Dear Friends of the Mindshifters Group in Woodstock, IL -(which meets every Tuesday evening from 6:30 – 9:00 PM) –

I have just learned that Dale Allen Hoffman will be joining us on the evening of April 15, 2014 for our Mindshifters Group.  Dale is a scholar of the ancient Aramaic language.  He began his studies after visiting Dr. Michael Ryce’s Intensive Learning Center in Theodosia, MO back in 1995.  Since that time Dale has pursued the active study of the ancient Aramaic and other languages for the purpose of understanding the ancient teachings of Y’shua, commonly known as Jesus.  Dale actively works to apply these teachings to his life, and to support others in  doing the same.

Dale will be visiting our Tuesday group on his way home from some presentations  in Madison, WI, so his visit will be brief and probably just limited to the time of our usual meeting  from 6:30 – 9:00 PM.

Dale has graciously agreed to participate in the Mindshifters Internet Radio show every Friday afternoon from 12:00 – 1:00 PM Central time, for the remainder of 2014.These shows are archived for listening at Dr. Ryce’s website www.whyagain.org.

Dale’s work is available at www.daleallenhoffman.com.

Please visit his website and the archives at whyagain.org to get a better idea of the depth of knowledge and experience that Dale brings to his work.

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

Dear Friends,

It  is my great pleasure to announce that Dr. Michael Ryce has not only been hosting one of the most powerful and personally transforming Internet Radio Shows for three solid years now, five days a week, including holidays, but he has also just secured the commitment from Dale Allen Hoffman to be on the show each Friday for the entire year of 2014!

You can currently go to the archives and listen to the last three sets of Aramaic Fridays from when Dale has been on the show for each of the Fridays of March in 2012, the Fridays of January 2013, and now the Fridays of January 2014.

Now you can look forward to an Aramaic Friday each week during 2014.  Dale has made the commitment to either be on the show each week, or arrange to have one of his friend who is also studying and applying the ancient Aramaic work to their lives, be on the show in his place.

I am excited to be part of the process of studying and applying these lessons to my life and I invite you to join us, either live or through the archives for Aramaic Fridays and the process of looking deeper into what was given in the ancient teachings of how to live life from the conscious awareness of our true nature as the energy of creation and Love.

http://www.whyagain.org/index.php/en/mindshifter-radio

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are  Love!  Everything else is false.

It was my honor to give the talk at the Center for Spiritual Evolution in Cary, IL yesterday.  The audio of the talk is available on my website at the following link: www.ch4cs.com/audio.asp

Enjoy!

And Remember:

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love! Everything else is false.

The Mindshifters group that meets in Woodstock, IL at the Unity Spiritual Center on Tuesday nights began the new year by listening to a talk from Dale Allen Hoffman which is available on his You Tube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywLOQ4J5Afc&list=PLBDDCC981B7E8470E  

In this talk Dale clarifies many of the words and passages that have been quoted from Greek translations of The Bible, which have been used to promote Fear and the idea that people need to look outside of themselves to connect to their true nature, their source, or their “God”.  He offers information for our consideration about what the ancient Aramaic words actually mean and what might have been intended in the original teachings, which is much more consistent with the other messages of Love and acceptance that Yeshua, (Jesus), taught.

While I have listened to and enjoyed many of Dale’s talks, this one spoke to me so directly and  powerfully that I chose to share it with the group this week.  It is also my pleasure to announce that Dale is participating in the Mindshifters Internet Radio Show on BlogTalkRadio each Friday this month.  http://www.whyagain.org/index.php/en/mindshifter-radio

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

Last night the Mindshifters Support group in Woodstock, IL watched the first hour of the lecture by Dr. Michael Ryce titled: A New Beginning – A Lesson From A Course In Miracles.

I have written about this lecture in other posts, and here all I will say about it is that it is a wonderful tool for deciding and then creating the kind  of day one would like to have.  There are many difficulties and cultural trends which argue against the tools presented in this lecture and they are all centered around blaming others and events outside of us for whatever happens in our lives or within our minds and bodies that we don’t like.  As I was preparing to write this post I saw a headline on an Internet website which read: “Blaming others is a sign of good health” The article went on to say that people who blame others when they misplace their car keys will actually live longer and “stay younger longer”.

It is this kind of thinking which is presented to the public as though it is scientifically proven, (by using the words, “research suggests”.), that helps keep the garbage conditioning  in place.  This is the kind of conditioning which keeps us being good little consumers and good little soldiers and good little puppets of various kinds, because it keeps us focused on people and events outside of us, which we cannot change.  This keeps us chasing around wasting our energy on trying to change others and events rather than focusing on what is actually creating our experience of life in each moment.  The thing that creates our experience of life in each moment is the choice we make about where to focus our conscious awareness.  If we focus this conscious awareness on our True Nature as the energy of creation, or Love, this will be our experience in each moment.

This lecture on A New Beginning is all about learning that I am creating my experience in each moment and that if I choose to think  certain thoughts, those thoughts will produce a certain result or emotion within my mind and body’s energy system.  This process has nothing to do with what happens around me and what other people are doing, saying or feeling.  However, I can certainly create a picture in my mind of all kinds of rationalizations, and even hallucinations which will “prove” to me that others and outside events are causing my experience.  Perhaps it is time to wake up from our dreams of separation and our hallucinations!

The other point I wanted to make about the support group tonight comes directly from one of the thirteen people who were in attendance.  He made a special point at the end of the evening, while trying to breathe through his intense emotions, that the support group is currently composed of a wonderful mixture of loving and dedicated people who are creating such a loving and supportive atmosphere in that room, that it is unlike anything he has ever experienced. He said this at the end of the meeting, following yet another powerful, and intensely emotional Reality Management Worksheet process that was completed by another member in the group.  The Reality Management Worksheet Process is available absolutely FREE at http://www.whyagain.org/index.php/en/worksheets

I agree with his observation completely!  The quality of the people and the intention to support each other in integrating, and some would say healing, the energies which are less than Love is beyond my ability to express it in words.

Thank You One and All!

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is  false.

The Mindshifters Support Group met and watched the second half of the video lecture titled: Getting the Stress You Need, by Dr. Michael Ryce.  This lecture includes a lengthy visualization exercise led by Dr. Ryce for the purpose of reviewing and canceling any un-achieved goals from our past.  This process is important because once the human mind sets a goal, that goal continues running in the mind, whether in the conscious or the unconscious, until it is either achieved or consciously canceled.  As goals are running in the mind they are using valuable resources, our mind energy, which is then not available for our conscious activities.  After years of setting and then “forgetting” goals,  each of us has a large back-log of un-achieved goals running in our mind’s and body’s energy system, which makes it more difficult to function and be flexible and responsive to life’s demands.

The process of consciously canceling un-achieved goals is a simple but powerful way to restore our minds to ease and balance.  This lecture points out that it is a mistake to set a goal for anything that I cannot accomplish in the next waking period, because doing so ties up resources that are then not available for the things that can be accomplished during that waking period, and it increases the chances that the goal will continue running and using resources long after it has been consciously forgotten.  A tool is presented in this lecture which is called The Mind/Goal Management Worksheet and it is available for free at www.whyagain.org .

The idea of only setting goals for the next waking period is difficult for many people in our culture to understand, because we are taught to set short-term, mid-range, and long-term goals.  In this work, those “goals” would be called plans or intentions, and it is perfectly useful to have many different plans or intentions.  However this work realizes that unless one specifically commits with emotion to elevate a plan or an intention to the level of a goal, it will not change one’s behavior.   So, in this work we learn the benefit of canceling any un-achieved goals at the end of the day before sleep, and then “framing” some possible goals for the next day, and then getting a restful night’s sleep knowing that all goals have been cancelled and there is nothing to mentally distract the mind from a restful night’s sleep.  Then the next morning, one can review the goals which were framed the night before and choose whether or not to “set” those goals for completion during that next waking  period.

After the video, there was a discussion about the process and several people gave testimonials about how effective this process has been for them and the surprising results they noticed when they specifically cancelled goals before sleep and then set a few specific goals for completion during the day.  Then it was time in the group to do a Reality Management Worksheet and one member volunteered to work her process out loud in the group.  Once again, the process was intensely emotional and productive, and the entire group benefited from the willingness and honesty of this week’s courageous volunteer.

At the end of the worksheet process the member who volunteered wanted to talk about how powerful the worksheet was as a tool, and how it “forced” her to look at her issues at a deeper level.  I corrected her and pointed out that the power lies not in the worksheet process but in her willingness to face and process out any negative energies and  emotions from her system.  The proof if this is that many people have been exposed to this worksheet process as a tool, and very few of them actually pick up the tool and use it to dismantle the false and dis-integrative energies they hold in their minds.  So, as my father used to say, “Let’s give credit where credit is due.”  The worksheet process is a very useful and potentially productive tool, however it only works for those who are willing to pick it up and engage the process with honesty and willingness!

Thanks once again to all the members who share the experience Tuesday night and who hold the space of Love and compassion for each other as we walk this path together.

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love,  We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

In this week’s Mindshifter Support group we watched the first half of the lecture by Dr.  Michael Ryce titled: Getting the  Stress You Need.  This title baffles many people because  we have been taught that stress is a bad thing.  The primary point made in this lecture is that we don’t do anything unless we feel some level of stress.  That stress is the tension that is created within each of us when the picture of how we see the world is different from the picture of how we want the world to be.  The greater the difference between the way we see the world and the way we want  it to be, the greater the tension or stress we will feel.  This tension is also increased by the amount of conscious or unconscious energy we focus on the way we want things to be.

The key to this lecture is learning about what role goals play in the stress we feel and in managing those goals and therefore the stress we feel.  One of the main points in this lecture is realizing that it is the goals we set which direct our minds to show us the behaviors we need to do in order to reach our goals.  One example of this might be that as I sit at home on a Saturday afternoon,  I may be reviewing the various plans and intentions I had throughout the week  for  how I would spend my Saturday afternoon, and the things I would accomplish.  Then after a while of reviewing those things and noticing what time it is, I finally choose something to do and start moving toward that goal.  Let’s say that during the week I had thought it would be nice to do some yard work, visit an apple orchard, write some thank you notes, do several loads of laundry, get some shopping done,  and maybe see a movie.  Then when Saturday afternoon arrives and it is rainy and cold outside, I review the possible plans and intentions and decide to go to the theater and watch a movie.  Within minutes I have my coat on and I am headed out the door to the movie theater.

The only way this could happen is that I chose one of the many different plans or intentions that I held in my mind, and elevated it to the status of a goal in my mind, and committed the energy, both physical and mental, to the accomplishing of that goal.  I realized in that moment that I wanted to be at  the theater, and that I was not yet at the theater.  The difference between where I was and where I wanted to be created a tension within me, which we call stress.  This stress motivated me to use my mental and physical energies to change things until my image of how I want things to be matches my image of how things are.  This explains a lot about the stress and tension we each carry within us, and how things can be going fairly smoothly, or at least appear that way on the outside, and each of us can still create and carry a lot of stress or tension in the inside.

Let’s take the example of the movie experience.  Let’s say that  I call a friend who agrees to go to the movie with me.  I tell him when the movie is and that I want to pick him up at a time that will allow us to get there for the start of the movie.  He tells me that he will be available and ready for me to pick him up.  Then when I get to his house, I am waiting twenty minutes for him  to come out.  We make it to the movie theater and I am feeling very rushed and upset because it is now five minutes after the scheduled movie start time.  In my mind, this is not the way things should be, so I am creating tension and stress within myself.  As we get into the movie theater and get seated, we find that the previews to coming attractions are still playing and we have arrived in plenty of time  to see the entire movie that we paid to see.  However, as I sit there in the theater, I am focused on my thoughts that I did not like to be kept waiting and I do not like to be late, and I don’t think that was very respectful of my friend to tell me he would be ready and then not be ready, and my stress is growing by the minute.  For each of these situations, I am holding a goal that is different from the way things actually are, and yet I am holding goals about  things I have no control over.  So, I have created stress and tension in my life, for which there is only one solution.  I must cancel my goals!  Yes, I just said that I should cancel my goal to be on time.   I  should cancel my goal for my friend to do what he said he would do.  I should cancel my goal for my friend to respect me.

If you are like most of us in this culture it seems completely wrong to cancel a goal to have my friend treat me with respect.  It seems completely wrong to cancel my goal to be on time, etc.  However the key here is not the goal of the quality or validity of the goal.  The key here is how I am using  this goal.  If I am using these goals to help generate behavior which leaves me feeling loving and compassionate  to myself  and others that is a good use of the goal.  If however, when I hold a goal, I use it to generate feelings of anger, resentment, bitterness, hurt, confusion, sadness or fear, I should cancel the goal.

More on this process next week.  Thanks for reading.

We Come From Love, We Are Made Of Love,  We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

I woke this morning with the  thought:
“Life either goes the way I  think it should,  or it gives me another opportunity to release my resistance to the flow of Life.”

Then  I ran into a quote by Joss Whedon who is a popular writer and director. This was taken from a 2006 speech he gave to the organization Equality Now. He was discussing the fact that reporters often ask him why he writes such strong female characters.  He stated that the real question is why don’t other writers produce more strong female characters.  Then he said the following:

“Equality is not a concept.  It’s not something we should be striving for.  It’s a necessity.  Equality is like gravity.  We need it to stand on this earth as men and women.  And the misogyny, (hatred of women – which is really rooted in fear of their power), that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition.  It is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.  We need equality. Kinda Now!” – Italics added –

Another of my favorite sayings comes from Guy Finley –
“We all have wings that only open in Mid-Air.”
This ties in with the ‘age-old’ observation that the Universe rewards action.  So that, especially when I have no idea how I am going to accomplish something that seems to be the right thing to do, I need to just start!

Another thought which came to me today was that sometimes people ask me how I accomplish all that I do, and sometimes people ask me why I am not doing  more.  I don’t know how to answer either question.

Last night the Mindshifters group in Woodstock, IL watched the first half of Dr. Michael Ryce’s lecture titled: Purpose, Personal Power, and Commitment.  This is a powerful talk which helps outline a way to define one’s life purpose and then use that purpose to focus and intensify one’s creative energy.  The process and the rationale for doing this are clearly laid out by Dr. Ryce in the first hour of this lecture.  It is based on identifying what you are naturally good at doing and what you love to do and then dedicating yourself to using those things to help make the world a better place.

After the video we opened the group for questions and several members had been deeply moved by the process outlined in the video.  One member in particular found that she was in agreement with most of the teachings in the video and stated that she had felt that way most of her life, but did not have the specific tools for making these things a reality in her life.  She stated that she was grateful to have found this work and these tools.  She also raised a difficulty she was having related to the idea of trying to stay in the space of Love, when people around her are being unreasonable or even abusive.  This led to some comments from different group members  who were all genuinely trying to offer support for this member.  Different people made it clear that there is nothing in this work which tells people they have to just sit back and take abuse from others,  in life or in relationships.

This did not really get to the point for the person raising this issue, so we asked her to be more specific and she got very emotional and told a brief story about how her mother had recently gotten ill and when she took her mother to the emergency room, the staff there said they could not help her and suggested that she put her mother in a nursing home.  She knew  this was not the thing to do and found another hospital where they treated  her mother for a urinary tract infection and things began to get better.  However, this person was still visibly upset and had great difficulty telling this story without breaking down in tears.  As we helped her identify what she was feeling and continually reminded her to use her breath to soften the tight and rigid places within her, she began to identify her deep sadness.  As the group supported her in doing a modified version of the Reality Management Worksheet process,  she was able to identify several goals she was holding which were fueling her anger, fear and sadness.  As the group supported her in canceling those goals and looking to see what was beneath them, she got in touch with memories of being three years old and being  sick and in the hospital and being separated from her mother for ten days when she was “in isolation”, during which time all she wanted was to be with her mother.

As she cried and breathed and got in touch with the deep pain and fear that she felt at age three, she began to realize that the sadness and fear she is feeling as an adult today are just echos and the stimulation of energies she locked away in her mind and body when she went through these traumatic events as a child.  The group worked with her for about forty minutes of processing, breathing, identifying goals, canceling goals and asking to be shown the hidden parts of her mind which were causing  her pain.  At the end of that time we asked her to think about the recent events with her mother and all the trauma they had just been through to see if she could get in touch with the deep sadness and fear which had been so overwhelming just forty minutes prior.  She was  calm and relaxed and stated that she felt none of the upset with which she began the process.

This was a powerful session of processing, integrating, and healing for this person.  The rest of the story is that this session happened in our group where twelve other  people were present and holding the space of Love and breathing with this person.  Of those twelve other people, no less than six spoke out about how powerful the session was for them because of their own issues with children age three, or their own traumas from age three.  One member revealed that she currently has a three year old who is being treated for cancer and that this session helped her realize how important it is for her to dismantle her anger and fear so that she can just be present and Loving with her child,  who  is too young to understand why the energy of fear and anger would be radiating from her mother.  Another member related that she almost lost her daughter at age three.  Another  member  related that she had significant traumas and losses in her  life when she was three and that the processing in the group was very significant for her to understand where she has more healing work to do.

I was, and am still, in awe of the quality and commitment of the people who gather each week for this Loving and Healing process and the powerful benefits  they are creating for themselves, their families, and their friends.

For more information and FREE access to these tools visit Dr. Michael Ryce’s website at www.whyagain.org

We Come From Love, We Are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.

The Mindshifters support group in Woodstock, IL last night watched the DVD presentation by Dale Allen Hoffman titled: The Word.  This is a collection of pieces of presentations Dale has made over the years about different interpretations of the words from ancient Aramaic scriptures which have been attributed to Jesus or Yeshua.  The gentle and loving way that Dale presents this material clearly had a powerful impact on the group, which sparked a lively conversation and many questions about a variety of topics.

Some of the key concepts Dale presented included the idea of using the breath to soften  tension and resistance in any moment and to allow the flow of creative energy and the expression of Love,  which  is our true nature.  Dale reported that his research indicates that the vast power of Yeshua’s teachings were lost when the word breath was translated by the Greeks as the word spirit.  Dale suggested that one can take most current versions of the bible and substitute the word breath in most places where the word spirit is used and find a whole new level of meaning in those teachings.

Dale highlighted the fact that these ancient teachings were about a spiritual practice, not about a dogma or religion and that following the spiritual practice which is described is the only way for someone to begin to have the experience that Yeshua was teaching people to create for themselves.  The ancient texts and Yeshua’s teachings were about how to have the same kind of experiences Yeshua had.  Yeshua even said, “The things I have done,  you can do and even greater things that this will you do.”  The only way to achieve this is to make it a habit to practice the very practical skills that Yeshau spoke of in his teachings.  Those teachings however, have been hidden behind the translation difficulties which arise when moving from one language to another and from one culture to another.  The point  is made in the video that the ideologies become a barrier to experiencing the very thing the ideologies are talking about.  If an ideology does not inspire action and active spiritual practice it begins working to prevent the very thing it claims to promote.

Dale makes it clear that we are not meant to change the message but the message is meant to change us.

He also says that The Law is not something we need to learn to live within, but rather it is that thing which lives through us.

He talked about how the scriptures have been translated to say that the one unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  Many religions use this to shame people into praying a certain way, or into believing  that “bad” things are happening in their lives because they have not been pious enough, or pure enough in their thought, or prayed hard enough to God or the Holy Spirit.  Dale offers that the true meaning of this is to be found by revealing the definitions of the original Aramaic words.  The word that the Greeks translated as Holy Spirit was the word Rookha D’ Koodsha in the Aramaic.  One valid way to interpret this name is as follows – the all-encompassing breath of God.  When you combine this with the ancient meaning of the word blasphemy, “to cut off from” you get an entirely different meaning.  When you cut yourself off from the all-encompassing breath of God,  you initiate your own death by refusing to allow the breath of life and creation to flow through you and heal you.   The next time something “bad” or unwanted happens in your life, watch what happens with your breath.  Chances are you will either hold  your breath or breathe in very shallow breaths which do not allow for proper oxygenation and relaxation within your body.  You will have cut yourself off from the breath of Life, or God which is trying to flow through you.  Watch what happens when you slow yourself down and take some deep full breaths and keep them flowing.  I believe you will feel what ever it is you say you don’t want to feel and you will feel it more fully.  The good part is that you will also begin to integrate and “heal” those unwanted feelings and energies within you.  You will be restored and the breath of life will be restored to you.

Again, this is yet another teaching from the ancient scriptures which was meant as a set of instructions for removing anything that is less than Love from your mind’s and body’s energy system.  More tools which help this process are available for free at www.whyagain.org  click on the link that says “Start Here”.  You will be able to print out and use a wide variety of worksheets that are all designed to help you uncover and then remove any energies in your system which are less than Love.

We Come From Love, We are Made of Love, We Are Love!  Everything else is false.