I’ve been compiling my vast wealth of knowledge regarding chakras and auras into a book (the working title is About Auras). This past week, I have been focusing on organizing and writing summaries about each of the primary layers. Yesterday’s focus was the creative layer of energy.
The creative layer is where ideas are manifested in the physical world. It is this center that will drive someone to be an author, painter, chef, or to procreate. This is the center that provides the energy to ensure that your ideas are brought into being.
The way the center works isn’t magical, though. It won’t help you wave your hand and have a million dollars just suddenly pop into actuality. However, once you have an idea on how to do something that might earn you a million dollars, it will help provide the impetus to make it happen.
As I finished writing that, I received an email alerting me to a new posting from Cynthia Sue Larson. Her post, Reality Shifting and Quantum Jumping as a Spiritual Practice, was a wonderful description of what can happen and how your reality can shift when someone focuses their energies through their creative center. It was almost as if she knew what I had been writing about (maybe it’s quantum entanglement or maybe it’s just serendipity). Whatever the cause, I’m glad I received the post, and would like to share her interesting insights with you, happy readers.
As a reader, writer/editor, and indie author, I understand the challenges of other authors (and editors). However, the constant nitpicking and bullying of authors just because they choose to publish independently, is ridiculous.
Traditional publishers will probably never embrace independent authors as equals. They will be loath to admit that the terms of engagement in this ongoing battle are changing, that the combatants are becoming more equal, and that some authors even find a way to go “hybrid.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that the trads are losing the high ground they once held in the area of editorial standards.
Examples of bad editing crop up more and more in the traditional world. For example, there are few authors more successful at traditional publishing than Anne Rice. She also specializes in the hottest subjects in fiction, vampires and werewolves. Yet Floyd Orr, editor of the long-running review site PODBRAM, and a rabid Rice fan, reports: “Anne Rice’s 34th book contains more errors than I have ever seen in a top-selling, traditionally published hardback! There are errors of every kind: repeated common words, misused spellings…
Believe it or not, writing non-fiction is more than just dumping facts and figures into a book template. It requires just as much creativity as writing a novel…or maybe even a bit more.
Collecting the data or having some skill or wisdom that you want to share with the world is only half the challenge. Once you have the idea, the outline, and the information, you need to find an engaging way to present it to your reader. It needs to flow with personality, story, and interesting characters just as much as any novel does.
Writer August Birch offers authors some insight in meeting that challenge with the 3 steps described in his article: Write Better Non-Fiction By Asking These Three Magic Questions.
Did you know that learning about and acknowledging the truth of your past lives can help you resolve current life issues? Sometimes small things (like a patch of eczema or a feeling of being choked when wearing cowl or turtle necks) can be resolved by acknowledging the cause is actually something that happened in a past life.
In college I met a girl who marveled at the fact that I wore cowl and turtle neck sweaters (a lot). She, on the other hand, would only wear crew or v-neck sweaters. She said whenever she wore anything that hugged her neck (including jewelry or scarves), she would have difficulty breathing. She felt as if she was being choked and nothing would help except to remove the offensive clothing or jewelry. She also couldn’t stand to wear anything that hugged her wrists or ankles, including wide bracelets or sweatshirt-style cuffs. When she did, she always got a severe rash that took days to clear up.
Just out of curiosity, we both signed up for a course in alternative healing techniques. At one point, the teacher had us lie still as he put the group of us into a light trance. Once in that trance he guided us to our earliest childhood memories using a regression technique. (My memory was of falling into a giant fire ant hill while a toddler. And if you’ve ever been bitten by ants, you’ll understand that it wasn’t a very pleasant memory at all.)
Despite my painful childhood memory, though, I was very disappointed when the instructor ended the session. I had hoped that he would take us back even further. I had so wanted to see if anyone would remember any previous lives. Ever since reading the book The Search for the Girl with the Blue Eyes by Jess Stearn, I was fascinated by the idea of past lives and reincarnation. After reading that book, I read everything I could get my hands on regarding past lives and reincarnation. (This was way before the time of the Internet and ebooks. This was the era of brick and mortar libraries and bound paper books.)
I wasn’t sure how much of the reincarnation information I believed, but it made me look at things from a different perspective. Having gotten so close to seeing some of my own past lives, I was unwilling to give up. I practiced on my own after that class, and, eventually, I was able to capture bits and pieces of what I took to be past lives. But my girlfriend had troubles focusing, so we did a paired meditation using some of the techniques we had learned from the alternative healing class.
She lay down on the couch and I turned on the wave noise machine. The sound of waves shushing against the shore was supposed to help with relaxation. Again, using my notes from class, I instructed her to imagine herself in a corridor leading to a staircase. I then told her to go down the steps and after each step she would be in a deeper and deeper trance. When she reached the bottom of the steps, she would see numerous closed doors. I told her to go to the one that called to her; the one that drew her to it, and open it.
Once she opened it, I asked her to tell me what she saw.
At first, she said she saw nothing. It was all darkness, no light. However, the smells, she said, were horrific. I asked her to tell me about it, and she said the air was stale, filled with the odor of sour bodies, salt water, feces, vomit, and urine. She also said that whatever she was standing on continually swayed, and it made her feel ill. There was something metallic around her neck, arms, and legs, which chafed and choked her. I told her to move ahead several days, and she said there was a little light creeping through the slats of wood surrounding her. She told me she was a large, black male, and that she was surrounded by others like her. They were crowded in together like cattle. Based on the swaying and the faint smell of sea water, she thought she might be in the hold of a ship. This seemed to be confirmed when, as I asked her to skip ahead again, she said that the swaying and rocking had increased to the point where everyone was sick, and it was extremely difficult to remain standing.
She could hear creaking and men yelling, and great gushes of sea water splashed down on them from above. She said there was a huge noise, like wood tearing away, and suddenly the water was rushing in around their feet. Being chained, there was very little she (he) could do to save herself/himself. The water filled the area where they were confined, and he drowned.
When she came out of the trance, I asked her about the memory. She said it wasn’t that she was angry at the people who had confined her, but more that she (he) had felt guilty for being unable to help himself or the others with him because of being chained up. Once she relived the memory, though, she realized that it wasn’t her fault, and no one blamed her except herself. With that realization and her own forgiveness, she was able to move on from that lifetime. While she never wore turtlenecks, she was able to wear cowl necks. And she also started wearing wrist watches and wide bracelets without ever having rashes or choking incidents again.
Of course, not all past lives have negative impacts on the current life. Sometimes a past (or multiple pasts) can leave a positive impression. For instance, I’ve spent numerous lives learning about natural healing techniques (including herbs and spices, gems and metals, and energy manipulations). As a result, I have what I call, an intrinsic (almost an instinctual nature) knowledge when it comes to analyzing what is wrong with someone and how best to help them regain their natural balance.
This is similar to what I’ve seen in other people, as well. A male friend of mine has spent numerous lifetimes learning about guitars and similar string instruments. He began playing the banjo when he was five, without a single lesson. He just knew how.
If you’re not sure how to regress yourself, and you’re uncomfortable asking a counselor or past life reader (such as myself), grab a copy of my Mastering Meditation book. It has great meditation techniques for capturing your past and future lives.
Being an indie author doesn’t mean you can’t become a best selling author.
In fact, far more best selling books seem to be coming from the non-traditional publishers and authors then ever before. With so many books now available via electronic platforms, it shouldn’t surprise any of us authors…and yet, I think it does.
We’re so geared to think of success as coming from being published by one of the established publishing companies, that we don’t realize just how much more control we have over our careers by being independents. Yet, many authors are finding that the way to the top is no longer through that long process of submission and rejection. Instead, the way to the top is by producing great stories that can reach their intended audiences through independent publishing. Once in the hands of readers, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches the top.
Traditional publishers will probably never embrace independent authors as equals. They will be loath to admit that the terms of engagement in this ongoing battle are changing, that the combatants are becoming more equal, and that some authors even find a way to go “hybrid.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that the trads are losing the high ground they once held in the area of editorial standards.
Did you know that learning about and acknowledging the truth of your past lives can help you resolve current life issues? Sometimes small things (like a patch of eczema or a feeling of being choked when wearing cowl or turtle necks) can be resolved by acknowledging the cause is actually something that happened in a past life.
Being an indie author doesn’t mean you can’t become a best selling author.