From The Archives: The Lullaby of the Dream Body

(First posted January 31, 2006)

[I've been gonging for the past several days, which in this case has indicated that several recently transitioned persons are trying to speak to me, which sounds like bells to me when not in an altered adaptive state. I'd like to gong them sometimes. In order to attend to their requests, and continue to function on my everyday level, my consciousness is "comparmentalized" to enable function on several levels of vibration. To this end, note that the following is entranced discernment as assisted by the Risen and by Krishnamurti and my contribution is minimal. I've been assured that the material will be related to the previously mentioned curmudgio so that I can discuss it later if I want. It seems that they want to put that discussion on hold for a bit.]

The act and stance of giving can be seen to be the emergent point from where healing aspects (energies) flow. "Energy" is presented here in a parenthetical way because, in spite of its very common usage in all mental/physical/spiritual earthly aspects, there really is no such "thing"—it's an "aspect" or "an appearance from a specific vantage point." In other words, energy is a useful fiction. (That should stir up something in anyone's cosmic soup-of the day!)

The subject of healing is an apparent major component of the experience of grief—that is, suffering—within this manifested world, but not always realized because of the apparent complexity of grief, and of suffering in general. "Act" is used here to suggest movement, and "stance" is used here to suggest an assumed posture. One is movement (through perceived space-time) and while the other is non-movement, it is often perceived as movement —which is a delusion. Delusion is a deception of the simulate self-mind (ego-mindself); freedom of movement is of the Self.

"Apparent" is used here because the grief experience has been codified on earth due to collective and individual expectations which are all fear-based, and all fear is based on a belief in death. Although "apparent" is meant as "easily seen," easily is what the simulate self promotes, and seen is what it connotes. Although in its mind "seen" implies the present, notice that it's the past tense of see. Therefore, a belief is structured that holds that seen = see, i.e., past = present—which is a connotation of "memory." A belief in death is a delusion that, because the illusion of death being real is held before us like a hypnotist gently swaying his shiny pocket watch back and forth before us, we fall into a waking sleep and therefore we dream our memories, while the Real World (awakened awareness) moves in its vast, profound and wondrous depths around us, and as we move within It.

One main aspect of our manifested dream world is that it gives us grief—a giving which is not healing—and which the ego-mind interprets as suffering. "Suffering" is defined by the Risen as "(increasingly) complex and persistent forms of (physical and mental) pain and fear, leaving us to feel helpless, hopeless, and demoralized, which together comprise the experience of earthly suffering."(p. 5) A key word here is "form," as in the imaginal process of the dream.

There are as many answers as there are questions when it comes to approaches to healing within our active and static forms of manifestation. Often, asking questions leads to more questions. Perhaps it's knowing when to stop questioning. As Yoda suggested, "No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try." Yoda is a personified, symbolic example of an awakened consciousness within the sea of dreams. To those asleep, the world seems chaotic, uncontrollable, and trying is only stirring the soup. Doing is containing the soup (perhaps by drinking it) and even changing the soup, as in-formed by one's imaginal ability. The very key word here is "no" or "negation" as K. has sometimes suggested, which, when merged with his concept of "choiceless awareness" allows Self to emerge from the veils of self. Somewhere in my journals is a discourse K. delivered to me over several days on choiceless awareness, and I'll try to remember to look for it to perhaps present here another time.

Recall the only words of A Course In Miracles which it (correctly) says are the only words worth recalling:

"This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God." (Introduction, ACIM)

This is simplicity itself, so close the book, and stop reading. Bring attention to the realization that this statement is presented in language of the present—which is the experience of Presence. Yet the complexity of healing has also been previously noted above, because of the nature of the world system of the simulate self. Negation of unreality is the key to the door of Self whereupon the door is no longer seen, unless and until one returns to unreality—or the dream.

Once the feeling of Self is felt—which is an experiential understanding that this is an authentic feeling, for it is the corridor to the door as well—there is then a catalyzing process that parallels the atomic-quantum-astral-etheric process mentioned a few posts ago. There is now a receptive state that enables That-Which-Is-Of Higher-Vibration (Self) to "descend" and enter into that-which-is-of-lower-vibration (self). The higher cannot be found within the lower—remember salt and water?—the lower can only be prepared to receive the higher. The arrival of the higher into the lower accomplishes negation of the felt experience of lower selfdom—or neutralizing or negating it—and achieves the appearance of divinity as uniquely expressed through individualized Self. This is healing.

However, because of the very realness of the way terrestrial humans believe they experience space and time, there is almost always an experience of delay between the arrival of the divine experience and the reappearance of wholeness (health.) The delay can be minutes, hours, days, or longer. "Reappearance" because, as noted somewhere in The Risen, aspects of reality, including a state of wholeness, are not discovered but uncovered.

Sometimes the healing is heralded by strange events of synchronicity, sometimes by an increase in the discomfort/pain as it moves toward resolution—depending on the personal belief system and its strength.

Or course, this all looks good on paper. Most of us are used to instant gratification as learned through the use of medications and giving in to addictive behaviours. The usual reactions of anger, frustration, disappointment, fear, and worry to the delay process will disengage one from the process. I'm reporting this kind of healing method to you from my own personal experience as it has evolved over many years. It didn't arrive overnight, but over years. It's easy to read about it. Because I've individualized it, it might not resonate for others in the same way, or at all. Take what's needed, focus the attention on what feels right. Your imaginal abilities will then engage to manifest your own individualized healing approaches. As always, ask for assistance from your internal world resources—guides, transitioned relatives and friends, the Risen.

When healing of any kind is needed—physical, emotional, mental—we can start with what we have and where we are, which is our physically experienced, material body. This body is also the dream body, for it is our vehicle of expression (movement) within the dream of manifestation. We think it's real; yet we don't remember what "real" is because we don't know we are asleep. When we begin to awaken within the dream, the approach to healing will change quite dramatically.

Recognize that the dream body we inhabit, and any area of the body, especially when isolated by any kind of trauma, will develop a temporary awareness—short and/or long term—meaning that a leg can carry a memory of physical trauma for months, or the lower back for years, for example. The result is that the body part experiences isolation from the whole body, and has a need to be reconnected. Isolation causes fear, which the simulate self-mind seizes upon to further capitalize and promote its agenda of survival by engendering yet more fear. This ultimately, and often quickly, backfires and we have a situation where the isolated area is like an animal in a trap chewing its leg off to escape.

Flood the body with the choiceless awareness of I AM. This saturation can be directed into a specific body part, or generalized into all body parts. If this seems too ambiguous or woo-woo, flood the body and the affected part with feelings of love—nonjudgmental acceptance. This is your child, and approach and treat it as your child.

Eckhart Tolle's first book, The Power of Now, has some exceptionally clear discussion about this awareness and its healing aspects. (Unfortunately, his second new book falls very flat, clearly written by others, and was a waste of his time, so don't waste your money. Borrow it from the library.)

To reconnect the ailing body part, talk to it. Use any language that offers quiet compassion and sympathy and promises unfailing support and love. Ask it to come back and join the rest of the body, which loves and needs it, and is itself unwhole without it. This communication will most likely need to take place many, many times a day and over several days and even weeks. If the trauma, expressed as illness, pain, discomfort, numbness, etc., is entrenched enough in its isolation—often exacerbated further by miscommunication in the form of heavy medications, legal and otherwise, or neglect/abuse, deliberate and otherwise—the affected body area may have dissociated significantly so that it cannot hear or sense our reaching out to it. Here, "dissociated" means one can no longer feel it, for communication has been numbed out, and the part is disconnected. It needs to be plugged back in.

The approach to the body part may have to be like slowly making friends with a feral animal, gaining trust and acceptance. You are calling this abandoned, hurting child back into its parental arms—you. This takes time. Our current culture prefers "saving" time by other quick methods of relief that are essentially unloving acts, and the body area, as informed by the wisdom of innocence, will respond, in time, by continuing to waste away. The body part can talk back. It might take a while, so it needs coaxed and coddled—sing it a lullaby The response may be in the form of a sensory experience, inner pictures and sounds, perhaps memories and even words. Be quiet and listen; ask what it needs.Often the body part has been trying to get your attention, perhaps by moving itself in certain ways, and of which you've not been aware. Arny and Amy Mindell are psychologists who have uncovered a powerful form of therapy for the dream body called Process Oriented Psychology. Arny's books are especially useful in accessing the body's wisdom, and it's clear he and Amy are both intimately engaging with the imaginal.

I've seen back pain dissolve, sinus issues resolve, infections clear, and internal systems order re-establish itself. Psychologically, peace, serenity, and non-fear arise. Outer events will mirror the inner state. Unsolvable situations with resolve. Crystalized anger will soften and dissipate. Paralyzed emotional and physical states will release. Eventually, perhaps even quickly, pain will disappear for short periods of time, and then may return. Diligence in the form of a committed relationship will be in order. This approach works for any relationship—with a hurting body part, with self and with others. On a higher order, long-distance healing can be achieved. This is nothing new and was expressed to a new art form in New Thought thinking, exemplified by Emmett Fox and others. New Thought is a form of imaginalism. It could be said to be prayer.

Next: Another method which might be called "do, not try." K. referred to it as "negation." It can be preceded by the above approach of flooding the material form with I AM Self Awareness, or not. It is akin to New Thought approaches but is on a very different level of the imaginal realms typically experienced by average persons on the terrestrial vibration levels.

The Stuff of Dreams

What follows is a dream-discourse written in trance after waking up from a particularly intense night of traveling in the astral:

I cannot speak for everyone, but I do know there are those of us who have lives during the time our terrestrial body sleeps that are so far beyond the pale existence of the terrestrial experience that it is truly impossible to speak or write of those lives in any terrestrial language, save, perhaps, art.

Those who think that they know their dreams, and understand them, and can speak and write of them—in any way—are in the unconscious clutches of the ego-mind, and are being used by its mentality. The ego-mind cannot travel beyond the terrestrial state of embodiment into the astral, where Authentic Self lives—and loves—in such intense, often frenzied and fierce, yet exquisitely fiery and tender ways, that the life of a still-embodied person on the earth can be said without doubt to be the actual dream.Thus all the millennia of written and oral tradition, sacred and secular texts, which claim to have understood the mysteries of what are labeled as “dream lives” and “dream symbols and interpretations” add up to mere delusions of the ego-mind—it is speaking of itself and the lives of its own simulate personalities while in captivity on the Earth, and not of the vast truth which it cannot claim, which is Authentic Self’s immortal existence outside time and space.

When an Authentic Self returns to the terrestrial body, when it awakens—which is really falling back asleep — very rarely can It bring any awareness of from where and when It came. Even those tiny wisps of vibrations that echo scant information of Its astral lives, adventures, and lovers, are unable to be retained for more than a few breaths. Instead, ones' awareness of the Authentic Self falls back into a deep slumber, as the ego-mind regains control of the body-mind. The ego-mind is clever and skilled enough to sample and analyze the dissolving wisps before they vanish, and it is with these after-tastes that the ego-mind reconstructs what it thinks are the dramas of its sleep, which it calls “dreams.” Some ego-minds profess to study them, and label them as “not real” but as proof of the depths and complexities of what it imagines as its own real psychological intelligence and evolved and shining talents. Conversely, others also profess to study them and arrive at the same conclusions, while claiming beliefs that the dreams are “real” and evidence higher spiritual aspects, communications, and messages from divinities and demons, as well as interactions with other embodied and even disembodied personalities.

But the ego-mind cannot and never will be able to leave its actual confines, because neither it nor its confines are real, but rather a short-lived and fragile bubble of energy borrowed from the loosest elements of earth and air that comprise the terrestrial body. It is also this bubble of ego-mind’s dreams that Authentic Self re-enters and then proceeds forward in its terrestrial life, unaware in any way of the spectacular, astoundingly beautiful life of reality that awaits Its return to the higher astral realms. Instead, It allows ego-mind to daze and dazzle It by beliefs about dreams, lulled deeper into a day-slumber, where It usually will remain unconscious until the body and the ego-mind finally fall away, and transition toward the Risen Lands begins.

Binky Apport 2022 - update: 2026

 APPORT REPORT - 2022! - 2026 Update

   Odd synchronicities had begun occurring while watching an old 1982 movie, "Still of The Night" late yesterday evening -- as they pertain to very personal experiences that would be only meaningful to me, I'll just say that it was as if Spirit was attempting to communicate to me via the film and my connections within it. I'm sure many reading this will understand what I mean about the atmosphere becoming "charged".

   While watching the movie, Wishy & Broshy, my two young siamese fur kids, were playing in their cat tunnel - a collapsible 4 ft. long fabric structure they love to run in and out of or hide in. Wishy had been playing with his favourite "binky" -- a small, weird pinkish fake fur ball with googly eyes,  given to him as a good luck gift from the household he had been born into and who had passed him and his brother on to me (Fiona had also come from the same place, almost 17 years ago). I'm assuming Wishy had taken his  beloved binky into the tunnel, which was on the floor in front of the couch I was resting on. 

   Shortly after midnight, there was an odd sudden sound, like a small light bulb blowing out, and a very brief, dim light glowing on and off from within the tunnel. Wishy let out a sound of terror and shot out of the tunnel and into another room, but quickly came back, while keeping his distance. His fur was completely extended out, as if some kind of static electricity had puffed him out, and his tail, normally thin and smooth, was also puffed out to an unbelievable fluffy way - I've seen photos of cats who have this reaction when frightened, but this is the first time I've seen it in person. 

      I was able to coax him onto my lap and crooned and soothed him back to a more calm state for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, Broshy and Fiona were still there, but keeping their distance from the tunnel and looking at it apprehensively. Remembering the odd sound and light, and worried that maybe there was something harmful like broken glass that had somehow found its way in there, I knelt down and looked into it, and the photo shown here is what I found - a duplicate binky (on the right), looking very clean and almost new when compared to the old dusty one that had been played with for over 2 years.

Photo by August Goforth

   So I have to wonder if Spirit utilized the little tunnel as a kind of cabinet? Aloysius (aka Wishy) is truly a very strange, fey creature who seems more like a bird or faery than a cat - maybe he's developing his own mediumistic abilities?

   What a wonderful gift to begin a new year, a funny message from Spirit saying, "Don't worry, just find your binky, play and be happy!" 

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Not long after this, I received an email from my friend, Oresnikov Maxim, of St. Petersburg, Russia -- an avid investigator of such numinous events. He let me know that he had added our event to a subReddit called "Poltergeist Search".  The main Reddit is called "r/Glitches_Pictures" and contains a veritable treasure storehouse of "glitches" as O. calls them. He describes his work: "I document visual evidences of 'glitches' hidden reality for the future researches. No one has a clue where these apports came from, how and why. This is like scientific approach to cataloging evidences: all posts has contact links to real authors and quotes their stories, all posts has real-shoot pics."

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Udate: March 2026

The Pinky Binky Twins are still with us! Here's a photo I took of them today.

In the old photo, it's easy to tell which was the original played-with binky and the fresh new apport-binky.

In this most recent photo, alas - Since Aloysius and Ambrosius have inherited them, I can't tell the difference!

Once in a Blue Moon

[First Posted 8/20/12}

Those who are familiar with our book know about Tim's physical materializations, which occurred intermittently over a period of about a decade. Because most of the manifestations were accomplished through ectoplasm, and because of its volatile nature, and and involves harvesting subtance from one's human body, the experience often left me feeling quite unwell, so it was not something I actively encouraged. Eventually, as Tim moved into much higher spirit geographies, the materializations decreased, and have not happened until recently.

In recent years, a new energy has been explored by Spirit, which has been dubbed "photoplasm" -- it appears to use light as the energy for materializing into tangible substance, rather than taking certain chemicals from one's body to mix with other spirit substances to create ectoplasm. This makes it much safer to use, and possibly more versatile, as the ongoing materializations at the Felix Experimental Group have been increasingly revealing.

About three weeks ago, while in a deep sleep, I was awakened by what felt to be an unusual movement under the covers. Fiona and McHenry, my two siamese, often sleep between my feet or even on them, like little sandbags, and I'm completely familiar with all our movements as we shift to different positions throughout the night. Even so, they're so highly sensitive that sometimes just the movement of my toe can startle them and make them jump out of bed.

This time, however, they barely roused, as this odd movement continued.  It's very difficult to describe, especially because it didn't last very long, and I was struggling to fully awaken. Perhaps if I just describe what happened one might get the idea. My bedroom is usually quite dark, but it was just around the time of the 1st full moon of August, and the drapes were open to one side, letting the moonlight in to illuminate the bed. (August of 2012 actually has two full moons: August 2nd and August 31st, the latter known as a "blue moon.") I wonder about the significance, if any, of this, but Tim hasn't offered anything by way of explanation.

As I was trying to pull myself up to a sitting position, I simultaneously saw a hand come out from under the sheet on my right side! It moved so smoothly that I was reminded of the way a balloon inflates. As it emerged, the sheet itself seemed to move of its own accord back toward the bottom of the bed, revealing that the hand was part of a very long arm. The entire limb seemed a little thin for its size, and a little too long, but otherwise was a normal human adult right hand and arm, and more bony than muscular, with very long fingers. It might have been the moonlight, but the arm also seemed slightly luminescent.

The length of time it took to emerge was only a long second or two, and the hand reached out to touch and embrace my own right hand. By then, the cats had awakened, and while not afraid, seemed annoyed and matter-of-factly jumped off the bed.  The hand's grip was very strong and firm, and at once I recognized it as Tim.  I fell back onto the pillow, our hands firmly clasped together. All his personality and character were conveyed to me in his grasp, and I was almost overwhelmed by the love his fingers conveyed.  I could even feel "I miss you" in his fingers. I felt no fear, only happiness.  Alas, it was not to last for long. With one final squeeze of "I love you" it vanished, leaving me to ask the silent night, "Now what?" It seems like it all lasted only a minute.

Nothing has happened since, but I'm ready for more, especially as this seemed to be a photoplasmic event, and I suffered no ill effects, other than a slightly aching heart. I hope it doesn't happen only once in a blue moon.

A friend commented on how exciting this must have been.  It always sounds exciting to me, too, when I hear of such a thing happening to someone else. But when I experienced it this time, I felt and feel mostly a deep reassurance that all is well, for it's like the hand of God has reached out through his creations to remind us that we are the heirs of irreversible immortality, and can and should rest in this divine knowledge.

(This event occurred in August 2012 - there were actually 2 blue moons recorded that month!)

No Time For Fear

 [First posted 11/9/21]

There is no power (or Source) outside myself. 

There is no room for fearful thoughts, I turn away from them and they do not exist.

I am an immortal being so therefore there is no time. 

And so there is no time for fear, anxiety, worry and doubt, now and forever now. 

There is only the experience of my being forever here and now.

Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025

 

(Above are just 5 of over 100 "I Ching Klex" as manifested and painted by August Goforth & Hermann Rorschach [See Note: 1 below].  His original "10 Blots" can be seen in the Footnotes at the end of this posting.)

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This posting is an extension of the current and ongoing art project between Hermann Rorschach and myself – the link to the gallery of our images at the Risen Gallery of Dreams can be found HERE.

This gallery presentation is the first of what may be a 4-part series, as guided by the 4 Seasons. Thus, this first one is called “Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025”.

Other previous painting projects manifested with certain individuals, including Boris Pasternak and William Hurt, can be found HERE. (Once there, scroll down a bit to locate their works called "Spirit Artifacts").

Originally I was only working alone, exploring the possibility of expressing the Rune Stones in some kind of painterly manner. Somehow, in the ways of mediumship and art that are and most likely will always be inexplicable, Hermann was drawn to the energies I was projecting whilst handling the Runes and various art materials to see what might be done. Of course I was quite excited and opened up the gateway for his continued contact, which has since become a more established and steady portal between us.

However, it soon became clear that in spite of having transitioned 103 years ago, he was still essentially confused and scattered about his actual transition. Later this lack of expected clarity was explained by the basic lack in his earthly beliefs, understanding and experience of The Afterlife. It was also eventually revealed that his sudden appearance in my art studio was not random, but part of a sophisticated, ongoing campaign to awaken him to the spiritual clarity that is the birthright of us all into the Realms of Spirit. Such campaigns are usually known as “spirit rescues” and by my acknowledgement and willingness to engage with him and his unfolding transmutation, was onboarded to the ”rescue team.”

After I did a lot of research on his life, greatly aided by Damion Searls’ book “The Inkblots”,  "Hermann Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics - Newly Translated & Annotated 100th Anniversary Edition: (Hogrefe Publishing Corp) and also several hard-to-find writings by his wife, began to reach my own clarity as to his current state of mind and how to assist his continued spiritual enlightenment. It took more than an earthly month of time for him to finally come to an understanding that he was not in a dream state, nor drugged in some way, nor in a medical coma of some kind. This same month also gave me time to establish the fact that while on earth, he gave very little thought or exploration into the possibility of life after death — not that he wouldn’t have been able to do so with the well-known brilliance and energy he was known to have brought to his psychiatric practice and for the immense love for his wife and two children — but he was far too focused on and satisfied with life in the present. Also, he was just at the beginning of the career he chose over instead becoming an artist, and so was not prepared for his sudden transition at the age of 37 from a burst appendix — the symptoms of which he had purposely ignored, choosing instead to focus on the needs of his patients, until it was too late.

[“Synchronistically” I was also able to locate and acquire an original set of the 10 inkblots, which are supposedly not ever allowed to be obtained by anyone other than certified specialists. I myself am certified and licensed in the US as a trained psychotherapist of many years, but even that doesn’t qualify me to own and use them. However, as it so often happens in the mediumistic, spiritual matters that manifest in my life, and as part of the orchestration that brought Hermann and I together, also brought an unexpected resource of a particular collector/hoarder’s basement. And lo, they found their way into my hands for study and a deepening understanding of our artistic collaboration. At the time of my online searching, I wasn’t able to even find viable reproductions of them, so at some possible blurry risk, I am including the images of the 10 original blots here in  this blog posting (see below). The Reader is encouraged to study these and compare them with those Hermann and I have manifested.]

At first I assumed that our work with the Runes would be part of his development, but as he achieved more and more clarity and his brilliant mind was able to grasp and accept the complex reality of what was happening between us, he began to resist the Runes, as they didn’t interest him. He had been aware of them while on earth, and had even explored them briefly when developing his “blots”. But he had actually and secretly been drawn to the I Ching system, which was hardly known or recognized in the West/Europe, and most certainly would not have been acceptable on a professional level of a doctor of Western Medicine. [See Note: 1 below] The translated text did not achieve broader cultural influence until after Richard Wilhelm’s German translation in 1923, (a year after Hermann transitioned) which coincided with increased Western interest through figures such as Carl Jung, who wrote the very excellent forward to Wilhelm’s translation — highly recommended!).

And so after I finally understood what he was trying to convey to me, and ceased trying to force him to concentrate on the Runes, he was able to break through my resistance and the project which would become “Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025” began!

It took us about 2 months of exploring various materials — paper, paint, ink, specialized pencils, and wax — as well as techniques in folding the many and various kinds of paper — as well as producing hundreds of failures — that we turned away from all other already-established processes for making basic ink-blots (and there are many) and finally developed our own successful and reliable protocol. The Klex on view at the Risen Gallery of Dreams are all on only one or two particular kinds of watercolour paper, applying water-based inks (over 120 different kinds and colours so far) and manipulating those inks in certain ways onto paper that has been folded in certain ways. Many of the inks are complex formulae, instilled with all kind of metallic shimmering and sheening, as well as shading substances. The original “Rorschach Blots” are 9 9/16ths X 6 5/8ths inches in size – a size that took Hermann and the publishers ages to arrive at for some unknown reason. Our images are mainly 7 X 10 inches, with a few at 6 X 9 inches.

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NOTES:

(1) Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst best known for creating the Rorschach inkblot test, a projective psychological test designed to analyze personality and unconscious thoughts. Originally interested in art, influenced by his painter father, Rorschach combined his artistic background with medical science, graduating in medicine from the University of Zurich in 1909. He began experimenting with inkblots as a diagnostic tool while still a student, fascinated by how different people interpreted ambiguous shapes. After working in Swiss psychiatric hospitals, he published his foundational book, Psychodiagnostik, in 1921, detailing the use of 10 inkblots to assess mental health. He died prematurely at 37, but his inkblot test has remained widely used in psychology, psychiatry, and related fields to understand personality and diagnose mental illness.

Hermann Rorschach created his inkblots by combining his interest in art and psychology. Some scholars assume he was inspired by a childhood game called Klecksography, where inkblots were made and stories created about them, and that he refined this playful technique into a scientific tool. Jung and even Thoreau, among many others had played with inkblots in those days.

However, Damion Searls, in his book “The Inkblots”, a very good biography of Rorschach, feels that “Klex” (the German name for “inkblot” was the nickname given to Hermann when he was at the elite, 6-year Gymnasium, an academic high school, by his fellow students. It was standard for the young men to give each other a nickname, and in his case, “Klex” did not mean “inkblot” but that he was known to be very good with pen and ink, and who drew quickly and well. (There are archived examples of the charming but very sophisticated drawings and paintings, as well as highly-sophisticated puppets he made for his children.)

Later, on, in his psychiatric practice, rather than simple random inkblots, Rorschach carefully crafted each blot with symmetrical contours meant to evoke specific yet ambiguous images. Between 1917 and 1920, he experimented with over forty inkblots on psychiatric patients and observed how those with different mental disorders, especially schizophrenia, responded variably.

Rorschach selected fifteen blots for their diagnostic potential and later reduced them to ten for publication due to practical constraints. These ten cards include both black-and-white and colored symmetrical inkblots designed to provoke a wide range of perceptions around animals, humans, objects, or abstract shapes. The test works by encouraging individuals to project their unconscious thoughts onto these ambiguous images, revealing insights into their personality and cognitive functioning. The process involves showing each blot to a subject and recording their spontaneous interpretations, which are later analyzed to detect patterns associated with different psychological conditions.

(2) The I Ching, also known as the "Book of Changes," is an ancient Chinese divination text dating back over 3,000 years. It functions both as a philosophical system and a tool for guidance, describing the fundamental principles of reality and the dynamics of change through the interaction of complementary forces called yin and yang. The core of the I Ching consists of 64 hexagrams—figures made of six stacked lines that are either broken (yin) or solid (yang)—each representing different states or processes of change. Traditionally, divination is performed by casting yarrow stalks or coins to generate a hexagram, which is then interpreted through the text's verses and commentaries to provide insight and advice on various life situations. The I Ching has had a profound influence on Chinese philosophy, including Taoism and Confucianism, serving as both an oracle and a deep ethical guide.

The Original "Rorschach Blots":

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The Lightening of Internal Gravity

"Vast emptiness, nothing holy!" ~ Bodhidharma (1)

       Unaware of the ego-mind’s back-door technique, we may assume that the only way to deal with it is to attack and destroy it, as well as the simulate selves and their thoughts, as if rooting out unwanted, persistent weeds from the garden of the mind. But the ego-mind, an integral part of our materialized existence, is here to stay, and there are gentle, creative, aware responses that bring the situation to the infinite openness of compassion. Because we are essentially spirit, all matters of the heart and mind are first addressed in some spiritual way, beginning with directing the will. For most individuals, free will does not yet exist, and much effort will have to be made to gain psychological freedom while seeking the spiritual clarity for which they yearn. (2)   One cannot regain free will on one’s own; assistance must be requested. Communing with one’s Authentic Self while requesting spiritual assistance can be done in solitude or with The Risen, through formal or informal prayers and meditation.
       Although seemingly counterintuitive, sensing spiritual being as an embodied human actually begins with first bringing the attention to the body. The body has its own inherent wisdom to direct us, if we can get to an internal place of quiet so we can hear and listen. Non-competitive exercise, journaling, psychotherapy, chanting, listening to music, guided imagery recordings, singing, dancing, drumming, painting—all may lift the focus from that which is dark and heavy toward a finer vibration that lightens internal gravity. As inner gravity is lightened, muscles and tendons release and relax and begin to smile. Done on a regular basis, these things will maintain a healthy mind-body system.
       We each must find our own ways—which often cycle and change—to get quiet within. After connecting with the body, talking and listening to it, a course of inner direction will make itself known. There are usually no direct instructions, only feelings that emerge and flow with the spontaneity of a new mountain stream. We aim our conscious awareness inwardly by directing our attention away from the world assumed to be outside our body. We declare to the Universe/Higher Power/God/Deepest Loved One that we honestly don’t know what we’re doing or what to do next, but that we are willing to receive help. Asking for help needs no special skills, no holiness or advanced spirituality—we come just as we are. If we don’t know how to ask for help then we can say so and ask for guidance on how to ask, and then be at least willing to trust that some kind of answer will come.
       Be willing to be willing without ceasing, especially whenever feeling the slightest hesitation of doubt, and ignore the ego-mind’s insistence that you don’t need help. You may have to find this inner quiet literally thousands of times a day. The ego-mind will be just as persistent in interrupting the silence with the voice of a negative simulate self, because it knows what’s at stake.


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(1)  When one "empties one's self", there are those who believe that Higher Self or, perhaps, God, can then fill the emptiness. This idea mistakenly approaches the situation from a viewpoint of limitation. Subjectively, from the level of ego-mind, negativity can be removed, and replaced with its polar opposite of positivity. However, the absolute realization, when ego-mind is stilled, is that what was perceived as empty is actually fullness of Self.
(2) Here, “psychological freedom” means freedom from psychological time—that is, freedom from memories. – AG

[Excerpted from the chapter "Ego-mind and The Simulate Selves.] 

The Challenges of the Skeptic Materialist

[First published 5/15/13]

"As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish
the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth."
— Boris Pasternak

(Special thanks to Dr. Julia Assante who also published the following at her blog, The Last Frontier.)

      As physical mediumship continues to re-emerge into the 21^st century and becomes increasingly more familiar to worldwide spiritual communities, materialist skeptics are also rising to what their ego-minds perceive as a challenge of some kind.

      Who are these resistant and avoidant skeptics, anyway? Do they need any more attention? I recently happened to re-read Soul Force, written by a friend and colleague, Paul Olsen, (1933-2001) a brilliant clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and successfully published novelist. I found what he had to say about skeptics quite stimulating and share it here:

“Skepticism is one of the most prevalent and damaging counterforces to recognizing the power of the soul, a short-circuit par excellence of inner energy. It prevents a living connection, and so it keeps us deadened, inert, checks our every movement.

“The problem with skepticism is that it has become an accepted position. It is even supposed to label a person ‘smart.’ But skepticism is total passivity: you don’t have to do, feel, or think anything at all to be a skeptic. All you have to do is say No. You just have to be negative. It’s an uncharged position, like a dead battery; it has no life to it. It’s a wall trying to dam up a flow.

“The ‘position’ is accepted because it comes from the misuse and misunderstanding of the scientific viewpoint which for decades has had us by the throats. It’s a show-me position that takes the place of imagination with as deadly an effect as a surgical brain transplant.

“Skepticism is a position of arrogance—and it is utterly devoid of imagination and creativity. No spontaneity at all. Yet how can such total passivity be so arrogant? Precisely because anything so passive, so inert, so without curiosity and a sense of wonder, finds itself cut off from its own energy—and so it lives in a world of being acted upon by forces outside itself, and in its helplessness it becomes arrogant. Helplessness—then it feels fear and becomes a dictator that persecutes anything new and different. In psychology this is called ‘overcompensation.’ But kids peg it in a different way: inside every bully is a coward. The skeptic hurts himself far more than he can ever hurt you.

“Maybe at this point you might be asking: what about the ‘healthy’ skeptic? The person who isn’t in the habit of buying the Brooklyn Bridge or getting set up by con men? The ‘healthy’ skeptic hangs loose. The healthy skeptic doesn’t believe everything he hears—but what he does is investigate. Not with the idea of disproving something, but with the idea of finding something that may enrich him. Implicit in the healthy skeptic is that he might find something, and so he sets off actively. He seeks experience. Openly. And so he is not really a skeptic at all. He just wants to do it himself.

“The true skeptic will ... avoid exploration, the main reason being that someone has suggested it to him. He will call it all nonsense. But how can he know it is anything at all unless he tries? Obviously he won’t try, so therefore he knows nothing. Or he will try only to defeat the purpose.

“It is important for the skeptic that nothing ever happens.

“So we can say, with pretty good assurance, that the skeptic keeps himself deliberately in ignorance, in his dark trap. This idea is crucial for almost all that follows. Skepticism is a position of inert, self-willed ignorance. It is soulless.

“The ‘healthy’ skeptic, if you want to use that term, will try—with the idea of experiencing something. And that is a position of self-willed knowledge.” ⁽¹⁾

      The Italian mystic, Massimo Scaligero (1906-1980) reveals many hidden ideas in his exploratory offerings about materialism:

“Materialism is our faith in matter. We do not know how to experience matter by means of the concrete forces of thinking. Materialism is the most obscure mysticism, for it purports to be the opposite of mysticism simply because it is nourished by mathematical calculation and dialectical abstractions. It feeds our inner weaknesses with the dead products of thinking. By failing to penetrate matter, such thinking elevates it to a mystical reality without any awareness that it does so. No bigot devotes him or herself more faithfully to the object of this or her opiated faith than does the materialist.

“Materialism ... signifies the actual situation of present-day humanity. Materialism is the uncognized and, therefore, the unelaborated basis of all the doctrines and spiritualisms, traditional or not, which ignore the underlying process that gives rise to material appearances. It shuns the task of confronting the problem of the physical objectivity of nature: sensory perceptions and its coming into being as representation. This is a problem that cannot be solved theoretically, but only through the active penetration of reality.

“ A corresponding ... error, which leaves the authority of matter over us unchanged, is to accept the physical world as it is, and matter as it appears. With this error, we engage in abstracted experiments or calculations with the physical world and material appearances, or we seek to transcend them theoretically or mystically.” ⁽²⁾

      Some people are Skeptics with a capital S. These Professional Skeptics feel it’s their job to remain closed in their minds and hearts while retaining the right to question anything. Many of them include scientists, who represent a very small minority of humanity on earth, but have been placed on pedestals that raise them above the majority. This misapprehension disempowers the majority, disabling them from assessing their own valid experiences of personal reality. Science has given us brilliant advances in many aspects of human living, but not without a lot of trials and errors. The facets of truth that science presents as dogma are often successful in creating distractions from those with alternate viewpoints. Yet scientific history consistently reveals the inevitable result of radical exchanges of such dogma. Former universally accepted and supposedly proven axioms are continually replaced by new discoveries, which are then made formal by a collective agreement of this minority. Such has been the course of mainly Western science as it has evolved on earth. This is finally changing as science rediscovers the idea of the energy we call spirit. Science is wonderful, amazing, and necessary, and can provide a certain amount of insight into our existence, but not all. Given the amazing changes in our scientific world-views over the past one hundred years, can we truly think we can now put a cap on what is to come in the next hundred?

      Earthly, western scientific methods are not derived from Nature, but from human minds that see themselves as separate from it. But it’s not the only way of thinking about things. If something can be seen, held, heard, smelled and felt, then scientific measurement can be applied. If they’re too subtle to be detected beyond the senses, then they’re beyond known scientific methods.

      The materialistic reductionist models of Western science have attempted to govern humankind’s world-mind for the past two centuries. This is particularly exemplified in the dominant Darwinian life-models. These reified theories have been less concerned with subjective value issues, focusing primarily on objective experiences manifested by those human senses that can be used to physically see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and measure. Traditionally, materialistic science has sought to gather, weigh, measure, compare, and ultimately predict and control aspects of our existence, even if no under-standing of the phenomenon is ever gained. Value is seen in terms of who can predict with the greatest accuracy, and thus who will have the most control. The Global Madison Avenue, or the world of advertising, uses materialistic science to assign value to whatever market they wish to control, including their primary target, the mental market of the masses—the collective ego-mind. One does not have to look too deeply to reach the conclusion that most of our modern societal beliefs—and worldly ones as well—are created, maintained, and controlled by the collaborative efforts of the media and the Global Madison Avenue. Imagine what might happen if the same energy from the efforts placed into creating and selling fossil fuel-burning cars was channeled into communication with the Risen.

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(1) From the chapter “Freeing Your Emotion” in Soul Force: A Step-by-Step Guide to Inner Strength, by Paul Olsen, Ph.D, 1978, New York: M. Evans & Company. Quoted with kind permission by the author's family. This book is freely accessible at an online archive at: http://archive.org/details/soulforcereleasi00olse

(2) From the chapter “Forces of Opposition: Mediumship” in The Light: An Introduction to Creative Imagination by Massimo Scaligero, 2001 (translated by Eric L. Bisbocci, Lindisfarne Books,) SteinerBooks/Anthroposophic Press/Lindisfarne Books, 610 Main Street, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230. Quoted with kind permission by the publisher.