Rea Nolan Martin's Blog, page 2
November 4, 2015
The Anatomy of a Miracle
I have a fairly resilient friend who’s been through tough times. Her motto, borrowed from Winston Churchill, is, “When you’re going through hell, keep on going.” Last week I asked her how things were, and she said, “All things considered, pretty darn good, but I know it won’t last. Sooner or later it will all fall apart.” I asked her why she thought that. “Just the way the world works,” she said with a shrug.
But is it really the way the world works? Or is it possible that what we perceive as inevitable breakdowns are really caused by our failure to sustain higher thought? After all, if we expect things to deteriorate, they probably will. It makes sense that a negative expectation would set us up for failure or at least contribute to the process. Mystics and spiritual masters tell us that elements of the concrete world are first formed by substance of the Mind. In less esoteric terms that means–thought precedes action. The collective Mind is said to be infinite and unlimited. Any personal limitations are those we’ve probably placed on ourselves or allowed others to place on us in the form of inherited, unchallenged belief systems.
Spiritually speaking, I don’t believe in limitations, which doesn’t mean I don’t experience any. But I realize that the limitations I do experience derive mostly from fear, unbelief, or the unforgiving boundaries of the physical world. On the whole, I’m an optimist of the supernatural sort. I’ve witnessed a miracle or two in my life, including the significant healings of loved ones, just-in-time money, and broader global movements like the collapse of Communism and peace in Northern Ireland. Did any of these perceived miracles contradict the laws of physics? Probably not, but they didn’t occur in the absence of prayer or intention either.
Skeptics may counter (and I may agree) that in the case of medical miracles, the body has been known to muster utterly natural resources to heal itself in spite of great odds. It does happen. And money has surely been known to show up sooner or later in the pockets of intelligent, hard working people. That’s how the economy is supposed to work. Of global shifts in power, one could argue that systems like Communism collapsed of their own weight decades before their final public gasps.
So if these are natural occurrences, what exactly constitutes a miracle?
Miracles spring from higher consciousness. There are plenty of gurus who preach the power of intention, and that’s certainly the predecessor of any conscious act. First, we have to bring the problem and the desired result into our awareness. Maybe the sustained articulation of clear intention–to heal, to gather wealth, or even to destroy embedded social systems (especially when it’s done collectively)– is enough to make it happen, if not immediately, then over time. After all, if I have a strong intention to overcome an obstacle and follow it with deliberate action, who says I can’t do it? And if I do, is it a miracle or just a case of mind over matter?
Maybe mind over matter is the miracle.
Human minds are famously undisciplined. Harnessing our minds takes hard work and patience. Anyone who’s ever tried to meditate knows this is true. (I have unintentionally planned entire dinner parties while trying to meditate.) The conquest of an undisciplined mind–that is, the intense and sustained focus of our inner lens on a goal of any kind–is the first and most essential step in an act of conscious creation. Consciousness is the creative force of the universe. Harnessing that force is our opportunity to partner with our Creator to produce the kind of abundant, compassionate (some would say miraculous) environment we all crave.
Not that it’s easy.
At this point in evolution, unconscious creation is the norm. Unconscious creation is the product of undisciplined minds, and this type of creation is powerful, too, but in a profoundly negative way. Through unconscious creation, the mind creates situations through default. Addictions and other bad habits are given form by the constant repetition of desire and indulgence. Phobias are Thought Patterns created by fear. The subconscious and unconscious personal and collective mind is generally ruled by undisciplined thoughts. Repetition of these thoughts on a communal or global basis gives them form, also known as Elementals. Entire wars are caused by these–just think of the many thousands, even millions of people waking up with hatred for people they’ve never even met. By awakening to this hidden reality–by accepting responsibility for our individual thoughts, fears, and desires–we learn to face these enemies, reduce them, and ultimately eradicate them from within. When we reduce and eradicate them from within, it benefits not only us, but everyone in our sphere.
In other words, the entire world.
When we learn to replace negative thoughts with healthy, beneficial thoughts, we strengthen our minds and improve our lives. When we nurture beneficial Elementals, we increase our ability to summon what spiritual masters call the Super-substance of higher Mind to conjure a higher world. A world that, from down here would look pretty darn miraculous.
In one of the Christian gospels Peter the Apostle is invited to walk with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. He obeys, amazed at his ability to walk on water. Look at me! Reveling in his higher divine nature, he is joyful, buoyant. Then he looks down, and with his lower mind thinks, “This is impossible. I’m defying the laws of nature.”
In that moment, he sinks.
We, too, are called to do great things, things which may even appear to be impossible. How do we prepare ourselves? First it is useful to clean house–throw out all the nasty dynamics, destructive relationships, negative patterns of thought and behavior, addictions, and sloppy living that restrict us. We have to rein in our thoughts, stop the loop of negative thinking that plays unconsciously and repeatedly in our heads. We do this through prayer, meditation, affirmations and the will to awaken. We find a path supported by like-minded souls, eager to learn. We find a teacher, and we listen. We forget what we think we know, and summon the humility to learn what we don’t. We open our minds to the possibility that all things are truly possible.
In the process, we find ourselves walking through the portal of expanded consciousness allowing the limitations to fall away, one by one, until we experience the frontier of the higher Mind where true freedom dwells. The only things we have to remember on the journey are to keep focused and follow the lighted path. Look up, not down.
And believe.
The post The Anatomy of a Miracle appeared first on Rea Nolan Martin.
October 22, 2015
You Can’t Feed Art to a Hungry Man
These are gritty times. The economy is unstable. Racial tensions are stratospheric. Rebellion is global. Hunger abounds. The last thing we need right now is a bunch of dreamers dreaming up some new way to paint, sing, write or dance. What we need right now are soldiers of reality–pragmatists willing to roll up their sleeves and solve concrete problems in concrete ways. Right?
Well yes, but.
Last night I was flipping through a catalog brimming with colorful photos of exquisite handmade jewelry, crystal sculptures, hand-hooked rugs and original oil paintings–all stunning to behold. About halfway through, I thought–why am I even looking at these things? They’re beautiful, yes, but superfluous in a world where the environment is endangered; where food is contaminated. Where refugees everywhere are fighting for their lives and disease is rampant. Who cares about a $70 crystal blue Swarovski unicorn? (It’s very cute.) I wasn’t even considering the gold embellished mahogany sculptures of mama and baby panda at $2,500 each. (Also adorable, but I’d have to sell a lot more books.)
But then I thought, what about the people who create these magnificent works? Skilled artisans who no doubt labor for years over a single painting or decorative rug? If nobody buys this art, they’ll starve. Artists deserve to eat, too. Don’t they?
I went round and round with this thought throughout the day, lugging it to the grocery store and okay, yes, to the shoe sale at the mall. I wondered–what’s heavier on the scale of justice–the love of art, music, literature? The need to create? Or the impoverished, suffering masses in need of food and shelter? Inspiration or desperation? It drove me a little crazy, because after all, what kind of world is so pragmatic it excludes creative pursuits? What would that kind of world do to the artists?
What would it do to the rest of us?
It brought to mind a book I’d read decades ago, entitled POWER VS FORCE by the late eminent scholar, David R Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.–a life-changing book about the evolution of human consciousness. Big ideas broken into palatable bite-size pieces. In it Hawkins maps degrees of consciousness and the behavior that corresponds to each level from a baseline of bare physical survival all the way to the ecstasy of enlightenment. It accounts for how different we all are; what each of us sees and how we see it. Through Hawkins’ keen lens, we understand why some civilizations live in an endless cycle of war, while others live at the opera.
According to Hawkins, the lowest level in the human experience is the consciousness of Shame. Interestingly, this corresponds with the reported consciousness of our earliest ancestors, Adam and Eve, whose universal tale was spread by word-of-mouth in many ancient cultures before it was ever written in the Bible. Adam and Eve, banished from paradise, it is told, covered their nakedness with Shame. I think we can all agree that there was little room in their lives for poetic prose, experimental art or a Mozart concerto. Hawkins characterizes Shame with Humiliation, Elimination (murder/suicide), and a Despicable ‘God-view’. In other words, a state of emotional self-loathing and spiritual impoverishment. Love and forgiveness can’t survive in an ecosystem of Shame.
Neither can Art.
According to Hawkins, the natural course of evolution moves us from Shame to the level of Guilt, followed by Apathy. On our way up (believe it or not), we step on Fear, followed by Desire, Anger and Pride in that order, to arrive at Willingness, which is the gateway to light.
Willingness is a window, a safe landing, a place of reflection. When a person (or civilization) is Willing, s/he sheds despair and aggression to embrace possibility.“Maybe I’m okay. Maybe you’re okay. Maybe there’s more to life than Shame and Humiliation, Guilt and Condemnation.” Willingness to listen to a new way of thinking and behavior is just the beginning, a portal to higher pursuits. The Renaissance was a fertile bed of Willingness–willingness to seek knowledge, to learn and grow. Willingness is characterized by Optimism, Intention, and an Inspirational ‘God-view’. After Willingness, we move up the ladder to Acceptance, Reason, Love, Joy, Peace, and at the pinnacle of consciousness–Enlightenment.
But Willingness is the watershed. Willingness is where Art becomes possible.
When we arrive at Willingness, our hunger shifts from the body and mind to the Soul. This is the moment when Art in all its forms–visual, performing, musical, and literary, are cultivated. Art feeds the Soul, reminding it that there is more to life than the obvious. There is also subtlety, perception, grace and joy. Not to mention Love.
“Art can die. What matters is that it should have sown seeds on the earth…it must give birth to a world.” – Joan Miro
The great philosopher and psychiatrist, Carl Jung, drew parallels between art, human dignity and inspiration. Where one exists, he said, they all do. Without dignity and inspiration, we subsist on the lower levels of existence. Without art, without inspiration, we gorge on a toxic cocktail of Humiliation, Blame, Despair, Regret, Anxiety, Addiction, Hate and Scorn. (Now, there’s a hangover.) Art reflects potential. Visionary art in all its forms shines a light on the next step of the ladder, giving us something to reach for. Without it, humanity is stuck in a zero sum struggle for survival. I’m not saying that a luminescent painting, whimsical lyrics, or even a crystal blue Swarovski unicorn will feed a hungry man.
Or am I?
The post You Can’t Feed Art to a Hungry Man appeared first on Rea Nolan Martin.
September 28, 2015
The "Vision" Behind THE ANESTHESIA GAME
As a writer of Visionary Fiction, I imagined the child’s disease and the resulting anesthesia, not as a means of sedating her life, so much as awakening it. After all, what value do negative experiences contain if not to hone us and/or those around us? The problem is, at what price the experience? The risks in this story are as high as they can be. Lives hang in the balance.
Circumstances surrounding childhood cancers are tragic from anyone’s perspective, but much is to be gained if we have the courage to tread consciously through such toxic waters. The patient is of course the central concern, but the peripheral damage to family and friends can also be acute and widespread. If they’re paying attention, almost everyone involved ends up learning something powerful about him or herself in the process. Coincidentally, the essential component of Visionary Fiction is the awakening of the deep self to greater purpose.
I first learned about Visionary Fiction (VF) when my previous novel, Mystic Tea, was awarded several literary prizes in that genre. Exploring it on Google, I discovered the VFA (Visionary Fiction Alliance) with a mention of my name as one of its contemporary authors. VF, as it turns out, is the oldest new genre there is. Myth is VF; fairy tales are VF; even ancient sacred texts contain all the consciousness awakening components of this powerful genre. I wrote Visionary Fiction decades before I knew what it was, as has been the case with most of my peers in that sector. It was simply the truth as we knew it. VF authors tend to be highly intuitive and imaginative believers in infinite possibility. Unlike other genres, its literary DNA emerges not from the demands of plot or even the growth of its characters, although those are essential, but from the authenticity of the writing as an expression of the soul.
In writing The Anesthesia Game, I did my best to honor that tradition.
September 23, 2015
The Vision Behind “The Anesthesia Game”
The story behind The Anesthesia Game is very close to my heart. The fifteen-year-old protagonist, Sydney, suffers a life-threatening illness that requires frequent spinal procedures for which she undergoes regular anesthesia. Having spent years accompanying my own child through such procedures, I understood from page one the spectrum of courage (or cowardice) my characters would likely exhibit, patient and family members alike. Having said that, this story is far from a memoir. The personalities of my characters vary greatly from those of my own family. I constructed the characters from scratch, asking myself—what if not one, but all of them suffered some kind of affliction, real or imagined? What if, in order to manage their afflictions, each one of them was also under the influence of her own version of anesthesia? How would they manage to help each other? How would they progress? Or would they? Who would lose a life and who would find one? After the first 100 pages or so, the characters showed me the way.
As a writer of Visionary Fiction, I imagined the child’s disease and the resulting anesthesia, not as a means of sedating her life, so much as awakening it. After all, what value do negative experiences contain if not to hone us and/or those around us? The problem is, at what price the experience? The risks in this story are as high as they can be. Lives hang in the balance.
Circumstances surrounding childhood cancers are tragic from anyone’s perspective, but much is to be gained if we have the courage to tread consciously through such toxic waters. The patient is of course the central concern, but the peripheral damage to family and friends can also be acute and widespread. If they’re paying attention, almost everyone involved ends up learning something powerful about him or herself in the process. Coincidentally, the essential component of Visionary Fiction is the awakening of the deep self to greater purpose.
I first learned about Visionary Fiction (VF) when my previous novel, Mystic Tea, was awarded several literary prizes in that genre. Exploring it on Google, I discovered the VFA (Visionary Fiction Alliance) with a mention of my name as one of its contemporary authors. VF, as it turns out, is the oldest new genre there is. Myth is VF; fairy tales are VF; even ancient sacred texts contain all the consciousness awakening components of this powerful genre. I wrote Visionary Fiction decades before I knew what it was, as has been the case with most of my peers in that sector. It was simply the truth as we knew it. VF authors tend to be highly intuitive and imaginative believers in infinite possibility. Unlike other genres, its literary DNA emerges not from the demands of plot or even the growth of its characters, although those are essential, but from the authenticity of the writing as an expression of the soul.
In writing The Anesthesia Game, I did my best to honor that tradition.
The post The Vision Behind “The Anesthesia Game” appeared first on Rea Nolan Martin.
