Ask the Author: Rose Rosetree
Answered Questions (44)
Rose Rosetree
Rachel, thank you so much for asking this question. And for asking it WHEN you asked it. (Hey, I’ll explain.)
Long as I’m giving you a preview of the very full answer to follow, my response to your question will include something unusual. Something downright comical, in a human kind of way.
Here comes the rest of your preview.
* Answer Part 1: The series title is actually NOT “Use Your Everyday Potential”. Though, as you’ll see, it’s not your fault you asked your question this way.
* Answer Part 2: Gain more insight into the kind of thing that happens when you publish as a thought leader.
* Answer Part 3: Let’s establish perspective on my different series of books before this new one.
* Answer Part 4: Why do I think so passionately, and feel so passionately, about the importance of using your Everyday-AMAZING Potential?
* Answer Part 5: How did a memoir wind up becoming the first book in this new series.
So let’s have a fine knowledge romp, Rachel and other Goodreaders.
Answer Part 1: Naming a New Book Series Can Be Tricky
Strange but true: This series title is actually NOT “Use Your Everyday Potential.” Though, as you’ll see, it’s not your fault how you asked your question . . . as if that were the series title.
In case any of you Goodreaders thought that publishing a book was easy? As if!
Even when publishing the second edition of a book previously published? Not easy.
One consideration was to work with my favorite book designer to develop a better cover, compared with the cover for the first edition.
I love the new cover. The back cover copy was significantly improved. Both front and back covers and the spine – all so much better. Sadly, though, I was so intoxicated by these improvements, guess what?
Never did I proofread the new series TITLE, right at the top of the front cover.
Originally, that title read: Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential. However, my talented graphic designer is not as good with words as she is with cover art. So she slipped up and omitted a certain word, a very important word. (We’ll get to that.)
Not only did the graphic designer goof, I goofed as well. It never occurred to me to proofread the full name of the new series title. When Bigger than All the Night Sky was published on August 1, 2024, the series title was . . . wrong.
The kind of goof you would never do on purpose! Except, what kind of a publisher – or person – would ever choose a goof on purpose? 😉
Answer Part 2: Why Is It Extra-Tricky to Publish a New Series as a Though Leader?
Gain more insight into the kind of thing that happens when you publish as a thought leader. Even though this won’t be a lofty kind of insight.
Rachel and other Goodreaders, there are many ways to use creativity. Many books that sell beautifully are similar to another book that become popular first; in facty, the “creative” new book mainly presents existing material, only tweaking the original just a bit. (Absolutely, ask me for an example of this. Although you may find that several examples of this come to mind easily.)
Far less common is this use of creativity: To bring something authentically new into the world. What’s that like? It’s like birthing a baby!
Only, in my experience, what’s different about birthing a new contribution to collective consciousness? Bringing an original discovery into the world means serving as a thought leader. This turns out to be a whole lot more complicated than bringing another human child into the world. (Noted with all due respect to my fellow mothers.)
Over the past half century, I wound up doing thought leadership more often than I ever anticipated. Especially since I never anticipated doing this sort of thing even once.
For example, over decades, I’ve developed a new field for personal development, Energy Spirituality®. Within this field, I have earned 10 additional trademarks. And if you think that little trademark symbol, ®, is just some routine kind of corporate thing, maybe think again. Although many trademarks tweak existing discoveries just enough to get an okay from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, getting a trademark for something original can be a big deal.
-“Intellectual property” this is called.
-“Expanding the History of Ideas” is another name for it.
Yet, for a Publisher, Creating these New Discoveries Can Be Surprisingly Awkward.
Not to go into elaborate sob stories about this. Take it from me, so many things that shouldn’t go wrong DO go wrong.
My experience is that I have routinely encountered this kind of resistance, even though I never anticipated it. Maybe akin to a birth mother who plans a pregnancy, somehow having forgotten what labor will be like. Though she’s definitely, unmistakably, previously, gone through birthing a baby. Ouch.
But No Repining. As a Publisher, You Deal.
Meaning, a publisher fixes mistakes and overcomes obstacles. You persevere. Exactly what I did after discovering my mistake. I contacted my graphic designer who looked at her records and discovered that she had omitted a word from the series title. Graciously and promptly she supplied new cover files.
Not so prompt was changing the covers on Amazon KDP and Kindle. This took repeated attempts and re-do's. Unfortunately, here on Goodreads, the cover couldn’t be changed until Amazon changed it. That’s just how such things work.
In hindsight, Rachel, the joke is on me that you would have asked me the question you did:
“Use Your Everyday Potential”. The title of this new series is so intriguing!
From now on, I’ll be answering a slightly better question:
“Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential”. The title of this new series is so intriguing! Indeed!
Answer Part 3: Every Series I’ve Published Is an Energy Spirituality® Book
For sure, Rachel and other Goodreaders, I’d like to introduce you properly to the new Series Let’s establish perspective on my different series of books before this new one, beginning with what all of them having in common: Being Energy Spirituality® Books.
Before I referred to this field as “personal development.” We can do better now.
Energy Spirituality helps people like you with personal growth and spiritual awakening, using skills that work now. Now being: In the Age of Awakening.
Many of you already know that our Age of Awakening began on December 21, 2024. You may appreciate that what began amounts to a second consciousness era on Earth. The earlier era being the Age of Faith.
In advance of the Shift into this second consciousness era, I’d spent decades teaching Transcendental Meditation for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This turned out to be an ideal preparation to explore consciousness possibilities in this second consciousness era.
That said, now I can summarize the four different types of publications that have preceded this fifth series. Note: The best listings, by series, will not be found on my Author Page here on Goodreads (superb though it is), nor other locations where my books are listed. Instead, here’s what I recommend:
1Open up the rose-rosetree website.
2You’ll see a horizontal menu. There, click on your second option, BOOKS.
3Scroll-and-read. You’ll find one book series at a time.
SERIES 1: Energy READING Skills for the Age of Awakening
Here you’ll find books that teach the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®. That’s first – and so far only – system that teaches skills of energetic literacy where you can read “chakra databanks.” Also, you can do accurate aura readings with regular photos.
Also mind-boggling is the system of Face Reading Secrets®.
SERIES 2: The Energy HEALING Skills of Energy Spirituality
Countless people who aim to help humanity have learned Reiki or other forms of New Age ENERGY HEALING.
With this series, you can develop skills that work now, in the Age of Awakening. Working far better, and with no astral strings attached.
SERIES 3: Empath Empowerment® Books with Rose Rosetree
Why include my name in this series title? Because of the many copycat authors who try to sell their versions of real-deal “Empath Empowerment.”
Anyway, the four books in this series can take an unskilled empath all the way through becoming a Skilled Empath, and even to becoming a Master Empath. Such discoveries await the 1 in 20 humans who are born as empaths.
SERIES 4: Enlightenment Teaching for the Age of Awakening
All the books in this series help spiritual seekers to move toward using their full potential.
How can you possibly evaluate who is a legitimate teacher of Spiritual Enlightenment?
*I’d recommend that you google “Enlightenment Validation” – and, please include these quotation marks in your search.
*You’ll find even more if you search under Enlightenment Validation (without quotation marks) at the Rose Rosetree blog.
* Either way, you’ll find many articles where I interview some of the folks I’ve helped move into Enlightenment. Quite some education awaits you, Goodreaders!
And now we get to SERIES 5. The new one.
Answer Part 4: What an Idea, Your Everyday-Amazing Potential!
Why do I care so passionately about the importance of using your Everyday-AMAZING Potential?
SERIES 5: Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential
Books like these could only be written in the Age of Awakening. And why? Because ever since the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012, a second kind of Spiritual Enlightenment has become available.
Well read though you Goodreaders are, chances are you don’t know about this yet. Have you even heard of this second, legitimate, kind of Spiritual Enlightenment?
-It’s called Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
-While, for clarity, I’ve taken to calling the other version Traditional Enlightenment.
A human being moves into one version only. (Your soul will choose for you, so don’t worry about whether you’ll consciously choose correctly.)
Answer Part 5: “Bigger than All the Night Sky” Is a Memoir
How did a memoir wind up becoming the first book in this new series? Why does that memoir open up the prospect of life being Everyday-Amazing?
Because the second edition of this memoir has been edited well into the Age of Awakening, a dozen years into this new consciousness era. Editing, I removed what didn’t belong. As a result, the consciousness truths in this book shine out more clearly than before. Readers of both editions are reporting greater spiritual power, gently packed into the pages.
It also helps that for 12 of those 12 years, I have been living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
Regarding Age of Awakening Enlightenment, There’s So Much to Celebrate
Here I’m speaking humanly, going through life one day at a time, one hour at a time, etc. My role as a spiritual teacher, an Enlightenment Coach, is quite different. (Series 4 is about that, right?)
Humanly! I see enormous potential for waking up humanity to the joyful-and-creative quality of life made possible in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
For a contrasting example, let’s compare this to the stories celebrated in Country Music . Whether hilarious songs like “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” or songs about serious coping, like “It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.”
One reason I enjoy these songs so much is the sheer humanity. Country Music tells some stories about how joyfully people live. Mostly, though, these story-songs recount how we pick ourselves up when we have to. Since that’s something all of us humans must learn how to do.
But . . . .
What don’t these down-to-earth story-songs tell us about? What it means to live in the Age of Awakening.
Really! Here’s a startling thought: Country Music, like so much in pop culture, consoles people who struggle through life during the Age of Faith.
Yet that first consciousness era on Earth is over. After thousands of years, it is OVER.
If You’re Living Now, Hello! You’re Living in the Age of Awakening
Know it or not, like it or not! Living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment allows all of us to grow faster, both emotionally and spiritually. We’re capable of growing as fast as we choose, provided that we’re willing to pay the price.
By contrast, back in the Age of Faith, nearly all human beings grew at a snail’s pace. At least compared to how we can live now.
Today’s independence of thought . . . And our ability to use free will to personally set our pace for growing . . . . All this is so characteristic of living now, in the Age of Awakening.
Books in this Series 5 document the process of growing faster. Including moments of experiencing God.
-That’s right, not just having a beautiful faith in God.
-But personally having a direct experience of God.
That’s the everyday difference. Granted, such experiences are an ongoing reality after a person crosses the threshold into Age of Awakening Enlightenment. But long before, these experiences are happening more frequently too.
It’s a Tall Order, Bringing this Kind of Truth into Earth.
I’m game, though. I’m game, despite being pretty short physically. (Five feet tall.)
I’m game, at age 76. That is why, every day, Rachel and other Goodreaders, I do what I can to bring more Age of Awakening Truth into Earth. Along with people like you, we can have an impact on society. We can change collective consciousness.
It’s such a privilege, being among the first humans to live in this second consciousness era on the planet.
Yes, a privilege. Well, let’s pay it forward. Back in the Age of Faith, it would have taken hundreds of years to spread the word about the Renaissance, or other cultural growth spurts. What if, living now, we could help suffering humanity to not suffer so much?
Books like this Series 5 of Rose Rosetree’s indie-published books can document this. Just imagine, what could it be like to have everyday life become so amazing, so often. . . that it’s no exaggeration to be able to say this? I live each new day as EVERY-DAY amazing.
Together let’s explore how do that. Because, for some of us, this is the truth of our experience now, true for us each single day.
Let’s bring this knowledge into the world. Let’s do it now.
Join me.
Long as I’m giving you a preview of the very full answer to follow, my response to your question will include something unusual. Something downright comical, in a human kind of way.
Here comes the rest of your preview.
* Answer Part 1: The series title is actually NOT “Use Your Everyday Potential”. Though, as you’ll see, it’s not your fault you asked your question this way.
* Answer Part 2: Gain more insight into the kind of thing that happens when you publish as a thought leader.
* Answer Part 3: Let’s establish perspective on my different series of books before this new one.
* Answer Part 4: Why do I think so passionately, and feel so passionately, about the importance of using your Everyday-AMAZING Potential?
* Answer Part 5: How did a memoir wind up becoming the first book in this new series.
So let’s have a fine knowledge romp, Rachel and other Goodreaders.
Answer Part 1: Naming a New Book Series Can Be Tricky
Strange but true: This series title is actually NOT “Use Your Everyday Potential.” Though, as you’ll see, it’s not your fault how you asked your question . . . as if that were the series title.
In case any of you Goodreaders thought that publishing a book was easy? As if!
Even when publishing the second edition of a book previously published? Not easy.
One consideration was to work with my favorite book designer to develop a better cover, compared with the cover for the first edition.
I love the new cover. The back cover copy was significantly improved. Both front and back covers and the spine – all so much better. Sadly, though, I was so intoxicated by these improvements, guess what?
Never did I proofread the new series TITLE, right at the top of the front cover.
Originally, that title read: Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential. However, my talented graphic designer is not as good with words as she is with cover art. So she slipped up and omitted a certain word, a very important word. (We’ll get to that.)
Not only did the graphic designer goof, I goofed as well. It never occurred to me to proofread the full name of the new series title. When Bigger than All the Night Sky was published on August 1, 2024, the series title was . . . wrong.
The kind of goof you would never do on purpose! Except, what kind of a publisher – or person – would ever choose a goof on purpose? 😉
Answer Part 2: Why Is It Extra-Tricky to Publish a New Series as a Though Leader?
Gain more insight into the kind of thing that happens when you publish as a thought leader. Even though this won’t be a lofty kind of insight.
Rachel and other Goodreaders, there are many ways to use creativity. Many books that sell beautifully are similar to another book that become popular first; in facty, the “creative” new book mainly presents existing material, only tweaking the original just a bit. (Absolutely, ask me for an example of this. Although you may find that several examples of this come to mind easily.)
Far less common is this use of creativity: To bring something authentically new into the world. What’s that like? It’s like birthing a baby!
Only, in my experience, what’s different about birthing a new contribution to collective consciousness? Bringing an original discovery into the world means serving as a thought leader. This turns out to be a whole lot more complicated than bringing another human child into the world. (Noted with all due respect to my fellow mothers.)
Over the past half century, I wound up doing thought leadership more often than I ever anticipated. Especially since I never anticipated doing this sort of thing even once.
For example, over decades, I’ve developed a new field for personal development, Energy Spirituality®. Within this field, I have earned 10 additional trademarks. And if you think that little trademark symbol, ®, is just some routine kind of corporate thing, maybe think again. Although many trademarks tweak existing discoveries just enough to get an okay from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, getting a trademark for something original can be a big deal.
-“Intellectual property” this is called.
-“Expanding the History of Ideas” is another name for it.
Yet, for a Publisher, Creating these New Discoveries Can Be Surprisingly Awkward.
Not to go into elaborate sob stories about this. Take it from me, so many things that shouldn’t go wrong DO go wrong.
My experience is that I have routinely encountered this kind of resistance, even though I never anticipated it. Maybe akin to a birth mother who plans a pregnancy, somehow having forgotten what labor will be like. Though she’s definitely, unmistakably, previously, gone through birthing a baby. Ouch.
But No Repining. As a Publisher, You Deal.
Meaning, a publisher fixes mistakes and overcomes obstacles. You persevere. Exactly what I did after discovering my mistake. I contacted my graphic designer who looked at her records and discovered that she had omitted a word from the series title. Graciously and promptly she supplied new cover files.
Not so prompt was changing the covers on Amazon KDP and Kindle. This took repeated attempts and re-do's. Unfortunately, here on Goodreads, the cover couldn’t be changed until Amazon changed it. That’s just how such things work.
In hindsight, Rachel, the joke is on me that you would have asked me the question you did:
“Use Your Everyday Potential”. The title of this new series is so intriguing!
From now on, I’ll be answering a slightly better question:
“Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential”. The title of this new series is so intriguing! Indeed!
Answer Part 3: Every Series I’ve Published Is an Energy Spirituality® Book
For sure, Rachel and other Goodreaders, I’d like to introduce you properly to the new Series Let’s establish perspective on my different series of books before this new one, beginning with what all of them having in common: Being Energy Spirituality® Books.
Before I referred to this field as “personal development.” We can do better now.
Energy Spirituality helps people like you with personal growth and spiritual awakening, using skills that work now. Now being: In the Age of Awakening.
Many of you already know that our Age of Awakening began on December 21, 2024. You may appreciate that what began amounts to a second consciousness era on Earth. The earlier era being the Age of Faith.
In advance of the Shift into this second consciousness era, I’d spent decades teaching Transcendental Meditation for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This turned out to be an ideal preparation to explore consciousness possibilities in this second consciousness era.
That said, now I can summarize the four different types of publications that have preceded this fifth series. Note: The best listings, by series, will not be found on my Author Page here on Goodreads (superb though it is), nor other locations where my books are listed. Instead, here’s what I recommend:
1Open up the rose-rosetree website.
2You’ll see a horizontal menu. There, click on your second option, BOOKS.
3Scroll-and-read. You’ll find one book series at a time.
SERIES 1: Energy READING Skills for the Age of Awakening
Here you’ll find books that teach the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®. That’s first – and so far only – system that teaches skills of energetic literacy where you can read “chakra databanks.” Also, you can do accurate aura readings with regular photos.
Also mind-boggling is the system of Face Reading Secrets®.
SERIES 2: The Energy HEALING Skills of Energy Spirituality
Countless people who aim to help humanity have learned Reiki or other forms of New Age ENERGY HEALING.
With this series, you can develop skills that work now, in the Age of Awakening. Working far better, and with no astral strings attached.
SERIES 3: Empath Empowerment® Books with Rose Rosetree
Why include my name in this series title? Because of the many copycat authors who try to sell their versions of real-deal “Empath Empowerment.”
Anyway, the four books in this series can take an unskilled empath all the way through becoming a Skilled Empath, and even to becoming a Master Empath. Such discoveries await the 1 in 20 humans who are born as empaths.
SERIES 4: Enlightenment Teaching for the Age of Awakening
All the books in this series help spiritual seekers to move toward using their full potential.
How can you possibly evaluate who is a legitimate teacher of Spiritual Enlightenment?
*I’d recommend that you google “Enlightenment Validation” – and, please include these quotation marks in your search.
*You’ll find even more if you search under Enlightenment Validation (without quotation marks) at the Rose Rosetree blog.
* Either way, you’ll find many articles where I interview some of the folks I’ve helped move into Enlightenment. Quite some education awaits you, Goodreaders!
And now we get to SERIES 5. The new one.
Answer Part 4: What an Idea, Your Everyday-Amazing Potential!
Why do I care so passionately about the importance of using your Everyday-AMAZING Potential?
SERIES 5: Use Your Everyday-Amazing Potential
Books like these could only be written in the Age of Awakening. And why? Because ever since the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012, a second kind of Spiritual Enlightenment has become available.
Well read though you Goodreaders are, chances are you don’t know about this yet. Have you even heard of this second, legitimate, kind of Spiritual Enlightenment?
-It’s called Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
-While, for clarity, I’ve taken to calling the other version Traditional Enlightenment.
A human being moves into one version only. (Your soul will choose for you, so don’t worry about whether you’ll consciously choose correctly.)
Answer Part 5: “Bigger than All the Night Sky” Is a Memoir
How did a memoir wind up becoming the first book in this new series? Why does that memoir open up the prospect of life being Everyday-Amazing?
Because the second edition of this memoir has been edited well into the Age of Awakening, a dozen years into this new consciousness era. Editing, I removed what didn’t belong. As a result, the consciousness truths in this book shine out more clearly than before. Readers of both editions are reporting greater spiritual power, gently packed into the pages.
It also helps that for 12 of those 12 years, I have been living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
Regarding Age of Awakening Enlightenment, There’s So Much to Celebrate
Here I’m speaking humanly, going through life one day at a time, one hour at a time, etc. My role as a spiritual teacher, an Enlightenment Coach, is quite different. (Series 4 is about that, right?)
Humanly! I see enormous potential for waking up humanity to the joyful-and-creative quality of life made possible in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
For a contrasting example, let’s compare this to the stories celebrated in Country Music . Whether hilarious songs like “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” or songs about serious coping, like “It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.”
One reason I enjoy these songs so much is the sheer humanity. Country Music tells some stories about how joyfully people live. Mostly, though, these story-songs recount how we pick ourselves up when we have to. Since that’s something all of us humans must learn how to do.
But . . . .
What don’t these down-to-earth story-songs tell us about? What it means to live in the Age of Awakening.
Really! Here’s a startling thought: Country Music, like so much in pop culture, consoles people who struggle through life during the Age of Faith.
Yet that first consciousness era on Earth is over. After thousands of years, it is OVER.
If You’re Living Now, Hello! You’re Living in the Age of Awakening
Know it or not, like it or not! Living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment allows all of us to grow faster, both emotionally and spiritually. We’re capable of growing as fast as we choose, provided that we’re willing to pay the price.
By contrast, back in the Age of Faith, nearly all human beings grew at a snail’s pace. At least compared to how we can live now.
Today’s independence of thought . . . And our ability to use free will to personally set our pace for growing . . . . All this is so characteristic of living now, in the Age of Awakening.
Books in this Series 5 document the process of growing faster. Including moments of experiencing God.
-That’s right, not just having a beautiful faith in God.
-But personally having a direct experience of God.
That’s the everyday difference. Granted, such experiences are an ongoing reality after a person crosses the threshold into Age of Awakening Enlightenment. But long before, these experiences are happening more frequently too.
It’s a Tall Order, Bringing this Kind of Truth into Earth.
I’m game, though. I’m game, despite being pretty short physically. (Five feet tall.)
I’m game, at age 76. That is why, every day, Rachel and other Goodreaders, I do what I can to bring more Age of Awakening Truth into Earth. Along with people like you, we can have an impact on society. We can change collective consciousness.
It’s such a privilege, being among the first humans to live in this second consciousness era on the planet.
Yes, a privilege. Well, let’s pay it forward. Back in the Age of Faith, it would have taken hundreds of years to spread the word about the Renaissance, or other cultural growth spurts. What if, living now, we could help suffering humanity to not suffer so much?
Books like this Series 5 of Rose Rosetree’s indie-published books can document this. Just imagine, what could it be like to have everyday life become so amazing, so often. . . that it’s no exaggeration to be able to say this? I live each new day as EVERY-DAY amazing.
Together let’s explore how do that. Because, for some of us, this is the truth of our experience now, true for us each single day.
Let’s bring this knowledge into the world. Let’s do it now.
Join me.
Rose Rosetree
Thank you so much, Julie, for my first "Ask the Author" conversation about poetry. How wonderful!
I’m so glad you notice how chunks of poetry are discreetly packed into just about all my published books, usually in the Dedication near the start.
You’re right though, I did pack quite a lot of poetry into "Bigger Than All the Night Sky." In a way you could say that the best of my relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – as described in that book – had something in common with the lead characters in Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet.”
Before I explain what I mean about this, though, let's pause for an overview.
PREVIEWING MY RESPONSE
1. Responding to your question, Julie, I’d like to start by commenting on all the poetry packed into my memoir. Usually I start each of my books with a poem. But why? Initially I’ll explain why, during the time covered in this memoir, I had to include so many much poetry.
2. This can lead beautifully into responding to your question, What makes a poem a poem?
I would love go into this incredibly personal topic, where everybody has a pretty strong opinion, and no two opinions need be alike: What do – and don’t – I call poetry?
3. Following that, how about telling you and other Goodreaders WHY I insist on including a poem in every one of my nonfiction books? Seems like essential background for answering your official questions. 😊
4. Finally (and thanks for your patience), I’ll answer your question about What do you think is important in writing poetry? Differently put, what is my personal version of writing poetry?
Here we go then, Julie and everybody reading here. Poetry need not be practical, not in my view. But answers to “Ask the Author” questions here on Goodreads must work in practical reality. Regardless of how much I love good poetry!
TALKING TO YOUR GURU, AS IF HE WERE SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO
Back to what I shared before, about how the best of my relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as described in Bigger than All the Night Sky, had a lot in common with Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet” . . . .
Famous though that love story is, one interesting detail doesn’t receive much acknowledgment. Whenever Romeo talks directly to Juliet, or vice versa, guess what? They always speak in iambic pentameter, arguably the single best meter for poetry in the English language.
Why don’t most people comment on that? Heck, who can ever fathom most people!
My guess is that it was very common for Shakespeare’s characters in his plays to slip into iambic pentameter. Scholars call this blank verse. For example, I love these lines at the start of Richard III:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by the house of York.
Seems to me, poetry often happens when you share information with what I call “High Truth Value” -- incidentally, that's a good term to google, including quotes; in which case you’ll find some articles I’ve written on that topic.
ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MAHARISHI
Over the years that relationship changed considerably. Oooh, my “personal relationship” such as it was, with the very hard-to-get teacher, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He was, perhaps, the most influential guru who ever lived, responsible for an estimated 6 million people learning his technique of Transcendental Meditation.
Most often, these days, I refer to that relationship by calling Maharishi my former, late, ex-guru.
But back in the day? As you may recall from Bigger than All the Night Sky, the first time I heard Maharishi speak was at one of his first Teacher Training Courses in America, held in 1969 at Poland Springs, Maine.
Soon as his first meeting was over, I raced to my room at the hotel. All I could do was to sit down and write him a poem.
In that memoir you can read some details about how, later that day, I tried to hand a copy of this poem to Maharishi. Some details! These weren’t “juicy details” but poignant details, verging on pitiful.
On the spot, Maharishi refused to accept the poetry on paper that I offered him. Instead, he asked me to read it to him, then and there. Not the first time that Maharishi caused my inner world to explode . . . ultimately for the better.
When it became clear that I was far too shy to read a word, Maharishi said lightly, “Read it in one of our meetings, then, so everybody can enjoy."
After two weeks of anguish, and a ton of meditation, I was finally read to do this.
LONG STORY SHORT
Like Juliet, in a sense, I mostly spoke to Maharishi by reading him poetry. Seriously, Julie and other Goodreaders, I remember every single time that I spoke to my guru. Every word that he said in response was etched firmly into my memory as well.
It helped that I had the easy recall of a 21-year-old.
For sure, during my entire relationship with Maharishi, I spoke more poetry than regular prose. Even then, as you can guess, Julie, I didn’t publish all of those poems in Bigger than All the Night Sky. How many readers of a memoir would have had enough patience for all of them? Including extras really would have been asking too much.
2. WHAT MAKES A POEM A POEM?
Call it weird. Or maybe call it a defining characteristic. To this writer, God matters more than anything else.
At some points in my life I’ve been religious, at other times not, but God matters most has always been my default.
When I respond to what makes a poem a poem, my answer is shaped by that.
Incidentally, Julie -- Julie who has a direct pipeline to what makes me tick -- I’ve never written about any of this before. Neither in books or blogposts, when writing book reviews here on Goodreads; not in online workshops nor while giving Energy Spirituality® workshops in person. Even talking to friends, I’ve never talked about this directly, despite a lifetime that has included a great deal of talking to close friends. But there it is.
Granted, what if you asked anybody who knows me well, “What do you think matters most to Rose Rosetree?” My friends might have put that together. But never because I ever told them anything like this:
“Hello, it’s good to meet you. I am very interested in getting to know you better. Please do keep in mind though, no matter how much I like you or love you, I’ll always care most about God.”
Fortunately for my friends, I’d say! This priority actually makes it easier for me to like people and love them and learn about them; to be of service to them when I can as the founder of Energy Spirituality; to share laughter and every other good thing that can be part of a human-type relationship.
Due to this way of being wired for life, that's why -- when I have something most important to say -- I write poetry.
IN GENERAL, FOR ANYBODY, WHAT MAKES A POEM A POEM?
Seems to me that a poem is superlative speech. More than good, clear words that would be effective in a business meeting: Instead, poetry must be most beautifully expressed. As if, hearing it or reading it, the truth value is so . . . truthy . . . that, for a moment, words fail the listener. Silence and gratitude are the more likely responses.
* Must poetry be clever? Ick! I don’t think so.
* Nor must poetry impress the listener? Rather, real poetry wakes up the reader or listener, wakes each of us up from inside ourselves.
* Must poetry rhyme? Only if your literary education hit PAUSE when you were in second grade.
* If you frame words with plenty of white space, making them to seem important visually, does that trick of spacious typesetting magically turn the words into poetry?
Growl! I don’t think so.
As a book reviewer here on Goodreads, over 4,000 reviews to date, I have had my fill of poetry that is affected or clumsy or clueless, etc. In those reviews, sometimes I’ll complain about the most egregious examples. Mostly, I’ll think, “This is supposed to be a poem?” Rarely, I’ll admire and praise.
MUST THE TOPIC OF A REAL POEM BE ABOUT GOD?
Of course not! Julie, I think you may have read another one of my books, Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening. Some of you Goodreaders may have read it too, in which case you learned something important about how consciousness works. To summarize: CONTENT is different from PROCESS.
- Meaning, what a person is talking or writing about? That’s the CONTENT, the topic.
- Whereas, the impact of those words on the person’s awareness, or consciousness? That is the PROCESS.
Poetry can contribute to spiritual awakening (before the person moves into Spiritual Enlightenment).
Likewise, poetry can help people to learn and grow after they have crossed the threshold into Spiritual Enlightenment – at least if that poetry listener is living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
TECHNICAL POINT
Age of Awakening Enlightenment is a second version of Spiritual Enlightenment. This consciousness lifestyle began to blossom for some spiritual seekers after the Shift into the Age of Awakening on Dec. 21, 2012.
Traditional Enlightenment, the first version of Spiritual Enlightenment, continues to be lived by some souls, and it’s awesome.
However, according to research that I’ve done professionally regarding consciousness, folks in Traditional Enlightenment do not experience spiritual learning, as in personal growth, as in PROCESS. They live saturated in bliss, which is plenty.
Would any of you like to learn more about this? Here’s a resource. You might google “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment” – which can take you to an article at my blog where you will definitely be able to learn more. If you like, you can also use a COMMENT box at that blogpost if you have any questions that you would like to ask me.
SUMMING UP: WHAT IS MY PERSONAL VERSION OF WRITING POETRY
Before I, personally, write a poem – what happens? There is a PROCESS, a process that I have come to recognize since the life experiences recounted in Bigger than All the Night Sky.
I will hear the sound of the poem. Or feel it. Or both.
Do I know, in that moment, a single thing about what I will be writing about? Not at all. Rather, I have come to recognize that PROCESS, that presence.
Sometimes I will inwardly catch the first line. Other times, I don't even know that much. It’s as though that poem is calling me. Not being a fool, I make it a priority to sit down at my keyboard and write that first draft.
What do all my poems have in common? That PROCESS.
After I finish cocreating with God to write the first draft . . . And yes, since 1985 I have learned some skills for setting in motion that kind of cocreation. (This is something I teach in Energy Spirituality workshops and books.)
After completing my first draft, then I use my editing skills. And use them more than once. Since that’s my human job, as an author who is writing to reach the people of her time and place.
Julie, if you or others would like to hear and see me reading a recent finished poem, you might google “Today’s Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh” – which will take you to a YouTube video where I shared my Christmas poem for last year.
WHY INCLUDE A POEM IN EVERY ONE OF MY NONFICTION BOOKS?
Thanks for your patience, Julie and other readers. I have no way of knowing how many of you are at all interested in this topic, yet this can be of great interest to some of you, I do want to include these last two chunks of response to your great “Ask the Author” question.
For decades now, I have insisted on including a poem in every one of my nonfiction books. But why?
Because I want to give something to my fellow lovers of God, and my fellow poetry readers – and that’s what a poem is, to me. Seems to me, we live at a time when poetry is nearly unknown. I am one of those writers who seeks to revive it.
Let’s face it. Poetry, today, is pretty darned unfashionable.
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend I will call Gladys. She’s a delightful person, now in her late 30s. This friend is a devoted mother of three lively sons, aged seven and younger.
Gladys is far better adjusted to living in American society than I’ve ever been. (Although I have improved considerably, compared to the teenager and one-time hippie you’ll meet in Bigger than All the Night Sky.)
As we chit-chatted away, I asked Gladys, “Which kinds of kid music do you play for them?” Then I followed up by asking her something culturally ignorant – which I only realized later. Because I asked Gladys, “Are you giving them a chance to hear any classical music?”
“Sure,” she answered. “I love classic rock, and I play it for them all the time.”
Thus, my question exposed a bit of a gap in our backgrounds. The childhood described in Bigger than All the Night Sky included attending “Young People’s Concerts.” These were narrated and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. To me, “the classics” are not “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
Just as I grew up listening to classical music, I was exposed to poetry. Although my parents weren’t poetry lovers, we had a vinyl record where Dylan Thomas read some of his poems. Plus, I encountered poetry in high school. Mysteriously, somehow, I bought my own paperback copy of poetry by Basho.
But today? Some of us still like poetry, although most people don’t even have to hide their indifference to it.
For this author, whenever I bring a new book into the world, after it’s first drafted (at a minimum), I always ask God to bless that book by giving me a poem to include at that start.
Probably all you Goodreaders have heard of a certain saying from Jesus: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks.
When it comes to poetry, I’m willing to do the asking, the knocking. Then do the trusting, then the listening. Later I will be very willing to do the edits.
All in all, including a poem near the start of each book is my privilege, absolutely a joy.
WHAT DO YOU I THINK IS IMPORTANT IN WRITING POETRY?
Honesty helps. Calling a spade a spade – I’d say that’s pretty essential for any kind of poetry.
If, like me, you would like to cocreate poetry in a sacred process, then you ask God for that, and you only ask when you really want it or need it.
Akin to when I send a special kind of prayer to God, what I call a Screaming Prayer. Whatever you personally call these, Goodreaders, maybe you can relate:
I’ve done a small number of these in my life. One reason they are always answered (in my experience) is that I wouldn’t dream of sending out a Screaming Prayer unless I really, really needed it.
In CONCLUSION
Thanks so much for asking, Julie. My morning has flown by. This answer has been long, and I thank all of you kindred spirits who have read all the way through. Here’s to poetry in our lives now and for the foreseeable future, whether or not – in our lifetimes -- poetry will ever be fashionable.
I’m so glad you notice how chunks of poetry are discreetly packed into just about all my published books, usually in the Dedication near the start.
You’re right though, I did pack quite a lot of poetry into "Bigger Than All the Night Sky." In a way you could say that the best of my relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – as described in that book – had something in common with the lead characters in Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet.”
Before I explain what I mean about this, though, let's pause for an overview.
PREVIEWING MY RESPONSE
1. Responding to your question, Julie, I’d like to start by commenting on all the poetry packed into my memoir. Usually I start each of my books with a poem. But why? Initially I’ll explain why, during the time covered in this memoir, I had to include so many much poetry.
2. This can lead beautifully into responding to your question, What makes a poem a poem?
I would love go into this incredibly personal topic, where everybody has a pretty strong opinion, and no two opinions need be alike: What do – and don’t – I call poetry?
3. Following that, how about telling you and other Goodreaders WHY I insist on including a poem in every one of my nonfiction books? Seems like essential background for answering your official questions. 😊
4. Finally (and thanks for your patience), I’ll answer your question about What do you think is important in writing poetry? Differently put, what is my personal version of writing poetry?
Here we go then, Julie and everybody reading here. Poetry need not be practical, not in my view. But answers to “Ask the Author” questions here on Goodreads must work in practical reality. Regardless of how much I love good poetry!
TALKING TO YOUR GURU, AS IF HE WERE SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO
Back to what I shared before, about how the best of my relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as described in Bigger than All the Night Sky, had a lot in common with Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet” . . . .
Famous though that love story is, one interesting detail doesn’t receive much acknowledgment. Whenever Romeo talks directly to Juliet, or vice versa, guess what? They always speak in iambic pentameter, arguably the single best meter for poetry in the English language.
Why don’t most people comment on that? Heck, who can ever fathom most people!
My guess is that it was very common for Shakespeare’s characters in his plays to slip into iambic pentameter. Scholars call this blank verse. For example, I love these lines at the start of Richard III:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by the house of York.
Seems to me, poetry often happens when you share information with what I call “High Truth Value” -- incidentally, that's a good term to google, including quotes; in which case you’ll find some articles I’ve written on that topic.
ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MAHARISHI
Over the years that relationship changed considerably. Oooh, my “personal relationship” such as it was, with the very hard-to-get teacher, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He was, perhaps, the most influential guru who ever lived, responsible for an estimated 6 million people learning his technique of Transcendental Meditation.
Most often, these days, I refer to that relationship by calling Maharishi my former, late, ex-guru.
But back in the day? As you may recall from Bigger than All the Night Sky, the first time I heard Maharishi speak was at one of his first Teacher Training Courses in America, held in 1969 at Poland Springs, Maine.
Soon as his first meeting was over, I raced to my room at the hotel. All I could do was to sit down and write him a poem.
In that memoir you can read some details about how, later that day, I tried to hand a copy of this poem to Maharishi. Some details! These weren’t “juicy details” but poignant details, verging on pitiful.
On the spot, Maharishi refused to accept the poetry on paper that I offered him. Instead, he asked me to read it to him, then and there. Not the first time that Maharishi caused my inner world to explode . . . ultimately for the better.
When it became clear that I was far too shy to read a word, Maharishi said lightly, “Read it in one of our meetings, then, so everybody can enjoy."
After two weeks of anguish, and a ton of meditation, I was finally read to do this.
LONG STORY SHORT
Like Juliet, in a sense, I mostly spoke to Maharishi by reading him poetry. Seriously, Julie and other Goodreaders, I remember every single time that I spoke to my guru. Every word that he said in response was etched firmly into my memory as well.
It helped that I had the easy recall of a 21-year-old.
For sure, during my entire relationship with Maharishi, I spoke more poetry than regular prose. Even then, as you can guess, Julie, I didn’t publish all of those poems in Bigger than All the Night Sky. How many readers of a memoir would have had enough patience for all of them? Including extras really would have been asking too much.
2. WHAT MAKES A POEM A POEM?
Call it weird. Or maybe call it a defining characteristic. To this writer, God matters more than anything else.
At some points in my life I’ve been religious, at other times not, but God matters most has always been my default.
When I respond to what makes a poem a poem, my answer is shaped by that.
Incidentally, Julie -- Julie who has a direct pipeline to what makes me tick -- I’ve never written about any of this before. Neither in books or blogposts, when writing book reviews here on Goodreads; not in online workshops nor while giving Energy Spirituality® workshops in person. Even talking to friends, I’ve never talked about this directly, despite a lifetime that has included a great deal of talking to close friends. But there it is.
Granted, what if you asked anybody who knows me well, “What do you think matters most to Rose Rosetree?” My friends might have put that together. But never because I ever told them anything like this:
“Hello, it’s good to meet you. I am very interested in getting to know you better. Please do keep in mind though, no matter how much I like you or love you, I’ll always care most about God.”
Fortunately for my friends, I’d say! This priority actually makes it easier for me to like people and love them and learn about them; to be of service to them when I can as the founder of Energy Spirituality; to share laughter and every other good thing that can be part of a human-type relationship.
Due to this way of being wired for life, that's why -- when I have something most important to say -- I write poetry.
IN GENERAL, FOR ANYBODY, WHAT MAKES A POEM A POEM?
Seems to me that a poem is superlative speech. More than good, clear words that would be effective in a business meeting: Instead, poetry must be most beautifully expressed. As if, hearing it or reading it, the truth value is so . . . truthy . . . that, for a moment, words fail the listener. Silence and gratitude are the more likely responses.
* Must poetry be clever? Ick! I don’t think so.
* Nor must poetry impress the listener? Rather, real poetry wakes up the reader or listener, wakes each of us up from inside ourselves.
* Must poetry rhyme? Only if your literary education hit PAUSE when you were in second grade.
* If you frame words with plenty of white space, making them to seem important visually, does that trick of spacious typesetting magically turn the words into poetry?
Growl! I don’t think so.
As a book reviewer here on Goodreads, over 4,000 reviews to date, I have had my fill of poetry that is affected or clumsy or clueless, etc. In those reviews, sometimes I’ll complain about the most egregious examples. Mostly, I’ll think, “This is supposed to be a poem?” Rarely, I’ll admire and praise.
MUST THE TOPIC OF A REAL POEM BE ABOUT GOD?
Of course not! Julie, I think you may have read another one of my books, Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening. Some of you Goodreaders may have read it too, in which case you learned something important about how consciousness works. To summarize: CONTENT is different from PROCESS.
- Meaning, what a person is talking or writing about? That’s the CONTENT, the topic.
- Whereas, the impact of those words on the person’s awareness, or consciousness? That is the PROCESS.
Poetry can contribute to spiritual awakening (before the person moves into Spiritual Enlightenment).
Likewise, poetry can help people to learn and grow after they have crossed the threshold into Spiritual Enlightenment – at least if that poetry listener is living in Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
TECHNICAL POINT
Age of Awakening Enlightenment is a second version of Spiritual Enlightenment. This consciousness lifestyle began to blossom for some spiritual seekers after the Shift into the Age of Awakening on Dec. 21, 2012.
Traditional Enlightenment, the first version of Spiritual Enlightenment, continues to be lived by some souls, and it’s awesome.
However, according to research that I’ve done professionally regarding consciousness, folks in Traditional Enlightenment do not experience spiritual learning, as in personal growth, as in PROCESS. They live saturated in bliss, which is plenty.
Would any of you like to learn more about this? Here’s a resource. You might google “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment” – which can take you to an article at my blog where you will definitely be able to learn more. If you like, you can also use a COMMENT box at that blogpost if you have any questions that you would like to ask me.
SUMMING UP: WHAT IS MY PERSONAL VERSION OF WRITING POETRY
Before I, personally, write a poem – what happens? There is a PROCESS, a process that I have come to recognize since the life experiences recounted in Bigger than All the Night Sky.
I will hear the sound of the poem. Or feel it. Or both.
Do I know, in that moment, a single thing about what I will be writing about? Not at all. Rather, I have come to recognize that PROCESS, that presence.
Sometimes I will inwardly catch the first line. Other times, I don't even know that much. It’s as though that poem is calling me. Not being a fool, I make it a priority to sit down at my keyboard and write that first draft.
What do all my poems have in common? That PROCESS.
After I finish cocreating with God to write the first draft . . . And yes, since 1985 I have learned some skills for setting in motion that kind of cocreation. (This is something I teach in Energy Spirituality workshops and books.)
After completing my first draft, then I use my editing skills. And use them more than once. Since that’s my human job, as an author who is writing to reach the people of her time and place.
Julie, if you or others would like to hear and see me reading a recent finished poem, you might google “Today’s Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh” – which will take you to a YouTube video where I shared my Christmas poem for last year.
WHY INCLUDE A POEM IN EVERY ONE OF MY NONFICTION BOOKS?
Thanks for your patience, Julie and other readers. I have no way of knowing how many of you are at all interested in this topic, yet this can be of great interest to some of you, I do want to include these last two chunks of response to your great “Ask the Author” question.
For decades now, I have insisted on including a poem in every one of my nonfiction books. But why?
Because I want to give something to my fellow lovers of God, and my fellow poetry readers – and that’s what a poem is, to me. Seems to me, we live at a time when poetry is nearly unknown. I am one of those writers who seeks to revive it.
Let’s face it. Poetry, today, is pretty darned unfashionable.
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend I will call Gladys. She’s a delightful person, now in her late 30s. This friend is a devoted mother of three lively sons, aged seven and younger.
Gladys is far better adjusted to living in American society than I’ve ever been. (Although I have improved considerably, compared to the teenager and one-time hippie you’ll meet in Bigger than All the Night Sky.)
As we chit-chatted away, I asked Gladys, “Which kinds of kid music do you play for them?” Then I followed up by asking her something culturally ignorant – which I only realized later. Because I asked Gladys, “Are you giving them a chance to hear any classical music?”
“Sure,” she answered. “I love classic rock, and I play it for them all the time.”
Thus, my question exposed a bit of a gap in our backgrounds. The childhood described in Bigger than All the Night Sky included attending “Young People’s Concerts.” These were narrated and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. To me, “the classics” are not “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
Just as I grew up listening to classical music, I was exposed to poetry. Although my parents weren’t poetry lovers, we had a vinyl record where Dylan Thomas read some of his poems. Plus, I encountered poetry in high school. Mysteriously, somehow, I bought my own paperback copy of poetry by Basho.
But today? Some of us still like poetry, although most people don’t even have to hide their indifference to it.
For this author, whenever I bring a new book into the world, after it’s first drafted (at a minimum), I always ask God to bless that book by giving me a poem to include at that start.
Probably all you Goodreaders have heard of a certain saying from Jesus: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks.
When it comes to poetry, I’m willing to do the asking, the knocking. Then do the trusting, then the listening. Later I will be very willing to do the edits.
All in all, including a poem near the start of each book is my privilege, absolutely a joy.
WHAT DO YOU I THINK IS IMPORTANT IN WRITING POETRY?
Honesty helps. Calling a spade a spade – I’d say that’s pretty essential for any kind of poetry.
If, like me, you would like to cocreate poetry in a sacred process, then you ask God for that, and you only ask when you really want it or need it.
Akin to when I send a special kind of prayer to God, what I call a Screaming Prayer. Whatever you personally call these, Goodreaders, maybe you can relate:
I’ve done a small number of these in my life. One reason they are always answered (in my experience) is that I wouldn’t dream of sending out a Screaming Prayer unless I really, really needed it.
In CONCLUSION
Thanks so much for asking, Julie. My morning has flown by. This answer has been long, and I thank all of you kindred spirits who have read all the way through. Here’s to poetry in our lives now and for the foreseeable future, whether or not – in our lifetimes -- poetry will ever be fashionable.
Rose Rosetree
Hi back, Valerie. I’m so delighted to answer your questions.
Right from the start of responding, I thank Goodreads for offering an “Ask the Author” opportunity to readers and writers at this platform.
In all my decades as an author, this has been a unique chance for published authors like me to have conversations with people like you, Valerie: Readers who can pull fresh knowledge right out of a writer like me. Turns, out, fresh knowledge is something that all you readers will find toward the end of my answer today.
Now to address what you’ve asked. 😊
I’m so glad you’re continuing to read my memoir of spiritual awakening, Bigger Than All the Night Sky (Second Edition). Here I’ll call that book “BIGGER” for short.
As you know, we live at a time of binge-watching, and I’ll own up to having done some of that. Fun!
Some creativity is perfect for binge-watching. However, none of my books is made for that purpose. Ideally, as a reader, you will read BIGGER somewhat slowly. Or else you’ll read it pretty fast the first time, to hit the high points, but then later you can start all over again and give yourself a slower read, an immersion experience.
With the slow version, you may find that this memoir speaks to you more softly-and-transformatively. You may also find yourself speaking to your own self, also softly-and-transformatively. Spiritual writing can encourage that, and this first memoir of mine is made to be an unabashedly spiritual book.
No strings attached, though. BIGGER is spiritual-but-not-religious. Although you might enjoy it as someone who is very religious indeed.
Whether you’re religious or not, I always encourage readers of my books to Follow your own path. As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I do not offer a path. Rather, I offer you help and encouragement for elevating that current spiritual path of yours (which you’ve likely already chosen for yourself) . . . allowing that spiritual path of yours to succeed more than ever.
PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT "THE AWAKENING PROJECT"
In response to your sweet question, Valerie, I’m going to share some new information that I haven’t ever published before. First, though, here’s a direct answer to your question.
What Is The Awakening Project?
This is a Heavenly Project that some souls have volunteered for, including many of us who are living right now.
When did we volunteer?
Before we were born. Each of us agreed to a very specific Life Contract. So we knew what we were getting into.
Just about all humans you’ll ever meet, like you and me, have agreed to a Life Contract. This is a feature of how reincarnation works. To learn more about this, you might google “Eternal Souls Like YOU Always Have a Body”. Open up that article from my blog, then read it and maybe share it.
How have I, personally, learned about reincarnation? Mostly from having facilitated sessions of past-life regression, using a trademarked system for quality experience and permanent energy healing, Soul Energy Awakening Hypnosis®.
Also, I’ve been a client for half a dozen quality past-life regressions. One included re-living my own Planning Meeting for this incarnation. This experience helped to enliven within me the details you’ll find in BIGGER, Chapters 4 through 7 – four entire chapters, right?
The new information I’ve promised to share with you later today pertains to that kind of thing. But before I go there, our next stop is a summary of what The Awakening Project is about.
Some details about The Awakening Project
Not the whole enchilada, because that exists elsewhere. Where? You guessed it. Those four entire chapters!
My short version goes like this. Before you began this lifetime, like just about every other human being you’ve ever met in this world, guess what? You attended a personal Planning Meeting. And that’s my story too.
A Heavenly Planning Meeting includes plenty of colorful details. Since these aren’t like your typical business meeting here on Earth.
Unlike most productive business meetings here, who was there? Thousands of people – specifically, these were angels in their light bodies, angels who had been living in a heaven.
My Planning Meeting wasn’t just a chat between the Divine Being in charge and the soul who might – or might not – accept the new incarnation being offered. Sometimes many souls attend. That is especially likely if a Heavenly Project, needing volunteers, is being organized. More on that to come in this Q&A article.
Note: If you wind up reading those four chapters of BIGGER, you may gain a certain respect for these meetings. You may even feel a distinct flavor of awe. Planning Meetings, held in a heaven, are sacred.
Come to think of it, Valerie, here’s an extra part of my answer. I wonder, have you thought yet about this unusual aspect of BIGGER? . . . .
How Common Is It to Read a Pristine Account of Heavenly Activities?
Maybe that seems like a strange question, but it occurs to me now. Like me, many of you Goodreaders may have read books about Life after Life, or what happens in Heaven. But here’s something fresh, and worth thinking about, in that context.
Where is the author coming from? Specifically what is the source of knowledge for that human author?
Three different answers come to mind.
* Category 1. Paranormal Writers, Psychics, and Channelers
From a technical perspective, the source of such writing is astral. For instance, a psychic like James Van Praagh is taking dictation from a Spirit Guide. Or a channeler, like Edgar Cayce, is receiving info from one or more astral beings.
* Category 2. Religious Writers, Such as Evangelical Christians
One example is “Embraced by the Light” by Betty Eadie. Even though she is writing about the Divine, Betty’s work was sourced in what she personally remembered from her Near Death Experience. Strongly influenced by theological dogma, imo.
As I noted when reviewing this book here on Goodreads:
Her Evangelical beliefs. churchy ideas, and godly ideals -- all of this (understandably) wound up getting mixed in with her human recollections.
Other books about heavenly experience, after a near-death experience, are even more religiously dogmatic. Personally, other ones I’ve seen do not pass my sniff test.
* Category 3. Writers Who Have Learned How to Cocreate with God
Sure, that’s a skill. Joan Grant learned this. See my Goodreads reviews of "Winged Pharaoh" and other books of hers. In many of my books, I teach different skills for cocreating with the Divine.
Differently put, where is this author of BIGGER coming from?
I’m an Enlightenment Teacher (that is, a spiritual teacher who helps students to move into using their full potential, a.k.a. Spiritual Enlightenment).
In order to write this memoir, partly, I refreshed my recollection of my personal Planning Meeting. How? Through a quality experience of past-life regression! Besides being a client for this kind of session, what else? Other details came to me in the process of cocreating those four chapters.
Incidentally, have any of you Goodreaders here . . . found other books that reported this kind of direct experience? I mean, rather than writers from Categories 1 and 2, as just mentioned. Well, if you have found such books, please COMMENT below and share their titles. I’d be very interested in reading them.
Now Back to Summing up The Awakening Project
Sometimes volunteers are invited to participate in a Heavenly Project, a project Divinely organized in order to bring a new kind of truth or experience into Earth.
Valerie and other Goodreaders, The Awakening Project is one of these projects. Souls volunteer in order to help God accomplish something, a something of a particular kind.
When you read those aforementioned chapters in BIGGER, you’ll receive just enough of a picture to do justice to this particular Heavenly Project.
In this article I’m not going to give you more of a summary. Nor do I plan to tweet about it. Neither do I recommend that any of you readers attempt to do pull out enticing details in order to interest potential readers.
Please, folks, either read this book or don’t.
Finally about the New Info I Promised You, Early in this Q&A
The following story comes from the decades when I used to facilitate past-life regressions for clients. For background:
This Goodreads author is the founder of Energy Spirituality®. Before the Pandemic, my work included facilitating many past-life regressions, using the system of Soul Energy Awakening Hypnosis®. After such sessions, some of my clients reported big improvements to their lives, their emotions, or their health, as a result of these past-life regressions.
Energy Spirituality also includes:
- Teaching the system of Empath Empowerment®
- Using trademarked systems for aura reading and researching chakra databanks
- Cocreating other systems for Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING
- And also, since 2013, facilitating Enlightenment Coaching.
In short, my work has never been just about facilitating past-life regressions.
That said, of course I have many anecdotes from client sessions that were very meaningful to me.
Let Me Tell You About One of These
During a regression, Gladys re-lived accepting a Divine invitation to volunteer for a Heavenly Project on Earth. She agreed to incarnate as one of many women in the 1800s, a woman who had a career. These women predated feminism, to be sure. Yet they belonged a group of volunteers who chose to do that socially outrageous thing.
Socially outrageous, yes. But together they could make a significant difference for collective consciousness in America. Here I’ll make up a convenient name for this Heavenly Project: The Project Where Independent Women Ran Businesses.
Imagine, the Nerve!
Before this era, the value of women in American society was very much like the ideals now being floated by J.D. Vance, running mate to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Women had value only if they would bear children. Etc.
Yet Gladys (and others in this project) incarnated knowing that they could make a difference. They could run their own businesses, and not only take over an existing business after the death of a spouse.
For Gladys, that lifetime was very difficult. Most men treated her with an extreme lack of respect, and some pursued a righteous intent to “put her in her place.”
How about women? In her part of the American Southwest, at this time, many women also found Gladys to be objectionable:
* Wicked.
* An abomination.
* Somebody who deserved to be sexually mistreated.
* A whippersnapper who deserved to be robbed.
* A convenient target for every manner of social disrespect that you can probably imagine, Goodreaders.
Nonetheless, Gladys succeeded in that lifetime. She did run her business. She did survive the indignities.
Maybe some of you readers are wondering: Consciously, during that lifetime, did this very stubborn woman have, at least, the comfort of remembering that she was on The Project Where Independent Women Ran Businesses?
No such luck!
Which made her service in this lifetime all the greater as a spiritual triumph.
Oh, Valerie, I loved this long-term client so!
IN CONCLUSION
I can only imagine how grateful God is when a soul on the Other Side does listen to the invitation and then agrees to live as a helping one in this world.
Submitting to severe difficulties that were never her or his karma. Out of necessity, having very little knowledge – usually none – about having volunteered for a Heavenly Project.
If I might end my answer to this Q&A with a bit of advice . . .
Just one bit of advice . . .
Goodreaders, in your long future as a soul, perhaps there will come a time when you are invited to take part in one of those rare, Divinely designed, projects. You’ll be invited to help humanity take a big step of spiritual evolution.
If so, like me (as described in BIGGER) you will not be deceived or told half-truths. You’ll be told the truth personally by a Divine Being, like Jesus or Archangel Gabriel, etc.
You’ll be warned specifically about human ways that you might suffer. In addition, you’ll likely be informed about ways that you will definitely suffer, because certain kinds of pain will be inescapable for you – going with the territory, as it were.
What else? You’ll be told there is no guarantee of success, neither for you personally nor for the entire project.
Well, how often does one have that kind of opportunity to do God a favor? Look, I urge you to take that opportunity. Do that beautiful thing for God.
Right from the start of responding, I thank Goodreads for offering an “Ask the Author” opportunity to readers and writers at this platform.
In all my decades as an author, this has been a unique chance for published authors like me to have conversations with people like you, Valerie: Readers who can pull fresh knowledge right out of a writer like me. Turns, out, fresh knowledge is something that all you readers will find toward the end of my answer today.
Now to address what you’ve asked. 😊
I’m so glad you’re continuing to read my memoir of spiritual awakening, Bigger Than All the Night Sky (Second Edition). Here I’ll call that book “BIGGER” for short.
As you know, we live at a time of binge-watching, and I’ll own up to having done some of that. Fun!
Some creativity is perfect for binge-watching. However, none of my books is made for that purpose. Ideally, as a reader, you will read BIGGER somewhat slowly. Or else you’ll read it pretty fast the first time, to hit the high points, but then later you can start all over again and give yourself a slower read, an immersion experience.
With the slow version, you may find that this memoir speaks to you more softly-and-transformatively. You may also find yourself speaking to your own self, also softly-and-transformatively. Spiritual writing can encourage that, and this first memoir of mine is made to be an unabashedly spiritual book.
No strings attached, though. BIGGER is spiritual-but-not-religious. Although you might enjoy it as someone who is very religious indeed.
Whether you’re religious or not, I always encourage readers of my books to Follow your own path. As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I do not offer a path. Rather, I offer you help and encouragement for elevating that current spiritual path of yours (which you’ve likely already chosen for yourself) . . . allowing that spiritual path of yours to succeed more than ever.
PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT "THE AWAKENING PROJECT"
In response to your sweet question, Valerie, I’m going to share some new information that I haven’t ever published before. First, though, here’s a direct answer to your question.
What Is The Awakening Project?
This is a Heavenly Project that some souls have volunteered for, including many of us who are living right now.
When did we volunteer?
Before we were born. Each of us agreed to a very specific Life Contract. So we knew what we were getting into.
Just about all humans you’ll ever meet, like you and me, have agreed to a Life Contract. This is a feature of how reincarnation works. To learn more about this, you might google “Eternal Souls Like YOU Always Have a Body”. Open up that article from my blog, then read it and maybe share it.
How have I, personally, learned about reincarnation? Mostly from having facilitated sessions of past-life regression, using a trademarked system for quality experience and permanent energy healing, Soul Energy Awakening Hypnosis®.
Also, I’ve been a client for half a dozen quality past-life regressions. One included re-living my own Planning Meeting for this incarnation. This experience helped to enliven within me the details you’ll find in BIGGER, Chapters 4 through 7 – four entire chapters, right?
The new information I’ve promised to share with you later today pertains to that kind of thing. But before I go there, our next stop is a summary of what The Awakening Project is about.
Some details about The Awakening Project
Not the whole enchilada, because that exists elsewhere. Where? You guessed it. Those four entire chapters!
My short version goes like this. Before you began this lifetime, like just about every other human being you’ve ever met in this world, guess what? You attended a personal Planning Meeting. And that’s my story too.
A Heavenly Planning Meeting includes plenty of colorful details. Since these aren’t like your typical business meeting here on Earth.
Unlike most productive business meetings here, who was there? Thousands of people – specifically, these were angels in their light bodies, angels who had been living in a heaven.
My Planning Meeting wasn’t just a chat between the Divine Being in charge and the soul who might – or might not – accept the new incarnation being offered. Sometimes many souls attend. That is especially likely if a Heavenly Project, needing volunteers, is being organized. More on that to come in this Q&A article.
Note: If you wind up reading those four chapters of BIGGER, you may gain a certain respect for these meetings. You may even feel a distinct flavor of awe. Planning Meetings, held in a heaven, are sacred.
Come to think of it, Valerie, here’s an extra part of my answer. I wonder, have you thought yet about this unusual aspect of BIGGER? . . . .
How Common Is It to Read a Pristine Account of Heavenly Activities?
Maybe that seems like a strange question, but it occurs to me now. Like me, many of you Goodreaders may have read books about Life after Life, or what happens in Heaven. But here’s something fresh, and worth thinking about, in that context.
Where is the author coming from? Specifically what is the source of knowledge for that human author?
Three different answers come to mind.
* Category 1. Paranormal Writers, Psychics, and Channelers
From a technical perspective, the source of such writing is astral. For instance, a psychic like James Van Praagh is taking dictation from a Spirit Guide. Or a channeler, like Edgar Cayce, is receiving info from one or more astral beings.
* Category 2. Religious Writers, Such as Evangelical Christians
One example is “Embraced by the Light” by Betty Eadie. Even though she is writing about the Divine, Betty’s work was sourced in what she personally remembered from her Near Death Experience. Strongly influenced by theological dogma, imo.
As I noted when reviewing this book here on Goodreads:
Her Evangelical beliefs. churchy ideas, and godly ideals -- all of this (understandably) wound up getting mixed in with her human recollections.
Other books about heavenly experience, after a near-death experience, are even more religiously dogmatic. Personally, other ones I’ve seen do not pass my sniff test.
* Category 3. Writers Who Have Learned How to Cocreate with God
Sure, that’s a skill. Joan Grant learned this. See my Goodreads reviews of "Winged Pharaoh" and other books of hers. In many of my books, I teach different skills for cocreating with the Divine.
Differently put, where is this author of BIGGER coming from?
I’m an Enlightenment Teacher (that is, a spiritual teacher who helps students to move into using their full potential, a.k.a. Spiritual Enlightenment).
In order to write this memoir, partly, I refreshed my recollection of my personal Planning Meeting. How? Through a quality experience of past-life regression! Besides being a client for this kind of session, what else? Other details came to me in the process of cocreating those four chapters.
Incidentally, have any of you Goodreaders here . . . found other books that reported this kind of direct experience? I mean, rather than writers from Categories 1 and 2, as just mentioned. Well, if you have found such books, please COMMENT below and share their titles. I’d be very interested in reading them.
Now Back to Summing up The Awakening Project
Sometimes volunteers are invited to participate in a Heavenly Project, a project Divinely organized in order to bring a new kind of truth or experience into Earth.
Valerie and other Goodreaders, The Awakening Project is one of these projects. Souls volunteer in order to help God accomplish something, a something of a particular kind.
When you read those aforementioned chapters in BIGGER, you’ll receive just enough of a picture to do justice to this particular Heavenly Project.
In this article I’m not going to give you more of a summary. Nor do I plan to tweet about it. Neither do I recommend that any of you readers attempt to do pull out enticing details in order to interest potential readers.
Please, folks, either read this book or don’t.
Finally about the New Info I Promised You, Early in this Q&A
The following story comes from the decades when I used to facilitate past-life regressions for clients. For background:
This Goodreads author is the founder of Energy Spirituality®. Before the Pandemic, my work included facilitating many past-life regressions, using the system of Soul Energy Awakening Hypnosis®. After such sessions, some of my clients reported big improvements to their lives, their emotions, or their health, as a result of these past-life regressions.
Energy Spirituality also includes:
- Teaching the system of Empath Empowerment®
- Using trademarked systems for aura reading and researching chakra databanks
- Cocreating other systems for Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING
- And also, since 2013, facilitating Enlightenment Coaching.
In short, my work has never been just about facilitating past-life regressions.
That said, of course I have many anecdotes from client sessions that were very meaningful to me.
Let Me Tell You About One of These
During a regression, Gladys re-lived accepting a Divine invitation to volunteer for a Heavenly Project on Earth. She agreed to incarnate as one of many women in the 1800s, a woman who had a career. These women predated feminism, to be sure. Yet they belonged a group of volunteers who chose to do that socially outrageous thing.
Socially outrageous, yes. But together they could make a significant difference for collective consciousness in America. Here I’ll make up a convenient name for this Heavenly Project: The Project Where Independent Women Ran Businesses.
Imagine, the Nerve!
Before this era, the value of women in American society was very much like the ideals now being floated by J.D. Vance, running mate to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Women had value only if they would bear children. Etc.
Yet Gladys (and others in this project) incarnated knowing that they could make a difference. They could run their own businesses, and not only take over an existing business after the death of a spouse.
For Gladys, that lifetime was very difficult. Most men treated her with an extreme lack of respect, and some pursued a righteous intent to “put her in her place.”
How about women? In her part of the American Southwest, at this time, many women also found Gladys to be objectionable:
* Wicked.
* An abomination.
* Somebody who deserved to be sexually mistreated.
* A whippersnapper who deserved to be robbed.
* A convenient target for every manner of social disrespect that you can probably imagine, Goodreaders.
Nonetheless, Gladys succeeded in that lifetime. She did run her business. She did survive the indignities.
Maybe some of you readers are wondering: Consciously, during that lifetime, did this very stubborn woman have, at least, the comfort of remembering that she was on The Project Where Independent Women Ran Businesses?
No such luck!
Which made her service in this lifetime all the greater as a spiritual triumph.
Oh, Valerie, I loved this long-term client so!
IN CONCLUSION
I can only imagine how grateful God is when a soul on the Other Side does listen to the invitation and then agrees to live as a helping one in this world.
Submitting to severe difficulties that were never her or his karma. Out of necessity, having very little knowledge – usually none – about having volunteered for a Heavenly Project.
If I might end my answer to this Q&A with a bit of advice . . .
Just one bit of advice . . .
Goodreaders, in your long future as a soul, perhaps there will come a time when you are invited to take part in one of those rare, Divinely designed, projects. You’ll be invited to help humanity take a big step of spiritual evolution.
If so, like me (as described in BIGGER) you will not be deceived or told half-truths. You’ll be told the truth personally by a Divine Being, like Jesus or Archangel Gabriel, etc.
You’ll be warned specifically about human ways that you might suffer. In addition, you’ll likely be informed about ways that you will definitely suffer, because certain kinds of pain will be inescapable for you – going with the territory, as it were.
What else? You’ll be told there is no guarantee of success, neither for you personally nor for the entire project.
Well, how often does one have that kind of opportunity to do God a favor? Look, I urge you to take that opportunity. Do that beautiful thing for God.
Rose Rosetree
Valerie, thanks for asking this question. My answer is going to be fun for you, I suspect. Since, no matter what you’re expecting by way of an answer, this won’t be it. Not that, but maybe something better.
FIRST SOME CONTEXT
You know, Valerie, supplying context would be helpful. Since every Goodreader who finds your “Ask the Author” question hasn’t necessarily read Bigger Than All the Night Sky, not yet.
This memoir tells the story of my life up to age 23. Basically, it’s the story of a person who would become a spiritual teacher – by now I’ve been at that for 55 years and counting.
Even if readers aren’t in that sort of occupation, a whole lot of readers are like me in that they keep on seeking God every way they can. Like them, my stumbling, fumbling progress alternates with moments when, to use the phrase coined by C.S. Lewis, I am Surprised by Joy.
Unlike the great C.S. Lewis, most of whose popular books I’ve read and loved, my writing is spiritual but not religious. It’s pretty unusual to find a memoir like that, spiritual but NOT religious.
In BIGGER (yes, that’s how I’ll refer to the book for short), Chapters 4-7 are about a near-death experience I had, at age five, when my tonsils were taken out.
Wham! I was back in Heaven. First I spoke with God, and established that God wasn’t really angry at me – as I had feared. Then I time-traveled back to my Planning Meeting before birth. Among other things, I learned about The Awakening Project. Clearly, I signed up for that.
BTW I hope there will be some “Ask the Author” questions about The Awakening Project, since many readers of BIGGER are quite sure they’re part of that project too. Yet have other authors written about that yet? Nope.
Interestingly, you didn’t choose to ask about The Awakening Project. Instead, you asked about illusions. And so I’ll respond.
Just so all of us can be on the same page, as it were, here comes the reference to Illusions from BIGGER. In context! Quoted for all of you from Page 60.
Adapted From “Bigger Than All The Night Sky”
The author is at her Planning Meeting for her lifetime as Rose. She’s talking with an Ascended Master, Merlin. (Yes, the same sage person named in the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.)
The Author: You don’t mean that I will actually lose my connection to spiritual light, do you?
Merlin: Never. That cannot be. However, you will feel as if all that light has been lost.
And remember how Earth’s illusions include being stuck in a heavy reality?
Often you have chosen lifetimes as a spiritual teacher; typically this has come at the expense of enjoying the human part of Earth School, simple pleasures like eating and playing and aimlessly spending time with others.
Well, that’s the best life will offer you. No kidding, the best. For years. Except for small flashes of talent.
Do not underestimate this challenge: eating and playing, aimlessly, while hanging out with people who are shut off from their spiritual light.
The Author: That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?
Practically giggling, I say, “So I’m gonna waste a little time by playing? Seems easy enough.”
[My radiating light sends out marigold pulsations of anticipation.]
Here's the Concluding Quote From This Sequence
Merlin’s light brightens, if possible.
Yes, this lifetime could be very good for you, once you get over the spiritual blackout.
OF COURSE, INCARNATING ON EARTH INVOLVES ILLUSIONS
So, Valerie, you chose the most popular word used by spiritual seekers and teachers of Traditional Enlightenment. Crazy-popular!
Illusions! Just because, from the perspective of living in a Heaven, everything about a human incarnation on Earth hinges on illusions.
That is, compared to life in a Heaven, Earth life is so…. Basic. So fraught with fear and pain and loneliness, etc.
YOUR QUESTION, UNDERSTANDABLY, TAKES THAT POPULAR PERSPECTIVE
Only – and I respond to this with my great respect for you, Valerie – So what? Who cares?
Look. There are countless spiritual teachers, now and throughout the past, who make a big deal of this illusion business.
Hello! You and I and the rest of humanity are no longer living in the Age of Faith. Ever since the Shift, on Dec. 21, 2012, what changed? All of us humans are living in the Age of Awakening.
As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I wound up adding the job of serving as an Enlightenment Teacher… for the Age of Awakening. So many of the articles at my blog, and published here on Goodreads too, are about helping people to understand what’s useful NOW. Not back then, in the gone-forever Age of Faith.
If you’re curious to learn more about contemporary teaching about Spiritual Enlightenment, I recommend you google “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment.” Then read that article and the hundreds of comments that have been developing there.
THEN WAS THEN, NOW IS NOW
Back in the Age of Faith, it was deemed so important to point out illusions.
Now, in my opinion, it is far more important to point out what it means to use your full potential in life. Yes, helping people to live fully, both spiritually and emotionally, and HUMANLY.
So… rather than continue to pay attention to spiritual illusions, might I suggest? Valerie and other Goodreaders, start paying attention to this idea instead:
USE YOUR EVERYDAY-AMAZING POTENTIAL
That, in fact, is the name of a new series of books I’m publishing. BIGGER is Book 1 in that series.
What does that even mean, your EVERYDAY-AMAZING potential in life? That means doing everyday things, in an everyday way, but along with big spiritual joy. Along with a stronger inner experience of God than before moving into Spiritual Enlightenment.
Doing this is so much more fun than “eating and playing, aimlessly, while hanging out with people who are shut off from their spiritual light.”
So, thanks for asking about all this, Valerie. Here’s to your living with your full potential for an EVERYDAY-AMAZING experience of life!
FIRST SOME CONTEXT
You know, Valerie, supplying context would be helpful. Since every Goodreader who finds your “Ask the Author” question hasn’t necessarily read Bigger Than All the Night Sky, not yet.
This memoir tells the story of my life up to age 23. Basically, it’s the story of a person who would become a spiritual teacher – by now I’ve been at that for 55 years and counting.
Even if readers aren’t in that sort of occupation, a whole lot of readers are like me in that they keep on seeking God every way they can. Like them, my stumbling, fumbling progress alternates with moments when, to use the phrase coined by C.S. Lewis, I am Surprised by Joy.
Unlike the great C.S. Lewis, most of whose popular books I’ve read and loved, my writing is spiritual but not religious. It’s pretty unusual to find a memoir like that, spiritual but NOT religious.
In BIGGER (yes, that’s how I’ll refer to the book for short), Chapters 4-7 are about a near-death experience I had, at age five, when my tonsils were taken out.
Wham! I was back in Heaven. First I spoke with God, and established that God wasn’t really angry at me – as I had feared. Then I time-traveled back to my Planning Meeting before birth. Among other things, I learned about The Awakening Project. Clearly, I signed up for that.
BTW I hope there will be some “Ask the Author” questions about The Awakening Project, since many readers of BIGGER are quite sure they’re part of that project too. Yet have other authors written about that yet? Nope.
Interestingly, you didn’t choose to ask about The Awakening Project. Instead, you asked about illusions. And so I’ll respond.
Just so all of us can be on the same page, as it were, here comes the reference to Illusions from BIGGER. In context! Quoted for all of you from Page 60.
Adapted From “Bigger Than All The Night Sky”
The author is at her Planning Meeting for her lifetime as Rose. She’s talking with an Ascended Master, Merlin. (Yes, the same sage person named in the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.)
The Author: You don’t mean that I will actually lose my connection to spiritual light, do you?
Merlin: Never. That cannot be. However, you will feel as if all that light has been lost.
And remember how Earth’s illusions include being stuck in a heavy reality?
Often you have chosen lifetimes as a spiritual teacher; typically this has come at the expense of enjoying the human part of Earth School, simple pleasures like eating and playing and aimlessly spending time with others.
Well, that’s the best life will offer you. No kidding, the best. For years. Except for small flashes of talent.
Do not underestimate this challenge: eating and playing, aimlessly, while hanging out with people who are shut off from their spiritual light.
The Author: That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?
Practically giggling, I say, “So I’m gonna waste a little time by playing? Seems easy enough.”
[My radiating light sends out marigold pulsations of anticipation.]
Here's the Concluding Quote From This Sequence
Merlin’s light brightens, if possible.
Yes, this lifetime could be very good for you, once you get over the spiritual blackout.
OF COURSE, INCARNATING ON EARTH INVOLVES ILLUSIONS
So, Valerie, you chose the most popular word used by spiritual seekers and teachers of Traditional Enlightenment. Crazy-popular!
Illusions! Just because, from the perspective of living in a Heaven, everything about a human incarnation on Earth hinges on illusions.
That is, compared to life in a Heaven, Earth life is so…. Basic. So fraught with fear and pain and loneliness, etc.
YOUR QUESTION, UNDERSTANDABLY, TAKES THAT POPULAR PERSPECTIVE
Only – and I respond to this with my great respect for you, Valerie – So what? Who cares?
Look. There are countless spiritual teachers, now and throughout the past, who make a big deal of this illusion business.
Hello! You and I and the rest of humanity are no longer living in the Age of Faith. Ever since the Shift, on Dec. 21, 2012, what changed? All of us humans are living in the Age of Awakening.
As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I wound up adding the job of serving as an Enlightenment Teacher… for the Age of Awakening. So many of the articles at my blog, and published here on Goodreads too, are about helping people to understand what’s useful NOW. Not back then, in the gone-forever Age of Faith.
If you’re curious to learn more about contemporary teaching about Spiritual Enlightenment, I recommend you google “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment.” Then read that article and the hundreds of comments that have been developing there.
THEN WAS THEN, NOW IS NOW
Back in the Age of Faith, it was deemed so important to point out illusions.
Now, in my opinion, it is far more important to point out what it means to use your full potential in life. Yes, helping people to live fully, both spiritually and emotionally, and HUMANLY.
So… rather than continue to pay attention to spiritual illusions, might I suggest? Valerie and other Goodreaders, start paying attention to this idea instead:
USE YOUR EVERYDAY-AMAZING POTENTIAL
That, in fact, is the name of a new series of books I’m publishing. BIGGER is Book 1 in that series.
What does that even mean, your EVERYDAY-AMAZING potential in life? That means doing everyday things, in an everyday way, but along with big spiritual joy. Along with a stronger inner experience of God than before moving into Spiritual Enlightenment.
Doing this is so much more fun than “eating and playing, aimlessly, while hanging out with people who are shut off from their spiritual light.”
So, thanks for asking about all this, Valerie. Here’s to your living with your full potential for an EVERYDAY-AMAZING experience of life!
Rose Rosetree
What a practical question, Lauren! Thank you for asking this follow-up to reading Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening. In giving a response, I’ll save us all some time by referring to that particular book as SEEKING.
You see, I plan to give a full answer to your question. Together, you and other Goodreaders can join me, going through some important consumer-type considerations for spiritual seekers, going through them... one step at a time.
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT?
Using your full potential in life, as yourself, that unique individual you are.
That very human goal is the point. That includes achieving personal development for yourself, much greater spiritual clarity, and probably quite a lot more than occurs to you right now.
And yes, achieving Spiritual Enlightenment is a tall order. Most people are nowhere close to using their full potential.
WHAT MAKES SEEKING A UNIQUE SELF-HELP BOOK?
In no particular order:
#1. This book was written for people who are living in the Age of Awakening. Meaning, a second era in human consciousness, beginning with the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012.
To learn more about that Shift, you Goodreaders might wish to search on – then read -- this article at my Energy Spirituality® blog:
“True Signs of the Age of Awakening”
(When doing your search, be sure to include the quotes.)
One reason why I recommend that you read this article is this. Many people publish ideas about what is meant by the Age of Awakening. Sadly, many of these ideas are confused and inaccurate, thereby confusing spiritual seekers more than helping them.
Actually, one way you can tell if you would benefit from the SEEKING book is to read that article. Does it resonate for you?
#2. This book provides knowledge, not a path. Most likely, what you learn will be compatible with:
* Your religion
* Alternatively, with being spiritual but not religious
* Or even with being an atheist
* Whether or not you’re into pop psychology
* Or you meditate
* Or you do yoga
* Or not.
As for your current food lifestyle, no worries.
You eat as you choose. Just as you wear what you choose.
Basically, Lauren and other Goodreaders, I am not a guru. Rather, I am an Enlightenment Teacher and an Enlightenment Coach. SEEKING aims to teach you useful things that I have learned from half a century (gulp!) as a spiritual teacher.
SEEKING can help you to gain much better results from your chosen path.
#3. What gives me the standing to write this book? I’m living in Spiritual Enlightenment, and have helped many students to do the same.
Also, the field that I’ve founded, Energy Spirituality®, includes many skills that can be useful for helping people to grow emotionally and evolve spiritually. (Including 11 trademarks with the USPTO.) All these skills were developed to work now, in the Age of Awakening.
Why does that matter? Because many traditional approaches to Enlightenment Teaching don’t work well anymore. While several new methods and skills are pretty essential.
Most Enlightenment Teachers are writing as if it’s still the Age of Faith. Sadly, that can make their teachings obsolete. Whereas SEEKING provides knowledge that works now, in the Age of Awakening.
CAN ANY HOW-TO BOOK BE ALL YOU NEED TO MOVE INTO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT?
Definitely not. SEEKING provides a powerful Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Helping you to know what will work for you, what won’t, and why.
That kind of understanding can add greatly to your discernment. Seems to me, it’s really important to gain the new kinds of discernment in that book. Some of that info may open your eyes wide. Since I am definitely not a member of today’s Enlightenment Establishment.
Goodreaders, how to define that term? For starters, today’s Enlightenment Establishment includes:
- Pastors and other clergy members
- Trainers and life coaches
- Psychotherapists and self-help writers
- Teachers of Tai Chi and Qigong and yoga
- Those who advocate a vegan or vegetarian diet
- Teachers of Spiritual Awakening and meditation teachers
- And plenty more.
SKILLS THAT CAN PROVE HELPFUL IN AN ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHER
Let's go into some detail about today's essential skills to supplement SEEKING, Lauren. I’ll describe them, using the names that I use for them. (Of course, these names are not standardized outside of Energy Spirituality; you might use different names for them.)
All the six following skills are essential, imo, for serving as an Enlightenment Teacher now, in the Age of Awakening.
#1. Good skills of aura READING. Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, at a minimum
There’s no substitute for problem solving when a seeker of Enlightenment gets stuck.
Members of the Enlightenment Establishment can make inquiries about the student’s understanding. As if that revealed what is happening in that student’s consciousness.
Look, that approach may have worked before the Shift. But in the Age of Awakening, we can grow really fast… or stall… or even go on a Spiritual Side Trip (more on these later in this response to you, Lauren).
Which aura reading skills?
Today's Enlightenment Coaching requires Stage 3 Energetic Literacy... at a minimum.
Huh? Info about energetic literacy development is really cool, with practical implications for you, the seeker of Enlightenment.
I recommend a series of three YouTube videos that I have made on energetic literacy. To find them, go onto the YouTube website and search on this series of short video lectures:
Aura Reading – Stage 1 Developing Energetic Literacy
Aura Reading – Stage 2 Developing Energetic Literacy
Aura Reading – Stage 3 Developing Energetic Literacy
Also helpful could be this: Google on "44 stages of energetic literacy" – and be sure to include those quotation marks when you search. Most seekers of Enlightenment have no idea about any of these refinements to energetic literacy.
#2. Good skills of aura HEALING.
No blame. Seekers can get stuck while developing Spiritual Enlightenment. Often the problem is what (in Energy Spirituality) we call “STUFF.” Using that as a term of art, STUFF means stored emotional and/or energetic garbage that becomes lodged in a person’s aura.
Important to note: STUFF is subconscious, not conscious.
A spiritual seeker’s ability to discern this is like asking you to become your own proctologist or gynecologist. Locating STUFF is technical, and so is discerning precisely which type of STUFF is involved. Even more important is knowing what to do about it! Using skills to permanently remove whichever form of STUFF is most important for accelerating a seeker’s progress.
Fortunately, there are many trademarked systems for doing all this. Some are taught through our online workshops, in the Spiritually Sparkling® Collection of Workshops – an excellent resource for skills of self-healing.
One of the main qualifications for an Enlightenment Coach today… is to have this kind of expertise. To be clear, all systems for energy healing are not interchangeable. Some work far better than others.
#3. Empath Empowerment® Coaching
What if the seeker of Enlightenment was born as an empath? That’s about 1 in 20 people, so the chances are hardly remote.
Many of the students I’ve helped to move into Spiritual Enlightenment have been born as empaths. It was life-changing for them to learn Empath Empowerment. Without this, they likely would NOT have moved into Enlightenment.
Non-empaths, of course, haven’t needed this kind of help.
#4. Good skills for helping students make choices.
* Maybe it’s a choice about whether to stay in a particular love relationship.
* Maybe it’s a choice about whether to go vegan or vegetarian.
* Perhaps the seeker of Enlightenment is ready for a career change, but finds it hard to decide among several choices that sound good.
This Enlightenment Coach offers sessions of Soul Thrill® Aura Research. Something you can read about at the rose-rosetree website….
#5. Good skills to detect Spiritual Side Trips
What a big deal this turns out to be, in the Age of Awakening! It’s very important to be able to discern when this is going on, and I can’t give folks a checklist. Spiritual side trips are tricky.
Any time that a person books a session with me – other than a session for Face Reading Secrets® -- I will be learning about that student’s consciousness, such as by facilitating a Skilled Empath Merge. During that one-on-one personal session, I can find out if the person has gone on a Spiritual Side Trip. In which case, I'll do what I can to help that beautiful spiritual seeker do better.
#6. Enlightenment Coaching that Works Now, in the Age of Awakening
Lauren, you know this next point. Many of you other Goodreaders may not. Here goes.
In the Age of Awakening two different forms of Spiritual Enlightenment are possible:
***Traditional Enlightenment
***And Age of Awakening Enlightenment
Your soul chooses for you, so don’t worry about consciously making “the right decision.”
Understandably – yet unfortunately—most members of today’s Enlightenment Establishment have never even heard of Age of Awakening Enlightenment. Yet that’s more common now than moving into the nonduality kind of Enlightenment.
To learn more, you might wish to google on “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment” – and be sure to use those quotation marks when you search. What you find in that article may shock you. Well, as an active blogger, I will respond to your COMMENTS at that blogpost.
These days, it’s pretty important that any Enlightenment Teacher have good solid knowledge about both types of Spiritual Enlightenment, not just the golden oldie.
FINALLY, WHAT COUNTS (TO ME) AS A RED FLAG IN AN ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHER?
Lauren, you and other Goodreaders have been patient. But you know me, Lauren, as a teacher I’m very thorough.
Obviously, it’s ideal if the Enlightenment Teacher or Enlightenment Coach is available to personally help students.
But they can’t if:
- They’re dead.
- They are really, really popular and can’t make the time to help individual students any longer.
- In either case, no blame, right?
Would I call this lack of personal attention a red flag? More like a problem. And... you’re right, Lauren, I'd say this amounts to a pretty serious problem.
IN CONCLUSION
There’s more to receiving help from an Enlightenment Teacher than most people know. By reading my response here, you may have more sophistication as a consumer. Hope so!
Thanks again, Lauren, for your contribution to Ask the Author here on Goodreads.
You see, I plan to give a full answer to your question. Together, you and other Goodreaders can join me, going through some important consumer-type considerations for spiritual seekers, going through them... one step at a time.
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT?
Using your full potential in life, as yourself, that unique individual you are.
That very human goal is the point. That includes achieving personal development for yourself, much greater spiritual clarity, and probably quite a lot more than occurs to you right now.
And yes, achieving Spiritual Enlightenment is a tall order. Most people are nowhere close to using their full potential.
WHAT MAKES SEEKING A UNIQUE SELF-HELP BOOK?
In no particular order:
#1. This book was written for people who are living in the Age of Awakening. Meaning, a second era in human consciousness, beginning with the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012.
To learn more about that Shift, you Goodreaders might wish to search on – then read -- this article at my Energy Spirituality® blog:
“True Signs of the Age of Awakening”
(When doing your search, be sure to include the quotes.)
One reason why I recommend that you read this article is this. Many people publish ideas about what is meant by the Age of Awakening. Sadly, many of these ideas are confused and inaccurate, thereby confusing spiritual seekers more than helping them.
Actually, one way you can tell if you would benefit from the SEEKING book is to read that article. Does it resonate for you?
#2. This book provides knowledge, not a path. Most likely, what you learn will be compatible with:
* Your religion
* Alternatively, with being spiritual but not religious
* Or even with being an atheist
* Whether or not you’re into pop psychology
* Or you meditate
* Or you do yoga
* Or not.
As for your current food lifestyle, no worries.
You eat as you choose. Just as you wear what you choose.
Basically, Lauren and other Goodreaders, I am not a guru. Rather, I am an Enlightenment Teacher and an Enlightenment Coach. SEEKING aims to teach you useful things that I have learned from half a century (gulp!) as a spiritual teacher.
SEEKING can help you to gain much better results from your chosen path.
#3. What gives me the standing to write this book? I’m living in Spiritual Enlightenment, and have helped many students to do the same.
Also, the field that I’ve founded, Energy Spirituality®, includes many skills that can be useful for helping people to grow emotionally and evolve spiritually. (Including 11 trademarks with the USPTO.) All these skills were developed to work now, in the Age of Awakening.
Why does that matter? Because many traditional approaches to Enlightenment Teaching don’t work well anymore. While several new methods and skills are pretty essential.
Most Enlightenment Teachers are writing as if it’s still the Age of Faith. Sadly, that can make their teachings obsolete. Whereas SEEKING provides knowledge that works now, in the Age of Awakening.
CAN ANY HOW-TO BOOK BE ALL YOU NEED TO MOVE INTO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT?
Definitely not. SEEKING provides a powerful Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Helping you to know what will work for you, what won’t, and why.
That kind of understanding can add greatly to your discernment. Seems to me, it’s really important to gain the new kinds of discernment in that book. Some of that info may open your eyes wide. Since I am definitely not a member of today’s Enlightenment Establishment.
Goodreaders, how to define that term? For starters, today’s Enlightenment Establishment includes:
- Pastors and other clergy members
- Trainers and life coaches
- Psychotherapists and self-help writers
- Teachers of Tai Chi and Qigong and yoga
- Those who advocate a vegan or vegetarian diet
- Teachers of Spiritual Awakening and meditation teachers
- And plenty more.
SKILLS THAT CAN PROVE HELPFUL IN AN ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHER
Let's go into some detail about today's essential skills to supplement SEEKING, Lauren. I’ll describe them, using the names that I use for them. (Of course, these names are not standardized outside of Energy Spirituality; you might use different names for them.)
All the six following skills are essential, imo, for serving as an Enlightenment Teacher now, in the Age of Awakening.
#1. Good skills of aura READING. Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, at a minimum
There’s no substitute for problem solving when a seeker of Enlightenment gets stuck.
Members of the Enlightenment Establishment can make inquiries about the student’s understanding. As if that revealed what is happening in that student’s consciousness.
Look, that approach may have worked before the Shift. But in the Age of Awakening, we can grow really fast… or stall… or even go on a Spiritual Side Trip (more on these later in this response to you, Lauren).
Which aura reading skills?
Today's Enlightenment Coaching requires Stage 3 Energetic Literacy... at a minimum.
Huh? Info about energetic literacy development is really cool, with practical implications for you, the seeker of Enlightenment.
I recommend a series of three YouTube videos that I have made on energetic literacy. To find them, go onto the YouTube website and search on this series of short video lectures:
Aura Reading – Stage 1 Developing Energetic Literacy
Aura Reading – Stage 2 Developing Energetic Literacy
Aura Reading – Stage 3 Developing Energetic Literacy
Also helpful could be this: Google on "44 stages of energetic literacy" – and be sure to include those quotation marks when you search. Most seekers of Enlightenment have no idea about any of these refinements to energetic literacy.
#2. Good skills of aura HEALING.
No blame. Seekers can get stuck while developing Spiritual Enlightenment. Often the problem is what (in Energy Spirituality) we call “STUFF.” Using that as a term of art, STUFF means stored emotional and/or energetic garbage that becomes lodged in a person’s aura.
Important to note: STUFF is subconscious, not conscious.
A spiritual seeker’s ability to discern this is like asking you to become your own proctologist or gynecologist. Locating STUFF is technical, and so is discerning precisely which type of STUFF is involved. Even more important is knowing what to do about it! Using skills to permanently remove whichever form of STUFF is most important for accelerating a seeker’s progress.
Fortunately, there are many trademarked systems for doing all this. Some are taught through our online workshops, in the Spiritually Sparkling® Collection of Workshops – an excellent resource for skills of self-healing.
One of the main qualifications for an Enlightenment Coach today… is to have this kind of expertise. To be clear, all systems for energy healing are not interchangeable. Some work far better than others.
#3. Empath Empowerment® Coaching
What if the seeker of Enlightenment was born as an empath? That’s about 1 in 20 people, so the chances are hardly remote.
Many of the students I’ve helped to move into Spiritual Enlightenment have been born as empaths. It was life-changing for them to learn Empath Empowerment. Without this, they likely would NOT have moved into Enlightenment.
Non-empaths, of course, haven’t needed this kind of help.
#4. Good skills for helping students make choices.
* Maybe it’s a choice about whether to stay in a particular love relationship.
* Maybe it’s a choice about whether to go vegan or vegetarian.
* Perhaps the seeker of Enlightenment is ready for a career change, but finds it hard to decide among several choices that sound good.
This Enlightenment Coach offers sessions of Soul Thrill® Aura Research. Something you can read about at the rose-rosetree website….
#5. Good skills to detect Spiritual Side Trips
What a big deal this turns out to be, in the Age of Awakening! It’s very important to be able to discern when this is going on, and I can’t give folks a checklist. Spiritual side trips are tricky.
Any time that a person books a session with me – other than a session for Face Reading Secrets® -- I will be learning about that student’s consciousness, such as by facilitating a Skilled Empath Merge. During that one-on-one personal session, I can find out if the person has gone on a Spiritual Side Trip. In which case, I'll do what I can to help that beautiful spiritual seeker do better.
#6. Enlightenment Coaching that Works Now, in the Age of Awakening
Lauren, you know this next point. Many of you other Goodreaders may not. Here goes.
In the Age of Awakening two different forms of Spiritual Enlightenment are possible:
***Traditional Enlightenment
***And Age of Awakening Enlightenment
Your soul chooses for you, so don’t worry about consciously making “the right decision.”
Understandably – yet unfortunately—most members of today’s Enlightenment Establishment have never even heard of Age of Awakening Enlightenment. Yet that’s more common now than moving into the nonduality kind of Enlightenment.
To learn more, you might wish to google on “Age of Awakening Enlightenment Vs. Trad Enlightenment” – and be sure to use those quotation marks when you search. What you find in that article may shock you. Well, as an active blogger, I will respond to your COMMENTS at that blogpost.
These days, it’s pretty important that any Enlightenment Teacher have good solid knowledge about both types of Spiritual Enlightenment, not just the golden oldie.
FINALLY, WHAT COUNTS (TO ME) AS A RED FLAG IN AN ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHER?
Lauren, you and other Goodreaders have been patient. But you know me, Lauren, as a teacher I’m very thorough.
Obviously, it’s ideal if the Enlightenment Teacher or Enlightenment Coach is available to personally help students.
But they can’t if:
- They’re dead.
- They are really, really popular and can’t make the time to help individual students any longer.
- In either case, no blame, right?
Would I call this lack of personal attention a red flag? More like a problem. And... you’re right, Lauren, I'd say this amounts to a pretty serious problem.
IN CONCLUSION
There’s more to receiving help from an Enlightenment Teacher than most people know. By reading my response here, you may have more sophistication as a consumer. Hope so!
Thanks again, Lauren, for your contribution to Ask the Author here on Goodreads.
Rose Rosetree
You’re right, Horatio. A new edition of my memoir is coming. In fact, you can even preorder this book now on Kindle. Also, starting on Publication Day, August 1, you can order this as a shiny new paperback.
Phew! Now that we got that practical point out of the way, thank you for your question, Horatio. You've put into words an unspoken reluctance that is very common today, even if consciously we’ve never admitted to ourselves that we’re unduly influenced by celebrities.
Generations ago, a popular idea in America went like this:
IF YOU’RE SO SMART, WHY AIN’T YOU RICH?
By now, that seems to have lost its allure – along with the Horatio Alger work ethic. (Speaking of people with the first name Horatio!)
Living now, most of us have enough sense to know that wealth does not necessarily equate to intelligence. (And vice versa.)
Instead, our unspoken assumption may this equally foolish idea:
IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE TO SAY, WHY AIN’T YOU FAMOUS?
Come to think of it, how preposterous is that! Of course, the value of a person’s life -- or career -- should not be based on fame. Some people have fame karma but most of us do not.
Here’s just one example of somebody who did manage to have fame karma kick in, but only after he was long gone.
Horatio and other Goodreaders, did you ever hear any music composed by J.S. Bach? During his lifetime he wasn’t only a prolific composer… of some of the greatest music in Western civilization. Bach also worked incredibly hard, to fulfill his outrageously demanding day job. Also, maybe you know that he and his wife had 20 -– yes TWENTY -- children.
During his lifetime, how famous was Johann Sebastian Bach? Not very. During Bach's lifetime, who were the famous composers? Mainly Buxtehude and Handel. When he died in 1750, Bach wasn’t very well known. A century later, musicians rediscovered his music. By now, of course, J.S. Bach is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time. Maybe THE greatest.
With musicians, or writers, what matters more than their degree of fame? How about this:
Does that creative person have something important to say to you?
All that said, at least as important, Horatio, is this blunt version of the question you asked:
WHY WOULD ANYBODY… READ ROSE ROSETREE’S MEMOIR?
Now we’re talking, because that’s a question worth asking. Do I have an answer for you? Hey, I’m going to give you a dozen answers. All may not apply to you, Goodreaders, but if even one of these answers speaks to you? You may find that BIGGER THAN ALL THE NIGHT SKY brings you some powerful personal experiences.
Incidentally, at the book page here on Goodreads, guess what? There are already quite a few reviews for the first edition of this book. These might be of interest to you. Here I’ll add this: The second edition is imo both NEW and IMPROVED.
And now here come our 12 Readability Reasons.
Readability Reason #1. You Enjoy Reading Memoirs
This one has more of a freshness and authenticity than many a memoir. You won’t find familiar tropes like:
-Rags to riches. Like “Thicker than Water” by Kerry Washington.
-Big scary drama overcome. Like “Enough” by Cassidy Hutchinson.
-You can identify with the terrible sorrows of this famous person. Like “Spare” by Prince Harry.
Instead, what will you find? Some answers await you in the Readability Reasons below.
Readability Reason #2. Meet an Unskilled Empath
This particular empath, Rose Rosetree, went on to found the system of Empath Empowerment®. Decades after the time of this first memoir, she became the most experienced empath coach in America. (Including four books that you can learn about at her Author Page on Goodreads. )
Any of you who have become “Skilled Empaths” can read this story for examples of mess-up that are absolutely typical of unskilled empaths. For instance, why the author got into trouble with her first checking account.
Readability Reason #3. How Rose Overcame Writer’s Block
Authors and aspiring authors here on Goodreads may be all too familiar with creativity struggles.
In a chapter called “Becoming a Writer, Damply” you’ll learn about a breakthrough experience as a writer. Followed by years of struggle and, eventually, finding a secret for overcoming the single biggest cause of writer’s block. (For her, at least.)
Later Rose Rosetree would go on to offer an online workshop called “Creativity Secrets with Soul.”
Readability Reason #4. Spiritual Seeking-Seeking-Seeking
Many memoirs are religious in nature. Readers are treated to why the author became a pastor or missionary, etc.
By contrast, the approach here is spiritual but not religious. Even religious readers may find inspiration in this story of a person who kept seeking God, repeatedly living like a fool for love.
Readability Reason #5. Seekers of Self-Actualization
When Rose was in college, Abraham Maslow, the great humanistic psychologist, taught on the faculty of Brandeis University. During the 60’s, much of today’s pop psychology was starting to emerge. Many of the stories here will resonate for fellow seekers of personal growth.
Readability Reason #6. Hippies, Hippies, Hippies
As the saying goes, “If you can remember the sixties, you weren’t there.” Rosetree was definitely there, but she does remember… and report. In this memoir she describes encounters with Timothy Leary and Baba Ram Dass, her failed attempt to become a pothead, and what today would be called an epic fail concerning her college motto, “Be discreet.”
Readability Reason #7. Becoming a Spiritual Teacher
Are you curious about how and why a person could become a professional spiritual teacher? Especially if you have ever yearned to do something like this, you may be moved by the stumbling, fumbling steps that led Rosetree to become a Teacher of Transcendental Meditation. Later, of course, she became the founder of Energy Spirituality®.
Readability Reason #8. Love Music?
If you love music, you’ll enjoy many references to music in this memoir, including Birdland, Jimmy Hendrix, Aaron Copland… and Rosetree’s understandably pathetic violin playing in a little music recital.
Readability Reason #9. The Story of a First-Generation American
So many of us in the U.S. are recent immigrants. How we assimilate, or don’t, should be a matter of interest to all socially conscious students of American society. Rose’s uncle, Murray Hausknecht was a sociology professor and public intellectual who published a book about The Joiners: A Sociological Description of Voluntary Association Membership in the United States. In a non-academic way, this memoir explores the theme of fitting into American society.
Readability Reason #10. Living as a Secular Jew
There are so many of us. The U.S. has the largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel. By 2020, our estimated Jewish population had grown to 7.5 million people. Yet this includes only 4.2 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish. How about the others? Rosetree gives a voice to one of those secular families, seldom described memoirs.
Readability Reason #11. Unique Perspective for Preemies, and Those Who Love Them
Quite a literature has developed on this topic, including memoirs and other books of interest to parents of children born early, premature babies. Yet this may be the first such book to explore the perspective of the newborn, rather than the parents of preemies. Readers learn about the experience of somebody who remembers vividly being kept alive in “a little glass box.” That is, an incubator.
Readability Reason #12. Just Enough Poetry
Yes, Goodreaders, you’ll even encounter some poetry. Including the poem that Rosetree read to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Millions have learned his technique of Transcendental Meditation, and thousands studied personally with him back in the day. But how many of them ever saw him cry? In BIGGER you’ll have the chance to read a poem that did make him weep. And if you’re a spiritual seeker, you might tear up too.
IN CONCLUSION
Thanks for asking this author, Horatio. You and other Goodreaders are cordially invited to ask follow-up questions here.
How wonderful that Goodreads makes available these interactive opportunities to Ask the Author!
Phew! Now that we got that practical point out of the way, thank you for your question, Horatio. You've put into words an unspoken reluctance that is very common today, even if consciously we’ve never admitted to ourselves that we’re unduly influenced by celebrities.
Generations ago, a popular idea in America went like this:
IF YOU’RE SO SMART, WHY AIN’T YOU RICH?
By now, that seems to have lost its allure – along with the Horatio Alger work ethic. (Speaking of people with the first name Horatio!)
Living now, most of us have enough sense to know that wealth does not necessarily equate to intelligence. (And vice versa.)
Instead, our unspoken assumption may this equally foolish idea:
IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE TO SAY, WHY AIN’T YOU FAMOUS?
Come to think of it, how preposterous is that! Of course, the value of a person’s life -- or career -- should not be based on fame. Some people have fame karma but most of us do not.
Here’s just one example of somebody who did manage to have fame karma kick in, but only after he was long gone.
Horatio and other Goodreaders, did you ever hear any music composed by J.S. Bach? During his lifetime he wasn’t only a prolific composer… of some of the greatest music in Western civilization. Bach also worked incredibly hard, to fulfill his outrageously demanding day job. Also, maybe you know that he and his wife had 20 -– yes TWENTY -- children.
During his lifetime, how famous was Johann Sebastian Bach? Not very. During Bach's lifetime, who were the famous composers? Mainly Buxtehude and Handel. When he died in 1750, Bach wasn’t very well known. A century later, musicians rediscovered his music. By now, of course, J.S. Bach is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time. Maybe THE greatest.
With musicians, or writers, what matters more than their degree of fame? How about this:
Does that creative person have something important to say to you?
All that said, at least as important, Horatio, is this blunt version of the question you asked:
WHY WOULD ANYBODY… READ ROSE ROSETREE’S MEMOIR?
Now we’re talking, because that’s a question worth asking. Do I have an answer for you? Hey, I’m going to give you a dozen answers. All may not apply to you, Goodreaders, but if even one of these answers speaks to you? You may find that BIGGER THAN ALL THE NIGHT SKY brings you some powerful personal experiences.
Incidentally, at the book page here on Goodreads, guess what? There are already quite a few reviews for the first edition of this book. These might be of interest to you. Here I’ll add this: The second edition is imo both NEW and IMPROVED.
And now here come our 12 Readability Reasons.
Readability Reason #1. You Enjoy Reading Memoirs
This one has more of a freshness and authenticity than many a memoir. You won’t find familiar tropes like:
-Rags to riches. Like “Thicker than Water” by Kerry Washington.
-Big scary drama overcome. Like “Enough” by Cassidy Hutchinson.
-You can identify with the terrible sorrows of this famous person. Like “Spare” by Prince Harry.
Instead, what will you find? Some answers await you in the Readability Reasons below.
Readability Reason #2. Meet an Unskilled Empath
This particular empath, Rose Rosetree, went on to found the system of Empath Empowerment®. Decades after the time of this first memoir, she became the most experienced empath coach in America. (Including four books that you can learn about at her Author Page on Goodreads. )
Any of you who have become “Skilled Empaths” can read this story for examples of mess-up that are absolutely typical of unskilled empaths. For instance, why the author got into trouble with her first checking account.
Readability Reason #3. How Rose Overcame Writer’s Block
Authors and aspiring authors here on Goodreads may be all too familiar with creativity struggles.
In a chapter called “Becoming a Writer, Damply” you’ll learn about a breakthrough experience as a writer. Followed by years of struggle and, eventually, finding a secret for overcoming the single biggest cause of writer’s block. (For her, at least.)
Later Rose Rosetree would go on to offer an online workshop called “Creativity Secrets with Soul.”
Readability Reason #4. Spiritual Seeking-Seeking-Seeking
Many memoirs are religious in nature. Readers are treated to why the author became a pastor or missionary, etc.
By contrast, the approach here is spiritual but not religious. Even religious readers may find inspiration in this story of a person who kept seeking God, repeatedly living like a fool for love.
Readability Reason #5. Seekers of Self-Actualization
When Rose was in college, Abraham Maslow, the great humanistic psychologist, taught on the faculty of Brandeis University. During the 60’s, much of today’s pop psychology was starting to emerge. Many of the stories here will resonate for fellow seekers of personal growth.
Readability Reason #6. Hippies, Hippies, Hippies
As the saying goes, “If you can remember the sixties, you weren’t there.” Rosetree was definitely there, but she does remember… and report. In this memoir she describes encounters with Timothy Leary and Baba Ram Dass, her failed attempt to become a pothead, and what today would be called an epic fail concerning her college motto, “Be discreet.”
Readability Reason #7. Becoming a Spiritual Teacher
Are you curious about how and why a person could become a professional spiritual teacher? Especially if you have ever yearned to do something like this, you may be moved by the stumbling, fumbling steps that led Rosetree to become a Teacher of Transcendental Meditation. Later, of course, she became the founder of Energy Spirituality®.
Readability Reason #8. Love Music?
If you love music, you’ll enjoy many references to music in this memoir, including Birdland, Jimmy Hendrix, Aaron Copland… and Rosetree’s understandably pathetic violin playing in a little music recital.
Readability Reason #9. The Story of a First-Generation American
So many of us in the U.S. are recent immigrants. How we assimilate, or don’t, should be a matter of interest to all socially conscious students of American society. Rose’s uncle, Murray Hausknecht was a sociology professor and public intellectual who published a book about The Joiners: A Sociological Description of Voluntary Association Membership in the United States. In a non-academic way, this memoir explores the theme of fitting into American society.
Readability Reason #10. Living as a Secular Jew
There are so many of us. The U.S. has the largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel. By 2020, our estimated Jewish population had grown to 7.5 million people. Yet this includes only 4.2 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish. How about the others? Rosetree gives a voice to one of those secular families, seldom described memoirs.
Readability Reason #11. Unique Perspective for Preemies, and Those Who Love Them
Quite a literature has developed on this topic, including memoirs and other books of interest to parents of children born early, premature babies. Yet this may be the first such book to explore the perspective of the newborn, rather than the parents of preemies. Readers learn about the experience of somebody who remembers vividly being kept alive in “a little glass box.” That is, an incubator.
Readability Reason #12. Just Enough Poetry
Yes, Goodreaders, you’ll even encounter some poetry. Including the poem that Rosetree read to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Millions have learned his technique of Transcendental Meditation, and thousands studied personally with him back in the day. But how many of them ever saw him cry? In BIGGER you’ll have the chance to read a poem that did make him weep. And if you’re a spiritual seeker, you might tear up too.
IN CONCLUSION
Thanks for asking this author, Horatio. You and other Goodreaders are cordially invited to ask follow-up questions here.
How wonderful that Goodreads makes available these interactive opportunities to Ask the Author!
Rose Rosetree
Joseph, good choice! And also good question. 😊
After I answer it, I’ll give you (and other Goodreaders) some bright ideas for receiving the most from Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening. My way of thanking you for today’s Ask the Author Question.
Is enjoyment of life part of what I teach about Enlightenment?
Absolutely-tootly, Joseph. And for two reasons.
REASON 1. Why This Enlightenment Coach Acknowledges Enjoyment of Life:
LIVING NOW, ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT ONLY FOR RENUNCIATES
Joseph, you’ve just ordered a how-to book for gaining Spiritual Enlightenment. Whatever your previous background on this subject may be, the way I’ve written this book has been to NOT assume that readers have any relevant experience here.
But what if, like me, you have had considerable experience of seeking Enlightenment, one way or another?
Quick pause: Incidentally, Goodreaders, feel free to write an Ask the Author question about what my personal experience of seeking Enlightenment has been.
* Or, differently put, what qualifies me to write a book on this topic?
* Or, heck, some of you might even wish to ask why I am a stickler for using the term “Spiritual Enlightenment” or “Enlightenment” with a capital E. (And not simply “enlightenment.”)
Inquiring minds want to know, right?
Next, here’s a counter-culture idea for spiritual seekers:
IT’S WORTH KNOWING, WHEN WAS THAT ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHING DEVELOPED?
Usually, Joseph and other Goodreaders, learning most things doesn’t require that you take a historical perspective. Not when it comes to most how-to books you are reading, for instance.
However, this next idea could be important to you. Hey, it might become important to you, once you understand more about how Enlightenment teachings have changed.
Historically, these teachings amount to a huge-and-varied body of work. For instance, I’m one Enlightenment Teacher who has studied two of the Vedas from India. And how old are they? Useful fact, the Vedas are an estimated 10 THOUSAND years old.
Many other teachings have arisen over the millennia. Yet here’s the important thing. Nearly all these teachings were developed during the first consciousness era on Earth, which I call The Age of Faith.
First consciousness era? Yes, seriously, that’s worth paying attention to. Since in your lifetime, Joseph and other Goodreaders, a big change has occurred. Maybe – or maybe not – you’ve heard about the Shift into the Age of Awakening. This happened on Dec. 21, 2012. Ushering in humanity’s second consciousness era. This is what I call The Age of Awakening.
NOW FOR THE PRACTICAL PART
During the Age of Faith, it was very much harder to move into Spiritual Enlightenment. One didn’t really have a chance unless one lived as a renunciate. Meaning, living as a monk or a nun, or perhaps a celibate priest or priestess, belonging to a religious order. Even then, only a very-very small proportion of Enlightenment seekers succeeded in their quest.
Lucky us, though. Living in this new Age of Awakening, it’s far more likely that you can succeed at moving into Spiritual Enlightenment. Granted, this won’t just happen. But it is possible. Personally, this Enlightenment Teacher has helped dozens of people to move into real-deal, professionally validated, Enlightenment.
You can learn more about this. Simply search on “Energy Spirituality for Spiritual Enlightenment” – and be sure to include those quotation marks in your search. This will take you to an article that is totally pertinent to this topic.
Bottom line, as an expert in this field, I’m here to tell you that “householders” can definitely move into Enlightenment, now that we’re in the Age of Awakening.
HEY, DO YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT LIVING AS A RENUNCIATE?
Renunciate life can be beautiful. For instance, my oldest friend, “Sam,” lives in an ashram created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. My beloved friend is a founding member of that monastery in Rishikesh, India, so he began living there decades before the Shift. Sam is definitely living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
For Sam, being a monk is a perfect lifestyle. But most of us – this Goodreads author included – are far happier living as householders. Here’s a quick primer:
* RENUNCIATES take vows of obedience, chastity, poverty.
* HOUSEHOLDERS are free to obey or not, and to choose whom they will obey. Plus, we can make money and spend money. Also, sex is definitely allowed.
You get the picture, right?
Householders Are Not Renunciates
We have the green light to enjoy life. This how-to book you’re about to read, Joseph, offers you step-by-step instructions for moving toward Enlightenment.
You’ll find an effective, simple Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Definitely, it works for householders like you and me.
Quick Summary: You might think of this very Age of Awakening approach to spiritual evolution as including this: Sex, No Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll. 😊
Remember, Enlightenment means using your full potential in life. Yes, on the whole, life is a whole lot more fun when you’re in Enlightenment. So I’m very glad you asked such an important question.
REASON 2. Why This Enlightenment Coach Acknowledges Enjoyment of Life:
AGE OF AWAKENING ENLIGHTENMENT, the second kind of Spiritual Enlightenment
During the Age of Faith, not only was it required to be a renunciate, seeking Enlightenment. Before the Shift, only one kind of Spiritual Enlightenment was available to humans. The name I’ve given this more traditional kind is... Traditional Enlightenment.
By contrast, the newer kind of Enlightenment, available only since the Shift, is called Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
Joseph, there’s a lot to learn about differences and similarities, regarding these two kinds of Enlightenment. So far, I haven’t published any books about this, but I have published quite a few blogposts. I’d recommend this particular one for you – and for other Goodreaders who might be curious:
"Age of Awakening Enlightenment Surprise 1. Just Enough Bliss"
(Word to the wise: When you google this, please include the quotation marks.)
Now for Some Tips for Getting the Most out of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
Joseph and other Goodreaders, this particular how-to book is packed with leading-edge information about seeking Spiritual Enlightenment now, in the Age of Awakening.
For best results, might I recommend?
#1. Read it slowly, just 1-2 pages per day.
That way you have time to digest what you’re reading.
#2. Make use of the Energy Spirituality® Blog as a supplementary resource.
Not only can you find articles to read on Enlightenment. And not only are these free. In addition, you’re welcome to ask questions on whatever topic any particular blogpost is about. Just use a COMMENT box at the end of each post.
Ask your question. It won’t appear immediately, since my personal blog does not have the budget of Goodreads or Facebook. But your comment will be held in the Blog Monitor’s Queue, and I’ll get to it within a few days or so. Besides publishing your comment, I’ll personally respond. (And yes, that will be free too.) How many Enlightenment Teachers these days… do this sort of thing?
#3. Definitely read that book, though. I spent years developing it and editing it, in order to teach you systematically. You can’t receive the same degree of knowledge by poking around and putting together “the equivalent.” Joseph, I think you’re wise to have ordered your own copy of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
#4. Every year or two, read it again. Also slowly. You may be surprised at how much more you learn, especially if you’re pursuing that easy-to-follow Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Because that way you’re evolving spiritually at top speed.
That means, just as fast as if you lived in a monastery or convent. With few possessions, only a very slim chance of a good haircut and, in general, probably much less fun.
Thanks for asking, Joseph. And three cheers for Goodreads, making available to all of us this “Ask the Author” opportunity.
After I answer it, I’ll give you (and other Goodreaders) some bright ideas for receiving the most from Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening. My way of thanking you for today’s Ask the Author Question.
Is enjoyment of life part of what I teach about Enlightenment?
Absolutely-tootly, Joseph. And for two reasons.
REASON 1. Why This Enlightenment Coach Acknowledges Enjoyment of Life:
LIVING NOW, ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT ONLY FOR RENUNCIATES
Joseph, you’ve just ordered a how-to book for gaining Spiritual Enlightenment. Whatever your previous background on this subject may be, the way I’ve written this book has been to NOT assume that readers have any relevant experience here.
But what if, like me, you have had considerable experience of seeking Enlightenment, one way or another?
Quick pause: Incidentally, Goodreaders, feel free to write an Ask the Author question about what my personal experience of seeking Enlightenment has been.
* Or, differently put, what qualifies me to write a book on this topic?
* Or, heck, some of you might even wish to ask why I am a stickler for using the term “Spiritual Enlightenment” or “Enlightenment” with a capital E. (And not simply “enlightenment.”)
Inquiring minds want to know, right?
Next, here’s a counter-culture idea for spiritual seekers:
IT’S WORTH KNOWING, WHEN WAS THAT ENLIGHTENMENT TEACHING DEVELOPED?
Usually, Joseph and other Goodreaders, learning most things doesn’t require that you take a historical perspective. Not when it comes to most how-to books you are reading, for instance.
However, this next idea could be important to you. Hey, it might become important to you, once you understand more about how Enlightenment teachings have changed.
Historically, these teachings amount to a huge-and-varied body of work. For instance, I’m one Enlightenment Teacher who has studied two of the Vedas from India. And how old are they? Useful fact, the Vedas are an estimated 10 THOUSAND years old.
Many other teachings have arisen over the millennia. Yet here’s the important thing. Nearly all these teachings were developed during the first consciousness era on Earth, which I call The Age of Faith.
First consciousness era? Yes, seriously, that’s worth paying attention to. Since in your lifetime, Joseph and other Goodreaders, a big change has occurred. Maybe – or maybe not – you’ve heard about the Shift into the Age of Awakening. This happened on Dec. 21, 2012. Ushering in humanity’s second consciousness era. This is what I call The Age of Awakening.
NOW FOR THE PRACTICAL PART
During the Age of Faith, it was very much harder to move into Spiritual Enlightenment. One didn’t really have a chance unless one lived as a renunciate. Meaning, living as a monk or a nun, or perhaps a celibate priest or priestess, belonging to a religious order. Even then, only a very-very small proportion of Enlightenment seekers succeeded in their quest.
Lucky us, though. Living in this new Age of Awakening, it’s far more likely that you can succeed at moving into Spiritual Enlightenment. Granted, this won’t just happen. But it is possible. Personally, this Enlightenment Teacher has helped dozens of people to move into real-deal, professionally validated, Enlightenment.
You can learn more about this. Simply search on “Energy Spirituality for Spiritual Enlightenment” – and be sure to include those quotation marks in your search. This will take you to an article that is totally pertinent to this topic.
Bottom line, as an expert in this field, I’m here to tell you that “householders” can definitely move into Enlightenment, now that we’re in the Age of Awakening.
HEY, DO YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT LIVING AS A RENUNCIATE?
Renunciate life can be beautiful. For instance, my oldest friend, “Sam,” lives in an ashram created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. My beloved friend is a founding member of that monastery in Rishikesh, India, so he began living there decades before the Shift. Sam is definitely living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
For Sam, being a monk is a perfect lifestyle. But most of us – this Goodreads author included – are far happier living as householders. Here’s a quick primer:
* RENUNCIATES take vows of obedience, chastity, poverty.
* HOUSEHOLDERS are free to obey or not, and to choose whom they will obey. Plus, we can make money and spend money. Also, sex is definitely allowed.
You get the picture, right?
Householders Are Not Renunciates
We have the green light to enjoy life. This how-to book you’re about to read, Joseph, offers you step-by-step instructions for moving toward Enlightenment.
You’ll find an effective, simple Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Definitely, it works for householders like you and me.
Quick Summary: You might think of this very Age of Awakening approach to spiritual evolution as including this: Sex, No Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll. 😊
Remember, Enlightenment means using your full potential in life. Yes, on the whole, life is a whole lot more fun when you’re in Enlightenment. So I’m very glad you asked such an important question.
REASON 2. Why This Enlightenment Coach Acknowledges Enjoyment of Life:
AGE OF AWAKENING ENLIGHTENMENT, the second kind of Spiritual Enlightenment
During the Age of Faith, not only was it required to be a renunciate, seeking Enlightenment. Before the Shift, only one kind of Spiritual Enlightenment was available to humans. The name I’ve given this more traditional kind is... Traditional Enlightenment.
By contrast, the newer kind of Enlightenment, available only since the Shift, is called Age of Awakening Enlightenment.
Joseph, there’s a lot to learn about differences and similarities, regarding these two kinds of Enlightenment. So far, I haven’t published any books about this, but I have published quite a few blogposts. I’d recommend this particular one for you – and for other Goodreaders who might be curious:
"Age of Awakening Enlightenment Surprise 1. Just Enough Bliss"
(Word to the wise: When you google this, please include the quotation marks.)
Now for Some Tips for Getting the Most out of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
Joseph and other Goodreaders, this particular how-to book is packed with leading-edge information about seeking Spiritual Enlightenment now, in the Age of Awakening.
For best results, might I recommend?
#1. Read it slowly, just 1-2 pages per day.
That way you have time to digest what you’re reading.
#2. Make use of the Energy Spirituality® Blog as a supplementary resource.
Not only can you find articles to read on Enlightenment. And not only are these free. In addition, you’re welcome to ask questions on whatever topic any particular blogpost is about. Just use a COMMENT box at the end of each post.
Ask your question. It won’t appear immediately, since my personal blog does not have the budget of Goodreads or Facebook. But your comment will be held in the Blog Monitor’s Queue, and I’ll get to it within a few days or so. Besides publishing your comment, I’ll personally respond. (And yes, that will be free too.) How many Enlightenment Teachers these days… do this sort of thing?
#3. Definitely read that book, though. I spent years developing it and editing it, in order to teach you systematically. You can’t receive the same degree of knowledge by poking around and putting together “the equivalent.” Joseph, I think you’re wise to have ordered your own copy of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
#4. Every year or two, read it again. Also slowly. You may be surprised at how much more you learn, especially if you’re pursuing that easy-to-follow Program for Spiritual Enlightenment. Because that way you’re evolving spiritually at top speed.
That means, just as fast as if you lived in a monastery or convent. With few possessions, only a very slim chance of a good haircut and, in general, probably much less fun.
Thanks for asking, Joseph. And three cheers for Goodreads, making available to all of us this “Ask the Author” opportunity.
Rose Rosetree
Edward, thank you for asking a question that contains many ideas. In response I’ll share what’s most important to me. I’ll bring up several points, in the order that seems most important to me. In that way I can do my best to include all you Goodreaders in my response, I’m going to lay out basic concepts. That way can move forward together. Then will come the REALLY FUN PART.
I’ll give examples to illustrate how service to your (hypothetical) friend Sam would become progressively more worthwhile, depending on which form of “Deeper Perception” you used.
Keep reading and you’ll find out why, imo, nothing else comes close to the degree of helpfulness and insight that flow from doing Skilled Empath Merge.
Now, let’s explore those basics. Although not as fun as the last part of my answer to you, EDWARD, if we skip over those basics it isn’t a shortcut. More like carrying a bucket home from the village well, only the particular bucket being used contains a great big hole.
Diminishing returns, my friends! While you deserve to have big returns.
About Service to Others
In theory, all good people like the idea of helping others. What is less often understood?
Good service to others must meet a need in the other person, be a form of service that is meaningful to the recipient.
“Service to Others” should not mean inflicting My Big Idea on other people who aren’t necessarily interested.
For example, just yesterday I was hanging out on Facebook. A stranger I’ll call “Gladys” intended to be of service to me. Gladys criticized something of a general nature that I had posted. Then, out of the blue, she gave me this unsolicited advice:
“There is no wisdom I can see in this. Read up on psychology and personal growth, a spiritual path and make the world a better place.”
To any of my 5,000 friends on Facebook, her advice might have set off quite a few LOLs.
How come? Gladys didn’t know that my life – and career -- are already devoted to this – except for her interest in pop psychology.
Effective service to others must include knowing something about that person one aims to “improve.” 😉
What follows from that? Whatever will allow us to understand other people better, really know and understand them… Of course that makes it possible for us to be of service, authentic service. Not just making a nice gesture, but something that could really help the other person.
About the Purpose of Your Life.
“Purpose” has got to be one of the sexiest ideas around, especially in certain religious communities. Just about everybody longs to know the purpose of my life.
Well, for those of us who were born as empath, it stands to reason that doing Skilled Empath Merge is built right in as something we’re capable of, something important. After all, only 1 in 20 people was born as an empath.
In my view, as the founder of Energy Spirituality®, doing Skilled Empath Merge is the spiritual purpose of being born as an empath.
To be clear, no empath is born knowing how to do Skilled Empath Merge. As the name suggests. This is a skill. Hence the name, SKILLED Empath Merge.
The only book I know of that does a quality job of teaching Skilled Empath Merge is The Master Empath.
As noted in the subtitle, what’s the point of learning this skill? Turning on Your Empath Gifts at Will -- In Love, Business and Friendship
Yes, it’s quietly extraordinary, the insights we can gain about people we love, folks we do business with, old friends and potential new friends.
Why can doing Skilled Empath Merge help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine?
Basically, there’s knowledge… and then there’s knowledge. So much “knowledge” might be closer to trivia, you know?
What a glut of information that bombards us all! Compounding the crazy-ridiculous parade of unhelpful info, guess what? Many of us on Goodreads are knowledge workers. Professionally we’re responsible for sorting through an impossible amount of knowledge, all of which may not be especially valuable.
HELP, PLEASE!
What can help us to declutter this mess? This may help.
All knowledge is not created equal. So discern what, to you, has High Truth Value. That’s different from what’s more common: assuming that any random idea we might pick up… is necessarily useful.
Ah, so much more clarity can be ours, thanks to discernment about truth value!
Incidentally, would any of you Goodreaders like to learn more about how to develop this kind of discernment? Could prove very useful for fulfilling the purpose of your life, and also for helping you to grow as a person.
Easy-peasy! To explore this idea, simply search on “Seek High Truth Value” – and be sure to include the quotes in your search. You’ll find various articles I published on this topic.
But Why Could Skilled Empath Merge help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine?
Edward and other Goodreaders, have you perhaps heard this saying? “Garbage in, garbage out.”
On the other hand, good quality information in – can help us to create output with good quality, even quality that is superb.
Folks, if you’re interested in learning about people, that’s my specialty. Not that I know everything. (You kidding?) But I do know some things.
Before we turn to examples of giving service to your (hypothetical friend Sam), there’s just one more chunk of essential info that you’ll need. So let me share with you my perspective on different forms of deeper perception.
Sure, there’s a ton of info that we can get from reading people. But how much of that has High Truth Value? Which types of info are accurate and useful, versus not so much?
Right Now!
Now Is A Great Time To Learn About Different Kinds Of Deeper Perception into People
That perspective comes from professional work that I’ve done since founding the field of Energy Spirituality®, including 11 trademarked systems and the books you’ll find here on Goodreads at my Author Page.
#1. EXPRESSION AND BODY LANGUAGE
It’s fun. It’s easy. Technically, though, it’s just the beginner’s kind of skill for gaining insight into people. Using the shallowest form of deeper perception! Even though it’s still amazing to learn.
Good quality insights from expression are consistently appreciated by my clients. For instance, sometimes I’ll coach them to develop discernment in noticing different kinds of fake smiles. (How can you learn more about this super-easy info? Knowledge that most people-watchers don’t have yet! Google on “Zesty Smile Contest.” (Be sure to include the quotes in that search term.)
Also, just for fun, here’s a different way to enrich your appreciation for Expression and Body Language. Google on “Real Smiles. A Bigger Blessing than You Knew” – and learn what the impact on your aura can be, when somebody gives you a genuine smile. (Be sure to include the quotes in that search term.)
Note: If you’re open to learning more than you know so far about body language, you might enjoy this how-to book: Read People Deeper.
#2. FACE READING FOR CHARACTER
The art of physiognomy, expertly reading faces for character, is as old as acupuncture. Important to know, reading faces has nothing to do with expression reading.
My contribution to this field is the system of Face Reading Secrets®. At the Rose Rosetree blog, you can find many sample face readings of public figures. Besides that, you can find some appreciative quotes from my 1,000+ media interviews, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Catholic Standard, USA Today, and “The View”
Goodreaders, what if you develop the power of face reading? I think you’ll make a startling discovery. Much higher truth value: That is, your perceptiveness and accuracy will be far, far greater than when exploring body language.
Note: You can learn this system easily through the how-to book The NEW Power of Face Reading.
#3. QUALITY AURA READING
To be clear, and meaning no disrespect, quality aura reading is different from psychic work. Specifically, today’s quality aura reading has a much higher truth value than old-fashioned skills like “Seeing the Colours” or “Doing a Chakra Reading.”
Many people love using these skills, and will never wish to learn anything new. But I’m here to tell you – still answering that fine question from Edward, and leading up to discussion of service, hello! The truth value of reading auras improves exponentially if you use a system that allows you to research “chakra databanks.”
And did you know this, Edward and other Goodreaders? Quality aura reading doesn’t require clairvoyance, either. The system I teach helps you to use the gift set that you have personally, and your gift set may not include much clairvoyance at all. (Mine doesn’t.)
What I can teach you is called Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
Note: If you use my most popular aura reading how-to -- Aura Reading Through All Your Senses, oh, so much fun awaits you. For starters, you’ll find over 100 practical applications of aura reading.
#4. SKILLED EMPATH MERGE
Last on our list, but definitely not least!
With Skilled Empath Merge, you experience in consciousness what it is like to be your “Discovery Person.” And you can learn to do this in person, from regular photos, or from stealth screenshots of your supervisor over Zoom, etc.
Skilled Empath Merge is mind-boggling. Then, mind-expanding! Because, think about this:
• You.
• Experience.
• Through your own personal consciousness.
• What it is like to be a completely different person. That “Discovery Person” you have chosen to learn about!
That’s a very big deal for your personal experience, although subtle.
Now let’s go for that set of examples I promised you. Examples of how you would do far better service to your (hypothetical) friend Sam, depending on which type of deeper perception you had available.
#1. Service When You Read Expression and Body Language
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
That he’s going through a rough time lately. Not much help for being of service to him, so you just listen to him as best you can, adding encouragement.
#2. Service When You Use Face Reading Secrets®.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
This system of reading faces is set up in an unusual way, given how face reading usually is done by other methods. My system is based on the premise that “God don’t make no junk.” For every item of face data, there’s a talent. There’s also a potential challenge.
This kind of knowledge can help you to find out some true-and-encouraging things about your friend Sam, helping you to ask better questions. Also, with a bit of face reading, you will likely appreciate him in specific ways that can bring a helpful perspective.
#3. Service When You Can Read Any Chakra Databanks of Your Choice.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
You wouldn’t research his aura while talking to him. More like, before visiting him you might find a photo or screenshot and do some research on some of the aura-level, permanent, gifts of his soul.
Later, while speaking with Sam, you might tell him about these encouraging gems from your aura reading research. High truth value brings high impact.
#4. Service When You Do Skilled Empath Merge.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
Right on the spot you can, with his permission, do a Skilled Empath Merge. Not in order to tell him anything about what you’ve found, but in order to get on his wavelength in a spiritually beautiful way. Within one or two minutes, you'll experience so much about what it is like to be him.
This can take your conversation to a level of much greater appreciation for him, with your support and service receiving an automatic upgrade.
As you Goodreaders know, if you’ve ever had a personal session with me, almost always I facilitate a Skilled Empath Merge with you early on. This makes it possible for me to make clearer contact with you, allowing me to be of much greater service than otherwise.
You can upgrade your service, and knowledge, as well… Simply using a bit of your day’s “20 Minutes of Technique Time” in order to gain that deep kind of insight into your Sam’s “Who You Be.”
#5. How about Service If You Haven’t Learned Any Form of Deeper Perception?
Hey, I’m going to add this category too. Since most people pride themselves on being very perceptive. Even when that claim is pretty questionable, because they’ve never been interested in learning effective skills to read people deeper. So they do have talent, only they lack much skill, compared to how much better they would do if they strengthened their talent by learning good skills for perceptiveness.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
Only what he tells you in words. Or what you might interpret – with whatever degree of accuracy – from your favorite ways of reading people.
Hey, it’s a good thing to be there for a friend. But still, apart from enhancing your own personal growth, you really might wish to learn more about deeper perception, just to improve how you can be of service to other people you care about.
In Conclusion
Thanks for asking, Edward. Thanks for reading, everyone.
Goodreads is such an excellent place for exploring ideas. I appreciate your curiosity and all your “Ask the Author” questions here.
Happy reading!
I’ll give examples to illustrate how service to your (hypothetical) friend Sam would become progressively more worthwhile, depending on which form of “Deeper Perception” you used.
Keep reading and you’ll find out why, imo, nothing else comes close to the degree of helpfulness and insight that flow from doing Skilled Empath Merge.
Now, let’s explore those basics. Although not as fun as the last part of my answer to you, EDWARD, if we skip over those basics it isn’t a shortcut. More like carrying a bucket home from the village well, only the particular bucket being used contains a great big hole.
Diminishing returns, my friends! While you deserve to have big returns.
About Service to Others
In theory, all good people like the idea of helping others. What is less often understood?
Good service to others must meet a need in the other person, be a form of service that is meaningful to the recipient.
“Service to Others” should not mean inflicting My Big Idea on other people who aren’t necessarily interested.
For example, just yesterday I was hanging out on Facebook. A stranger I’ll call “Gladys” intended to be of service to me. Gladys criticized something of a general nature that I had posted. Then, out of the blue, she gave me this unsolicited advice:
“There is no wisdom I can see in this. Read up on psychology and personal growth, a spiritual path and make the world a better place.”
To any of my 5,000 friends on Facebook, her advice might have set off quite a few LOLs.
How come? Gladys didn’t know that my life – and career -- are already devoted to this – except for her interest in pop psychology.
Effective service to others must include knowing something about that person one aims to “improve.” 😉
What follows from that? Whatever will allow us to understand other people better, really know and understand them… Of course that makes it possible for us to be of service, authentic service. Not just making a nice gesture, but something that could really help the other person.
About the Purpose of Your Life.
“Purpose” has got to be one of the sexiest ideas around, especially in certain religious communities. Just about everybody longs to know the purpose of my life.
Well, for those of us who were born as empath, it stands to reason that doing Skilled Empath Merge is built right in as something we’re capable of, something important. After all, only 1 in 20 people was born as an empath.
In my view, as the founder of Energy Spirituality®, doing Skilled Empath Merge is the spiritual purpose of being born as an empath.
To be clear, no empath is born knowing how to do Skilled Empath Merge. As the name suggests. This is a skill. Hence the name, SKILLED Empath Merge.
The only book I know of that does a quality job of teaching Skilled Empath Merge is The Master Empath.
As noted in the subtitle, what’s the point of learning this skill? Turning on Your Empath Gifts at Will -- In Love, Business and Friendship
Yes, it’s quietly extraordinary, the insights we can gain about people we love, folks we do business with, old friends and potential new friends.
Why can doing Skilled Empath Merge help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine?
Basically, there’s knowledge… and then there’s knowledge. So much “knowledge” might be closer to trivia, you know?
What a glut of information that bombards us all! Compounding the crazy-ridiculous parade of unhelpful info, guess what? Many of us on Goodreads are knowledge workers. Professionally we’re responsible for sorting through an impossible amount of knowledge, all of which may not be especially valuable.
HELP, PLEASE!
What can help us to declutter this mess? This may help.
All knowledge is not created equal. So discern what, to you, has High Truth Value. That’s different from what’s more common: assuming that any random idea we might pick up… is necessarily useful.
Ah, so much more clarity can be ours, thanks to discernment about truth value!
Incidentally, would any of you Goodreaders like to learn more about how to develop this kind of discernment? Could prove very useful for fulfilling the purpose of your life, and also for helping you to grow as a person.
Easy-peasy! To explore this idea, simply search on “Seek High Truth Value” – and be sure to include the quotes in your search. You’ll find various articles I published on this topic.
But Why Could Skilled Empath Merge help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine?
Edward and other Goodreaders, have you perhaps heard this saying? “Garbage in, garbage out.”
On the other hand, good quality information in – can help us to create output with good quality, even quality that is superb.
Folks, if you’re interested in learning about people, that’s my specialty. Not that I know everything. (You kidding?) But I do know some things.
Before we turn to examples of giving service to your (hypothetical friend Sam), there’s just one more chunk of essential info that you’ll need. So let me share with you my perspective on different forms of deeper perception.
Sure, there’s a ton of info that we can get from reading people. But how much of that has High Truth Value? Which types of info are accurate and useful, versus not so much?
Right Now!
Now Is A Great Time To Learn About Different Kinds Of Deeper Perception into People
That perspective comes from professional work that I’ve done since founding the field of Energy Spirituality®, including 11 trademarked systems and the books you’ll find here on Goodreads at my Author Page.
#1. EXPRESSION AND BODY LANGUAGE
It’s fun. It’s easy. Technically, though, it’s just the beginner’s kind of skill for gaining insight into people. Using the shallowest form of deeper perception! Even though it’s still amazing to learn.
Good quality insights from expression are consistently appreciated by my clients. For instance, sometimes I’ll coach them to develop discernment in noticing different kinds of fake smiles. (How can you learn more about this super-easy info? Knowledge that most people-watchers don’t have yet! Google on “Zesty Smile Contest.” (Be sure to include the quotes in that search term.)
Also, just for fun, here’s a different way to enrich your appreciation for Expression and Body Language. Google on “Real Smiles. A Bigger Blessing than You Knew” – and learn what the impact on your aura can be, when somebody gives you a genuine smile. (Be sure to include the quotes in that search term.)
Note: If you’re open to learning more than you know so far about body language, you might enjoy this how-to book: Read People Deeper.
#2. FACE READING FOR CHARACTER
The art of physiognomy, expertly reading faces for character, is as old as acupuncture. Important to know, reading faces has nothing to do with expression reading.
My contribution to this field is the system of Face Reading Secrets®. At the Rose Rosetree blog, you can find many sample face readings of public figures. Besides that, you can find some appreciative quotes from my 1,000+ media interviews, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Catholic Standard, USA Today, and “The View”
Goodreaders, what if you develop the power of face reading? I think you’ll make a startling discovery. Much higher truth value: That is, your perceptiveness and accuracy will be far, far greater than when exploring body language.
Note: You can learn this system easily through the how-to book The NEW Power of Face Reading.
#3. QUALITY AURA READING
To be clear, and meaning no disrespect, quality aura reading is different from psychic work. Specifically, today’s quality aura reading has a much higher truth value than old-fashioned skills like “Seeing the Colours” or “Doing a Chakra Reading.”
Many people love using these skills, and will never wish to learn anything new. But I’m here to tell you – still answering that fine question from Edward, and leading up to discussion of service, hello! The truth value of reading auras improves exponentially if you use a system that allows you to research “chakra databanks.”
And did you know this, Edward and other Goodreaders? Quality aura reading doesn’t require clairvoyance, either. The system I teach helps you to use the gift set that you have personally, and your gift set may not include much clairvoyance at all. (Mine doesn’t.)
What I can teach you is called Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
Note: If you use my most popular aura reading how-to -- Aura Reading Through All Your Senses, oh, so much fun awaits you. For starters, you’ll find over 100 practical applications of aura reading.
#4. SKILLED EMPATH MERGE
Last on our list, but definitely not least!
With Skilled Empath Merge, you experience in consciousness what it is like to be your “Discovery Person.” And you can learn to do this in person, from regular photos, or from stealth screenshots of your supervisor over Zoom, etc.
Skilled Empath Merge is mind-boggling. Then, mind-expanding! Because, think about this:
• You.
• Experience.
• Through your own personal consciousness.
• What it is like to be a completely different person. That “Discovery Person” you have chosen to learn about!
That’s a very big deal for your personal experience, although subtle.
Now let’s go for that set of examples I promised you. Examples of how you would do far better service to your (hypothetical) friend Sam, depending on which type of deeper perception you had available.
#1. Service When You Read Expression and Body Language
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
That he’s going through a rough time lately. Not much help for being of service to him, so you just listen to him as best you can, adding encouragement.
#2. Service When You Use Face Reading Secrets®.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
This system of reading faces is set up in an unusual way, given how face reading usually is done by other methods. My system is based on the premise that “God don’t make no junk.” For every item of face data, there’s a talent. There’s also a potential challenge.
This kind of knowledge can help you to find out some true-and-encouraging things about your friend Sam, helping you to ask better questions. Also, with a bit of face reading, you will likely appreciate him in specific ways that can bring a helpful perspective.
#3. Service When You Can Read Any Chakra Databanks of Your Choice.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
You wouldn’t research his aura while talking to him. More like, before visiting him you might find a photo or screenshot and do some research on some of the aura-level, permanent, gifts of his soul.
Later, while speaking with Sam, you might tell him about these encouraging gems from your aura reading research. High truth value brings high impact.
#4. Service When You Do Skilled Empath Merge.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
Right on the spot you can, with his permission, do a Skilled Empath Merge. Not in order to tell him anything about what you’ve found, but in order to get on his wavelength in a spiritually beautiful way. Within one or two minutes, you'll experience so much about what it is like to be him.
This can take your conversation to a level of much greater appreciation for him, with your support and service receiving an automatic upgrade.
As you Goodreaders know, if you’ve ever had a personal session with me, almost always I facilitate a Skilled Empath Merge with you early on. This makes it possible for me to make clearer contact with you, allowing me to be of much greater service than otherwise.
You can upgrade your service, and knowledge, as well… Simply using a bit of your day’s “20 Minutes of Technique Time” in order to gain that deep kind of insight into your Sam’s “Who You Be.”
#5. How about Service If You Haven’t Learned Any Form of Deeper Perception?
Hey, I’m going to add this category too. Since most people pride themselves on being very perceptive. Even when that claim is pretty questionable, because they’ve never been interested in learning effective skills to read people deeper. So they do have talent, only they lack much skill, compared to how much better they would do if they strengthened their talent by learning good skills for perceptiveness.
Talking with your friend Sam, who has been going through a rough time lately, what can you tell?
Only what he tells you in words. Or what you might interpret – with whatever degree of accuracy – from your favorite ways of reading people.
Hey, it’s a good thing to be there for a friend. But still, apart from enhancing your own personal growth, you really might wish to learn more about deeper perception, just to improve how you can be of service to other people you care about.
In Conclusion
Thanks for asking, Edward. Thanks for reading, everyone.
Goodreads is such an excellent place for exploring ideas. I appreciate your curiosity and all your “Ask the Author” questions here.
Happy reading!
Rose Rosetree
Valerie, today’s a big day for me on Goodreads. It’s the first time anybody has asked this author any FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS. Yippee! Now let’s have at it.
1 What IS any kind of empath merge, let alone an unskilled empath merge?
Thank you so much for asking about empath merges. They come in two varieties, and each kind means something quite different. Responding to this first question, Valerie….
• First let’s go into the meaning of unskilled empath merge (which I don’t capitalize)
• Following that, we can compare that with Skilled Empath Merge (which I do capitalize – and soon you’ll see why).
Unskilled empath merge IS A PROBLEM
Yet most people, even empath experts who publish books intended to help empaths, oops! They don’t have a clue about unskilled empath merge. Seriously.
Why not? Here’s a straight answer.
Unskilled empath merge doesn’t show physically. Nor do our expressions reveal when it happens. Then how can we tell?
A prerequisite is that the empath teacher must develop good skills of aura reading, such as learning how to research chakra databanks.
That means “Stage 3 Energetic Literacy,” at a minimum. Adult humans have 50 chakra databanks within every single one of our chakras. And yes, if you have normal mental health – basically, you’re doing okay – then you can develop this kind of energetic literacy. I can teach you. However, that’s separate from learning Empath Empowerment®. More like, that kind of skill involves learning the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
Long story short, unskilled empath merge is a problem that happens at chakra databank level. Every born empath does a ton of unskilled empath merges. This keeps on happening until that empath actively learns effective skills for prevention.
As for this Empath Coach, yes. Good skills of energetic literacy help me to discern what goes on during unskilled empath merge. Also, I can use energetic literacy skills to check if the solutions that I teach... actually work to help my students!
Of course, this kind of knowledge is one of the distinctive reasons why the system of Empath Empowerment® is an effective way to help empaths.
Skilled Empath Merge Is a Huge Blessing, Bringing Empaths a Great Advantage in Life
Let’s be clear. There’s more to Empath Empowerment® than knowing how to do Skilled Empath Merge. In fact, that’s optional. You can become a Skilled Empath without choosing to learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge. (Just keep reading my Ask the Author Answers here.)
However, doing Skilled Empath Merges can give any empath a big advantage in life. Just so you know, as a Skilled Empath you can learn these cool skills from Book 4 of my series of Empath Empowerment Books: The Master Empath
Hey, all this can lead to more Ask the Author questions in the future, Valerie and other Goodreaders. Inquire away!
For now, I’ll just note that – far as I know -- out of the 9,000 books for empaths now sold at Amazon.com, I am the only author whose how-to books explain how to prevent unskilled empath merge… and also how to do Skilled Empath Merge. (Likewise, if you google “Skilled Empath Merge” you won’t find too much from empath teachers, apart from yours truly.)
Of course, this being Goodreads, it’s possible that some of you fellow Goodreaders have encountered books for empaths that do include this kind of knowledge.
I have reasons for not expecting other empath authors to have expertise about any of this. But if I’m wrong, and any of you know a book that does explain these essential skills for empaths, wow!
By all means, comment below and give us the name of the book. Maybe, too, supply the page numbers where these topics are addressed. Here’s to supplementing the wealth of educational info for all of us readers here on Goodreads!
2, Why does DOING unskilled empath merge create so many problems?
Okay, here’s a summary. (Just so you know, you can find a far more thorough explanation, complete with illustrations. Just turn to Book 1 in my series of Empath Empowerment Books, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days.)
Meanwhile, Valerie and other Goodreaders, I’ll give you an overview. Here are the main points, practical points.
#1. Nobody actively does unskilled empath merge. Instead, this happens subconsciously and energetically.
#2. Without meaning to, an unskilled empath will do unskilled empath merges with random people. Often, we do this off and on, all our waking hours.
#3. Unlike Skilled Empath Merges, the unskilled variety is uninformative. Consciously, we learn nothing of value.
#4. Subconsciously and energetically, the unskilled empath receives consequences every time. And what is the consequence of doing an unskilled empath merge? A particular kind of astral garbage, what I call Imported STUFF, gets into the empath’s aura.
#5. Imported STUFF can be removed. (In that Book 1, I give step-by-step instructions for doing this.)
#6. More important, Imported STUFF can be prevented. (That same book offers an effortless, comfortable way to do this.) In the process of learning how, an empath gains a stronger sense of self. Very important!
#7. Meanwhile, have you noticed this, Goodreaders? Wherever you find books or forums or videos for empaths, a great deal of attention is paid to the problems of empaths. Depending on the author, there may be psychological strategies or ideas from psychic development, etc. Yet here’s the irony: Most commonly, the problems of empaths come from Imported STUFF.
SUMMING UP
From what I’ve seen from other empath experts, they offer workarounds for the problems that come from Imported STUFF. By contrast, the system of Empath Empowerment® offers solutions.
3. And how can we PREVENT those problems? Although the default for every born empath is to do unskilled empath merge, there has to be a skill we can learn?
Exactly right, VALERIE. It takes a little time to learn these most essential skills of Empath Empowerment®, but not a great deal of time. How are these skills taught in Empath Empowerment in 30 Days?
You read one short chapter a day. Then you follow up with a homework assignment for that day. Altogether, we’re talking 10 minutes a day, total, for a month – any month longer than February. 😉
More specifically about what you are learning with this skill… It’s challenging to summarize this, but I’ll do my best. Might I suggest that you slow down your reading for this part? Don’t squint or concentrate, but simply slow down a little in your reading speed. Since this next idea is not yet common in mainstream thinking.
What’s involved in learning Empath Empowerment®? You discover how to make a subtle shift to how you use your consciousness, developing the habit of living with this slightly easier way of using your consciousness.
Imagine this! Living with thedefault of ALL MY EMPATH GIFTS TURNED OFF. Meaning, you get in the habit of not turning on your empath gifts. (Every born empath has at least one lifelong empath gift; most of us have more than one.)
With this simple default, your consciousness flows in such a way that you’re simply yourself, having your experiences as a human being. So much more comfortable!
You see, we empaths are usually born with our empath gifts turned ON. But this gentle, easy shift that you can learn how to do? It becomes a habit. Totally effortless, natural, automatic.
Incidentally
What if you ever decide to learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge? That’s when you turn your empath gifts ON. Purposely. Informatively. Life-changingly!
Of course I can teach you all that. To be clear, most empaths find that they learn all you need by reading just the first book in the series, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days. Though, if you wish to learn more, of course I can teach you that, too.
Where’s the proof that Empath Empowerment® works? Hey, that might make a fine follow-up, follow-up question.
Thanks for what you asked here today, Valerie. Inquiring minds here on Goodreads, and especially those of us who suspect we might be among the 1 in 20 people born as an empath – we want to know.
1 What IS any kind of empath merge, let alone an unskilled empath merge?
Thank you so much for asking about empath merges. They come in two varieties, and each kind means something quite different. Responding to this first question, Valerie….
• First let’s go into the meaning of unskilled empath merge (which I don’t capitalize)
• Following that, we can compare that with Skilled Empath Merge (which I do capitalize – and soon you’ll see why).
Unskilled empath merge IS A PROBLEM
Yet most people, even empath experts who publish books intended to help empaths, oops! They don’t have a clue about unskilled empath merge. Seriously.
Why not? Here’s a straight answer.
Unskilled empath merge doesn’t show physically. Nor do our expressions reveal when it happens. Then how can we tell?
A prerequisite is that the empath teacher must develop good skills of aura reading, such as learning how to research chakra databanks.
That means “Stage 3 Energetic Literacy,” at a minimum. Adult humans have 50 chakra databanks within every single one of our chakras. And yes, if you have normal mental health – basically, you’re doing okay – then you can develop this kind of energetic literacy. I can teach you. However, that’s separate from learning Empath Empowerment®. More like, that kind of skill involves learning the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
Long story short, unskilled empath merge is a problem that happens at chakra databank level. Every born empath does a ton of unskilled empath merges. This keeps on happening until that empath actively learns effective skills for prevention.
As for this Empath Coach, yes. Good skills of energetic literacy help me to discern what goes on during unskilled empath merge. Also, I can use energetic literacy skills to check if the solutions that I teach... actually work to help my students!
Of course, this kind of knowledge is one of the distinctive reasons why the system of Empath Empowerment® is an effective way to help empaths.
Skilled Empath Merge Is a Huge Blessing, Bringing Empaths a Great Advantage in Life
Let’s be clear. There’s more to Empath Empowerment® than knowing how to do Skilled Empath Merge. In fact, that’s optional. You can become a Skilled Empath without choosing to learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge. (Just keep reading my Ask the Author Answers here.)
However, doing Skilled Empath Merges can give any empath a big advantage in life. Just so you know, as a Skilled Empath you can learn these cool skills from Book 4 of my series of Empath Empowerment Books: The Master Empath
Hey, all this can lead to more Ask the Author questions in the future, Valerie and other Goodreaders. Inquire away!
For now, I’ll just note that – far as I know -- out of the 9,000 books for empaths now sold at Amazon.com, I am the only author whose how-to books explain how to prevent unskilled empath merge… and also how to do Skilled Empath Merge. (Likewise, if you google “Skilled Empath Merge” you won’t find too much from empath teachers, apart from yours truly.)
Of course, this being Goodreads, it’s possible that some of you fellow Goodreaders have encountered books for empaths that do include this kind of knowledge.
I have reasons for not expecting other empath authors to have expertise about any of this. But if I’m wrong, and any of you know a book that does explain these essential skills for empaths, wow!
By all means, comment below and give us the name of the book. Maybe, too, supply the page numbers where these topics are addressed. Here’s to supplementing the wealth of educational info for all of us readers here on Goodreads!
2, Why does DOING unskilled empath merge create so many problems?
Okay, here’s a summary. (Just so you know, you can find a far more thorough explanation, complete with illustrations. Just turn to Book 1 in my series of Empath Empowerment Books, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days.)
Meanwhile, Valerie and other Goodreaders, I’ll give you an overview. Here are the main points, practical points.
#1. Nobody actively does unskilled empath merge. Instead, this happens subconsciously and energetically.
#2. Without meaning to, an unskilled empath will do unskilled empath merges with random people. Often, we do this off and on, all our waking hours.
#3. Unlike Skilled Empath Merges, the unskilled variety is uninformative. Consciously, we learn nothing of value.
#4. Subconsciously and energetically, the unskilled empath receives consequences every time. And what is the consequence of doing an unskilled empath merge? A particular kind of astral garbage, what I call Imported STUFF, gets into the empath’s aura.
#5. Imported STUFF can be removed. (In that Book 1, I give step-by-step instructions for doing this.)
#6. More important, Imported STUFF can be prevented. (That same book offers an effortless, comfortable way to do this.) In the process of learning how, an empath gains a stronger sense of self. Very important!
#7. Meanwhile, have you noticed this, Goodreaders? Wherever you find books or forums or videos for empaths, a great deal of attention is paid to the problems of empaths. Depending on the author, there may be psychological strategies or ideas from psychic development, etc. Yet here’s the irony: Most commonly, the problems of empaths come from Imported STUFF.
SUMMING UP
From what I’ve seen from other empath experts, they offer workarounds for the problems that come from Imported STUFF. By contrast, the system of Empath Empowerment® offers solutions.
3. And how can we PREVENT those problems? Although the default for every born empath is to do unskilled empath merge, there has to be a skill we can learn?
Exactly right, VALERIE. It takes a little time to learn these most essential skills of Empath Empowerment®, but not a great deal of time. How are these skills taught in Empath Empowerment in 30 Days?
You read one short chapter a day. Then you follow up with a homework assignment for that day. Altogether, we’re talking 10 minutes a day, total, for a month – any month longer than February. 😉
More specifically about what you are learning with this skill… It’s challenging to summarize this, but I’ll do my best. Might I suggest that you slow down your reading for this part? Don’t squint or concentrate, but simply slow down a little in your reading speed. Since this next idea is not yet common in mainstream thinking.
What’s involved in learning Empath Empowerment®? You discover how to make a subtle shift to how you use your consciousness, developing the habit of living with this slightly easier way of using your consciousness.
Imagine this! Living with thedefault of ALL MY EMPATH GIFTS TURNED OFF. Meaning, you get in the habit of not turning on your empath gifts. (Every born empath has at least one lifelong empath gift; most of us have more than one.)
With this simple default, your consciousness flows in such a way that you’re simply yourself, having your experiences as a human being. So much more comfortable!
You see, we empaths are usually born with our empath gifts turned ON. But this gentle, easy shift that you can learn how to do? It becomes a habit. Totally effortless, natural, automatic.
Incidentally
What if you ever decide to learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge? That’s when you turn your empath gifts ON. Purposely. Informatively. Life-changingly!
Of course I can teach you all that. To be clear, most empaths find that they learn all you need by reading just the first book in the series, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days. Though, if you wish to learn more, of course I can teach you that, too.
Where’s the proof that Empath Empowerment® works? Hey, that might make a fine follow-up, follow-up question.
Thanks for what you asked here today, Valerie. Inquiring minds here on Goodreads, and especially those of us who suspect we might be among the 1 in 20 people born as an empath – we want to know.
Rose Rosetree
Valerie, I’m just delighted to hear from you, especially it’s good to learn that the system of Empath Empowerment® has been incredibly useful for you.
Results for readers: That’s the point of every how-to book, isn’t it?
Fact is, I’ve written many books. And I’ve rewritten many of these books, but no other book from me yet... has been rewritten so many times as this one.
* First published in 2001, “Empowered by Empathy” was the first book for empaths in English.
* After I lived with that knowledge, and taught it in live workshops on three continents, I rewrote it significantly as “Become the Most Important Person in the Room.” That was in 2009.
* Again, I kept on growing as a teacher. Both personal experience, and teaching skills, grew within me. For that reason, I did one more major rewrite. This resulted in the book you’re asking about, “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days” – published in 2018.
THINK LANDLINE, FLIP PHONE, SMART PHONE
Quite a gap of years between each rewrite! Let me give you Goodreaders an analogy about all the refinement of knowledge contained in that book you asked about, Valerie.
Think with me for a moment, think about the amazing advances in phone technology that you and I have lived through.
What if each of my empath books had been like a telephone?
* I was offering the LANDLINE version in 2001.
* That book version became like a FLIP PHONE in 2009.
.* Weird but true, Valerie, you’ve been reading the equivalent of a SMARTPHONE version, published as “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days” in 2018.
By now, Amazon.com in America sells over 8,000 books for empaths, but they all began with this landline-flip phone-smartphone of a how-to.
And you’re right that it is unusual for any book for empaths to go into the topic of unskilled empath merge. Come to think of it:
1, What IS any kind of empath merge, let alone an unskilled empath merge?
2, Why does DOING unskilled empath merge create so many problems?
3, And how can we PREVENT those problems? Although the default for every born empath is to do unskilled empath merge, there has to be a skill we can learn, so as to stop doing it.
The unique power of “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days”—like the unique system of Empath Empowerment®, depends upon answering these three questions.
Valerie, here you have asked two altogether different questions. It would be lovely if you – or another Goodreader – would ask the foundational three questions I’ve just posed.
Meanwhile, you asked those two altogether different questions, so I’ll do what I can to answer them here. But I’m going to restate that first question a bit differently, just so that I can do a better job of answering it.
QUESTION 1. How did you discover unskilled empath merge?
Fact is, Valerie, even with all the how-to books for empaths that others have published since I founded the field, guess what? Far as I know, no other empath coach – that is, no writer of how-to books for empaths – has written answers to those above-mentioned 1-2-3 questions about unskilled empath merge.
Weird, isn’t it? Since unskilled empath merge is the central cause of the difficulties that create suffering for empaths.
Furthermore, for context, let’s acknowledge this. How 1 in 20 people alive now... each of us was born as an empath. Statistically, then, unskilled empath merge counts as a pretty important problem to solve.
Another way to put your first question might be helpful at this point, so here goes.
TWEAKED QUESTION 1. How did I become the first person to discover unskilled empath merge?
Yes, I’m going to answer that variant of your original question. (Hope you don’t mind, Valerie.)
* How did I become that first person?
* How did I become the only person so far (to my knowledge) who doesn’t only write books for empaths but offers systematic instruction in solving the problem of unskilled empath merge?
PICTURE THIS
The year is 1971. The place is Mallorca -- an island in Spain. There I am, in a hotel room that’s maybe two steps up from a Motel 6. Only it’s in Spain, for heaven’s sake, where the air smells of oranges and the rich, fragrant soil. So who cares about having a very basic hotel room?
Look, I feel incredibly fortunate to be living there for two months. You see, Goodreaders, I am studying with His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I’m studying in order to complete my Teacher Training Course, so that I can become one of Maharishi’s initiators and teach Transcendental Meditation (TM).
What is my daily schedule? Every evening, our group meets in a large lecture hall, where Maharishi dazzles us, instructing us in how to become this kind of spiritual teacher.
Three meals a day, we’re seated in the hotel restaurant, eating at a large round table covered in a heavy white tablecloth.
What matters most, though, happens in hotel rooms like mine. Maharishi has asked us to do “unlimited rounding.” What does that mean?
When we’re not taking our meals or asking Maharishi questions during those evening lectures, our job involves meditation. (Rounding means alternating meditation with brief supplements, in the form of yoga asanas and breathing exercises.)
We’re supposed to do “unlimited rounding” for as many hours as possible. On this particular day, I manage to do 15 hours. That becomes my personal record.
Most days I can’t manage to meditate for that long. Sometimes I'll crash into blackout sleep… as if I drank so much whiskey that I’ve passed out.
Or sometimes, my meditation sequence is interrupted because I’ve released so much “stress” (Maharishi’s term of art in TM) from all that meditation. For long stretches of time, all that I can do is cry, and cry hard.
Doing all that meditation can take a lot out of a person, but who counts the cost? Because this rounding is teaching me about consciousness, the spiritual awareness within each of us.
As a TM teacher, I will need to become very familiar with the fine fabric of consciousness within myself… and also, to some extent, what’s happening to the consciousness within my students.
Later, that In-Depth Exploration of Consciousness Helps Me to Teach Empaths, Too
In fact, the entire system of Empath Empowerment® has been designed because of what I’ve learned, and continue to learn, about the consciousness aspect of being an empath.
Granted, this kind of understanding was fairly unusual, back in the 1970s. Or 1980s. Or 1990s. All of which I spent with my main passion in life being what? Either I was personally meditating or else I was teaching others how to meditate.
Due to this kind of experience, plus skills that I learned in 1985 for how to cocreate with the Divine (btw, all this could count as answers to some different questions you might ask me here in the future, Goodreaders) I was able to learn about – you guessed it – what happens to the consciousness of empaths.
HERE’S A SECRET ABOUT EMPATHS THAT FEW PEOPLE KNOW
Being an empath involves consciousness. Both what it means to be an empath in the first place. And also what happens with unskilled empath merge. Plus, also how to become a Skilled Empath.
Due to all that specialized exploration of consciousness, I was able to cocreate the system of Empath Empowerment® and write the four books that I now make available in my series for empaths.
Besides Book 1 “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days,” you can read these:
* “The Empowered Empath: Quick and Easy.” That’s Book 2 of the series.
* “The Empowered Empath: Owning, Embracing and Managing Your Special Gifts.” That’s Book 3.
* “The Master Empath.” That’s Book 4.
QUESTION 2. What do you wish every empath could understand about unskilled empath merge?
This question has a very practical answer. Even if you don’t know much at all (yet) about unskilled empath merge, please know this.
Unskilled empaths suffer. Some of us suffer more than others.
So Important to Know
All of us unskilled empaths suffer, even if we know nothing yet about Empath Empowerment®. Hey, we might not even know that we’re empaths.
Still, we suffer. Subconsciously and energetically, we’re constantly taking on pain, confusions, and worries from other people.
Annoyingly, as you can find out if you develop Empath Empowerment, you’re not even helping those other people. Grrrrr, right?
Doing unskilled empath merge serves no practical purpose, but here’s the thing. What starts off within us as an annoying thing that all empaths do, without meaning to…
Doing this unskilled thing… uses (or misuses) the very same capacities within us as empaths... that we can learn how to use on purpose. What do I mean, learn to use those capacities on purpose? That is called doing Skilled Empath Merge.
Those Skilled Empath Merges can become a wonderful source of knowledge for us. Especially beautiful if, in any way, that empath cares about service to others.
Any kind of service that you do for others! Like you, Valerie, and how your day job involves helping a group of blue collar workers who don’t ordinarily receive a lot of respect from society.
1. If you care about helping others, bringing more social justice into this world.
2. If you care about helping others as an artist or a musician or even a writer.
3. If you care about helping others, simply because you love God. And so you feel a passion deep within you, that you must put that caring into action.
For reasons like these, not only CAN you learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge. But, once you've learned, how much better you will do that job that means so much to you!
Differently Put, If Better Service to Others Can Help You to Fulfill the Purpose of Your Life
And if you were born an empath…
Learning Skilled Empath Merge can help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine.
One of the sayings I teach in Energy Spirituality® workshops goes like this:
For every good thing in your life, you must pay the price.
Suffering through through unskilled empath merge is the price that every born empath pays. Like a downpayment, Valerie, on how much you can learn, how much you can give, and all that you can receive… once you start living as a Skilled Empath.
Thanks again for asking these questions. Thanks for asking them here at “Ask the Author” on Goodreads.
Results for readers: That’s the point of every how-to book, isn’t it?
Fact is, I’ve written many books. And I’ve rewritten many of these books, but no other book from me yet... has been rewritten so many times as this one.
* First published in 2001, “Empowered by Empathy” was the first book for empaths in English.
* After I lived with that knowledge, and taught it in live workshops on three continents, I rewrote it significantly as “Become the Most Important Person in the Room.” That was in 2009.
* Again, I kept on growing as a teacher. Both personal experience, and teaching skills, grew within me. For that reason, I did one more major rewrite. This resulted in the book you’re asking about, “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days” – published in 2018.
THINK LANDLINE, FLIP PHONE, SMART PHONE
Quite a gap of years between each rewrite! Let me give you Goodreaders an analogy about all the refinement of knowledge contained in that book you asked about, Valerie.
Think with me for a moment, think about the amazing advances in phone technology that you and I have lived through.
What if each of my empath books had been like a telephone?
* I was offering the LANDLINE version in 2001.
* That book version became like a FLIP PHONE in 2009.
.* Weird but true, Valerie, you’ve been reading the equivalent of a SMARTPHONE version, published as “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days” in 2018.
By now, Amazon.com in America sells over 8,000 books for empaths, but they all began with this landline-flip phone-smartphone of a how-to.
And you’re right that it is unusual for any book for empaths to go into the topic of unskilled empath merge. Come to think of it:
1, What IS any kind of empath merge, let alone an unskilled empath merge?
2, Why does DOING unskilled empath merge create so many problems?
3, And how can we PREVENT those problems? Although the default for every born empath is to do unskilled empath merge, there has to be a skill we can learn, so as to stop doing it.
The unique power of “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days”—like the unique system of Empath Empowerment®, depends upon answering these three questions.
Valerie, here you have asked two altogether different questions. It would be lovely if you – or another Goodreader – would ask the foundational three questions I’ve just posed.
Meanwhile, you asked those two altogether different questions, so I’ll do what I can to answer them here. But I’m going to restate that first question a bit differently, just so that I can do a better job of answering it.
QUESTION 1. How did you discover unskilled empath merge?
Fact is, Valerie, even with all the how-to books for empaths that others have published since I founded the field, guess what? Far as I know, no other empath coach – that is, no writer of how-to books for empaths – has written answers to those above-mentioned 1-2-3 questions about unskilled empath merge.
Weird, isn’t it? Since unskilled empath merge is the central cause of the difficulties that create suffering for empaths.
Furthermore, for context, let’s acknowledge this. How 1 in 20 people alive now... each of us was born as an empath. Statistically, then, unskilled empath merge counts as a pretty important problem to solve.
Another way to put your first question might be helpful at this point, so here goes.
TWEAKED QUESTION 1. How did I become the first person to discover unskilled empath merge?
Yes, I’m going to answer that variant of your original question. (Hope you don’t mind, Valerie.)
* How did I become that first person?
* How did I become the only person so far (to my knowledge) who doesn’t only write books for empaths but offers systematic instruction in solving the problem of unskilled empath merge?
PICTURE THIS
The year is 1971. The place is Mallorca -- an island in Spain. There I am, in a hotel room that’s maybe two steps up from a Motel 6. Only it’s in Spain, for heaven’s sake, where the air smells of oranges and the rich, fragrant soil. So who cares about having a very basic hotel room?
Look, I feel incredibly fortunate to be living there for two months. You see, Goodreaders, I am studying with His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I’m studying in order to complete my Teacher Training Course, so that I can become one of Maharishi’s initiators and teach Transcendental Meditation (TM).
What is my daily schedule? Every evening, our group meets in a large lecture hall, where Maharishi dazzles us, instructing us in how to become this kind of spiritual teacher.
Three meals a day, we’re seated in the hotel restaurant, eating at a large round table covered in a heavy white tablecloth.
What matters most, though, happens in hotel rooms like mine. Maharishi has asked us to do “unlimited rounding.” What does that mean?
When we’re not taking our meals or asking Maharishi questions during those evening lectures, our job involves meditation. (Rounding means alternating meditation with brief supplements, in the form of yoga asanas and breathing exercises.)
We’re supposed to do “unlimited rounding” for as many hours as possible. On this particular day, I manage to do 15 hours. That becomes my personal record.
Most days I can’t manage to meditate for that long. Sometimes I'll crash into blackout sleep… as if I drank so much whiskey that I’ve passed out.
Or sometimes, my meditation sequence is interrupted because I’ve released so much “stress” (Maharishi’s term of art in TM) from all that meditation. For long stretches of time, all that I can do is cry, and cry hard.
Doing all that meditation can take a lot out of a person, but who counts the cost? Because this rounding is teaching me about consciousness, the spiritual awareness within each of us.
As a TM teacher, I will need to become very familiar with the fine fabric of consciousness within myself… and also, to some extent, what’s happening to the consciousness within my students.
Later, that In-Depth Exploration of Consciousness Helps Me to Teach Empaths, Too
In fact, the entire system of Empath Empowerment® has been designed because of what I’ve learned, and continue to learn, about the consciousness aspect of being an empath.
Granted, this kind of understanding was fairly unusual, back in the 1970s. Or 1980s. Or 1990s. All of which I spent with my main passion in life being what? Either I was personally meditating or else I was teaching others how to meditate.
Due to this kind of experience, plus skills that I learned in 1985 for how to cocreate with the Divine (btw, all this could count as answers to some different questions you might ask me here in the future, Goodreaders) I was able to learn about – you guessed it – what happens to the consciousness of empaths.
HERE’S A SECRET ABOUT EMPATHS THAT FEW PEOPLE KNOW
Being an empath involves consciousness. Both what it means to be an empath in the first place. And also what happens with unskilled empath merge. Plus, also how to become a Skilled Empath.
Due to all that specialized exploration of consciousness, I was able to cocreate the system of Empath Empowerment® and write the four books that I now make available in my series for empaths.
Besides Book 1 “Empath Empowerment in 30 Days,” you can read these:
* “The Empowered Empath: Quick and Easy.” That’s Book 2 of the series.
* “The Empowered Empath: Owning, Embracing and Managing Your Special Gifts.” That’s Book 3.
* “The Master Empath.” That’s Book 4.
QUESTION 2. What do you wish every empath could understand about unskilled empath merge?
This question has a very practical answer. Even if you don’t know much at all (yet) about unskilled empath merge, please know this.
Unskilled empaths suffer. Some of us suffer more than others.
So Important to Know
All of us unskilled empaths suffer, even if we know nothing yet about Empath Empowerment®. Hey, we might not even know that we’re empaths.
Still, we suffer. Subconsciously and energetically, we’re constantly taking on pain, confusions, and worries from other people.
Annoyingly, as you can find out if you develop Empath Empowerment, you’re not even helping those other people. Grrrrr, right?
Doing unskilled empath merge serves no practical purpose, but here’s the thing. What starts off within us as an annoying thing that all empaths do, without meaning to…
Doing this unskilled thing… uses (or misuses) the very same capacities within us as empaths... that we can learn how to use on purpose. What do I mean, learn to use those capacities on purpose? That is called doing Skilled Empath Merge.
Those Skilled Empath Merges can become a wonderful source of knowledge for us. Especially beautiful if, in any way, that empath cares about service to others.
Any kind of service that you do for others! Like you, Valerie, and how your day job involves helping a group of blue collar workers who don’t ordinarily receive a lot of respect from society.
1. If you care about helping others, bringing more social justice into this world.
2. If you care about helping others as an artist or a musician or even a writer.
3. If you care about helping others, simply because you love God. And so you feel a passion deep within you, that you must put that caring into action.
For reasons like these, not only CAN you learn how to do Skilled Empath Merge. But, once you've learned, how much better you will do that job that means so much to you!
Differently Put, If Better Service to Others Can Help You to Fulfill the Purpose of Your Life
And if you were born an empath…
Learning Skilled Empath Merge can help you to fulfill the purpose of your life, and do it more beautifully than you can now imagine.
One of the sayings I teach in Energy Spirituality® workshops goes like this:
For every good thing in your life, you must pay the price.
Suffering through through unskilled empath merge is the price that every born empath pays. Like a downpayment, Valerie, on how much you can learn, how much you can give, and all that you can receive… once you start living as a Skilled Empath.
Thanks again for asking these questions. Thanks for asking them here at “Ask the Author” on Goodreads.
Rose Rosetree
Audrey Selene, good to hear from you! Thank you for what – to me – amounts to a tidy bundle of questions. Before I even get to them, though, let’s make sure we’re on the same screen (as it were). What’s our context?
WHY DID I CALL THIS TIME THAT WE'RE LIVING IN "THE AGE OF AWAKENING"?
People can mean many things by that phrase, but I mean one specific thing. How many things might otherwise be meant by it?
Out of curiosity, Audrey, I just googled "The Age of Awakening" – in quotes. On my Google, this brought up 501 THOUSAND hits.
As a point of information, I recall when Google had ZERO hits for this term… because I cocreated it. You see, I was writing my first book on this second era in human history, the how-to called “The New Strong.”
While I worked on that, starting in 2013, there was no adequate name. Sure, I found “The Age of Aquarius” and other variations, but we’re not Ancient Greeks, squinting to see a constellation of Cup Bearers in the sky.
Necessity being the mother of invention, I came up with "The Age of Awakening."
So, I’m reasonably sure what this term means. "The Age of Awakening" began with the Shift, worldwide, on Dec. 21, 2012. This is a time characterized by INNER changes, involving many subtle alterations to the flow of human consciousness. Much of my work, then and now, with Energy Spirituality® involves helping people to adapt well to what is different now, in this second age on Earth.
Which brings us, Audrey, to your questions. So let’s take the chunks one at a time.
Your Question 1.
WHY DO I THINK "AWAKENING" IS SO SIGNIFICANT NOW?
Ever since the Shift, Spiritual Awakening -- or awakening for short -- has become more accessible. It happens more often and more easily. Just about any individual who desires to grow emotionally and spiritually… is having experiences that qualify as moments of spiritual awakening. All of you Goodreaders who are reading this, haven’t you noticed?
That said, my first answer to Question 1. may shock you.
Awakening is an entry-level experience. It’s the lowest common denominator for what is available to each one of us. If we seek to use our full potential in life, aka Spiritual Enlightenment, awakening experiences are treasures.
However, with all due respect, in the opinion of this Enlightenment Teacher, awakening experiences count as TINY treasures. By way of analogy, these are…
Kind of Like Having a Taste of Jamoca Almond Fudge
Have you ever been to an ice cream store with a ton of flavors? You might ask for, and receive, a teensy spoon with a teensy sample of a particular flavor of ice cream.
Just a taste. Really, that’s what experiences of awakening are. Sweet and memorable, yet each one counts as an entry-level experience.
Then why are awakening experiences such a big deal now?
Most people have no background or context for understanding the process of self-actualizing. So folks are blown away. (And sometimes, also, pretty confused about what has happened to them.)
Mainly, Audrey Selene, here’s the bottom line… given my experience as a spiritual teacher who has worked professionally for 55 years:
These relatively tiny tastes have been hyped in mainstream culture as though they’re the whole ice cream sundae. And for one simple reason.
Most people today are content with sampling many things, rather than going deeply into any one thing. However, when it comes to Spiritual Enlightenment, a shallow version ain't Enlightenment.
Of course, that may not apply so much to you readers here. It’s a good thing that you’all go onto GOODreads. You’re thinkers. Maybe some of you are even thought leaders.
Accordingly, you demand more of potentially important experiences than to take a quick look, then say, “Been there, done that. Next!”
OUR HISTORICAL CONTEXT MATTERS AS WELL
With the Shift into "The Age of Awakening" what changed? A psychic barrier used to encircle human consciousness. In some ways this protected us, yet it also used to limit us.
After the Shift, that psychic barrier disappeared permanently. Energy experiences became easier to have, but that didn't automatically bring discernment. Far from it.
Millions of beautiful spiritual seekers and psychological self-actualizers got hooked on astral experiences. (To learn more about this, google on "The Romance of the Astral" -- and include these quotation marks in your search.)
Long story short, pursuing astral flash will never lead to Spiritual Enlightenment. Fact.
Sadly, some of the biggest astral enthusiasts are also the noisiest advocates of "Awakening."
Ironically, in their sweet enthusiasm over woo-woo, these champions of "Awakening" may not even be having authentic experiences of Awakening. How can a person tell? Develop good skills of aura reading, at least Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, so that you can read "chakra databanks" and learn how to discern "consciousness lifestyles."
Of course you can learn this. Moreover, for many reasons, good skills of aura reading are really important for personal growth in the Age of Awakening. Why not learn sooner rather than later?
Your Question 2.
WHY DO YOU THINK "AWAKENING" IS SO SIGNIFICANT NOW? VERSUS ENLIGHTENMENT ITSELF?
As concepts go, Spiritual Enlightenment is definitely not entry level. While awakening experiences often happen spontaneously, Enlightenment almost never does.
Instead, awakening experiences can mark a person’s growth toward Enlightenment. However, a wise spiritual seeker will choose a spiritual path, a good one. And also find a knowledgeable teacher who is personally living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
(Find surprising research about that "personally living" part in an expose-style article at my blog. Search on “Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide" -- and be sure to include the quotation marks when you google.)
*What if you aim to choose an effective path that can help you to move toward Enlightenment?
*How about understanding better what’s different about “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening?”
There is no app for that. But there happens to be a certain, practical how-to book on that topic, from this Goodreads author.
Thanks for asking, Audrey Selene.
WHY DID I CALL THIS TIME THAT WE'RE LIVING IN "THE AGE OF AWAKENING"?
People can mean many things by that phrase, but I mean one specific thing. How many things might otherwise be meant by it?
Out of curiosity, Audrey, I just googled "The Age of Awakening" – in quotes. On my Google, this brought up 501 THOUSAND hits.
As a point of information, I recall when Google had ZERO hits for this term… because I cocreated it. You see, I was writing my first book on this second era in human history, the how-to called “The New Strong.”
While I worked on that, starting in 2013, there was no adequate name. Sure, I found “The Age of Aquarius” and other variations, but we’re not Ancient Greeks, squinting to see a constellation of Cup Bearers in the sky.
Necessity being the mother of invention, I came up with "The Age of Awakening."
So, I’m reasonably sure what this term means. "The Age of Awakening" began with the Shift, worldwide, on Dec. 21, 2012. This is a time characterized by INNER changes, involving many subtle alterations to the flow of human consciousness. Much of my work, then and now, with Energy Spirituality® involves helping people to adapt well to what is different now, in this second age on Earth.
Which brings us, Audrey, to your questions. So let’s take the chunks one at a time.
Your Question 1.
WHY DO I THINK "AWAKENING" IS SO SIGNIFICANT NOW?
Ever since the Shift, Spiritual Awakening -- or awakening for short -- has become more accessible. It happens more often and more easily. Just about any individual who desires to grow emotionally and spiritually… is having experiences that qualify as moments of spiritual awakening. All of you Goodreaders who are reading this, haven’t you noticed?
That said, my first answer to Question 1. may shock you.
Awakening is an entry-level experience. It’s the lowest common denominator for what is available to each one of us. If we seek to use our full potential in life, aka Spiritual Enlightenment, awakening experiences are treasures.
However, with all due respect, in the opinion of this Enlightenment Teacher, awakening experiences count as TINY treasures. By way of analogy, these are…
Kind of Like Having a Taste of Jamoca Almond Fudge
Have you ever been to an ice cream store with a ton of flavors? You might ask for, and receive, a teensy spoon with a teensy sample of a particular flavor of ice cream.
Just a taste. Really, that’s what experiences of awakening are. Sweet and memorable, yet each one counts as an entry-level experience.
Then why are awakening experiences such a big deal now?
Most people have no background or context for understanding the process of self-actualizing. So folks are blown away. (And sometimes, also, pretty confused about what has happened to them.)
Mainly, Audrey Selene, here’s the bottom line… given my experience as a spiritual teacher who has worked professionally for 55 years:
These relatively tiny tastes have been hyped in mainstream culture as though they’re the whole ice cream sundae. And for one simple reason.
Most people today are content with sampling many things, rather than going deeply into any one thing. However, when it comes to Spiritual Enlightenment, a shallow version ain't Enlightenment.
Of course, that may not apply so much to you readers here. It’s a good thing that you’all go onto GOODreads. You’re thinkers. Maybe some of you are even thought leaders.
Accordingly, you demand more of potentially important experiences than to take a quick look, then say, “Been there, done that. Next!”
OUR HISTORICAL CONTEXT MATTERS AS WELL
With the Shift into "The Age of Awakening" what changed? A psychic barrier used to encircle human consciousness. In some ways this protected us, yet it also used to limit us.
After the Shift, that psychic barrier disappeared permanently. Energy experiences became easier to have, but that didn't automatically bring discernment. Far from it.
Millions of beautiful spiritual seekers and psychological self-actualizers got hooked on astral experiences. (To learn more about this, google on "The Romance of the Astral" -- and include these quotation marks in your search.)
Long story short, pursuing astral flash will never lead to Spiritual Enlightenment. Fact.
Sadly, some of the biggest astral enthusiasts are also the noisiest advocates of "Awakening."
Ironically, in their sweet enthusiasm over woo-woo, these champions of "Awakening" may not even be having authentic experiences of Awakening. How can a person tell? Develop good skills of aura reading, at least Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, so that you can read "chakra databanks" and learn how to discern "consciousness lifestyles."
Of course you can learn this. Moreover, for many reasons, good skills of aura reading are really important for personal growth in the Age of Awakening. Why not learn sooner rather than later?
Your Question 2.
WHY DO YOU THINK "AWAKENING" IS SO SIGNIFICANT NOW? VERSUS ENLIGHTENMENT ITSELF?
As concepts go, Spiritual Enlightenment is definitely not entry level. While awakening experiences often happen spontaneously, Enlightenment almost never does.
Instead, awakening experiences can mark a person’s growth toward Enlightenment. However, a wise spiritual seeker will choose a spiritual path, a good one. And also find a knowledgeable teacher who is personally living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
(Find surprising research about that "personally living" part in an expose-style article at my blog. Search on “Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide" -- and be sure to include the quotation marks when you google.)
*What if you aim to choose an effective path that can help you to move toward Enlightenment?
*How about understanding better what’s different about “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening?”
There is no app for that. But there happens to be a certain, practical how-to book on that topic, from this Goodreads author.
Thanks for asking, Audrey Selene.
Rose Rosetree
Adrian, hi back! It is a really popular idea – and ideal – to be a healer.
Thank you for asking my opinion, as somebody with good skills of energetic literacy. That means I can research chakra databanks within auras, and do it reliably. As a result, I can evaluate whether or not particular energy healing techniques are effective. Or, sometimes, not.
To pursue this kind of discernment, you’re all invited to read a series of seven blogposts on mind-body-spirit. For starters, google on “All Mind-Body-Spirit Healing Equal? All of It? Really?” (Be sure to include the quotation marks in your search.)
Look, I really appreciate how Goodreads gives us authors plenty of space for responding to questions from our readers. Some questions are super-quick to answer, but not this one.
Might I recommend? Sit back, seekers of what is true about healing. Sit back and hang out with me, as I do my reasonable best to give a good answer to this excellent question.
FIRST, HEALERS AND ASPIRING HEALERS DESERVE OUR RESPECT
It’s a noble thing, isn’t it, wishing to help to relieve another person’s suffering. Even aiming exclusively for self-healing can be a noble thing.
The desire is beautiful. As I respond to all three of your questions here, Adrian, let’s acknowledge the beauty of that desire. None of us would have a desire like that unless there were some goodness within us that cries out for expression.
Before I complete that answer, though, I have some essential background to provide. Let’s clear away common illusions about “Being a Healer.”
QUESTION 1. Is It True that Everyone Is a Healer?
Unless we pause for a bit of historical perspective, it would be hard to give that question the quality of answer it deserves. Together let’s take one quick round trip on the History Train.
Fear not. By “historical perspective” I’m not referring to Hippocrates, whose famous oath is used by many physicians today. That would amount to a really long trip on the History Train. Instead, let’s look at some more recent history, very significant history that just about every one of you Goodreaders has personally lived through.
By that I mean the years from 1980 until the Shift into the Age of Awakening, which began on Dec. 21, 2012. According to my research into consciousness, and how changes show up in people’s chakra databanks….
Those years should rightfully be called “The New Age Years.” These were years of subtle opening up of human consciousness. Incidentally, a significant chunk of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening brings perspective on this transitional period.
GOODREADERS, CAN YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU STARTED NOTICING ENERGY?
Decades before the Shift, during those New Age Years, billions of truth seekers discovered that they were energy sensitive. Another big trend was how folks began to believe that if they could FEEL energy, they could HEAL energy.
In hindsight, now that humanity has moved into the Age of Awakening, we can stop believing in many of these transitional illusions. In my view they were mainly a byproduct of living through that big-deal transition.
Yes, that transition into the Age of Awakening was a big deal. And mysterious. All of us still have much to learn about how to live well in this second consciousness era on earth. (Me included.) It’s a thrilling time to be curious, and an especially thrilling time for all of us who aim to contribute as thought leaders of the Age of Awakening.
DURING THE NEW AGE YEARS, MANY FOLKS WERE DRUNK ON ENERGY AWARENESS
That’s when ideas became popular about everybody automatically having talent for energy healing; mostly because folks could feel energies, and it was quite a rush.
As I noted in Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening, during the New Age Years, two different friends of mine self-published a book entitled “Everyone Is a Healer.”
All this happened before one could hop onto Goodreads and check the titles, finding out whichever books were available. Maybe some of you Goodreaders have also known some idealistic people, not writers particularly – writers who only published one book. During the New Age Years, they too published books with titles like “Everyone Is a Healer.”
By all means, if you know of this, please comment below. I’ll share that the two authors I encountered, both friends of mine, were Susan Kingsley-Rowe and Sandi Parness.
SINCE THE SHIFT, WE CAN WAKE UP TO A NEW DAY
Maybe, collectively, humanity can finally get over a bit of a hangover, and then soberly reconsider some powerful loyalties that seemed second nature during those transitional years. Such as the very notion of “Being a Healer.”
Seems to me, if you aim to help patients with their physical health, go to medical school. Alternatively, become a physical therapist or an acupuncturist. That is, learn skills that lead to effective outcomes for helping people to overcome problems with their physical health.
By contrast, many forms of New Age Energy Healing of dubious effectiveness became popular during the transitional time. Like Reiki, Eden Energy Medicine, Janet Mentgen’s Healing Touch, Crystal Healing, and more.
If you studied these or similar -- and I studied all of these as a hobbyist back in the day –- you might have been encouraged to think of yourself as “a healer” because you could feel energies. Plus, you paid to take a workshop, or you bought a how-to book.
Up to you what you believe, Goodreaders, of course! Personally, I sure don’t consider myself a healer. Never have.
Nor do I consider my beloved physician, Dr. Erika LeBaron, a “healer.” Nor do I call my superb physical therapist, Jessica Briscoe Coleman, a “healer.”
IMO, for best results in life, it helps to get real. My advice is, pay attention to objective reality, rather than going overboard on beliefs, ideals, and emotions.
REALITY CHECK
Calling people “healers” reminds me of old Biblical movies starring Charlton Heston: Full of old-timey, feelgood, spiritual allure. Very persuasive movies, which you can see in reruns broadcast around Christmas and Easter.
Personally, from those movies I was influenced to believe (to some degree) in that easy version of “holiness.” This being a hop, skip, and a jump away from believing, “If I lived in the times of the Bible, I could have been a healer. Why not do it now?”
Actually, one thing that totally snapped me out of that kind of illusion was Charlton Heston’s performance in real life as a big advocate for the National Rifle Association. If you google that history, you may come to hold him partly responsible for America’s current epidemic of gun violence. So much for easy sainthood and healer-dom through watching classic movies!
SUMMING UP
Truth time: I don’t believe anybody is a “healer.” Either people have learned effective skills or they haven’t. Some also have talent for using those skills, and more power to them.
However, that still doesn’t make them “healers.”
QUESTION 2. What Makes Someone a Qualified "Healer"?
Training matters, Adrian and other Goodreaders. Credentials matter. Studying with a legitimate teacher matters as well.
For instance, I’m among those who remember when Diane Stein’s book, “Essential Reiki” was published. Within a couple of months, in my view, that book began to destroy the integrity of Reiki professionalism. (Ask about that in a comment below, if you like.)
MORE ABOUT MY PERSPECTIVE ON “QUALIFIED HEALER”
Besides being the author of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening, I’m the founder of Energy Spirituality®.
Defining that, Energy Spirituality helps people like you with emotional growth and spiritual awakening. Using skills that work now, in the Age of Awakening.
Included in those skills are 11 trademarked systems, some of which are for energy healing.
Note: None of these systems involves New Age Energy Healing. Rather, I call what I teach “Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING.” (In addition, I teach “Energy Spirituality ENERGY READING,” Empath Empowerment®, and resources for Spiritual Enlightenment.)
CAN I HELP YOU LEARN SKILLS FOR EMOTIONAL & SPIRITUAL SELF-HEALING?
Definitely. Standards for learning energy-related skills for self-healing are far easier to gain. That’s compared to the higher standard required for turning pro: aiming to facilitate energy healing for other people.
Here on Goodreads, a couple of my books can teach effective skills for energetic self-healing. In particular, I recommend:
Use Your Power of Command for Spiritual Cleansing and Protection. This is my first choice for you Goodreaders.
Even better is a series of online workshops offered through my website, the interactive and on-demand classes called The Spiritually Sparkling® Collection of Workshops.
None of these will authorize you to call yourself, in good conscience, “a healer.” However, you sure can give yourself some worthwile self-help. 😊
Just to round out my answer…
HOW ABOUT HEALERS WHO CLAIM TO HAVE STUDIED WITH ME?
One of the interesting aspects of leadership is how quite a lot of people now falsely claim that I trained them. One clue is if the person calls himself or herself “a healer.”
Otherwise? What if you encounter somebody who claims, “to have been trained by Rose Rosetree,” etc.? Go ahead and ask me here on Goodreads. Ask at a comment for this article. Name that person and get a straight answer from me.
Alternatively, you could ask that same question at my personal blog, using a comment box. Again, name that person and get a straight answer from me. You can be sure, I know every person authorized as an Energy Spirituality® apprentice or practitioner.
QUESTION 3. Do You, Rose Rosetree, Consider Yourself to Be a Healer?
Ah, a short answer. Absolutely not.
Thank you for asking my opinion, as somebody with good skills of energetic literacy. That means I can research chakra databanks within auras, and do it reliably. As a result, I can evaluate whether or not particular energy healing techniques are effective. Or, sometimes, not.
To pursue this kind of discernment, you’re all invited to read a series of seven blogposts on mind-body-spirit. For starters, google on “All Mind-Body-Spirit Healing Equal? All of It? Really?” (Be sure to include the quotation marks in your search.)
Look, I really appreciate how Goodreads gives us authors plenty of space for responding to questions from our readers. Some questions are super-quick to answer, but not this one.
Might I recommend? Sit back, seekers of what is true about healing. Sit back and hang out with me, as I do my reasonable best to give a good answer to this excellent question.
FIRST, HEALERS AND ASPIRING HEALERS DESERVE OUR RESPECT
It’s a noble thing, isn’t it, wishing to help to relieve another person’s suffering. Even aiming exclusively for self-healing can be a noble thing.
The desire is beautiful. As I respond to all three of your questions here, Adrian, let’s acknowledge the beauty of that desire. None of us would have a desire like that unless there were some goodness within us that cries out for expression.
Before I complete that answer, though, I have some essential background to provide. Let’s clear away common illusions about “Being a Healer.”
QUESTION 1. Is It True that Everyone Is a Healer?
Unless we pause for a bit of historical perspective, it would be hard to give that question the quality of answer it deserves. Together let’s take one quick round trip on the History Train.
Fear not. By “historical perspective” I’m not referring to Hippocrates, whose famous oath is used by many physicians today. That would amount to a really long trip on the History Train. Instead, let’s look at some more recent history, very significant history that just about every one of you Goodreaders has personally lived through.
By that I mean the years from 1980 until the Shift into the Age of Awakening, which began on Dec. 21, 2012. According to my research into consciousness, and how changes show up in people’s chakra databanks….
Those years should rightfully be called “The New Age Years.” These were years of subtle opening up of human consciousness. Incidentally, a significant chunk of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening brings perspective on this transitional period.
GOODREADERS, CAN YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU STARTED NOTICING ENERGY?
Decades before the Shift, during those New Age Years, billions of truth seekers discovered that they were energy sensitive. Another big trend was how folks began to believe that if they could FEEL energy, they could HEAL energy.
In hindsight, now that humanity has moved into the Age of Awakening, we can stop believing in many of these transitional illusions. In my view they were mainly a byproduct of living through that big-deal transition.
Yes, that transition into the Age of Awakening was a big deal. And mysterious. All of us still have much to learn about how to live well in this second consciousness era on earth. (Me included.) It’s a thrilling time to be curious, and an especially thrilling time for all of us who aim to contribute as thought leaders of the Age of Awakening.
DURING THE NEW AGE YEARS, MANY FOLKS WERE DRUNK ON ENERGY AWARENESS
That’s when ideas became popular about everybody automatically having talent for energy healing; mostly because folks could feel energies, and it was quite a rush.
As I noted in Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening, during the New Age Years, two different friends of mine self-published a book entitled “Everyone Is a Healer.”
All this happened before one could hop onto Goodreads and check the titles, finding out whichever books were available. Maybe some of you Goodreaders have also known some idealistic people, not writers particularly – writers who only published one book. During the New Age Years, they too published books with titles like “Everyone Is a Healer.”
By all means, if you know of this, please comment below. I’ll share that the two authors I encountered, both friends of mine, were Susan Kingsley-Rowe and Sandi Parness.
SINCE THE SHIFT, WE CAN WAKE UP TO A NEW DAY
Maybe, collectively, humanity can finally get over a bit of a hangover, and then soberly reconsider some powerful loyalties that seemed second nature during those transitional years. Such as the very notion of “Being a Healer.”
Seems to me, if you aim to help patients with their physical health, go to medical school. Alternatively, become a physical therapist or an acupuncturist. That is, learn skills that lead to effective outcomes for helping people to overcome problems with their physical health.
By contrast, many forms of New Age Energy Healing of dubious effectiveness became popular during the transitional time. Like Reiki, Eden Energy Medicine, Janet Mentgen’s Healing Touch, Crystal Healing, and more.
If you studied these or similar -- and I studied all of these as a hobbyist back in the day –- you might have been encouraged to think of yourself as “a healer” because you could feel energies. Plus, you paid to take a workshop, or you bought a how-to book.
Up to you what you believe, Goodreaders, of course! Personally, I sure don’t consider myself a healer. Never have.
Nor do I consider my beloved physician, Dr. Erika LeBaron, a “healer.” Nor do I call my superb physical therapist, Jessica Briscoe Coleman, a “healer.”
IMO, for best results in life, it helps to get real. My advice is, pay attention to objective reality, rather than going overboard on beliefs, ideals, and emotions.
REALITY CHECK
Calling people “healers” reminds me of old Biblical movies starring Charlton Heston: Full of old-timey, feelgood, spiritual allure. Very persuasive movies, which you can see in reruns broadcast around Christmas and Easter.
Personally, from those movies I was influenced to believe (to some degree) in that easy version of “holiness.” This being a hop, skip, and a jump away from believing, “If I lived in the times of the Bible, I could have been a healer. Why not do it now?”
Actually, one thing that totally snapped me out of that kind of illusion was Charlton Heston’s performance in real life as a big advocate for the National Rifle Association. If you google that history, you may come to hold him partly responsible for America’s current epidemic of gun violence. So much for easy sainthood and healer-dom through watching classic movies!
SUMMING UP
Truth time: I don’t believe anybody is a “healer.” Either people have learned effective skills or they haven’t. Some also have talent for using those skills, and more power to them.
However, that still doesn’t make them “healers.”
QUESTION 2. What Makes Someone a Qualified "Healer"?
Training matters, Adrian and other Goodreaders. Credentials matter. Studying with a legitimate teacher matters as well.
For instance, I’m among those who remember when Diane Stein’s book, “Essential Reiki” was published. Within a couple of months, in my view, that book began to destroy the integrity of Reiki professionalism. (Ask about that in a comment below, if you like.)
MORE ABOUT MY PERSPECTIVE ON “QUALIFIED HEALER”
Besides being the author of Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening, I’m the founder of Energy Spirituality®.
Defining that, Energy Spirituality helps people like you with emotional growth and spiritual awakening. Using skills that work now, in the Age of Awakening.
Included in those skills are 11 trademarked systems, some of which are for energy healing.
Note: None of these systems involves New Age Energy Healing. Rather, I call what I teach “Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING.” (In addition, I teach “Energy Spirituality ENERGY READING,” Empath Empowerment®, and resources for Spiritual Enlightenment.)
CAN I HELP YOU LEARN SKILLS FOR EMOTIONAL & SPIRITUAL SELF-HEALING?
Definitely. Standards for learning energy-related skills for self-healing are far easier to gain. That’s compared to the higher standard required for turning pro: aiming to facilitate energy healing for other people.
Here on Goodreads, a couple of my books can teach effective skills for energetic self-healing. In particular, I recommend:
Use Your Power of Command for Spiritual Cleansing and Protection. This is my first choice for you Goodreaders.
Even better is a series of online workshops offered through my website, the interactive and on-demand classes called The Spiritually Sparkling® Collection of Workshops.
None of these will authorize you to call yourself, in good conscience, “a healer.” However, you sure can give yourself some worthwile self-help. 😊
Just to round out my answer…
HOW ABOUT HEALERS WHO CLAIM TO HAVE STUDIED WITH ME?
One of the interesting aspects of leadership is how quite a lot of people now falsely claim that I trained them. One clue is if the person calls himself or herself “a healer.”
Otherwise? What if you encounter somebody who claims, “to have been trained by Rose Rosetree,” etc.? Go ahead and ask me here on Goodreads. Ask at a comment for this article. Name that person and get a straight answer from me.
Alternatively, you could ask that same question at my personal blog, using a comment box. Again, name that person and get a straight answer from me. You can be sure, I know every person authorized as an Energy Spirituality® apprentice or practitioner.
QUESTION 3. Do You, Rose Rosetree, Consider Yourself to Be a Healer?
Ah, a short answer. Absolutely not.
Rose Rosetree
Thank you for asking, ELIZABETH. Why did I decide to write a book where all three (Body Language, Face Reading, and Aura Reading) are included together?
To help readers scratch an itch. That’s why.
Hey, if you have an itch on your left shoulder, scratch there. But if you develop an itch on your right foot, scratch somewhere different. (And I think you know where.)
Regarding the three systems for deeper perception in this how-to book, they’re as different as a shoulder compared to a foot. Each system brings its own special advantages, and sometimes some pretty unexpected insights.
These different approaches come in handy for self-help. Often the insights you gain can upgrade your problem solving as well. You know, for whatever reason, sometimes you want to learn more about one particular aspect of a person.
• Whether it’s somebody you’re dating
• Or your new father-in-law
• Maybe a new team member at work
• Hiring a psychotherapist
• Perhaps learning a certain kind of information about YOURSELF!
Gaining insight into people, through the skills presented here, the info you gather can be both detailed and precise. All you need in order to launch your inquiry about any particular person is… a photograph where that person faces the front, toward the camera.
YAY! JUST A REGULAR PHOTO OR SCREENSHOT
AND SOME KNOW-HOW 😊
Which categories does “Read People Deeper” teach you how to explore? Fifty of them. These ones:
1. Addiction, Chemical
2. Addiction, Sexual
3. Anger
4. Balanced Give and Take
5. Charisma
6. Charm
7. Competitiveness
8. Confidence
9. Conflict
10. Conformity
11. Control
12. Criticism
13. Decision Making
14. Earthiness
15. Embarrassment
16. Evil
17. Facades
18. Fidelity
19. Flirtatiousness
20. Guilt
21. Hurt Feelings
22. Intelligence
23. Intimacy
24. Jealousy
25. Listening Ability
26. Loyalty
27. Lying
28. Money, Saving
29. Money, Spending
30. Nurturing
31. Power
32. Problem Solving
33. Religion
34. Resentment
35. Respect
36. Risk Taking
37. Romance
38. Satisfaction
39. Secretiveness
40. Self-Disclosure
41. Sense of Humor
42. Sensitivity
43. Sensuousness
44. Sex Drive
45. Sexual Adventurousness
46. Sexual Promiscuity
47. Sexual Stamina
48. Stress
49. Stubbornness
50. Trust
THREE SYNERGYSTIC METHODS FOR EXPLORING ALL THIS!
Back to your question, Elizabeth, each of these three methods complements the others. This Body Language, Face Reading,and Aura Reading don’t duplicate each other, no no!
Besides, two of these methods are so unique and comprehensive that I've trademarked them: Face Reading Secrets® and Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
As for the Energy Spirituality® perspective that I bring to Body Language? That includes plenty of practical ideas that you likely haven’t seen elsewhere, either.
So whether you’re a newbie or an old-bie, you can succeed at all three complementary ways of reading people.
Incidentally, today is an especially happy day for me because the blog at my website, the Energy Spirituality® Blog, just reached a new milestone: 133,000 comments. Hopefully, I’m not like a hot air balloon, who writes whatevers… I’m a teacher, and a teacher who cares about really helping the folks who read my books or take my online workshops.
WHAT HELPED MOST FOR WRITING THIS PARTICULAR BOOK?
Lotsa teaching. By the time I had the concept for “Read People Deeper,” I was pretty seasoned as a teacher. You see, since 1969 I’ve taught adult education. Yoicks, that’s 55 years. Seasoned? You could say I’m roasted and toasted.
Most relevant, since founding Energy Spirituality in 1986, I’ve been teaching innovative skills for personal development, self-help.
Such as? Teaching live workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia. Helping students in Australia and Africa and South America. Although there are many things I don’t do very well, one thing in life that I can do is to teach. So I thought:
Wouldn’t it be great to put together just enough of an orientation to each of the three approaches here… so that folks could get started right away? Then they could turn to their first chapter of interest, such as Charm or Sexual Stamina -- and get right to the point.
Well, that’s exactly what happens with “Read People Deeper.” Thank goodness, the gorgeous illustrations -- by acclaimed German illustrator Meike Mueller -- also contribute to the learning process.
Once you gain reliable, accurate skills for any form of deeper perception… It can feel as though a world is opening up within your world.
Such a compassionate world of knowledge! Learning on demand is yours, using deeper perception for more self-knowledge and also better communication.
Like what people call a gift that keeps on giving.
ONE SURPRISING ADVANTAGE OF THIS BOOK?
(I SURE DIDN’T THINK OF IT ON MY OWN.)
Elizabeth, one day I received an unexpected thank you email from a student in Africa. I’ll paraphrase what he wrote. Here I’ll call him “Sam.”
Sam told me that he bought this book for the body language and the face reading. He didn’t believe in auras. He had no interest in them.
But after Sam got into the other two categories, he became really curious about aura reading, including how to read different chakra databanks. So back he went to an introductory section that he had skipped over before. This section teaches a couple of different techniques for reading auras –and chakra databanks – from regular photos.
Sam found it easy to gain this kind of information. In fact, reading auras became his favorite form of deeper perception.
IN CONCLUSION
Some of you Goodreaders may have curiosity, or even expertise, about reading faces for character, aura reading, or body language. Go ahead and read this book for that purpose alone. Even that way, you’ll get your money’s worth.
Just don’t be surprised if, after a while, like Sam from Africa, you wind up getting really-really good at Body Language PLUS Face Reading PLUS Aura Reading.
To help readers scratch an itch. That’s why.
Hey, if you have an itch on your left shoulder, scratch there. But if you develop an itch on your right foot, scratch somewhere different. (And I think you know where.)
Regarding the three systems for deeper perception in this how-to book, they’re as different as a shoulder compared to a foot. Each system brings its own special advantages, and sometimes some pretty unexpected insights.
These different approaches come in handy for self-help. Often the insights you gain can upgrade your problem solving as well. You know, for whatever reason, sometimes you want to learn more about one particular aspect of a person.
• Whether it’s somebody you’re dating
• Or your new father-in-law
• Maybe a new team member at work
• Hiring a psychotherapist
• Perhaps learning a certain kind of information about YOURSELF!
Gaining insight into people, through the skills presented here, the info you gather can be both detailed and precise. All you need in order to launch your inquiry about any particular person is… a photograph where that person faces the front, toward the camera.
YAY! JUST A REGULAR PHOTO OR SCREENSHOT
AND SOME KNOW-HOW 😊
Which categories does “Read People Deeper” teach you how to explore? Fifty of them. These ones:
1. Addiction, Chemical
2. Addiction, Sexual
3. Anger
4. Balanced Give and Take
5. Charisma
6. Charm
7. Competitiveness
8. Confidence
9. Conflict
10. Conformity
11. Control
12. Criticism
13. Decision Making
14. Earthiness
15. Embarrassment
16. Evil
17. Facades
18. Fidelity
19. Flirtatiousness
20. Guilt
21. Hurt Feelings
22. Intelligence
23. Intimacy
24. Jealousy
25. Listening Ability
26. Loyalty
27. Lying
28. Money, Saving
29. Money, Spending
30. Nurturing
31. Power
32. Problem Solving
33. Religion
34. Resentment
35. Respect
36. Risk Taking
37. Romance
38. Satisfaction
39. Secretiveness
40. Self-Disclosure
41. Sense of Humor
42. Sensitivity
43. Sensuousness
44. Sex Drive
45. Sexual Adventurousness
46. Sexual Promiscuity
47. Sexual Stamina
48. Stress
49. Stubbornness
50. Trust
THREE SYNERGYSTIC METHODS FOR EXPLORING ALL THIS!
Back to your question, Elizabeth, each of these three methods complements the others. This Body Language, Face Reading,and Aura Reading don’t duplicate each other, no no!
Besides, two of these methods are so unique and comprehensive that I've trademarked them: Face Reading Secrets® and Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®.
As for the Energy Spirituality® perspective that I bring to Body Language? That includes plenty of practical ideas that you likely haven’t seen elsewhere, either.
So whether you’re a newbie or an old-bie, you can succeed at all three complementary ways of reading people.
Incidentally, today is an especially happy day for me because the blog at my website, the Energy Spirituality® Blog, just reached a new milestone: 133,000 comments. Hopefully, I’m not like a hot air balloon, who writes whatevers… I’m a teacher, and a teacher who cares about really helping the folks who read my books or take my online workshops.
WHAT HELPED MOST FOR WRITING THIS PARTICULAR BOOK?
Lotsa teaching. By the time I had the concept for “Read People Deeper,” I was pretty seasoned as a teacher. You see, since 1969 I’ve taught adult education. Yoicks, that’s 55 years. Seasoned? You could say I’m roasted and toasted.
Most relevant, since founding Energy Spirituality in 1986, I’ve been teaching innovative skills for personal development, self-help.
Such as? Teaching live workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia. Helping students in Australia and Africa and South America. Although there are many things I don’t do very well, one thing in life that I can do is to teach. So I thought:
Wouldn’t it be great to put together just enough of an orientation to each of the three approaches here… so that folks could get started right away? Then they could turn to their first chapter of interest, such as Charm or Sexual Stamina -- and get right to the point.
Well, that’s exactly what happens with “Read People Deeper.” Thank goodness, the gorgeous illustrations -- by acclaimed German illustrator Meike Mueller -- also contribute to the learning process.
Once you gain reliable, accurate skills for any form of deeper perception… It can feel as though a world is opening up within your world.
Such a compassionate world of knowledge! Learning on demand is yours, using deeper perception for more self-knowledge and also better communication.
Like what people call a gift that keeps on giving.
ONE SURPRISING ADVANTAGE OF THIS BOOK?
(I SURE DIDN’T THINK OF IT ON MY OWN.)
Elizabeth, one day I received an unexpected thank you email from a student in Africa. I’ll paraphrase what he wrote. Here I’ll call him “Sam.”
Sam told me that he bought this book for the body language and the face reading. He didn’t believe in auras. He had no interest in them.
But after Sam got into the other two categories, he became really curious about aura reading, including how to read different chakra databanks. So back he went to an introductory section that he had skipped over before. This section teaches a couple of different techniques for reading auras –and chakra databanks – from regular photos.
Sam found it easy to gain this kind of information. In fact, reading auras became his favorite form of deeper perception.
IN CONCLUSION
Some of you Goodreaders may have curiosity, or even expertise, about reading faces for character, aura reading, or body language. Go ahead and read this book for that purpose alone. Even that way, you’ll get your money’s worth.
Just don’t be surprised if, after a while, like Sam from Africa, you wind up getting really-really good at Body Language PLUS Face Reading PLUS Aura Reading.
Rose Rosetree
Edward, thanks for asking. I have a few suggestions. To begin, you might ask Jimmy this: “What do you think Spiritual Enlightenment is, anyway?”
So many people think they know all about Enlightenment, and what they know is either wrong or woefully incomplete.
When I set out to write this self-help book, this how-to kind of book, I had been serving as a spiritual teacher for 50 years, so I have witnessed this Know, but don’t really know for decades.
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT, ANYWAY?
Using your full potential in life is one way to define it. Imagine finding it easy to do your best at things like:
* Friendship
* Love
* Figuring out what you want to do when you grow up
Imagine having more clarity and fewer illusions-and-confusions!
Sadly, some folks assume that Enlightenment is “cute” or some “fad.” Wise people, ambitious people, know otherwise. Using your full potential can help to make your life worthwhile, can help you to become great in your own way.
As for giving back to your society? We can do that so much better when living in Enlightenment.
YOUR SECOND QUESTION TO JIMMY COULD BE THIS
“Do you realize there is an Enlightenment Establishment?”
Not only is the answer YES. The rest of that answer could go, “That Enlightenment Establishment is woefully out of date.”
And much of today’s popular writing about Enlightenment could be called “preaching to the choir.” There’s so much recycling of old ideas from before the Shift, ideas from the Age of Faith, ideas that could use some upgrades before they can help us much anymore. Considering that we’re living now, and not 10,000 years ago.
Sure, certain longstanding truths have their appeal, especially if Jimmy has belonged to a religion or a Movement. Whether he’s still active there, or he’s restless, chances are that many of his loyalties are – at this point, sentimental. Yet Jimmy can insist on getting a good answer to this question about his current version of personal development:
What have you done for me lately?
FINALLY, HERE’S A FOLLOW-UP QUESTION
Granted, this next question might shock your friend:
“Do you know what has changed, since the Shift, for personal development and spiritual awakening?”
Shocking but true: Subtle changes happened after the Shift into the Age of Awakening, on Dec. 21, 2012. Subtle changes that impact consciousness.
These changes include your new Consciousness Positioning Superpower. You know about that, Edward, but do you think Jimmy does?
Sigh! As with understanding Enlightenment itself, most people have ideas about the Age of Awakening that – to put it politely – lack clarity.
Imagine if Jimmy wanted to learn how to open his own front door, which happened to be locked. He was used to getting into his flat through a broken window, and could only use a few of the rooms.
In this analogy, Jimmy would need to learn what a key was, how to get a key that would unlock his own front door. Then he’d need to learn exactly what to do with that key.
Learning something new-and-way-useful sounds great in theory. Yet in practice, this learning can sometimes feel annoying, scary, overwhelming, or just plain "too much work." However, appropriate learning can prove indispensable…
WHEN IT COMES TO “SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE AGE OF AWAKENING”
The book by that name is the first of its kind, integrating what’s new and what works post-Shift… into the age-old quest for SELF-REALIZATION (to use a spiritual term) and SELF-ACTUALIZATION (to use a psychological term).
What humanity has known for centuries, what we’ve personally put together for our own understanding, can be excellent. Maybe that’s the case for your friend Jimmy. Yet if he believes, “I pretty much know it all,” he’s cheating himself.
PLEASE INVITE JIMMY TO GIVE THIS BOOK ONE MORE CHANCE, ONLY THIS TIME…
Ask him to do these three things, which will help him to get so much more out of his reading.
#1. Welcome new ideas, rather than fearing them.
Nothing in that book needs to be accepted unquestioningly. Every time that Jimmy comes upon a new idea – And “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening” is loaded with them – hello! It’s better for Jimmy to read that paragraph over, or just plain stop reading.
Then he gets to “Have a think.” (One of those British expressions that I absolutely love.)
A great deal of writing that’s spiritual and/or for self-improvement… mostly recycles things that one has heard before.
But now that we’re in this second consciousness era on Earth, the Age of Awakening, it’s time to step up as a thought leader. Which requires thought! Which REWARDS a bit of thought.
#2. Don’t read a leading-edge book… as if it were an internet article.
Jimmy may be like most of us readers today. Does he mostly read articles, and watch YouTube videos, online?
As literacy expert (and all around wise woman) Maryanne Wolf has described in “Reader, Come Home,” that style of online reading is a common skill for keeping up. Jimmy likely has developed habits for that: skimming for headings, and taking shortcuts with certain kinds of eye movement. That can become a default.
Unless we actively stop and slow down enough to do book reading… We can lose the ability to thoughtfully read. Yet we can regain that ability. That’s essential if we aim to learn ideas that are new, current, and life-improving.
One way to regain that essential skill is to read one page aloud, then think about it. Come back the next day and repeat. (That is repeat the process, not the same Page 12, again and again.) 😉
#3. That “Program for Spiritual Enlightenment” really works.
Yes, if Jimmy reads “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening,” what’s the best part? He can start doing its “Program for Spiritual Enlightenment.” It really works.
And what if Jimmy is already in Spiritual Enlightenment? This program will help him even more. Others have found this to be true. He can too.
IN CONCLUSION
There’s more to life than many of us guess. Let alone experience.
In addition to publishing books, and facilitating personal sessions of Enlightenment Coaching, I also offer a blog that’s brimming with knowledge about how to live well in the Age of Awakening.
Maybe Jimmy would like to browse there, including the back-and-forths with our comments.
Especially recommended, these days, would be to google on "Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide" – be sure to include the quotation marks when you search.
Invite Jimmy to take a look at the end of that main article. Toward the end he’ll find a list of 23 well known Enlightenment Experts. According to my research of consciousness lifestyles, which you can read in the nearly 1,000 comments there so far, how many of those 23 experts are actually living in Enlightenment? Only 2.
You see, Edward, a lot of people have found, like Jimmy, that there are “just too many ideas” from the Age of Faith being recycled. It helps to insist on finding ideas that work in the Age of Awakening, ideas that deliver what they promise.
So many people think they know all about Enlightenment, and what they know is either wrong or woefully incomplete.
When I set out to write this self-help book, this how-to kind of book, I had been serving as a spiritual teacher for 50 years, so I have witnessed this Know, but don’t really know for decades.
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT, ANYWAY?
Using your full potential in life is one way to define it. Imagine finding it easy to do your best at things like:
* Friendship
* Love
* Figuring out what you want to do when you grow up
Imagine having more clarity and fewer illusions-and-confusions!
Sadly, some folks assume that Enlightenment is “cute” or some “fad.” Wise people, ambitious people, know otherwise. Using your full potential can help to make your life worthwhile, can help you to become great in your own way.
As for giving back to your society? We can do that so much better when living in Enlightenment.
YOUR SECOND QUESTION TO JIMMY COULD BE THIS
“Do you realize there is an Enlightenment Establishment?”
Not only is the answer YES. The rest of that answer could go, “That Enlightenment Establishment is woefully out of date.”
And much of today’s popular writing about Enlightenment could be called “preaching to the choir.” There’s so much recycling of old ideas from before the Shift, ideas from the Age of Faith, ideas that could use some upgrades before they can help us much anymore. Considering that we’re living now, and not 10,000 years ago.
Sure, certain longstanding truths have their appeal, especially if Jimmy has belonged to a religion or a Movement. Whether he’s still active there, or he’s restless, chances are that many of his loyalties are – at this point, sentimental. Yet Jimmy can insist on getting a good answer to this question about his current version of personal development:
What have you done for me lately?
FINALLY, HERE’S A FOLLOW-UP QUESTION
Granted, this next question might shock your friend:
“Do you know what has changed, since the Shift, for personal development and spiritual awakening?”
Shocking but true: Subtle changes happened after the Shift into the Age of Awakening, on Dec. 21, 2012. Subtle changes that impact consciousness.
These changes include your new Consciousness Positioning Superpower. You know about that, Edward, but do you think Jimmy does?
Sigh! As with understanding Enlightenment itself, most people have ideas about the Age of Awakening that – to put it politely – lack clarity.
Imagine if Jimmy wanted to learn how to open his own front door, which happened to be locked. He was used to getting into his flat through a broken window, and could only use a few of the rooms.
In this analogy, Jimmy would need to learn what a key was, how to get a key that would unlock his own front door. Then he’d need to learn exactly what to do with that key.
Learning something new-and-way-useful sounds great in theory. Yet in practice, this learning can sometimes feel annoying, scary, overwhelming, or just plain "too much work." However, appropriate learning can prove indispensable…
WHEN IT COMES TO “SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE AGE OF AWAKENING”
The book by that name is the first of its kind, integrating what’s new and what works post-Shift… into the age-old quest for SELF-REALIZATION (to use a spiritual term) and SELF-ACTUALIZATION (to use a psychological term).
What humanity has known for centuries, what we’ve personally put together for our own understanding, can be excellent. Maybe that’s the case for your friend Jimmy. Yet if he believes, “I pretty much know it all,” he’s cheating himself.
PLEASE INVITE JIMMY TO GIVE THIS BOOK ONE MORE CHANCE, ONLY THIS TIME…
Ask him to do these three things, which will help him to get so much more out of his reading.
#1. Welcome new ideas, rather than fearing them.
Nothing in that book needs to be accepted unquestioningly. Every time that Jimmy comes upon a new idea – And “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening” is loaded with them – hello! It’s better for Jimmy to read that paragraph over, or just plain stop reading.
Then he gets to “Have a think.” (One of those British expressions that I absolutely love.)
A great deal of writing that’s spiritual and/or for self-improvement… mostly recycles things that one has heard before.
But now that we’re in this second consciousness era on Earth, the Age of Awakening, it’s time to step up as a thought leader. Which requires thought! Which REWARDS a bit of thought.
#2. Don’t read a leading-edge book… as if it were an internet article.
Jimmy may be like most of us readers today. Does he mostly read articles, and watch YouTube videos, online?
As literacy expert (and all around wise woman) Maryanne Wolf has described in “Reader, Come Home,” that style of online reading is a common skill for keeping up. Jimmy likely has developed habits for that: skimming for headings, and taking shortcuts with certain kinds of eye movement. That can become a default.
Unless we actively stop and slow down enough to do book reading… We can lose the ability to thoughtfully read. Yet we can regain that ability. That’s essential if we aim to learn ideas that are new, current, and life-improving.
One way to regain that essential skill is to read one page aloud, then think about it. Come back the next day and repeat. (That is repeat the process, not the same Page 12, again and again.) 😉
#3. That “Program for Spiritual Enlightenment” really works.
Yes, if Jimmy reads “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening,” what’s the best part? He can start doing its “Program for Spiritual Enlightenment.” It really works.
And what if Jimmy is already in Spiritual Enlightenment? This program will help him even more. Others have found this to be true. He can too.
IN CONCLUSION
There’s more to life than many of us guess. Let alone experience.
In addition to publishing books, and facilitating personal sessions of Enlightenment Coaching, I also offer a blog that’s brimming with knowledge about how to live well in the Age of Awakening.
Maybe Jimmy would like to browse there, including the back-and-forths with our comments.
Especially recommended, these days, would be to google on "Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide" – be sure to include the quotation marks when you search.
Invite Jimmy to take a look at the end of that main article. Toward the end he’ll find a list of 23 well known Enlightenment Experts. According to my research of consciousness lifestyles, which you can read in the nearly 1,000 comments there so far, how many of those 23 experts are actually living in Enlightenment? Only 2.
You see, Edward, a lot of people have found, like Jimmy, that there are “just too many ideas” from the Age of Faith being recycled. It helps to insist on finding ideas that work in the Age of Awakening, ideas that deliver what they promise.
Rose Rosetree
THE SHORT ANSWER
Overall, Skilled Empath Merge is better than an Aura Reading. Yet, even if you know how to do both, there will be times when you will definitely choose one over the other.
AND NOW LET’S GO TO TOWN
Chris, you deserve a longer answer too. I love your question. Amazing or not, nobody has ever asked me this before.
Yes, it’s true that I teach empaths like you how to do Skilled Empath Merges. For context, every born empath has the capacity to do the skilled kind of empath merge. Yet most empaths have never even heard of this, so it’s great that you’re asking.
Before I directly answer your question, let’s go for some practical background.
Ironically, every born empath does the unskilled kind of empath merge. Only they’re not conscious. Altogether, these are useless, providing zero quality information.
And that’s not even the worst part. Every unskilled empath merge results in a certain kind of energetic garbage, Imported STUFF getting dumped into the empath’s aura. There it lingers, indefinitely.
Chris and other Goodreaders, have you ever heard of empaths bemoaning how much they suffer?
WHY IS THAT?
Prepare for a bit of a shock. In my opinion, as America’s most experienced Empath Coach, about 99% of all that suffering isn’t caused by being an empath.
Rather, unskilled empaths suffer a lot, due to being an unskilled empath whose aura is distorted by a ton of Imported STUFF.
When I teach the system of Empath Empowerment®, the main purpose is to help empaths to have better lives – better in every way, including relationships and career and personal development.
* Can you imagine going on a first date with Pat, and your cute outfit is covered in slime?
* How about showing up at work, and you can hardly see the work you are doing? Not your fault. It’s just all the “Keep out” signs plastered to your face.
* Or how about praying to God, or doing your favorite kind of meditation, and you don’t literally have ants in your pants. But you do have the energetic equivalent… all that Imported STUFF in your aura.
In short, Imported STUFF in auras is not an interesting theory. It’s an experience, and not an enjoyable kind of experience.
In a sense, this Imported STUFF is like all the other kinds of STUFF that can junk up a human being’s aura. (As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I’ve identified dozens of different kinds, along with skills to remove each kind; altogether, there many skills of Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING.)
Every kind of STUFF in auras can suck a lot of the joy out of life.
All that said, Imported STUFF is one particular kind of energetic STUFF that doesn’t have to be a problem. Since every born empath can become a Skilled Empath, receiving protection from this kind of mess, plus many other practical benefits.
HOW CAN YOU LEARN TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM IMPORTED STUFF?
First and foremost, stop doing those unintended, unskilled empath merges. Gain real-deal Empath Empowerment!
By contrast, it’s far easier to live as a Skilled Empath. Easy to learn from that how-to book you mentioned, Chris, "Empath Empowerment in 30 Days."
There you’ll find detailed info, complete with illustrations, regarding unskilled empath merges:
- How they happen
- How we empaths get the resulting Imported STUFF.
- Mostly, you learn how to prevent getting that in the first place
- Plus, you learn a First Aid technique for removing any of that energetic garbage that still slips in.
Now we have a context for answering your questions. 😊
Skilled Empath Merge: Is that sort of like an aura reading? If not, how is it different?
Such good questions deserve some unpacking. Let’s unpack three answers in a row, one at a time.
FIRST, WHAT IS A SKILLED EMPATH MERGE?
For a Skilled Empath Merge, you use a dedicated technique. Then what happens?
You experience, in consciousness, what it is like to be another person.
Differently put, you learn, “What is it like to be that other person?”
Chris, I’ve identified 15 different empath gifts. All it takes is one of these gifts and you can call yourself an empath. Different techniques for Skilled Empath Merge support some of these gifts.
For instance, my blog includes these samples of Skilled Empath Merge:
1. "Skilled Empath Merge with Ancient Mudrock. (That Argillite Is 800 MILLION Years Old)"
2. “Christmas Cactus Skilled Empath Merge”
3. "Skilled Empath Merge with the Hope Diamond"
4. Also, you’ll find many, many examples of my Skilled Empath Merges with public figures at "Best Celebrity Aura Readings 100+".
Word to the Wise: If you search on Google for these blogposts, please include the quotations provided along with the other words in the title.
SECOND, WHAT IS A QUALITY AURA READING?
With good skills of aura reading, you can read any chakra databanks you choose. (Every chakra in a human being contains 50 chakra databanks.)
For reading auras I use, and teach, the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®. This empowers you to read auras of people in person, and also through regular photographs.
Living now, we’re all in the Age of Awakening. Chris, that began during our lifetimes, with the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012. Before then, aura reading skills were quite primitive and inaccurate, compared with what you can learn to do now.
THIRD, HOW ARE THESE TWO SKILLS DIFFERENT?
Skilled Empath Merges are more personal than even good quality aura reading. Empaths experience more profound insights.
(Empaths like you, Chris, can learn to do these amazing technique from Book 4 in the series of Empath Empowerment Books: “The Master Empath.”)
Aura Readings are super-convenient. Shaping your research, you can choose to read any of a person’s 1,000+ chakra databanks, depending on what you’d like to know.
AND THERE’S MORE…
Chris, as you can tell, I found your question super interesting. Besides all I’ve written here, I spent much of my day developing a full blogpost about "Skilled Empath Merge Versus Aura Reading." Look for it here at Goodreads, Alternatively, you'll be able to find it at my personal blog, an article to be published on Monday, February 26.
Thanks for the inspiration. Of course, you and other Goodreaders are welcome to ask follow-up questions right here. Although many readers of my blog find it’s easier and more satisfying to COMMENT at my personal blog. Seems to me, it’s more reader-friendly.
Take your pick. And bye for now.
Overall, Skilled Empath Merge is better than an Aura Reading. Yet, even if you know how to do both, there will be times when you will definitely choose one over the other.
AND NOW LET’S GO TO TOWN
Chris, you deserve a longer answer too. I love your question. Amazing or not, nobody has ever asked me this before.
Yes, it’s true that I teach empaths like you how to do Skilled Empath Merges. For context, every born empath has the capacity to do the skilled kind of empath merge. Yet most empaths have never even heard of this, so it’s great that you’re asking.
Before I directly answer your question, let’s go for some practical background.
Ironically, every born empath does the unskilled kind of empath merge. Only they’re not conscious. Altogether, these are useless, providing zero quality information.
And that’s not even the worst part. Every unskilled empath merge results in a certain kind of energetic garbage, Imported STUFF getting dumped into the empath’s aura. There it lingers, indefinitely.
Chris and other Goodreaders, have you ever heard of empaths bemoaning how much they suffer?
WHY IS THAT?
Prepare for a bit of a shock. In my opinion, as America’s most experienced Empath Coach, about 99% of all that suffering isn’t caused by being an empath.
Rather, unskilled empaths suffer a lot, due to being an unskilled empath whose aura is distorted by a ton of Imported STUFF.
When I teach the system of Empath Empowerment®, the main purpose is to help empaths to have better lives – better in every way, including relationships and career and personal development.
* Can you imagine going on a first date with Pat, and your cute outfit is covered in slime?
* How about showing up at work, and you can hardly see the work you are doing? Not your fault. It’s just all the “Keep out” signs plastered to your face.
* Or how about praying to God, or doing your favorite kind of meditation, and you don’t literally have ants in your pants. But you do have the energetic equivalent… all that Imported STUFF in your aura.
In short, Imported STUFF in auras is not an interesting theory. It’s an experience, and not an enjoyable kind of experience.
In a sense, this Imported STUFF is like all the other kinds of STUFF that can junk up a human being’s aura. (As the founder of Energy Spirituality®, I’ve identified dozens of different kinds, along with skills to remove each kind; altogether, there many skills of Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING.)
Every kind of STUFF in auras can suck a lot of the joy out of life.
All that said, Imported STUFF is one particular kind of energetic STUFF that doesn’t have to be a problem. Since every born empath can become a Skilled Empath, receiving protection from this kind of mess, plus many other practical benefits.
HOW CAN YOU LEARN TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM IMPORTED STUFF?
First and foremost, stop doing those unintended, unskilled empath merges. Gain real-deal Empath Empowerment!
By contrast, it’s far easier to live as a Skilled Empath. Easy to learn from that how-to book you mentioned, Chris, "Empath Empowerment in 30 Days."
There you’ll find detailed info, complete with illustrations, regarding unskilled empath merges:
- How they happen
- How we empaths get the resulting Imported STUFF.
- Mostly, you learn how to prevent getting that in the first place
- Plus, you learn a First Aid technique for removing any of that energetic garbage that still slips in.
Now we have a context for answering your questions. 😊
Skilled Empath Merge: Is that sort of like an aura reading? If not, how is it different?
Such good questions deserve some unpacking. Let’s unpack three answers in a row, one at a time.
FIRST, WHAT IS A SKILLED EMPATH MERGE?
For a Skilled Empath Merge, you use a dedicated technique. Then what happens?
You experience, in consciousness, what it is like to be another person.
Differently put, you learn, “What is it like to be that other person?”
Chris, I’ve identified 15 different empath gifts. All it takes is one of these gifts and you can call yourself an empath. Different techniques for Skilled Empath Merge support some of these gifts.
For instance, my blog includes these samples of Skilled Empath Merge:
1. "Skilled Empath Merge with Ancient Mudrock. (That Argillite Is 800 MILLION Years Old)"
2. “Christmas Cactus Skilled Empath Merge”
3. "Skilled Empath Merge with the Hope Diamond"
4. Also, you’ll find many, many examples of my Skilled Empath Merges with public figures at "Best Celebrity Aura Readings 100+".
Word to the Wise: If you search on Google for these blogposts, please include the quotations provided along with the other words in the title.
SECOND, WHAT IS A QUALITY AURA READING?
With good skills of aura reading, you can read any chakra databanks you choose. (Every chakra in a human being contains 50 chakra databanks.)
For reading auras I use, and teach, the system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses®. This empowers you to read auras of people in person, and also through regular photographs.
Living now, we’re all in the Age of Awakening. Chris, that began during our lifetimes, with the Shift on Dec. 21, 2012. Before then, aura reading skills were quite primitive and inaccurate, compared with what you can learn to do now.
THIRD, HOW ARE THESE TWO SKILLS DIFFERENT?
Skilled Empath Merges are more personal than even good quality aura reading. Empaths experience more profound insights.
(Empaths like you, Chris, can learn to do these amazing technique from Book 4 in the series of Empath Empowerment Books: “The Master Empath.”)
Aura Readings are super-convenient. Shaping your research, you can choose to read any of a person’s 1,000+ chakra databanks, depending on what you’d like to know.
AND THERE’S MORE…
Chris, as you can tell, I found your question super interesting. Besides all I’ve written here, I spent much of my day developing a full blogpost about "Skilled Empath Merge Versus Aura Reading." Look for it here at Goodreads, Alternatively, you'll be able to find it at my personal blog, an article to be published on Monday, February 26.
Thanks for the inspiration. Of course, you and other Goodreaders are welcome to ask follow-up questions right here. Although many readers of my blog find it’s easier and more satisfying to COMMENT at my personal blog. Seems to me, it’s more reader-friendly.
Take your pick. And bye for now.
Rose Rosetree
What an important question, Adrian: Thank you.
First of all, each of us is allowed to set our own personal standard for spiritual teachers. Living where and when we do, each of us can consider ourselves to be fully authorized to choose, and aren’t we fortunate to have the right to make our own decisions about this?
Only what else is true? When it comes to our beliefs and choices in life, consequences! We receive consequences.
Consequences flow from just about any belief, any choice. That’s especially true when it comes to religion, spirituality, personal growth of any kind.
Having served as a spiritual teacher for more than 50 years – yowza! – I’ve seen plenty of consequences. For that reason, I strongly encourage every spiritual seeker to use discernment when it comes to choosing your current teacher.
FUNNILY ENOUGH, I JUST PUBLISHED SOMETHING TO HELP
This blogpost is up on Goodreads, or you can find it by googling “Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide” – and even more practical, this article is a Discernment Jamboree. Meaning, you can ask your questions about any Enlightenment Teacher or Enlightenment Coach; Enlightenment Guide or Awakening Guide, Awakening Teacher or Awakening Coach.
Hey, there’s a lot out there.
BUT WHAT DO I MEAN WHEN I REMIND YOU’ALL ABOUT CONSEQUENCES?
Adrian and other Goodreaders, essential to my personal way of serving as an Enlightenment Coach is how I use sophisticated skills of energetic literacy in order to assess what is really going on in the consciousness of any spiritual teacher.
Below I’ll share one example that illustrates consequences for that particular Enlightenment Teacher, consequences that don’t show physically and consciously but do show subconsciously and energetically.
CONSEQUENCES EXAMPLE: BUDDHIST TEACHER JEFF GOLDSTEIN
IMO he’s a high integrity Enlightenment Teacher, deservedly revered. Although I didn’t watch all of his YouTube video, "Questions About The Path to Awakening with Buddhist Teacher Joseph Goldstein,” hello! I did hear and see much that impressed me, such as his composure, his equanimity.
Then, in Blog Comments #71 and following, I did research beneath the surface, using today’s good skills of energetic literacy. Here’s a summary.
1. Goldstein’s Root Chakra Databank for Connection to Objective Reality
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down at the time of the photo.
QUALITY
A beautiful detachment from human life has been won through a great deal of personal discipline and sacrifice. To this Enlightenment Teacher, the quality of scar tissue here is utterly beautiful.
Clearly, this is the Connection to Objective Reality of a steadfast renunciate, one who has insisted upon following his path of wrecking-immobilizing-shattering any spontaneous human impulse.
2. Goldstein's Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Psychic Guidance
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
This ardent spiritual seeker has zero interest in astral flash or psychic anything. For Joseph this is a matter of discernment. Once one understands clearly that Astral is not Divine, that's it. Astral energies for their own sake... simply have no further allure.
3. Goldstein’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source
SYMBOLIC SIZE
Out into deep space. As large as it could be, at the time of this photo.
QUALITY
God is Joseph Goldstein's all in all, his one and only.
He is living very much as a renunciate. I wonder how often, in his popular teachings, he levels with his students that if they aim to follow his path they must likewise renounce EVERYTHING except for life itself.
In order to do this particular research job right, I'll need to include one further chakra databank belonging to Joseph Goldstein:
#4. His Heart Chakra Databank for Emotional Self-Awareness.
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
No trace is left of emotional experience: This has been destroyed, lovingly sacrificed, just like all the other defining characteristics of Mr. Goldstein's humanity.
Consciousness Lifestyle of Joseph Goldstein at the Time of this Screenshot?
Would I call this Spiritual Enlightenment? No. But it does seem to me that he's living a close equivalent: A surrendered lifestyle in Spiritual Addiction, a variation of that consciousness lifestyle which involves a very pure renunciation.
In the Age of Faith, only the very bravest-and-purest renunciates -- of a certain kind -- have achieved this way of living. Yes, I have researched auras belonging to a very small number of them.
Offering the very deepest respect to Joseph Goldstein and those who are following the path that he teaches, imo this version of renunciation is now obsolete. And why?
Because we're living in the Age of Awakening now. Whereas his Age of Faith path is beautiful but also relentlessly cruel.
Living now, even if fully committed to life as a renunciate, a person can reach Spiritual Enlightenment without this harsh choice for a spiritual path, a path that does not culminate in the bliss of Enlightenment but stops short at a life of dutifully extreme renunciation:
Pain-free. Joy-free. Equanimity without any lingering humanity.
Look, Goodreaders, I have definitely read auras of many other renunciates in Traditional Enlightenment.
They are not walking around like this -- to put it bluntly, like devotees of Yama. Or whatever the equivalent would be on a Buddhist path like that followed by Goldstein.
But life is large enough to include innumerable paths.
Still, I would feel sorry for any seeker of an "Awakening Teacher" who hears words that resonate idealistically like "equanimity"... While conveniently not being informed about the Olympic level of personal sacrifice that is required to succeed at a path like Goldstein's.
IN CONCLUSION
Even when a spiritual teacher’s words sound appealing, we would be wise to learn more about what is going on within the consciousness of that spiritual teacher.
Maybe you can do this kind of research for yourself. A prerequisite would be excellent skills of Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, which you can certainly learn. Plus, you’d need considerable experience at discerning consciousness lifestyles.
What might be easier for any of you who are curious about the standing of any spiritual teacher who appeals to you?
Here’s my invitation, for now and the foreseeable future. If that spiritual teacher is a public figure with a website or presence on YouTube, or a book with a current photograph... I can do some consciousness lifestyle research at that aforementioned blog post.
My freebie. No strings attached.
Just be sure to read exactly how to comment in order to receive that free research. Very specific instructions await you at that blogpost.
Thanks to all of you who have made it through this long answer. And thanks again, Adrian, for asking this question. It's a fair question, since I'm the author of that up-to-date resource for spiritual seekers, “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
First of all, each of us is allowed to set our own personal standard for spiritual teachers. Living where and when we do, each of us can consider ourselves to be fully authorized to choose, and aren’t we fortunate to have the right to make our own decisions about this?
Only what else is true? When it comes to our beliefs and choices in life, consequences! We receive consequences.
Consequences flow from just about any belief, any choice. That’s especially true when it comes to religion, spirituality, personal growth of any kind.
Having served as a spiritual teacher for more than 50 years – yowza! – I’ve seen plenty of consequences. For that reason, I strongly encourage every spiritual seeker to use discernment when it comes to choosing your current teacher.
FUNNILY ENOUGH, I JUST PUBLISHED SOMETHING TO HELP
This blogpost is up on Goodreads, or you can find it by googling “Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide” – and even more practical, this article is a Discernment Jamboree. Meaning, you can ask your questions about any Enlightenment Teacher or Enlightenment Coach; Enlightenment Guide or Awakening Guide, Awakening Teacher or Awakening Coach.
Hey, there’s a lot out there.
BUT WHAT DO I MEAN WHEN I REMIND YOU’ALL ABOUT CONSEQUENCES?
Adrian and other Goodreaders, essential to my personal way of serving as an Enlightenment Coach is how I use sophisticated skills of energetic literacy in order to assess what is really going on in the consciousness of any spiritual teacher.
Below I’ll share one example that illustrates consequences for that particular Enlightenment Teacher, consequences that don’t show physically and consciously but do show subconsciously and energetically.
CONSEQUENCES EXAMPLE: BUDDHIST TEACHER JEFF GOLDSTEIN
IMO he’s a high integrity Enlightenment Teacher, deservedly revered. Although I didn’t watch all of his YouTube video, "Questions About The Path to Awakening with Buddhist Teacher Joseph Goldstein,” hello! I did hear and see much that impressed me, such as his composure, his equanimity.
Then, in Blog Comments #71 and following, I did research beneath the surface, using today’s good skills of energetic literacy. Here’s a summary.
1. Goldstein’s Root Chakra Databank for Connection to Objective Reality
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down at the time of the photo.
QUALITY
A beautiful detachment from human life has been won through a great deal of personal discipline and sacrifice. To this Enlightenment Teacher, the quality of scar tissue here is utterly beautiful.
Clearly, this is the Connection to Objective Reality of a steadfast renunciate, one who has insisted upon following his path of wrecking-immobilizing-shattering any spontaneous human impulse.
2. Goldstein's Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Psychic Guidance
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
This ardent spiritual seeker has zero interest in astral flash or psychic anything. For Joseph this is a matter of discernment. Once one understands clearly that Astral is not Divine, that's it. Astral energies for their own sake... simply have no further allure.
3. Goldstein’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source
SYMBOLIC SIZE
Out into deep space. As large as it could be, at the time of this photo.
QUALITY
God is Joseph Goldstein's all in all, his one and only.
He is living very much as a renunciate. I wonder how often, in his popular teachings, he levels with his students that if they aim to follow his path they must likewise renounce EVERYTHING except for life itself.
In order to do this particular research job right, I'll need to include one further chakra databank belonging to Joseph Goldstein:
#4. His Heart Chakra Databank for Emotional Self-Awareness.
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
No trace is left of emotional experience: This has been destroyed, lovingly sacrificed, just like all the other defining characteristics of Mr. Goldstein's humanity.
Consciousness Lifestyle of Joseph Goldstein at the Time of this Screenshot?
Would I call this Spiritual Enlightenment? No. But it does seem to me that he's living a close equivalent: A surrendered lifestyle in Spiritual Addiction, a variation of that consciousness lifestyle which involves a very pure renunciation.
In the Age of Faith, only the very bravest-and-purest renunciates -- of a certain kind -- have achieved this way of living. Yes, I have researched auras belonging to a very small number of them.
Offering the very deepest respect to Joseph Goldstein and those who are following the path that he teaches, imo this version of renunciation is now obsolete. And why?
Because we're living in the Age of Awakening now. Whereas his Age of Faith path is beautiful but also relentlessly cruel.
Living now, even if fully committed to life as a renunciate, a person can reach Spiritual Enlightenment without this harsh choice for a spiritual path, a path that does not culminate in the bliss of Enlightenment but stops short at a life of dutifully extreme renunciation:
Pain-free. Joy-free. Equanimity without any lingering humanity.
Look, Goodreaders, I have definitely read auras of many other renunciates in Traditional Enlightenment.
They are not walking around like this -- to put it bluntly, like devotees of Yama. Or whatever the equivalent would be on a Buddhist path like that followed by Goldstein.
But life is large enough to include innumerable paths.
Still, I would feel sorry for any seeker of an "Awakening Teacher" who hears words that resonate idealistically like "equanimity"... While conveniently not being informed about the Olympic level of personal sacrifice that is required to succeed at a path like Goldstein's.
IN CONCLUSION
Even when a spiritual teacher’s words sound appealing, we would be wise to learn more about what is going on within the consciousness of that spiritual teacher.
Maybe you can do this kind of research for yourself. A prerequisite would be excellent skills of Stage 3 Energetic Literacy, which you can certainly learn. Plus, you’d need considerable experience at discerning consciousness lifestyles.
What might be easier for any of you who are curious about the standing of any spiritual teacher who appeals to you?
Here’s my invitation, for now and the foreseeable future. If that spiritual teacher is a public figure with a website or presence on YouTube, or a book with a current photograph... I can do some consciousness lifestyle research at that aforementioned blog post.
My freebie. No strings attached.
Just be sure to read exactly how to comment in order to receive that free research. Very specific instructions await you at that blogpost.
Thanks to all of you who have made it through this long answer. And thanks again, Adrian, for asking this question. It's a fair question, since I'm the author of that up-to-date resource for spiritual seekers, “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.
Rose Rosetree
Dana, three questions at least -- all wrapped up as one question. I like that!
Starting off...
What is it like to be the founder of Energy Spirituality?
In a way, it's familiar. In a way, not. Between 1969 and 1985, I did what I could to help Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his Transcendental Meditation Movement. As one of his initiators, I learned about doing service, To me, that never feels fancy, but it does feel good.
For details about that, Dana and other Goodreaders, just google on "Rose Rosetree Teaching TM + Precedent" -- and include those quotation marks. You'll find three articles about the nitty-gritty, what it was like setting three precedents for a large organization.
By contrast, founding Energy Spirituality® didn't happen as though I was founding a thing. This field grew and grew, as a matter of service to my clients and students. If I had known how much there would be to this work, or how beautifully the different specialties would fit together, this might have seemed overwhelming.
It wasn't until last year, 2023, that I finally obtained a trademark for Energy Spirituality, and it started in 1986.
What has it been like? Notably, moments of inspiration.
Otherwise? As Maharishi used to say, "Life is either bliss or lessons."
What is it like to being first at the many specialties of Energy Spirituality?
Not like being awarded first prize at the county fair, due to growing a very large pumpkin. ;)
Each of the 10 trademarked systems, like Aura Reading Through All Your Senses® or Empath Empowerment®, has been cocreated with Divine help. So I haven't been tempted to take credit for "leadership." Although I do my human best to honor the inspiration by writing books, offering online workshops, and sessions.
You've called me a "leader", Dana. I thank you for that.
In hindsight, I agree that it's true. The fun part is how the innovations and discoveries keep on coming.
Do I find generally that people respect my work?
Look, some do and some don't. My attention goes to those folks I can help.
Thanks for asking, Dana.
Starting off...
What is it like to be the founder of Energy Spirituality?
In a way, it's familiar. In a way, not. Between 1969 and 1985, I did what I could to help Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his Transcendental Meditation Movement. As one of his initiators, I learned about doing service, To me, that never feels fancy, but it does feel good.
For details about that, Dana and other Goodreaders, just google on "Rose Rosetree Teaching TM + Precedent" -- and include those quotation marks. You'll find three articles about the nitty-gritty, what it was like setting three precedents for a large organization.
By contrast, founding Energy Spirituality® didn't happen as though I was founding a thing. This field grew and grew, as a matter of service to my clients and students. If I had known how much there would be to this work, or how beautifully the different specialties would fit together, this might have seemed overwhelming.
It wasn't until last year, 2023, that I finally obtained a trademark for Energy Spirituality, and it started in 1986.
What has it been like? Notably, moments of inspiration.
Otherwise? As Maharishi used to say, "Life is either bliss or lessons."
What is it like to being first at the many specialties of Energy Spirituality?
Not like being awarded first prize at the county fair, due to growing a very large pumpkin. ;)
Each of the 10 trademarked systems, like Aura Reading Through All Your Senses® or Empath Empowerment®, has been cocreated with Divine help. So I haven't been tempted to take credit for "leadership." Although I do my human best to honor the inspiration by writing books, offering online workshops, and sessions.
You've called me a "leader", Dana. I thank you for that.
In hindsight, I agree that it's true. The fun part is how the innovations and discoveries keep on coming.
Do I find generally that people respect my work?
Look, some do and some don't. My attention goes to those folks I can help.
Thanks for asking, Dana.
Rose Rosetree
Thank you for asking, G. Why do I write from experience, rather than being a theorist?
Actually I do both. First I learn from experience. Then, and then only, do I come up with theories. I think that’s important for a spiritual writer and teacher. (AKA, to be technical, an Enlightenment Coach.)
To explain, let’s consider a recent example. My most recent blogpost, published on New Year’s Day 2024, lays out a detailed model for the “Anatomy of Consciousness Structures within Human Beings.”
Altogether, I go into some detail about 27 different subconscious structures, each one serving as a kind of kaleidoscope for inner learning and personal growth.
For years I’ve been accumulating this knowledge, particularly while facilitating sessions for one Energy Spirituality® client at a time.
As for the order in which I’ve put those 27 structures, that exploration has been in progress for years as well. Exploring how?
THREE WAYS TO DEVELOP NEW UNDERSTANDINGS
* Cocreating each session with God or Jesus or Archangel Raphael or another Divine Being
* Helping that individual client
* Bringing an Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING Centerpiece into action.
Witnessing all this is, first and foremost, an act of service to my client. Secondarily, this produces BIG LEARNING for me, the session facilitator. Third, when clients return for their next Energy Spirituality session, they tell me about results from that particular healing centerpiece, at that particular time, for them in particular.
Sometimes we’ll discuss. On occasion my client asks a question, so even more knowledge flows.
As you know if you’ve had even one personal session of Energy Spirituality, it’s an improv. That is to say, the skills being used are systematically designed, rigorous, with many ways of helping the client to grow and remove energetic STUFF.
As a result, this iterative process brings me knowledge about the impact of a skill upon that client’s mind, intellect, emotions, soul expression for this lifetime, and spiritual evolution.
THAT SAID, WHY AM I NOT A THEORIST?
For a larger context, G., Energy Spirituality is unfolding now, in the early years of the Age of Awakening. This knowledge is unfolding one session at a time, one workshop or book at a time, with teaching for the teacher as well as the student.
All the discoveries are the most thrilling ride to this founder of Energy Spirituality. Like opening up the best amusement park ride ever, and soon there will be a new ride, a new innovation.
When I blog about new discoveries, of course, it can sound theoretical or look theoretical (depending on which is your favorite metaphor for gaining knowledge with High Truth Value). But that’s because I approach spiritual knowledge as a consciousness engineer.
Plus, I’m a teacher. Coming from a family of teachers. Learn about them, if you like, from an early chapter in my memoir, “Bigger than All the Night Sky.”
Back at the topic of teaching, of course there will be concepts and ways of teaching them. But not because I begin by spinning theories, like many a writer on the internet.
As if that’s a karma-free activity, making up techniques or writing self-help books! Desperately unhappy people, or folks with idle curiosity, do not generally distinguish between the offerings of theorists versus people with the standing to teach them anything of value for personal development.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF WRITING AS A THEORIST
In this context, G. and others, you might take a look at a blogpost I published last year, an article about “Boundaries for Empaths and Others.”
The author of a popular self-help article for empaths… happens to work at a resort where people come for self-help seminars. Although she works there as a chef, she took it upon herself to make up an approach to help empaths based on what?
Evidently she took bits and pieces from what she learned from others, and put them together like some kind of experiment in a wok. No doubt she meant well, but....
To me, she serves as an example of a theorist. She’s playing at knowledge, like a kid playing with Legos.
If she only experimented on herself -- nobody else -- that might lead to some not-great consequences… whether sooner or later. But when she teaches and publishes her theories, that’s where she’s creating interesting-and-uncomfortable karma for herself.
CONTINUING TO ANSWER YOUR FINE QUESTION, G.
Do I think theories are helpful in any way when it comes to a spiritual pursuit?
Definitely. As you may know, this Goodreads author has published about Aura Reading, Energy Spirituality Energy Healing, the system of Face Reading Secrets®, and I've founded the self-help field of Energy Spirituality®.
Every one of my self-help books has had a theory base. It's just that I spent years developing and testing those theories. Hey, that's why I've obtained 11 trademarks!
Personal growth books, as well as books about spiritual evolution -- surely they depend upon the integrity and knowledge of the writer. Even though one can just make things up, as if it's a sort of a game.
Do I think it is better to keep the theories to science?
Look, science means two things. At least!
1. Science means hypotheses and testing and so forth.
2. Besides that, "science" means a systematic approach.
For any author or teacher writing about personal growth, emotional growth, spiritual awakening, and more... Of course a systematic approach is essential. At least, it's essential for me.
IN CONCLUSION
Thanks for asking, G. What if you, or other Goodreaders, have follow-up questions? Just ask.
Actually I do both. First I learn from experience. Then, and then only, do I come up with theories. I think that’s important for a spiritual writer and teacher. (AKA, to be technical, an Enlightenment Coach.)
To explain, let’s consider a recent example. My most recent blogpost, published on New Year’s Day 2024, lays out a detailed model for the “Anatomy of Consciousness Structures within Human Beings.”
Altogether, I go into some detail about 27 different subconscious structures, each one serving as a kind of kaleidoscope for inner learning and personal growth.
For years I’ve been accumulating this knowledge, particularly while facilitating sessions for one Energy Spirituality® client at a time.
As for the order in which I’ve put those 27 structures, that exploration has been in progress for years as well. Exploring how?
THREE WAYS TO DEVELOP NEW UNDERSTANDINGS
* Cocreating each session with God or Jesus or Archangel Raphael or another Divine Being
* Helping that individual client
* Bringing an Energy Spirituality ENERGY HEALING Centerpiece into action.
Witnessing all this is, first and foremost, an act of service to my client. Secondarily, this produces BIG LEARNING for me, the session facilitator. Third, when clients return for their next Energy Spirituality session, they tell me about results from that particular healing centerpiece, at that particular time, for them in particular.
Sometimes we’ll discuss. On occasion my client asks a question, so even more knowledge flows.
As you know if you’ve had even one personal session of Energy Spirituality, it’s an improv. That is to say, the skills being used are systematically designed, rigorous, with many ways of helping the client to grow and remove energetic STUFF.
As a result, this iterative process brings me knowledge about the impact of a skill upon that client’s mind, intellect, emotions, soul expression for this lifetime, and spiritual evolution.
THAT SAID, WHY AM I NOT A THEORIST?
For a larger context, G., Energy Spirituality is unfolding now, in the early years of the Age of Awakening. This knowledge is unfolding one session at a time, one workshop or book at a time, with teaching for the teacher as well as the student.
All the discoveries are the most thrilling ride to this founder of Energy Spirituality. Like opening up the best amusement park ride ever, and soon there will be a new ride, a new innovation.
When I blog about new discoveries, of course, it can sound theoretical or look theoretical (depending on which is your favorite metaphor for gaining knowledge with High Truth Value). But that’s because I approach spiritual knowledge as a consciousness engineer.
Plus, I’m a teacher. Coming from a family of teachers. Learn about them, if you like, from an early chapter in my memoir, “Bigger than All the Night Sky.”
Back at the topic of teaching, of course there will be concepts and ways of teaching them. But not because I begin by spinning theories, like many a writer on the internet.
As if that’s a karma-free activity, making up techniques or writing self-help books! Desperately unhappy people, or folks with idle curiosity, do not generally distinguish between the offerings of theorists versus people with the standing to teach them anything of value for personal development.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF WRITING AS A THEORIST
In this context, G. and others, you might take a look at a blogpost I published last year, an article about “Boundaries for Empaths and Others.”
The author of a popular self-help article for empaths… happens to work at a resort where people come for self-help seminars. Although she works there as a chef, she took it upon herself to make up an approach to help empaths based on what?
Evidently she took bits and pieces from what she learned from others, and put them together like some kind of experiment in a wok. No doubt she meant well, but....
To me, she serves as an example of a theorist. She’s playing at knowledge, like a kid playing with Legos.
If she only experimented on herself -- nobody else -- that might lead to some not-great consequences… whether sooner or later. But when she teaches and publishes her theories, that’s where she’s creating interesting-and-uncomfortable karma for herself.
CONTINUING TO ANSWER YOUR FINE QUESTION, G.
Do I think theories are helpful in any way when it comes to a spiritual pursuit?
Definitely. As you may know, this Goodreads author has published about Aura Reading, Energy Spirituality Energy Healing, the system of Face Reading Secrets®, and I've founded the self-help field of Energy Spirituality®.
Every one of my self-help books has had a theory base. It's just that I spent years developing and testing those theories. Hey, that's why I've obtained 11 trademarks!
Personal growth books, as well as books about spiritual evolution -- surely they depend upon the integrity and knowledge of the writer. Even though one can just make things up, as if it's a sort of a game.
Do I think it is better to keep the theories to science?
Look, science means two things. At least!
1. Science means hypotheses and testing and so forth.
2. Besides that, "science" means a systematic approach.
For any author or teacher writing about personal growth, emotional growth, spiritual awakening, and more... Of course a systematic approach is essential. At least, it's essential for me.
IN CONCLUSION
Thanks for asking, G. What if you, or other Goodreaders, have follow-up questions? Just ask.
Rose Rosetree
Thanks, Adrian.
As I often remind folks at my blog (where we have a ton of lively Comment Conversations), I am not a theorist.
That means, what I write about -- including in "Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening" -- comes from my experience.
What experience? To date, my experience includes having facilitated 38,500 personal sessions of Energy Spirituality®. (Later today, for instance, three new sessions are on my schedule. That adds up to a lot of learning.)
Besides sessions, I teach online workshops, complete with highly interactive forums. Also I maintain a leading-edge group that's organized exclusively to help some of my clients who have moved into Age of Awakening Enlightenment, folks who want to know more about how to keep on growing within Spiritual Enlightenment.
Besides all that, there's my educational blog, "Deeper Perception Made Practical." Just about daily we have lively comment exchanges, educational exchanges. This year, at this monitored blog, we averaged at least 1,000 new comments monthly.
In short, I teach and learn. Outside of my work, I stay informed about social and political news, so that I can do my part to contribute to society.
THUS, WHEN I DO WRITE ABOUT TRENDS IN SOCIETY...
All that writing is based on real-life experience with real people. A lot of learning and listening!
So, Adrian, I can't tell you specifically how I came to notice the trend that I wrote about in that book, the trend I call Church-Wenters. (In contrast to Churchgoers.)
Except that I did discover that. And found that trend really fascinating.
THEN KNOWLEDGE INFORMED MY WRITING
Supplementing that knowledge, what else happened? During the years I was writing and editing this self-help book, I did a fair amount of research to substantiate what I'd learned anecdotally: concerning the sharp drop in church attendance among many former Evangelicals, now "Exvangelicals."
As you know, "Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening" explores the ongoing mystery of why so many have dropped out of formal religious affiliation. Solving that mystery adds up, one chapter after another.
YES, CHURCH-WENTERS REPRESENT AN IMPORTANT MYSTERY
In my view, at least, Adrian. As for why I wrote about that?
Look, many of my readers are mostly interested in what's promised in the subtitle to that book: Your Complete Program for Spiritual Awakening and More.
Yet a completely different reason to read this book, and to keep on reading, is the desire to find answers to that consequential mystery:
* A mystery that unfolds, chapter by chapter.
* A mystery that involves how, as I've come to understand, human consciousness has subtly changed since the Shift, such as humanity's new "Consciousness Positioning Superpower."
WHY DOES ALL THAT MATTER?
All of us can adapt well to living now, in the Age of Awakening. Thus far, though, most people are not doing so well. So much human happiness -- and effectiveness in life -- are being squandered.
Seems to me, by highlighting that particular mystery as a sub-theme in this book for self-help in the Age of Awakening, I can encourage readers to keep on reading.
Who doesn't love a good mystery, especially the chance to gain clarity about an ongoing mystery that affects quality of life... where every single one of us is living right now?
As an author, I figured that solving the Church-Wenters Mystery just might be more appealing than "How can I adapt well to the Age of Awakening?"
Let's face it. For now, that second question brings up a controversial topic which means nothing to most people. Yet who among us doesn't know a single churchgoer... or ex-churchgoer?
And who doesn't wonder, deep down? Is there only one right way to please God?
Finally, for those of us spiritual seekers who long to use of our full potential, who among us doesn't wonder, deep down, "What can help me to progress, to make authentic progress, spiritually?"
As I often remind folks at my blog (where we have a ton of lively Comment Conversations), I am not a theorist.
That means, what I write about -- including in "Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening" -- comes from my experience.
What experience? To date, my experience includes having facilitated 38,500 personal sessions of Energy Spirituality®. (Later today, for instance, three new sessions are on my schedule. That adds up to a lot of learning.)
Besides sessions, I teach online workshops, complete with highly interactive forums. Also I maintain a leading-edge group that's organized exclusively to help some of my clients who have moved into Age of Awakening Enlightenment, folks who want to know more about how to keep on growing within Spiritual Enlightenment.
Besides all that, there's my educational blog, "Deeper Perception Made Practical." Just about daily we have lively comment exchanges, educational exchanges. This year, at this monitored blog, we averaged at least 1,000 new comments monthly.
In short, I teach and learn. Outside of my work, I stay informed about social and political news, so that I can do my part to contribute to society.
THUS, WHEN I DO WRITE ABOUT TRENDS IN SOCIETY...
All that writing is based on real-life experience with real people. A lot of learning and listening!
So, Adrian, I can't tell you specifically how I came to notice the trend that I wrote about in that book, the trend I call Church-Wenters. (In contrast to Churchgoers.)
Except that I did discover that. And found that trend really fascinating.
THEN KNOWLEDGE INFORMED MY WRITING
Supplementing that knowledge, what else happened? During the years I was writing and editing this self-help book, I did a fair amount of research to substantiate what I'd learned anecdotally: concerning the sharp drop in church attendance among many former Evangelicals, now "Exvangelicals."
As you know, "Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening" explores the ongoing mystery of why so many have dropped out of formal religious affiliation. Solving that mystery adds up, one chapter after another.
YES, CHURCH-WENTERS REPRESENT AN IMPORTANT MYSTERY
In my view, at least, Adrian. As for why I wrote about that?
Look, many of my readers are mostly interested in what's promised in the subtitle to that book: Your Complete Program for Spiritual Awakening and More.
Yet a completely different reason to read this book, and to keep on reading, is the desire to find answers to that consequential mystery:
* A mystery that unfolds, chapter by chapter.
* A mystery that involves how, as I've come to understand, human consciousness has subtly changed since the Shift, such as humanity's new "Consciousness Positioning Superpower."
WHY DOES ALL THAT MATTER?
All of us can adapt well to living now, in the Age of Awakening. Thus far, though, most people are not doing so well. So much human happiness -- and effectiveness in life -- are being squandered.
Seems to me, by highlighting that particular mystery as a sub-theme in this book for self-help in the Age of Awakening, I can encourage readers to keep on reading.
Who doesn't love a good mystery, especially the chance to gain clarity about an ongoing mystery that affects quality of life... where every single one of us is living right now?
As an author, I figured that solving the Church-Wenters Mystery just might be more appealing than "How can I adapt well to the Age of Awakening?"
Let's face it. For now, that second question brings up a controversial topic which means nothing to most people. Yet who among us doesn't know a single churchgoer... or ex-churchgoer?
And who doesn't wonder, deep down? Is there only one right way to please God?
Finally, for those of us spiritual seekers who long to use of our full potential, who among us doesn't wonder, deep down, "What can help me to progress, to make authentic progress, spiritually?"
Rose Rosetree
Adrian, you've asked a whole series of questions here at my Goodreads Author page. I'm just delighted.
FIRST, A SIMPLE ANSWER
Regarding the part of this question about What is the difference between your books about Empath Empowerment, and the books that Judith Orloff and Judy Dyer write?
A very big difference is that I cocreated the system of Empath Empowerment®. Neither of these authors has the right to ever claim that they are teaching "Empath Empowerment." That's trademark infringement. Both Judith and Judy and their publishers ought to know better.
To be clear, what they teach came after I published the first book for empaths in English, in 2001. Afterward they have added their contributions which teach entirely different approaches.
All books for empaths aren't alike, no more than every vehicle on the road, are equally good for driving.
SECOND, REGARDING SELF-PUBLISHING
I'm so glad you asked about this, Adrian. Independent publishing (as it is called today, more commonly than "self-publishing") does allow more freedom. But what kind of freedom? I'd like to delve into that a bit with you and other Goodreaders.
Ever since I was in high school, I became fascinated with the novels of Virginia Woolf and also James Joyce. Both of them published in the century leading up to the Shift into the Age of Awakening. Both were leaders in writing from the vantage point of deepening perception.
At the time when they wrote, it was shocking that they wrote about stream of consciousness: Namely Woolf and Joyce explored bits of subconscious experience that could be found beneath the usual surface of life, conscious experience.
AND I DO MEAN SHOCKING
At the time, was the public ready for that leading-edge kind of subject matter?
"Ulysses," by James Joyce, was published by Sylvia Beach, the proprietor of the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Not self-published.
However, it was banned in different countries. For instance, in America, in 1920, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice successfully argued to have the book labeled as obscene and effectively banned. That ban wasn't lifted until a 1933 court ruling.
So that's what James Joyce faced for breakthrough writing that was ahead of his time. IMO, that's one way he personally paid the price for his leadership.
BY CONTRAST, VIRGINIA WOOLF SELF-PUBLISHED
For decades, she and her husband, Leonard Woolf, In the decades that she and her husband, established the Hogarth Press - starting with a hand-operated printer they ran on their dining room table, cranking out one page at a time.
Thus Virginia Woolf could published what she wished. Relatively little censorship and banning afflicted her career. Yet who can tell the price that she, personally, paid for publishing leading-edge work? (Perhaps some of you know how her life ended, for instance.)
Is it ever easy to bring authentically new writing into the world, creating breakthroughs in Collective Consciousness? I don't think so.
BACK TO YOUR ORIGINAL QUESTION HERE, ADRIAN
In no way am I likening myself to these two literary greats, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Yet both of them produced work that went against, or around, or beyond, what was popular then in the mainstream.
In my very different career, I have served as a bit of an innovator myself, such as bringing forward the method of Empath Empowerment, a method that hasn't been copied... even if other empath authors have taken the name of the system I teach through "Empath Empowerment in 30 Days" and the other books.
HOW RESPECTFULLY HAS MY WORK BEEN TREATED BY MAINSTREAM PUBLISHERS?
Not very. I have a couple of examples, if any of you Goodreaders wishes to ask about them.
Bottom line, although publishing by traditional houses was once my dream, that is no longer my dream. I'm grateful for those readers who find my indie books, and appreciate them. And, like any indie publisher, every rating and review from you readers does make a very significant difference for helping us to reach our readers.
Indie authors are underdogs, basically. At least, we get to be our own kind of dogs. ;)
FIRST, A SIMPLE ANSWER
Regarding the part of this question about What is the difference between your books about Empath Empowerment, and the books that Judith Orloff and Judy Dyer write?
A very big difference is that I cocreated the system of Empath Empowerment®. Neither of these authors has the right to ever claim that they are teaching "Empath Empowerment." That's trademark infringement. Both Judith and Judy and their publishers ought to know better.
To be clear, what they teach came after I published the first book for empaths in English, in 2001. Afterward they have added their contributions which teach entirely different approaches.
All books for empaths aren't alike, no more than every vehicle on the road, are equally good for driving.
SECOND, REGARDING SELF-PUBLISHING
I'm so glad you asked about this, Adrian. Independent publishing (as it is called today, more commonly than "self-publishing") does allow more freedom. But what kind of freedom? I'd like to delve into that a bit with you and other Goodreaders.
Ever since I was in high school, I became fascinated with the novels of Virginia Woolf and also James Joyce. Both of them published in the century leading up to the Shift into the Age of Awakening. Both were leaders in writing from the vantage point of deepening perception.
At the time when they wrote, it was shocking that they wrote about stream of consciousness: Namely Woolf and Joyce explored bits of subconscious experience that could be found beneath the usual surface of life, conscious experience.
AND I DO MEAN SHOCKING
At the time, was the public ready for that leading-edge kind of subject matter?
"Ulysses," by James Joyce, was published by Sylvia Beach, the proprietor of the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Not self-published.
However, it was banned in different countries. For instance, in America, in 1920, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice successfully argued to have the book labeled as obscene and effectively banned. That ban wasn't lifted until a 1933 court ruling.
So that's what James Joyce faced for breakthrough writing that was ahead of his time. IMO, that's one way he personally paid the price for his leadership.
BY CONTRAST, VIRGINIA WOOLF SELF-PUBLISHED
For decades, she and her husband, Leonard Woolf, In the decades that she and her husband, established the Hogarth Press - starting with a hand-operated printer they ran on their dining room table, cranking out one page at a time.
Thus Virginia Woolf could published what she wished. Relatively little censorship and banning afflicted her career. Yet who can tell the price that she, personally, paid for publishing leading-edge work? (Perhaps some of you know how her life ended, for instance.)
Is it ever easy to bring authentically new writing into the world, creating breakthroughs in Collective Consciousness? I don't think so.
BACK TO YOUR ORIGINAL QUESTION HERE, ADRIAN
In no way am I likening myself to these two literary greats, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Yet both of them produced work that went against, or around, or beyond, what was popular then in the mainstream.
In my very different career, I have served as a bit of an innovator myself, such as bringing forward the method of Empath Empowerment, a method that hasn't been copied... even if other empath authors have taken the name of the system I teach through "Empath Empowerment in 30 Days" and the other books.
HOW RESPECTFULLY HAS MY WORK BEEN TREATED BY MAINSTREAM PUBLISHERS?
Not very. I have a couple of examples, if any of you Goodreaders wishes to ask about them.
Bottom line, although publishing by traditional houses was once my dream, that is no longer my dream. I'm grateful for those readers who find my indie books, and appreciate them. And, like any indie publisher, every rating and review from you readers does make a very significant difference for helping us to reach our readers.
Indie authors are underdogs, basically. At least, we get to be our own kind of dogs. ;)
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