It's All In the Playing (3 page)

At this point I should elaborate more on what it means to have a professional association with an individual who is himself seriously involved in spiritual meaning and metaphysical perspectives. The cornerstone of such values is the understanding that each of us creates our own reality. Blaming whatever happens to us on someone or something else went out with high-button shoes—it’s old-fashioned. Colin and I both understood that each of us was responsible for whatever positive and negative events were flowing in our lives. With that kind of clear perspective, it was possible for each of us to be honest about ourselves and each other. And when you can be honest with the person you’re working with, all sorts of blockages fall away, because you discuss them openly, and as soon as they are acknowledged, they seem to disappear almost as though “once what is to be learned from them is learned,” there is no need for them to exist anymore.

Colin and I had the view that life itself is a situation comedy, where we play the same scripts over and over, learning something different each time; each of us devising a script for ourselves that enables us to know ourselves better. We saw creativity as a necessary expression in life; almost as though to be alive is to be obligated to create. We also felt that to be creative was to be closer to the meaning of God or the Universal Mind or whatever one wishes to call it. We felt we were drawing on forces beyond our reach, beyond our own empirical understanding.

Colin and I were both totally familiar with the process of trance channeling: that is, using a talented psychic
(medium) as a channel of communication with entities who acted as guides and consultants—and, indeed, as Mends. It was a process I had first written about in
Out on a Limb,
and it would be, of course, one of the main subjects of the movie. In that context we both felt it was something that had to be handled with careful authenticity.

Channeling is one of the most controversial and popular processes of the New Age. There are pure channels (mediums) and there are channels who have so much emotional static of their own that the teachings from “the other side” are quite garbled and even inaccurate. I have observed both forms and find both fascinating.

But there are many people who feel that all of the mediums are acting; that through some process of self-hypnosis they can put themselves into a trance state and pretend that they are teaching complicated revelations in metaphysical truth.

And so I had studied meticulously and rigorously the emotional language that occurred during channeling. That was one reason I had sessions with so many. I had, by now, met and had sessions with more than twenty trance channeling mediums around the country. All the channelers had originally experienced the same thing. During meditation or in some other relaxed mind state, a spiritual guide would begin speaking, usually first inside their own minds (causing them to believe they were crazy at first) and then, as an adjustment occurred, the spiritual entity used the bodies and facilities of the channelers themselves to convey information. In every case, the trance channelers experienced a shift in perceptions relating to objective reality and, of course, a change in the way they led their lives. In each case there was an adjustment to the curiosity that others evidenced, but also they all told me they became happier in their personal lives because they had “proof” that death was not the final end—that life was eternal as evidenced by their guides, who now resided in a spiritual dimension with personalities
and emotions and even involvements in the progress of spiritual understanding and development here on the earth plane.

I was more interested in
how
the spiritual guides actually used the medium’s body. Each one of them explained the same thing. They don’t “possess” the body of the trance channeling medium. They “overshadow” it. The medium puts his own “self” consciousness into a trance state, and gives permission for the spiritual entity to overshadow him, imbuing him with the energy that accesses the larynx, the hands, the face, the body, and so on.

Some trance channeling mediums actually have the experience of leaving their bodies (out-of-body experience) and some simply put their “self” consciousness into an unaware state. All of them say they cannot remember what occurred while in trance, and most of them are concerned that the spiritual entity did not humiliate them or otherwise act without social appropriateness. Some channelers whom I have talked to have been profoundly shocked (while listening to tape recordings later) by the information that came through them, and others have totally rejected some of the knowledge channeled. Often there was
no
agreement at all between the beliefs of the channeler and the beliefs of the spiritual entity. But always there was an agreement that the entity had permission to use the body of the channeler.

Colin had by now introduced me to his spiritual teacher, an entity named Lazaris. Lazaris is an entity who channels through a trance medium named Jach Pursel, who lives in San Francisco. Jach is a quiet, affable, unassuming man. He lives and works around the Illuminarium Art Gallery in San Francisco. He is an appreciator of beauty and good food, which we often enjoy together, and is a delightful man just to spend quiet times with. Lazaris came through one day when Jach was deep in meditation. At first Jach was uncomfortable and
perplexed as to what had happened to him, but in due time his close friends assured him that the information coming from Lazaris was beneficial and loving. Lazaris as a spiritual guide and teacher spoke about the unseen divine reality which is at our disposal and available to us if we’d make ourselves aware of it. He taught that the universe is an extremely successful place—it is man whose perceptions have veiled the truth. Lazaris taught that mankind’s natural proclivity was to be in harmony—just as plants, animals, fish, and birds were in harmony—that just to
be
was the goal and the secret to happiness. That was why nature was the ultimate teacher.

Colin and I were both coming to understand that struggle and strife were not necessary to the creative process. In fact, the notion of needing to overcome adversity in life itself was rapidly becoming passé to us. Adversity is not a requirement anymore. It never comes from outside of us, anyway. It is self-generated, because we believe we need it. So why continue to generate obstacles and impediments in our lives when by now we should know better?

All of this brings me to what happened after Colin and I finished our first three hours and turned it in to Stan Margulies and ABC.

The reaction was lukewarm. I knew we had more fine-tuning to do, but I also knew we had a very good script, so I couldn’t understand why ABC wasn’t more positive.

I called Jach Pursel. He went into trance and Lazaris came through. (Jach often channels on the telephone for his clients.) I asked what had happened. Lazaris was simple and to the point. “Unconsciously,” he said, “you are not certain you want to expose yourself in front of fifty million people who might potentially see your show, contrasted to a few million who have
read
the same material. As a result, you are preventing the project from flowing smoothly.”

I was astonished, as yet another fine point in creating my own reality hit me. I had
intellectually
understood the profundity of such a concept but in my gut I hadn’t really felt it. Lazaris brought it home to me.

“You mean,” I said, “that
I
caused the lukewarm reaction to what I worked so hard on?”

“Precisely,” said Lazaris. “You have a hidden agenda of fear of public judgment on a mass-consciousness level. Recognize that truth, and if you desire to overcome the fear, the energy of the project will be cleared and you will find it going forward rather smoothly.”

“Why didn’t I recognize my own fear?” I asked.

“Because,” said Lazaris, “you don’t realize yet that you create your own reality every moment of your day.”

To make sure of what he was saying, I repeated, “Then you’re saying that I created the lukewarm reaction to my script?”

“That’s correct. It happened in your dream, did it not?”

“Yes. But so is this ‘conversation.’”

“Exactly. You also created me to point it out to you.”

“So that’s what you mean by all knowledge being available if we just make ourselves open to it?”

“That is correct. In the spiritual dimension, one can sometimes see more clearly because we don’t have the density of physical life blocking us. However, we also are not experiencing the rich adventure of life as you in the body are.”

“Do you wish you were in the physical dimension sometimes?” I asked.

“If I wished it deeply enough it would be my reality. I would do it. For now, I am happy and fulfilled counseling you and others who allow us to be of service and to love you.”

I thought a long time before I asked the last question. “So you’re saying that if
I
overcome my fear, ABC
and Stan will do a turnaround on their opinion of our script?”

“We believe so,” he answered. “Yes, try it.”

I hung up. Talking to a disembodied spiritual, entity, even on the telephone, was no longer novel to me. I had learned to enjoy the give and take of a phone chat as I would with a friend who still had a body! And after hanging up I always looked into my own heart for a correct assessment of the conversation. I had long since learned that I was my own best evaluator.

Unseen spiritual guides speaking through trans-mediums are not always correct, particularly when it comes to matters of time and mathematical figures. From their plane of consciousness time does not exist in a linear measurement (past, present, and future). All life and experience is occurring for them simultaneously in a hologram. To paraphrase Einstein, “There is no such thing as time as a linear reality. Time is an invention of man.”

I have been fortunate to “create” and attract accredited transmediums in my life who have been correct a great deal of the “time.” But the test for me has always been how
I felt
about their advice and projections of the future. The transmedium’s behavior is as important to me as the information coming through: which brings me to the subject of trance mediums charging money. This issue has of course been of primary concern not only for people involved with the New Age awakening of the spirit but for the press as well.

Materialism itself is a subject that everyone in this society, affluent, middle-class, or poverty-ridden, has to confront, whether the confrontation involves spirituality or not. We see material greed everywhere: in the churches, in the government, on the stock exchanges. We might each ask ourselves what role money plays in our lives. We may understand that greed is wrong and not spiritual, but can we also accept the truth that to be abundant
is a spiritual act? The question of spirituality and materialism is full of complexities.

Should spiritual counselors receive remuneration? Jesus and his disciples come to mind. Their remuneration came in the form of food, housing, and the supply of basic human needs required for their happiness, comfort, and well-being during their travels. Money was barely a medium of exchange then in regard to spiritual matters. But money is the system of barter today in almost all matters. In whatever work we do (acting, medicine, psychiatry, and so on) we charge what we believe we’re worth and we pay for services in the same way. If each exchange is mutually agreed upon, it becomes an equal exchange of energy. The services are energy put out. The money is energy earned.

In my opinion, when metaphysical practitioners render a service of spiritual value they should receive remuneration just as anyone does who renders a service of value. If the price is too high, the demand for services will diminish. And if excessive materialistic greed motivates a transchanneler, the information coming through the medium can actually be distorted. If a medium isn’t free of static the message won’t be clear.

So I have concluded for myself that I need, as each individual needs, to determine what I feel about the value of the material and the spiritual in a broad sense, and to judge from that evaluation the meaning of a spiritual-material exchange.

Those in metaphysical circles who conduct their lives with excessive materialistic motivation act as negative reminders that there but for the grace of GOD go the rest of us. Because to be truly aligned with the God-Force makes greed and excessive profit motivation unnecessary. True abundance is co-creating one’s reality with the grace of divine energy, and utterly without fear. To me greed comes from the fear of poverty and the lack of self-esteem.

*   *   *

   When I hung up from Lazaris I took stock of my own feelings relating to the reaction to our script. Somewhere deep in the darkness of my own heart I wasn’t certain I wanted to expose my spiritual search to the American television audience. I guess playing myself had something to do with it, also. Anyone who went to the trouble and expense of buying my book presumably had an interest in what they were about to read; that was not necessarily true of simply switching on the TV.

I relaxed into my self, letting my mind drift clear and remote, allowing it to observe the real sources of its power, to really examine the feelings (the old saw “look into your heart” says it very well). It had been a struggle to learn to be guided by feelings after all the years of school and societal conditioning that one should never allow oneself to be ruled by the heart. My mind had accepted the risk, but could my heart? Perhaps the heart wasn’t more impulsive and spontaneous than the intellect after all. Perhaps in some instances I
thought
I was prepared for much more than was true.

I talked it over with Colin. He understood immediately. He had had some of the same qualms himself. Although his face wasn’t going to be earnestly smiling through the TV screens of middle America, his name would be on the credits. Until now he had pursued his spiritual search in a private and confidential manner. There was no question that activities such as spiritual channeling, alternative medical approaches, food combining, metaphysical seminars, past life regressions, rebirthing, fire-walking, and spiritual mastery programs relating to human insight had become more and more popular, and Colin had attended many, many sessions with deep interest. Yet to go public with one’s newly assessed spiritual approach in areas which heretofore had been confined to the Church or the privacy of an intimate relationship was a big step in personal communication.
And of course he agreed completely that “the universal energy” was respecting our reluctance in creating a reality that might just prevent our script from being accepted. There was no discussion about what we would have written differently. We
knew
we were programming the turndown.