I have been thinking a lot about Artificial Intelligence. And I can’t shake the feeling that we are crossing a line that we may not recover from. With an enormity of unresolved personal and ancestral trauma weighing down human consciousness, we are simply not in any condition to healthily integrate Artificial Intelligence into our world. Just like we weren’t in any condition to healthily weave ‘smart phones’ into our already overwhelmed lives. When we are in a fragmented state, we make fragmented choices. Our species has been doing that for a very long time. And those choices benefit a small number of self-serving power brokers, while leading most of humanity further away from a clarified and empowered state of being. If I had my way, we would put a stop to all of it and focus on our Authentic Intelligence first—an intelligence that is rooted in our felt experience and brings all that we are into an integrated form. We would work hard to acknowledge the fragmenting and debilitating effects of our unresolved trauma. We would prioritize the clearing of our emotional debris. We would weave our fragmented threads into a holy, wholly tapestry. We would get caught up with ourselves. And then—from that more integrated and presence-centered place—we would decide whether AI is something that humanity really needs now. Or ever.
It's all we can do to become more human, in a distracted world. Let’s get that right first. Let’s get so well-regulated and integrated that we know who we are and that which serves us individually and collectively. And then, let us decide which direction to go...
For anyone ready to explore and energize their calling to write, my next ‘Writing Your Way Home’ course begins on July 19th at Soulshaping Institute. This affordable six-week course will inspire you to put pen to paper, and to work through anything that prevents you from honoring your writing voice. AND, I will be directly available to provide support and writing feedback along the way. If you are interested, check it out and join me here:
In addition, my next ‘Finding Sacred Purpose’ course begins on Wednesday, June 12th. A 6-week interactive on-line course that supports your efforts to identify the paths you are here to walk, the lessons you are here to learn, and the callings you are here to embrace, I also include a personal session so that your efforts to clarify your directionality stay on track:
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A quote that came through me recently. Does this resonate with your experience?
“It's a strange kind of friendship, when your 'friend' keeps offering unsolicited advice about how you should live your life, become more successful, change this or that. At first it seems like they care, but then it starts to feel like something else: a need for control, an inability to accept you as you are, a desire to live vicariously through you. It's especially problematic if you like the life you are living. You like where things are, and then you interact with your friend, and feel kind of deflated. If you find yourself in this situation, there is a simple solution. Kindly let them know that you like their advice when you ask for it, but not at any other time. Make it clear as day that you see friendship as an act of acceptance, not a quest for improvement. And if they won't respect that, give them a piece of unsolicited advice: "Walk the other way. Come back when and if you can accept me as I am". Free, at last.”
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I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Judith Orloff (‘the Godmother of the Empath Movement’) on a recent Enrealment Hour Podcast. Empathy is a fascinating topic, one that unites the question of healthy boundaries with a vulnerable way of being. In this conversation, Dr. Orloff helps us to understand what it means to move through life with an empathic way of being. Not in a way that hobbles us, but in a way that allows us to be deeply feeling people, while protecting our inner and outer space. Listen in here:
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My newest book of quotes—Humanifestations: On Trauma, Truth, and Transformation—is delighting readers everywhere. Humanifestations builds upon the themes from my last book—Hearticulations—and supports readers in their efforts to heal and identify their reasons for being in this lifetime. If you are interested, you can have it ordered into any bookstore, and find it on Amazon at Humanifestations Book. Signed copies of all my books are always available at Signed Copies.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the new book:
There’s a significant difference between a heart-to-heart conversation, and a projection-to-projection conversation. When we speak to and from the heart, we stand a real chance of making relational progress. Our vulnerabilities are exposed and embraced, and our true feelings rise into view. When we speak from our projections—of self, of other—we are more likely to make things worse. Because projected dynamics are rooted in assumption and misinterpretation. And when we speak from that place, new projections are birthed. Projection begets projection. Vulnerability begets vulnerability. So, if you are planning to have a meaningful conversation with a significant other, spend some time beforehand doing all that you can to see through the veils to what is real. The real you, the real them, the real issues between you. And then connect from that place. Speak from your heart, hear with your heart, inquire from your heart. It may feel scary, but miracles happen when two souls meet on a bridge between their hearts.
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It’s not all in your head. It’s all in your heart. It’s all in your feet. It’s all in your hips. It’s all in your shoulders. It’s all in your breath. It’s all in your body. Anything unattended to, unresolved, unhealed, and unprocessed lives in your tissues, your cells, your musculature. It may be manifest in your thinking, but it doesn’t begin there. The mind does not source itself—the body does. The trick is to not try to shift your thinking from within the mind itself. You can’t. You may be able to subdue it there, but you won’t be able to resolve it. Because the troubling thoughts are merely a symptom of the deeper issues. They are a reflection of our emotional holdings and constricted musculature. They emanate from the fleshy trauma tunnels that we dug in order to survive this world. Many of us sit in the waiting room of awakening for decades, waiting impatiently for our new birth. Yet it never arrives, because we are looking for it where it isn’t—within the mind, itself. Babies aren’t born that way. You have to go down into the depths of the body to bring a new birth to life. Down, down, down... into the alchemical chambers of new thought— YOUR MAGNIFICENT BODY. This is where you are born again.
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The gurus didn’t go to sit in the meditation cave to enlighten their consciousness. They went there to bypass their issues with the world. They didn’t turn to silence to extinguish the monkey mind. They turned to silence to turn down the volume on their pain (the monkey heart). They didn’t nestle into stillness because stillness is THE royal road to the kingdom of God. They nestled into stillness because movement ignited their triggers and traumas. They didn’t dissolve the ego because the ego is the enemy of the sacred. They (allegedly) dissolved the ego because it reminded them of their unresolved humanness. They didn’t purify the body because the body is something less than Divine. They purified the body in an effort to escape their emotional toxicity. They didn’t strive for transcendence because there is a kingdom up there for us. They strove for transcendence because they lacked the courage to live on Mother Earth. They didn’t seek formlessness because it is our most awakened state of being. They sought formlessness because their form hurt too much. They didn’t shun anger because anger is a sub-standard emotion. They shunned anger because it uncovered their mountains of grief. They didn’t practice non- attachment because non-attachment is the essence of self-realization. They practiced it so they could hide from the challenges of human relationship. They didn’t fixate on forgiveness because forgiveness is necessary for a life well-lived. They fixated on forgiveness in order to repress the unforgivable. They didn’t preach non-judgment because they aren’t actually judgmental. They preached non-judgment so that they could get away with anything.
My friends, we have been fooled for centuries. The patriarchy went to a lot of trouble to cloak and camouflage their personal issues behind a wall of faux awakening. A whole spiritual lineage was birthed from their self-avoidance. And it is now time to call it all out. It is now time to bury patriarchal spirituality in a graveyard of its own making, and to co-create a spirituality that is grounded in our humanness, our bodies, our feelings, our relationships with each other and Mother Earth. This is the only way to save our species.
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If you reached the stage where you have grown beyond your family-of-origin, it’s important not to pressure yourself to bring them along with you. You don’t have that obligation, and you also don’t have that right. In the same way as you didn’t want them to define you, they don’t want you to define them. It’s up to them, just like it was up to you. You may feel sure that you found a more conscious way of being, but they may not agree. And even if they do, it’s for them to decide if they want to join you. The world I want to live in is one where everyone gets to pick the path that is true for them. None better than the other. None more worthy of praise. Each of us a pioneer of our own unique path.
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Blessings to your luminous path —
Jeff