all the solid matter out of the earth, physics tells us it would be about the size of a golf ball! The rest is just empty space or energy.

· We even see what we expect to see, an example from sports is the “change-up pitch” in baseball. The changeup is typically thrown after a fastball; the batter seeing the identical fastball arm and body-movement from the pitcher expects to see another fastball and swings wildly but misses the slower ball.

· And then there’s the reticular activating system, that part of our brain that helps us make sense of our world. In any moment, there are 4 billion pieces of data available to us through our subconscious mind, but the conscious mind is able to make sense of only about 2000 pieces of data at a time. So that ever helpful reticular activating system strips away everything that does NOT comply with our belief system! For example, I knew a young charming man who kept repeating “No one loves me”, but I saw many examples of people that loved him. He could not perceive any of that love.

· The human eye can only see a small bandwidth of the very large light spectrum. We are unable to see infrared, ultraviolet, etc.

· Albert Einstein said, “A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness”.

What we have come to believe, based on our experiences, may not necessarily be true. Our knowledge of the world is changing at an ever-accelerating rate. What was certain fact yesterday is today questioned and may be refuted tomorrow.

Why is it important?

First of all, based on what our senses report, we believe we are isolated in space and time from one another; we think we are separate from others and our world. Because this is our perception and belief, we conclude that it is difficult or impossible to influence life; we believe that it is only with great expenditures of energy, time (and often suffering) that we can make things happen in our world. This is why we are astonished when someone has “spontaneous remission” of a terminal disease by changing their mindset. (Did you know that 20% of breast cancer heals by spontaneous remission?)

The type of mindset we have determines the quality of life we experience. Many beliefs are so far below the surface that you may not even be aware of them. This is why many see themselves as victims rather than as Co-Creator with the Universe.

Our beliefs hold things in place – our diseases, our tired aging body, our “out of harmony” relationships, etc. It is called the law of sowing and reaping. We can only change the fruit by changing the seed we plant.

What kind of life are you experiencing? Thoughts, especially strong emotionally based thoughts, plant seeds into the universe that sprout around us. If we plant tomato seeds, we get tomatoes!

Practicing The Art of Ascension not only plants new seeds of praise, gratitude, love, and compassion, but it also cuts the roots of our old belief system as it brings us to the Source of All Being. It changes the direction of our mind from revolving around the racetrack wasting time and energy to cutting through everything to find the Source of Creation. All that is required to move into higher states of consciousness is to retrain the mind to move vertically inward. The techniques of Ishayas’ Ascension can accomplish this. All that is required is a functioning nervous system, valid tools,  a commitment to learn and use them to begin the process toward freedom.