Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal fatigue is when your adrenal glands are exhausted and unable to produce adequate quantities of hormones, primarily cortisol, due to chronic stress or infections. Perhaps for some time now, you’ve been feeling not quite well. Maybe you feel extremely fatigued, lethargic, or even find it extremely difficult to grab a good night’s sleep. If you have been constantly going through stressful situations lately, you might be experiencing what is known as adrenal fatigue.

Why does Adrenal Fatigue Happen?

Adrenal fatigue might be attributed to prolonged physical, emotional, and mental stress. In turn, this can give rise to a variety of health issues like poor sleep quality, inflammation, or even blood sugar spikes. Adrenal fatigue is believed to be caused when the adrenal glands become incapable of meeting the demands of a constant fight or flight response attributable to chronic stress. When you are subjected to stressful situations, your adrenals react by releasing cortisol to help your body prepare for a dangerous predicament. However, if such a situation is for one reason or the other prolonged, your adrenals will in the long run become worn down. This makes them unable to respond to stressful circumstances.

Three Stages of Adrenal Fatigue

This condition may exhibit itself in three different phases. The first stage is triggered by a protracted stimulus to the adrenal glands, which can cause a spike in cortisol levels in the bloodstream. At this phase, the production of other critical hormones such as testosterone, progesterone and estrogen will be impaired. This eventually will throw off kilter the normal functions of your immune system and even your metabolic rate. The second stage of adrenal fatigue is characterized by a decrease in cortisol and DHEA levels. You may start to experience symptoms like depression, insomnia, anxiety, weight loss, recurrent infections, and impaired memory to mention a few. On the flipside, phase three of this condition occurs once the adrenal glands have become completely incapable of producing cortisol, while other hormonal imbalances may take place. Ultimately, you will start suffering from chronic fatigue, which can make you unable to execute day-to-day activities and work-related tasks.

15 Steps to Combat Adrenal Fatigue

1. IV Vitamin Therapy for Adrenal Fatigue

IV vitamin therapy, otherwise known as IV infusions, has been shown to enable patients with the ability to effectively recover from the vitality-sapping symptoms of adrenal fatigue in a markedly convenient and hassle-free way. Should you be leading an extremely stressful lifestyle, it is possible you’re no longer able to do the things which maintain your overall health and wellness. This, of course, includes eating well. If you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, your nutritional health will definitely be hard hit. This is where IV vitamin therapy comes into play. This kind of treatment plan delivers an ideal combination of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients straight into your bloodstream. This goes a long way in reversing any deficiencies you might be experiencing due to adrenal fatigue. Secondly, your tired adrenals require you to be in good shape to initiate rapid healing. As with other injuries or illnesses, when your body is in good shape, the quicker and more completely the disease may be cured. This is also so when it comes to healing your adrenals. By taking an IV vitamin infusion, your body will obtain the essential vitamins, minerals and other indispensable nutrients that fast-track the healing process. Ideally, this therapy furnishes your body with the proper “building blocks” it needs to repair any damaged cells. These “building blocks” are integral in the context of your body being in a position to naturally heal your overworked adrenal glands.

2. Eat Meal Within an Hour After Waking

Eat your first meal within an hour after you wake up in the morning, so that you do not allow your blood sugar levels to drop precipitously.

3. Skip Processed Foods

Stress can come from many different ways, one of which is by eating too many processed foods, which your body has a hard time..well, processing. By removing them, you’re supporting your adrenal glands returning to their natural state.

4. Say No to High Impact Exercise

It’s important to do low-impact exercise when you’re fighting adrenal fatigue. High impact exercise is another form of stress on the body, making it harder for your adrenals to repair themselves. Consider yoga, pilates, or light cardio.

5. Say Yes to Fresh Air

Fresh air and a walk in nature is also a great form of stress management and relief. Get out in nature. Take in slow deep breaths and relax.

6. Take B Vitamins

B vitamins, such as B5 can help balance hormones, and reverse symptoms of adrenal fatigue in the body.

7. Get Lots of Sleep

Lack of sleep is another stressor on the body. By not getting enough sleep, your cortisol levels will rise and your adrenal glands will work overtime. More sleep will reduce cortisol and stabilize your adrenal levels.

8. Include Protein

Protein, such as organic turkey, contains amino acids such as tryptophan, which relax your body, contribute to less stress and reduce cortisol levels, which help fight adrenal fatigue.

9. No Caffeine

Coffee is one of the biggest culprits of adrenal fatigue, as it causes your cortisol levels to rise, forcing your adrenals to pump out too much cortisol, leading to adrenal fatigue.

10. Magnesium, Magnesium, Magnesium

Magnesium, and magnesium-rich foods, such as fatty fish, avocado, legumes, and leafy greens, support the health of the adrenal glands, balancing hormone production levels, and lessening the effects of adrenal fatigue.

11. Organic Veggies

Organic green leafy vegetables, as well as purple and orange veggies, contain antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins and minerals, which contribute to the health of the adrenal glands. So it’s important to consume at least 6 servings of them in your diet.

12. Drink Half Your Body Weight

Hydration is critical for health of the endocrine system, so make sure you’re consuming about half of your body weight in ounces of filtered water per day. If you’re 150 pounds, for example, make sure you drink 75 ounces of water.

13. Epsom Salt Bath

An epsom salt bath works on multiple levels to help repair and heal your adrenals. First off, dipping your body in a relaxing epsom salt bath a few times a week will relax your stress levels, reducing production of the stress hormone cortisol, which leads to adrenal fatigue. But also, when you are stressed, magnesium levels are the first to drop off. Make sure to replenish your magnesium levels by using at least one cup of epsom salt per bath.

14. Meditate and Relax

Can’t stress it enough that stress is the biggest culprit of adrenal fatigue, so it’s important to relax above anything else. Use some essential oils, take slow and deep belly breaths, and meditate to cause your stress levels to drop off and your adrenals to heal themselves.

15. Eat Regular Meals

Make sure to eat regular meals that include complex carbs, healthy fats, and protein, throughout. It’s important not to skip meals as that will also lead to adrenal stress. Also make sure to always eat your meals slowly — do not rush through them!

from the blog at thesolutioniv.com on April 20, 2021

What Happens When You Die?

Greetings! From heart to heart in this moment we speak, I am Kejraj.

One question I have been asked often is what happens when we die? Let’s get two things out of the way now, for which many have been mis-lead to believe and fear, the trapping of the soul by malevolent forces. The Soul cannot be trapped. It is multidimensional. Only your ego may be trapped in certain loops of the Third Dimensional Matrix. Bring your attention to the Heart Center. The other is judgement. No judgement of any kind takes place when you return to the light realms. Not by God, not by the Spiritual Hierarchy, or anyone at all. The Soul itself and the team of Angels evaluate all the experiences, and decide the next best incarnation for the Soul.

What happens when you transition, also depends in the way in which you ‘die.’ Did you simply have a heart attack, or were you involved in a car accident, did you die from a disease, or war?

When you transition to the other side of the veil, you always have a team of Angels to guide and support you. For those who go through a horrific death, you are surrounded by Angels, and you are given a long break, comforted, as everything is explained to you, and you recuperate from the experiences, understanding what transpired.

For others who go through a less tragic death, you are also surrounded by Angels, but the Soul may not feel that it needs a long break, prior to choosing the next incarnation. In this instance you review sooner your previous journeys, with your team of Angels and other guides, then you decide what experiences you wish to have, where you want to incarnate next, what roles you will be playing, and so on. In each life time you have guides with you, to support you, angels, ascended masters, and others, who await for your requests. You truly are never alone.

posted at EraofLight.com on January 29, 2024

Wrestling with Psalm 82’s Implications

We all have watershed moments in life, critical turning points where, from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. One such moment in my own life came when I rediscovered the word elohim.

It was in church on a Sunday morning while still in graduate school. I was chatting with a friend who, like me, was working on a PhD in Hebrew studies, killing a few minutes before the service started. I don’t recall much of the conversation, though I’m sure it was something about Old Testament theology. But I’ll never forget how it ended. My friend handed me his Hebrew Bible, open to Psalm 82. He said simply, “Here, read that . . . look at it closely.”

The first verse hit me like a bolt of lightning:

God [elohim] stands in the divine assembly;
he administers judgment in the midst of the gods [elohim].

I’ve indicated the Hebrew wording that caught my eye and put my heart in my throat. The word elohim occurs twice in this short verse. Other than the covenant name, Yahweh, it’s the most common word in the Old Testament for God.

The first use of the word in this verse worked fine. But since I knew my Hebrew grammar, I saw immediately that the second instance needed to be translated as plural. There it was, plain as day: The God of the Old Testament was part of an assembly—a pantheon—of other gods.

Does the Bible say there are other gods?

Needless to say, I didn’t hear a word of the sermon. My mind was reeling. How was it possible that I’d never seen that before? I’d read through the Bible seven or eight times. I’d been to seminary. I’d studied Hebrew. I’d taught for five years at a Bible college.

What did this do to my theology? I’d always thought—and had taught my students—that any other “gods” referenced in the Bible were just idols. As easy and comfortable as that explanation was, it didn’t make sense here. The God of Israel isn’t part of a group of idols. But I couldn’t picture him running around with other real gods, either. This was the Bible, not Greek mythology.

But there it was in black and white. The text had me by the throat, and I couldn’t shake free.

I immediately set to work trying to find answers. I soon discovered that the ground I was exploring was a place where evangelicals had feared to tread. The explanations I found from evangelical scholars were disturbingly weak, mostly maintaining that the gods (elohim) in the verse were just men—Jewish elders—or that the verse was about the Trinity. I knew neither of those could be correct.

Psalm 82 states that the gods were being condemned as corrupt in their administration of the nations of the earth. The Bible nowhere teaches that God appointed a council of Jewish elders to rule over foreign nations, and God certainly wouldn’t be railing against the rest of the Trinity, Jesus and the Spirit, for being corrupt. Frankly, the answers just weren’t honest with the straightforward words in the text of Psalm 82.

When I looked beyond the world of evangelical scholarship, I discovered that other scholars had churned out dozens of articles and books on Psalm 82 and Israelite religion. They’d left no stone unturned in ferreting out parallels between the psalm and its ideas and the literature of other civilizations of the biblical world—in some cases, matching the psalm’s phrases word for word.

Their research brought to light other biblical passages that echoed the content of Psalm 82. I came to realize that most of what I’d been taught about the unseen world in Bible college and seminary had been filtered by English translations or derived from sources like Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The rulers of ancient Egypt were called pharaohs. In the language of ancient Egypt, the title was actually two words, per a-a, which meant “great house(hold).” The household concept for the ruling families of ancient Egypt was that of a dynastic bureaucracy. Pharaohs typically had large, extended families. They frequently appointed family members to key positions of authority in their administration. The elite staffing of the king’s governing bureaucracy typically came from Pharaoh’s household. They were administrators, not lowly messengers.

This concept and structure was well known throughout the ancient world. It spoke of layered authority: a high king, elite administrators who were often related to the king, and low-level personnel who served the higher levels of authority. Everyone in the system was part of the government, but authority and status were tiered.

Several Old Testament passages describe this administrative structure existing in the heavenly realm, as well. Psalm 82 is perhaps the clearest—and perhaps the most startling. The psalm refers to Yahweh’s administration as a council. The first verse reads:

God (elohim) stands in the divine assembly;
he administers judgment in the midst of the gods (elohim).

You no doubt noticed that the word elohim occurs twice in this verse. You also probably recognize elohim as one of God’s names, despite the fact that the form of the word is plural. In English we make words plural by adding -s or -es or -ies (rats, horses, stories). In Hebrew, plurals of masculine nouns end with -im.

While the word elohim is plural in form, its meaning can be either plural or singular. Most often (over 2,000 times) in the Hebrew Bible it is singular, referring to the God of Israel. We have words like this in English.

For example, the word sheep can be either singular or plural. When we see “sheep” by itself, we don’t know if we should think of one sheep or a flock of sheep. If we put “sheep” into a sentence (“The sheep is lost”), we know that only one sheep is meant since the verb requires a singular subject. Likewise, “The sheep are lost” informs us that the status of more than one sheep is being discussed. Grammar guides us. It’s the same with Hebrew.

Psalm 82:1 is especially interesting since elohim occurs twice in that single verse. In Psalm 82:1, the first elohim must be singular, since the Hebrew grammar has the word as the subject of a singular verbal form (“stands”). The second elohim must be plural, since the preposition in front of it (“in the midst of”) requires more than one. You can’t be “in the midst of” one. The preposition calls for a group—as does the earlier noun, assembly. The meaning of the verse is inescapable: the singular elohim of Israel presides over an assembly of elohim.

A quick read of Psalm 82 informs us that God has called this council meeting to judge the elohim for corrupt rule of the nations. Verse 6 of the psalm declares that these elohim are sons of God. God says to them:

I have said, “You are gods [elohim],
and sons of the Most High [beney elyon], all of you.

To a biblical writer, the Most High (elyon) was the God of Israel. The Old Testament refers to him as Most High in several places (e.g., Gen. 14:18–22; Num. 24:16; Pss. 7:17; 18:13; 47:2). The sons of God/the Most High here are clearly called elohim, as the pronoun “you” in verse 6 is a plural form in the Hebrew.

The text is not clear whether all of the elohim are under judgment or just some. The idea of elohim ruling the nations under God’s authority is a biblical concept that is described in some detail in The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. For now, it’s sufficient that you see clearly that the sons of God are divine beings under the authority of the God of Israel.

You see why the psalm threw me for a loop. The first verse has God presiding over an assembly of gods. Doesn’t that sound like a pantheon—something we associate with polytheism and mythology?

For that very reason, many English translations obscure the Hebrew in this verse. For example, the NASB translates it as: “God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers.”

There’s no need to camouflage what the Hebrew text says. People shouldn’t be protected from the Bible. The biblical writers weren’t polytheists. But since Psalm 82 generates questions and controversy, we need to spend some time on what it teaches and what it doesn’t teach, along with other passages that inform us about the divine council.

Many Christians who object to the plain meaning of the Hebrew text of Psalm 82 assert that this psalm is actually describing God the Father speaking to the other members of the Trinity. This view results in heresy.

I’m confident you can see why—the psalm has God judging the other elohim for corruption. The corrupt elohim are sentenced to die like humans.

These observations alone should make any Christian who cares about the doctrine of God abandon this idea. It has other flaws. The end of the psalm makes it evident that the elohim being chastised were given some sort of authority over the nations of the earth, a task at which they failed. This doesn’t fit the Trinity.

Other Christians who see the problems with this first idea try to argue that the sons of God are human beings—Jews to be specific. Some Jewish readers (who obviously would not be Trinitarian) also favor this view.

This “human view” is as flawed as the Trinitarian view. At no point in the Old Testament does Scripture teach that Jews or Jewish leaders were put in authority over the other nations. The opposite is true—they were to be separate from other nations. The covenant with Abraham presupposed this separation: if Israel was wholly devoted to Yahweh, other nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:1–3). Humans are also not by nature disembodied. The word elohim is a “place of residence” term. Our home is the world of embodiment; elohim by nature inhabit the spiritual world.

The real problem with the human view, though, is that it cannot be reconciled with other references in the Hebrew Old Testament that refer to a divine council of elohim. Psalm 89:5–7 explicitly contradicts the notion of a divine council in which the elohim are humans.

And so the heavens will praise your wonderful deed, O Yahweh,
even your faithfulness, in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the sky is equal to Yahweh?
Who is like Yahweh among the sons of God,
a God feared greatly in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all surrounding him?

God’s divine council is an assembly in the heavens, not on earth. The language is unmistakable. This is precisely what we’d expect if we understand the elohim to be divine beings. It is utter nonsense if we think of them as humans. There is no reference in Scripture to a council of human beings serving Yahweh in the skies (Jews or otherwise).

What Psalms 82 and 89 describe is completely consistent with what we see in Job 38:7—a group of heavenly sons of God. It also accords perfectly with other references to the sons of God as plural elohim:

The sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. (Job 1:6;2:1)

Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of God,
ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due his name (Psalm 29:1–2).

Do these references describe a group of Jewish leaders, among whom (in the passage from Job) Yahweh’s great adversary appears, leading to Job’s suffering? The conclusion is obvious. Did Judaism evolve into a monotheistic religion?

Many scholars believe that Psalm 82 and other passages demonstrate that the religion of ancient Israel began as a polytheistic system and then evolved into monotheism. I reject that idea, along with any other explanations that seek to hide the plain reading of the text. In all such cases, the thinking is misguided. The problem is rooted in a mistaken notion of what exactly the word elohim means.

Since elohim is so often translated as “God,” we look at the Hebrew word the same way we look at capitalized G-o-d. When we see the word “God,” we instinctively think of a divine being with a unique set of attributes—omnipresence, omnipotence, sovereignty, and so on. But this is not how a biblical writer thought about the term. Biblical authors did not assign a specific set of attributes to the word elohim. That is evident when we observe how they used the word.

The biblical writers refer to a half-dozen different entities with the word elohim. By any religious accounting, the attributes of those entities are not equal.

• Yahweh, the God of Israel (thousands of times—e.g., Gen. 2:4–5; Deut. 4:35)

• The members of Yahweh’s council (Psa. 82:1,6)

• Gods and goddesses of other nations (Judg. 11:24; 1 Kgs. 11:33)

• Demons (Hebrew: shedim—Deut. 32:17)

• The deceased Samuel (1 Sam. 28:13)

• Angels or the Angel of Yahweh (Gen. 35:7)

The importance of this list can be summarized with one question: Would any Israelite, especially a biblical writer, really believe that the deceased human dead and demons are on the same level as Yahweh? No.

The usage of the term elohim by biblical writers tells us very clearly that the term is not about a set of attributes. Even though when we see “G-o-d” we think of a unique set of attributes, when a biblical writer wrote elohim, he wasn’t thinking that way. If he were, he’d never have used the term elohim to describe anything but Yahweh.

Consequently, there is no warrant for concluding that plural elohim produces a pantheon of interchangeable deities. There is no basis for concluding that the biblical writers would have viewed Yahweh as no better than another elohim. A biblical writer would not have presumed that Yahweh could be defeated on any given day by another elohim, or that another elohim (why not any of them?) had the same set of attributes. That is polytheistic thinking. It is not the biblical picture.

We can be confident that Yahweh stands above the elohim by once again observing what the biblical writers say about him—and never say about another elohim. The biblical writers speak of Yahweh in ways that telegraph their belief in his uniqueness and incomparability:

1. “Who is like you among the gods [elim], Yahweh?” (Exod. 15:11)

2. “‘What god [el] is there in the heaven or on the earth who can do according to your works and according to your mighty deeds?’ ” (Deut. 3:24)

3. “O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god [elohim] like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath” (1 Kgs. 8:23).

4. “For you, O Yahweh, are most high over all the earth. You are highly exalted above all gods [elohim]” (Psalm 97:9).

Biblical writers also assign unique qualities to Yahweh. Yahweh is:

• All-powerful (Jer. 32:17, 27; Pss. 72:18; 115:3)

• Sovereign king over the other elohim (Psa. 95:3; Dan. 4:35; 1 Kgs. 22:19)

• Creator of the other members of his host-council (Psa. 148:1–5; Neh. 9:6; cf. Job 38:7; Deut. 4:19–20; 17:3; 29:25–26; 32:17; Jas. 1:17)

• The lone elohim who deserves worship from the other elohim (Psa. 29:1).

In fact, Nehemiah 9:6 explicitly declares that Yahweh is unique—there is only one Yahweh (“You alone are Yahweh”).

The biblical use of elohim is not hard to understand once we know that it isn’t about attributes. What all the figures on the list have in common is that they are inhabitants of the spiritual world. In that realm there is hierarchy.

For example, Yahweh possesses superior attributes with respect to all elohim. But God’s attributes aren’t what makes him an elohim, since inferior beings are members of that same group. The Old Testament writers understood that Yahweh was an elohim—but no other elohim was Yahweh. He was species-unique among all residents of the spiritual world.

This is not to say that an elohim could not interact with the human world. The Bible makes it clear that divine beings can (and did) assume physical human form, and even corporeal flesh, for interaction with people, but that is not their normal estate. Spiritual beings are “spirits” (1 Kgs. 22:19–22; John 4:24; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 1:4). In like manner, humans can be transported to the divine realm (e.g., Isa. 6), but that is not our normal plane of existence. As I explained earlier, the word elohim is a “place of residence” term. It has nothing to do with a specific set of attributes.

Those who want to avoid the clarity of Psalm 82 argue that the gods are only idols. As such, they aren’t real. This argument is flatly contradicted by Scripture. It’s also illogical and shows a misunderstanding of the rationale of idolatry.

With respect to Scripture, one need look no further than Deuteronomy 32:17:

“They [the Israelites] sacrificed to demons [shedim], not God [eloah], to gods [elohim] whom they had not known.”

The verse explicitly calls the elohim that the Israelites perversely worshiped demons (shedim). This rarely used term (Deut. 32:17; Psa. 106:37) comes from the Akkadian shedu. In the ancient Near East, the term shedu was neutral; it could speak of a good or malevolent spirit being.

These Akkadian figures were often cast as guardians or protective entities, though the term was also used to describe the life force of a person. In the context of Deuteronomy 32:17, shedim were elohim—spirit beings guarding foreign territory—who must not be worshiped.

Israel was supposed to worship her own God (here, eloah; cf. Deut. 29:25). One cannot deny the reality of the elohim/shedim in Deuteronomy 32:17 without denying the reality of demons. Scholars disagree over what kind of entity the shedim were. But whatever the correct understanding of shedim might be, they are not pieces of wood or stone.

Scholars of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians know that in the apostle’s warning to not have fellowship with demons (1 Cor. 10:20), Paul’s comments follow the history of the Israelites described in Deuteronomy 32. He warns believers against fellowship with demons on the basis of Israel’s failure in worshiping other gods. Paul uses the word daimonion, one of the words used frequently in the New Testament for evil spiritual beings, to translate shedim in Deuteronomy 32:17. Paul knew his Hebrew Bible and didn’t deny the reality of the shedim, who are elohim.

by Michael S. Heiser at logos.com on July 20, 2021

The Torah and Talmud vs the Old Testament

The Torah and the Bible are typically viewed as the same book. But are they? What are the differences? Why do we use two different names? If Jews and Christians are both called People of the Book, and both worship the same God, why do we have two different books?

What is the Torah?

The Torah is one part of the “bible” for the Jewish people. This part covers the history of the Jewish people. It also includes the Law. The Torah also includes teachings on how the Jewish people are to worship God and how to live their lives. The “Hebrew Bible”, or Tanak, consists of three parts. The Torah, the Ketuviym (the Writings) and the Navi’im (the Prophets.)

The Torah includes the five books that are written by Moses, as well as the oral traditions in the Talmud and the Midrash. These books are known to us as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In the Torah they have different names: The Bereshiyt (In the Beginning), Shemot (Names), Vayiqra (And He Called), Bemidbar (In the Wilderness), and Devariym (Words.)

What is the Old Testament?

The Old Testament is the first of the two parts to the Christian Bible. The Old Testament includes the five Books of Moses plus 41 other books. The Christian Old Testamnet includes books that the Jewish people include in the Tanak. The order of the books in the Tanak are slightly different than in the Old Testament. But the content within is the same.

The Old Testament is ultimately the story of God revealing Himself to the Jewish people in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Christians know the Messiah to be Jesus Christ, as He is revealed in the New Testament.

Who Wrote the Torah?

The Torah is written in Hebrew only. The entire Torah was given to Moses while on Mount Sinai. Moses alone is the author of the Torah. The only exception to this are the very last eight verses of Deuteronomy, where Joshua wrote a description of the death and burial of Moses.

Who Wrote the Old Testament?

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. There were many authors of the Old Testament. In spite of the fact that there was multiple authors spanning many many years and regions – the consistency is perfect. This is because the Old Testament is a part of the Bible, God’s Holy Word.

When was the Torah Written?

There is a lot of debate as to when the Torah was written. Many scholars say that it was written around 450 BC during the Babylonian Captivity. However, most Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians agree that it was written around 1500 BC.

When was the Old Testament Written?

Moses wrote the first five books around 1500 BC. Over the next THOUSAND years the rest of the Old Testament would be compiled by its various authors. The Bible self attests that it is the very word of God. The consistency remains the same regardless of how long it took to compile.

Misconceptions and Differences

The Torah is unique in that it is handwritten on a single scroll. It is only read by a Rabbi and only during a ceremonial reading at very specific times of the year. The Bible is a book that is printed. Christians often own multiple copies and are encouraged to read it every day.

Many people assume that the Torah is completely different than the Old Testament. And while they are two different things – the Torah in its entirety is found within the Old Testament.

What is the Talmud?

The Jewish belief is that Moses received the Torah as a written text alongside a commentary: the Talmud. The Talmud is considered the oral traditions that coincide with the Torah. It is a depiction of the primary codification of the Jewish decrees. It explains the written texts of the Torah so that people know how to apply it to their lives. The Talmud and the Torah are mistakenly used interchangeably by non-Jewish people. These are two of the most important words in all of Jewish history. Though they are both religious manuscripts, they are two totally different things.

When was the Talmud written?

Though the Jews consider this to be an oral commentary given from God. It was compiled by many Rabbi’s over a long period of time. The Mishnah was written down for the first time by Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi, or Rabbi Judah the Prince. This occurred just after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 BC.

What does the Talmud consist of?

The Talmud is simply the oral traditions of the Torah. There are two Talmuds: The Babylonian Talmud (the most widely used) and the Jerusalem Talmud. There were other commentaries added called Gemara. All of these commentaries put together is called the Mishnah.

by Ashley Evans at biblereasons.com on December 28, 2023, and January 17, 2024

What is the Hebrew Word for God?

Most of us when we hear the word “God” we don’t necessarily question it. We are used to saying God or Lord, in church especially. We rarely stop to think… is “God” His English name? But then, what is the Hebrew word for God? And does He have a name? Some of us are familiar with names like Jehovah / Yahweh or even Adonai or Elohim. But do we know how they are different and what they mean?

To understand the Hebrew word for God, and yes, the Hebrew names of God in the Bible, we need a mini Hebrew lesson! Let’s start with the word for “name” itself – which in Hebrew is shem. In Hebrew thought, a shem is not just a combination of sounds, or an identifier, but it is a reputation. It is meant to convey the essence and characteristics of the person or thing being identified.

This concept is present in common English language as, reputation being considered a “good name” or “making a name for oneself”.

So, in Exodus 3:13-22, when Moses asked God what his name was, he was not asking “What should I call you by?”. Rather, Moses is asking, “Who are you, what are you like?”

The word for “God” in Hebrew is Elohim, which appears in the Biblical text quite often. However, it appears both as a common noun (divinity, ancestral spirit, ghost), and as the proper noun – name for the one and only God.

Whether Elohim serves as a common or proper noun, depends completely on the context. Thus, it makes sense when a pastor or a rabbi says “little ‘g’ gods” to indicate deities that are not the one true God of Israel. These are “gods” in the way that Zeus, Venus, or Hades are considered “gods”.

But another curious thing about the word Elohim is that it is in a masculine plural form. Meanwhile, in the singular tense it appears feminine (eloha).

According to Maimonides (a Jewish scholar from the Middle Ages), the word emphasizes God’s power, might, creativity, and characteristics of justice and leadership. Variations include El, Eloha, Elohai (my God) and Elohaynu (our God).

You may recognize that these variations made their way into people’s names. Take for example the name Samu-el – which means “heard by God”. Or the one that you are likely very familiar with, Emmanuel, which could be spelled Immanu-El – meaning, God with us.

by the Staff of firmisrael.org on July 18, 2022

How do Judaism and Christianity Differ?

Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Today, differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha (Jewish law) was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity (See Pauline Christianity). Another major difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. The Christian God consists of three persons of one essence (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. Judaism emphasizes the Oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament by Christians) as part of its scriptural canon, Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.

from Wikipedia

Focus Only on What You Want More Of

know what you are focusing on

in every moment, and that

you are focusing with purpose

You may have heard of the truth that what you focus on expands, and it is also true that you become one with what you focus on because you start vibrating in harmony with it the moment you give it your attention. And therefore, you must determine for yourself whether this is something I want to become before continuing to give it your attention. What you become, you will also see a reflection of in your outside world. So you can also wonder whether you want to see more of what you are focusing on in that very moment.

These are conscious choices that everyone can make and everyone needs to make who wants to be a conscious and deliberate creator of their reality. When you decide that you want to be one of those people, pay attention, and pay attention to what you want to see more of in your life and in your world.

Once you begin to use your consciousness deliberately, it starts to become its own reward. In other words, you might get into a spiritual practice thinking that it will get you somewhere, or something. You might think that this is the answer to all of my problems, so I will engage in it. But really, the process, the exercise, the spiritual practice itself is the point. Everything is designed to get you to be more conscious, to get you to be more deliberate about your focus, your intention, your words, your thoughts, and your actions. Truly, that’s the only way to live.

Give your attention to what you want to see more of, rather than putting it on dismantling what you want to see less of there on planet Earth. You have the ability to become so much more than what you have been, but you cannot get there by putting your attention on what has held you back in the past. Be in the present with what you know now, and give your attention consciously to what makes you feel expansive, and give your attention to what fills you with love, light and joy. That is how you force the old systems that are in place to crumble, to be dismantled, to fall away. But don’t do it for that purpose; do it because it’s the only way to really affirm that you are alive, that you are Source, that you are unconditional love in the flesh.

You get to participate in the creation of the future that you will experience, along with the fellow humans in your little collective. Do not just watch and wait. Be proactive in what you are putting out energetically, and that includes your words and actions just as much as it includes your thoughts, feelings, and visualizations. You can change your world for the better right now, and then you can wait to see how the world reflects to you the changes you have made, and that can be the fun part of it for you.

You can also look out at the world right now with the understanding that the world is showing you what is needed. The world will always show you how you can best show up in it to be the best version of yourself, and therefore, contribute mightily to the human collective. The way that you can contribute all day, every day is with your vibration.

Keep your vibration high by focusing on the things that put you in a higher-vibrational state. That means you don’t always want to be looking outside of yourself for the problems of the world that need your energy to help solve those problems. Look within for what’s already inside of you that’s perfect. Look within for your love, your compassion, your creativity, your ability to heal and to forgive. You hold the keys to the kingdom, always.

Don’t go looking for someone else’s truth in order to make it your own. Live your truth, shine your light, and know that you are there to help and that you help more by being of a high vibration than you do by knowing every little detail about what’s going on behind the scenes in the secret world that you don’t experience. Let your experience be enough, and let yourselves be who you really are so that you can co-create the world that you want to experience and that you want others to experience as well.

channeled by Daniel Scranton in Ascension: The Shift to the Fifth Dimension, Vol 5, pp. 102, 146-150

Vibration is Everything

VIBRATION IS EVERYTHING

Your vibration determines how much you are enjoying the current moment, and it determines what you are expanding into next.

channeled by Daniel Scranton in Ascension: The Shift to the Fifth Dimension, Vol 5, p. 62

You Are Here to Shine a Light on the World

Ascension is all about releasing that which is lower vibrational, letting it go. The more you let go of, the more you can rise up. The less attached you are, the less you have clinging to you, and your energy gets lighter and lighter, and the only place for you to go is up. It is not important for you to look out at the world as it is today and ask yourselves how you can fix it. Do what feels best to you to be a good citizen and a good steward of the world. But as you take care of your own vibration, your own energy, and you show yourself that it is possible to relax in a tense situation, it is possible to be joyous in a mundane situation, and it is possible to love in the face of hate, you demonstrate to not only yourselves, but to the entire collective how it is done, how you can be light at any time of day and in the face of any amount of darkness.

Ascension is about helping you to transform yourselves from within, which then creates the better place around you. You are not there to figure it all out. You are not there to figure out who is representing the dark and who is representing the light. All of those other beings are just reflecting something back to you anyway. You are there to shine your own light, and the more you let go of, the easier that is. Practice the art of letting go, and you will be letting in more of who are, more of the light and love of Source, and more of the higher-frequency energies that are coming from above.

Many of you feel like you want to escape where you are and that your ascension will be an escape from your oppressors, from those who are lurking in the shadows, doing bad things. This is a very religious way of looking at ascension, and it’s not the ascension that you are going to have, no matter what you are being told by others. You create the versions of the people that are in your world right now to be exactly as they are, and you can change that by changing yourself while also accepting them, forgiving them, and having compassion for them. It’s not about keeping your distance so that they can’t hurt you, and bring your vibration vibration down, and prevent you from ascending. You are there to shine so much love in all directions that everyone around you is transformed by you, by who you have chosen to be, and that is very important to recognize, because you do have a choice in all of this.

The more you give in to the current set of circumstances, the brighter you can shine. The more you seek to be love in all situations, the more you see love all around you. That’s the goal and the mission for everyone, and that’s how you get to where you are going joyously, with grace, love and ease in your hearts.

channeled by Daniel Scranton in Ascension: The Shift to the Fifth Dimension, Vol 5, pp. 60-61, 70, 82

Coming Discoveries

Seldom do you have just one individual with an idea that then changes the planet. That may be the story they tell you in history, but these profound inventions and discoveries usually happen simultaneously, and the first individual to manifest it is the one who gets the credit.

Electricity: Some of the inventions that manifest themselves on the planet seem odd in their timing. You might look back and ask, “Why did it take so long? How is this possible?” If you start looking at the facts, the discovery of electricity is one. How long has this energy been obvious to mankind in so many ways? Whether it’s static (electricity), like the sparks you make when you move your feet on certain substances, or whether it’s lightning in the sky … why did it take until only a couple of hundred years ago for it really to be looked at, or the question asked: “I wonder if this is energy we could use?” As to who actually invented it, you knew it was Michael Faraday, right (or did you get another story)? And – that it wasn’t actually electricity – but rather, electromagnetic induction (magnetics)?

Flight: The Chinese have been flying kites and have known about wind currents for 3,000 years. Why weren’t there men in the sky, using kites and updrafts with the profound understanding that humanity already had of these things? What took so long? Even today, you see those who leap off mountain tops without powered flight – with a kite strapped to them. Where was that? It should have been intuitive and should have occurred a thousand years ago. You had watched the birds, you flew kites, yet, for thousands of years, nobody did it. Does this make sense? It took until the Wright brothers gave it to you using powered engines. That wasn’t that long ago, dear ones, and they only beat the French with their famous first flight by two weeks! Do you see what I’m saying? This invention was “delivered to the Field” when it was ready – and all over the Earth at the same time.

Inventions that change the Earth profoundly in this way happen when it’s time. You may disagree. You may say, “Oh, we can think of these things any time we want.” This is not true or many inventions that were completely “there and ready and intuitive” would have happened even sooner than they did.

There are some things coming that are already here, dear ones, in certain ways. They are already in the Field, waiting to be plucked out. I want to tell you about them. Some have heard this before.

The Best Coming Inventions Will Not Be High Technology

Don’t be surprised if the most advanced discoveries that you’re going to make, which are going to change this planet profoundly, have nothing to do with artificial intelligence or massive amounts of computing. You might say, it’s “back to basics” because some of the best inventions will be using patterns and basic physics that were always there, but which you just haven’t thought of yet.

THE END OF BATTERIES – AND THE GRID

Let me talk about the magnetic energy wheel. It might be two, or even three wheels, but there is a simple pattern, an array of magnets that, when placed correctly, can keep a wheel spinning – forever.

Using the simple push/pull energy of small or large magnets together in a specific array, you can keep this wheel going forever. You’re aware, are you not, that natural magnets are very powerful, and they push and they pull with a great deal of force, with no rest or refresh time, and no side effects, and no fuel. This is a huge secret! Why have you not seen this before? Put them together in an array where they will push and pull against each other and spin whatever size wheel you wish – until the end of time! All you have to do is oil the bearings occasionally. Have you thought of that? Dear ones, listen: If you can make something spin, you can connect it to an electric generator. Electricity, in any quantity, forever!

I want you to think of what this means. Imagine: No batteries. “Kryon, what are you talking about. You’ve got to have batteries.” Dear ones, that statement is soooo yesterday! Imagine your favorite device. A phone, perhaps? What if, instead of a battery, it had a tiny, miniature, spinning magnetic motor that powered the device in real-time – forever! Not only are there no batteries in the future, but no charging anything. Every electronic thing you have has its own tiny, spinning generator built-in.

How big can this wheel be?” Well, let’s think: Everything I have said can be enlarged. So, instead of a battery in an electric car, there is a larger spinning electric engine underneath, always supplying electricity to what we will now call super capacitance (something we have only briefly discussed). You will always have enough electricity to go for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles without ever stopping. And even while you sleep, electricity is still being generated to the “super cap.” It never stops.

I’m talking about individual power for every single building that exists on the planet – without being connected to any grid. NO WIRES AND NO OUTSIDE SOURCE. No weather pattern will ever shut down a city again or cause those to die because they can’t get electricity – because it’s right outside in a little spinning motor that never stops and always is running, to power whatever is needed. Magnetics is the answer. It’s free, instant, and mobile electricity for all.

Every continent on this planet could have as much electricity as they wanted or needed to instantly power villages, hospitals, communications, teaching through the internet, and more. The internet would work, no matter what. Can you imagine when everybody could talk to everybody? Cultures and continents would start healing themselves and would finally start to be educated.

All of this can happen from one undiscovered pattern – a magnetic array. Putting those magnets together so they will push and pull in a way that they will spin forever, can be customizable to any size – miniaturized or massive. They can power ships and cars – and they go forever. There is no resource that is easier and safer to use to power this planet than magnetics. No natural resources are burned, no pollution, and entirely safe.

Kryon – This Can’t Work

“Kryon: If I had this invention, there are forces out there who would never let it be developed. I would be afraid to have it! The power companies of the planet will buy it and pocket it because they want to sell what they’ve got. They will never let this happen.”

Let’s stop for a moment. Dear ones, this is not your father’s world. What have I told you about change for the past 30 years? DO NOT POSTULATE THE FUTURE ON WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST. The shift is changing the consciousness of the planet.

Right now, the power companies all over your land are in trouble. Fossil fuel is in trouble, if you haven’t noticed. Nuclear power, the former Holy Grail of power, has shown itself clearly to be exceptionally dangerous! Every one of the accepted mass power generation systems is failing.

I will tell you that the power companies of this land (USA), even if they are using steam or wind or sunlight, are all anxious for this invention! It’s simple, efficient, no huge investment needed, and (ready?) THEY will then be the ones to manufacture and sell the units, improving them and finding more and more uses to free all of you from any kind of power grid. So I’m telling you, it’s a new world, and those in the “power business” will be the first to want to use this.

The Highest and Most Powerful Force of Humanity

Let me give you my favorite one: There are things that this body of yours does, which has only to do with consciousness, nothing else. In the last twenty years, there has been a revelation of proof. Consciousness is energy. It can alter physics.

This realization was not always thought to be the case. In the past, consciousness was something esoteric, not well definable, and it didn’t belong in physics. Now it does. There is now a slow awareness that consciousness absolutely must be considered energy.

Think: If consciousness is energy, then, like all other physical energies, there must be rules or axioms. It becomes predictive science. When you start to figure that out and you understand what those are, you will have some profound answers to some of the greatest mysteries of health: The energy of consciousness is the reason for the placebo effect! Someone takes a sugar-coated pill, and they are told that the pill is going to create a cure – and then it does! What is the process? How is that possible?

Someone takes a homeopathic tincture, a chemistry that is too small to create a chemical reaction. Yet, it cures! What is happening? How does that work? The answer is the energy and the physics of consciousness combined with something called mirror neurons: What the body sees and expects, it often creates by itself. Perhaps, you see someone else eating a meal and you salivate. That’s consciousness over chemistry, dear ones.

Have you ever wondered if mirror neurons could play a powerful and larger part in a coming system of healing? What if you could convince your body that it was healing? Mirror neurons can’t tell the difference between what you believe or what is happening chemically. Therefore, consciousness instructs the body to heal itself, and it does! Now you understand how spontaneous remission may work. When you convince the body that a healing is occurring, it believes it so completely that it heals itself. This will be a new healing process. It will be the best of any that ever existed – using the energy of consciousness in new, measurable, scientific ways.

No artificial intelligence – no super hi-tech advancements

Instead, this becomes the revelation of what you as Humans have always had. Powerful!

I want you to ponder these changes because they are in the Field. Do you think when science discovered that consciousness is energy, they just left that alone? No. They wanted to find out more about what it is. The first thing they realized is that they are dealing with a multidimensional energy. Indeed, science may not think immediately about the self-healing potentials that exist, but eventually, they will

How long will it take? That’s up to you. How many of you believe these things? For the belief itself, you might say, is a transmitter of reality, because when you believe something, you can make it happen.

Changes are coming to this planet, dear ones, and I have told you this. We continue to tell you about the ones that will enhance humanity, and there will come a time when the last thing you will ever want to do to each other is to kill one another. There is precedent for this in other places that I have talked about, so I have seen it. I have seen it.

I am Kryon, in love with humanity.

And so it is.

as channeled by Lee Carroll at kryon.com on August 25, 2021

Facing Death with an Enlightened Perspective

When we know we’re about to change our presence in an energetic density from empirical duality to complete freedom in every way, it’s as if the set in the play that we’ve been acting in is changing, and we’re beginning to participate in a whole new act. We’re being invited to let go of all attachments of every kind, because we don’t need them anymore. We have the ability to influence our destiny just with the way we are. How we think and what we feel determine our energetic presence and attract resonating energies.

What kind of situation we’re in is of no importance. What is important is our attitude and perspective. If we can maintain the energetic level of gratitude, love and joy, we move ourselves out of the dramatic challenges of duality and into a presence of fulfillment. In this realm, challenges do not exist, because there is no fear. Since we are the directors of our scene, we can create any scenario we want. We do not need limitations. We are our own eternal presence of awareness beyond spacetime.

With no physical presence, our awareness expands as far as we want to go. There are no limits. Guided by our deepest knowing and feeling, we can enter an environment of great joy, compassion and love. We can feel the freedom of expanded awareness. If we practice this, we can feel confident and open in the face of physical death. It is our transition from one act to another in a different play.

The changing of the eras is like this as well. We are moving into a dimension without negativity. The more positive we can be, the easier our life becomes emotionally, and the more fulfilled we feel. Knowing that our intuition is part of infinite consciousness, we’re able to act freely in whatever way we feel guided. We are not just individuals, we are intimately connected in consciousness with every entity in existence, and we know how to read the energies around us. We can pay attention to the ones we love the most in every moment.

Our entire lives are occurring within the consciousness of humanity, and we participate as much as we desire or feel responsible to. Our human person is a physical expression of our presence of awareness beyond spacetime. In the moment between waking and sleeping, we can experience this awareness. It is like dying physically for a while. During this experience, all attachments in our lives disappear, and we begin to direct our participation in lucid dreaming.

from the blog of Kenneth Schmitt at consciousexpansion.org on January 6, 2024

Our Superhuman Power

Our world seems to be descending into utter chaos, as if the mass psychosis that has afflicted our species is ever-deepening, wreaking more and more havoc all over the world. I keep wondering, what can we—any of us—do? What can I do that could possibly be of help? One idea, like a recurring dream, keeps on insistently knocking at the door of my consciousness again and again. The idea is that our sleeping dreams are, both literally and symbolically, showing us night after night—if we look at them in the right way—the very solution to our myriad world crises. This is to say that our dreams themselves, though an illusion of the mind, are potentially teaching us—and revealing—the nature of reality and how we operate within it.

The problem is that we—each one of us—have a superhero power beyond our wildest imagination, but we don’t know it. Due to the fact that this power is always operating through us, we have become blind to and don’t recognize its operations. Because we are unaware of this practically magical power in our possession, our superhero power—like a boomerang—turns against us in a way that is disabling our evolutionary potential. This superhero power—which has everything to do with our innate creative genius—is on display, in ways both hidden and overt, in our dreams every night.

Our dreams are not just potentially giving us insight into our personal unresolved issues, compensating our one-sidedness and/or reflecting back our unconscious blind-spots (among many other benefits as well), but are also offering us an even greater gift. Contemplating the very process by which dreams emerge from our consciousness can help us gain a higher-order insight into how the creative nature of our consciousness actually operates. This understanding goes well beyond just receiving the gifts encoded within the particular symbolic content of any specific dream. Speaking in a symbolic language, our dreams are themselves living symbols reflecting back to us the part we play in constructing reality via the creative power of our minds. In showing us the role we play in composing them, our dreams are also revealing to us how we are actively participating—whether we know it or not—in creating our experience of life.

The way to unwrap the freely offered gifts that our dreams are lavishing on us starts with our creative imagination, which makes sense, as our creative imagination is the source of our dreams. As if making a magical elixir, there is a way of combining two of our intrinsic faculties - our unconscious dreaming/imaginative powers and the ability of our conscious mind to reflect upon these creative powers. Through self-reflecting (i.e., reflecting upon itself and its creations), the mind processes information, thereby potentially gaining insight into the internal dynamics of the mental projections that are shaping our moment-to-moment experience. This can potentially unlock a profound realization about the role we play in the arising of our experience, an insight lying dormant within us that has been yearning to be brought into the light of day.

Imagine we are in a dream, whatever it may be. Whatever point of view we are holding within the dream—which is a projection of our mind—is instantaneously, in no time at all, faster than we can think or blink, reflected back to us through the configuration of the seemingly externalized forms of the dream. The dream IS nothing other than a mirror of the very mind that is observing it. In other words, the dream is not separate from—and is, in fact, nothing other than—the psyche itself manifesting as a seemingly real solid universe.

In a dream the psyche has seemingly projected itself outside of itself and then observes and interacts with itself as if it is something other than and separate from itself, forgetting that what it is reacting to is its own creation. If the psyche becomes absorbed in this process—i.e., falls asleep to what it is creating as it is creating it—it becomes conditioned by its reactions in a way that constricts and limits its infinite creativity. In so doing, it uses its profound creative potency against itself, entrancing—and casting a binding spell—upon itself.

Our dreams are showing us that we are such incredibly powerful dreamers that we can unknowingly put ourselves under the spell—in reality a self-created ‘curse’—of an ultimately nonexistent phantom appearance that arises from the immense creativity of our own mind. Unless illumined and seen through, we have an unconscious proclivity to enchant ourselves—via the unrealized creative power of our own mind—into believing that the imaginary, illusory dreamlike apparitions that we have conjured up are more powerful than we ourselves are. The majority of problems of the human race are due to the lack of awareness of how we are participating in and engaging with our own creative process.

In essence, we have forgotten that we have immense reality-shaping powers at our disposal – we are geniuses with amnesia. As if ‘bewitched,’ we entrance ourselves, however, by our own innate, unrealized genius for co-creating reality. We have become masters of unconsciously imposing self-created limitations upon ourselves. We then struggle with trying to break out of our internal prison, forgetting that we ourselves have created what visionary William Blake calls “mind-forg’d manacles.” It is as if we are disoriented and deranged magicians who have unconsciously created a world that is destroying us, all the while thinking that we are just encountering—and being victimized by—an objective reality that we cannot change. Jung writes, “more than one sorcerer’s apprentice has been drowned in the waters called up by himself.” In our case, the sorcerer’s apprentice is all of humanity, and we currently are in the process of destroying ourselves by the multiple catastrophes that we ourselves are unconsciously conjuring up.

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Whatever attitude and viewpoint we are holding in a dream is instantaneously mirrored back to us by the dream, as the dream itself is nothing other than a reflection of the very consciousness that is observing it. Our viewpoint in the dream and the way the dream appears are not two separate processes, but rather, reciprocally co-arise and mutually influence each other, both in no time at all as well as over time. Reflecting our viewpoint, the dream offers us all the evidence we need to make us think that whatever we are seeing in the dream is objectively happening, thereby confirming “the truth” of our viewpoint. Once the dream has “proven” to us that we are simply seeing “what is there,” we become more entrenched and fixed in our viewpoint, which the dream immediately reflects back by offering us evidence confirming our viewpoint, ad infinitum. This is an endlessly self-generating and self-reinforcing timeless feedback loop whose source is our own mind.

This process takes place instantaneously, atemporally—outside of time—and yet, it is experienced by us as unfolding over time, a combination which renders this creative dynamic invisible and unknown to us. Unless we develop the capacity, however, through paying careful attention to how we are playing a part in the moment-by-moment arising of our experience, this process—in which we are unconsciously participating—will remain unseen, and hence, have power over us. 

When we are having a self-validating experience such as this, no one can talk us out of our conviction that we are seeing clearly—as our conclusion of seeing “reality” is based on our direct experience—we have all the data we need to convince ourselves of the rightness of our point of view. And yet, via the creative power of our mind to influence how reality manifests, we have literally hypnotized ourselves.

In taking the projections of our mind to be objectively real, we relate to an experience—whose source is within ourselves—as existing outside of ourselves, which is to split ourselves in two. We then think we are awake when we are actually caught up in, reacting to—and playing out—our unconscious. Dreams are, after all, a direct and unmediated expression and manifestation of our unconscious. This process of fooling ourselves via our intrinsic power to create our experience, combined with our insistence that our perspective is objectively true, is the underlying dynamic that is at the root of humanity’s endless conflicts and violence against itself, which is pure madness. When the overwhelming majority of seven and a half billion humans have fallen under this self-created spell, we get collective madness writ large on the industrial scale that we see today.

Our night dreams are potentially revealing to us, via the hidden, almost invisible projective dynamics by which they are constructed, what I call “our sacred power of dreaming.” This is truly a “sacred” power, in that it doesn’t come from us, but from a power beyond—and greater than—ourselves (by whatever name we choose to call it). While coming through us, this is a power that is also creating us (as well as the whole universe) in which we are—knowingly or unknowingly—participating. Our sacred power of dreaming is our intrinsic power to call forth, create and “dream the dream”—be it night or waking dream—into materialization moment by moment. This is the superhero power that we are wielding every moment of our lives - knowingly or not. Becoming aware of this power, however, and using it consciously is where our real healing creative power lies. Every night of our lives our dreams are illustrating—and revealing to us—this creative power that we all possess. This very same creative power that shapes our dreams at night is in-forming (albeit with a greater lag time) our daily lives as well. 

In our sacred power of dreaming we have been granted a practically God-like creative power. This places a demand on us that we can no longer remain blind and irresponsible towards these divine creative powers that we unknowingly possess. As long as we choose to stay unconscious of the sacred inheritance that is freely bestowed upon us, however, we are fated to act out our God-given creative power in self-limiting and destructive ways, as we see so overtly demonstrated throughout our world today.

When our life is seen as a dream—and we interpret it as such—the deeper message we are continually getting is that it is imperative for us to know something about the workings of the sacred forces within us. It makes all the difference in the world whether we become conscious of how we are—all the time—interfacing and interacting with the creative power of the divine.

True creativity is a continuation of and co-participation with the on-going act of cosmic creation itself. The Creator created humanity in His/Her own image – a free being gifted with creative power. Humanity was created so that we, too, would consciously create; being creative is our divinely-sanctioned vocation. Humanity is called to actively participate in engaging our creative nature. Our dreams at night are—both literally and symbolically—revealing the dynamics underlying the profundity of our creative capabilities.

In my opinion, the future of humanity depends upon whether or not we wake up to the divinely-sponsored creative agency within us and consciously step into our innate superhero power – but maybe I’m just dreaming. As Christ himself said in the Bible, “You are Gods, you are all children of the Most High…. And Scripture cannot be broken.” It is our prophesied destiny to eventually wake up and consciously realize our God-given superhero power.

There is no better time to have this realization then the present moment. Christ himself said, “Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of Salvation.” The present moment—right now—is, in fact, the only time that we ever can realize this, as it is the only time that there ever is.

by Paul Levy at awakeninthedream.com