The Music of Shirley Hadley

I have recently discovered that our friend Shirley Hadley, photographer extradenaire, is also an amazing and uplifting musician! She has produced three albums, Being In Greatness, The Depths of the Inner Self, and her latest, and the one we are featuring here today, Channels of Consciousness.

Channels of Consciousness is a collection of my very first songs on my keyboard. The year was 1993. I had been without an instrument to play for 8 years. During that time I used my dreams to help fulfill my desires to be making music. In my dreams I would be playing the keyboard composing songs, sometimes playing with other musicians.

When my keyboard finally emerged into my life, I immediately began to find my way on it and began to remember the songs I had created in my dreams. The title song Channels of Consciousness was written from this most amazing dream I had. In the dream I was in this valley, surrounded on all sides by these jagged peaks rising up and into the spacious sky above. I was standing on this wooden stage. I had this instrument that was mounted on a stand. I have never seen an instrument like it before. There was an audience of people sitting on the grass surrounded by wildflowers. The sounds would echo off the sides of the mountains and elevated us all into very ecstatic states of awareness. I use the word channel because I see it as paths along which energy or consciousness flows.

That is what it is like when I am playing music. These inner pathways are found by me and I, as consciousness travel them. Each song is like a step along the way, no destination, just a journey into the infinite realms of the sound spectrums that emanate throughout the universe.

Click here to visit Shirley Hadley’s Music Page at CDBABY, where you can also sample each of her albums, and either purchase a CD or download either albums or individual songs in digital MP3 format. A great way to spread good vibes and to support and independent artist! 🙂

Progress with Learning to See Energy

I used to hold the belief that I couldn’t see energy or auras, while John has been able to see energy all of his life. Recently I decided that it was time to let go of that belief, since seeing energy just seemed like an opportunity to get to know reality in yet another new way. And not only let go of the belief, but choose a new belief where I was now learning to see it. Even though beliefs are ‘just beliefs’ or ‘just thoughts’, it’s amazing how different they can feel when you shift your focus – even the ‘small’ shifts.

I selected some exercises from books I had and websites I’d bookmarked. I reminded myself that I had to play along and not dismiss something as an ‘afterimage’ or the like. As I lay down to go to sleep, it took me a while to relax my usual waking focus to something more open and loose. (At this point I have occasionally seen faint ‘sparkles’ in the room, which I think of as random energy.) Then, in the darkened room, I held my hand up in the air with the ceiling in the background.

I had to remember not to try too hard, and that I was aligning myself with the ability, not with NOT having the ability, or blocking it. I took deep breaths and let my gaze relax. On a conscious level, I was expecting to see a very pale haze of lightness around the outline of my hand. Which I did! Although I had to watch for the immediate dismissal, which I mentioned above. But what I wasn’t expecting to see was tiny sparkles of white lights, mostly in the spaces between my spread-out fingers! (Brighter and more concentrated than the random sparkles.) Even better, since it was something I wasn’t expecting, it wasn’t something my left brain could dismiss as easily.

Since that first time, I’ve been able to practice it a few more times. Each time I’ve had to take a little while to relax my daytime focus and tune into my intuitive faculties more. I’ll continue to practice, and as usual, see where it takes me. It’s fun to be stepping out into undiscovered experiential territory!

Note: While browsing The LD4ALL Lucid Dreaming Forum, I found this article about using your attention to what the author called “phosphenes” (my ‘sparkles’ – wikipedia describes them as “A phosphene is a phenomenon characterized by the experience of seeing light without light actually entering the eye.”) to attempt to induce a lucid dream. Click here to read the article, complete with some really helpful images. 

Focus on WHAT You Want – Forget The HOW

The nonlinearity of dreams can sometimes get a point across more directly than reading a concept or idea in physical reality – not only does it engage more of the creative mind than the linear/rational mind, but it brings a feel/vibe with it, that sticks with you as you wake up. So even if the dream is presenting you with an idea that you’ve known in physical reality for a while, it’s doing it on multiple levels that help you really GET it, deep down.

Case in point, the dream I had the other night.  I had traveled from the United States to Canada, where I had gotten a hotel room and unpacked all my things.  However, as happens in dreams, I suddenly found myself back in the United States.  My thought process was this: “Oh, no, I’m in the United States, and I have to get back to Canada for my stuff, but I need my passport to get across the border, which is still in my hotel room in Canada!” (Naturally, my left brain picked up on THAT conundrum, instead of asking, well, how did you get back into the United States from Canada without your passport to begin with? LOL!) Linearly, it was a no-win situation.

But right after that moment of panic, a peaceful feeling washed over me and it was like I was being told, “Focus on what you want, forget the HOW!”  I actually smiled in the dream and then boom… next scene I was back in Canada where I wanted to be.

I have actually had other dreams where I’ve had to remind myself of this same thing. Dreams where I’ve showed up somewhere, done whatever I had to do, then got all bent out of shape because I forgot how to leave. If you’ve ever had a lucid dream or an OBE, you’ll know that focusing on where you want to go is all you need – no linear method is necessary.

This current dream; however, came at the perfect time to apply to my physical reality situation. Mostly as a reminder of how things worked, but the experience itself was a confidence booster showing me that I COULD really trust the message.  Focus on the WHAT and forget the HOW. It was a great way to wake up, literally and figuratively.

And I can’t forget about the symbolism of the passport itself! It wasn’t the passport that allowed me to go where I wanted to go, it was my focus and intention – the power within. The passport is just window-dressing.

A Lucid Dreaming Web Series – Lucidity

This is what happens when you start searching the internet for interesting websites about lucid dreaming… you find things like the Lucidity Saga! An absolutely crazy, jagged, funny, grungy, funky, psychedelic, in-your-face, independently-created video series about friends led to learn lucid dreaming because they need to stop unconsciously sharing dreams with each other before the psychological damage drives them insane… even moreso. *grin*

 

 

Or, as the creators describe it:

Starting in January 2010 Lucidity is a new breed of web series. In fact it’s a Web Saga. Created not for product integration, but rather as,”An honest desire to encourage people to lucid dream and explorer alternate levels of awareness and consciousness,” expresses Creator Sean Oliver, “The dream is still a mystery. People live their lives thinking that we understand it, but the truth is we don’t, we ignore it. If we can’t accurately comprehend the dream state then perhaps some of our assumptions about normal consciousness are misguided as well. I think we should all explore that. Awake and asleep. Alive and dead.”

The entertainment industry is on the brink of evolution. The awesome unstoppable powers of the Internet coupled with modern advancements in technology have allowed creativity to finally champion economics. Produced from the pockets of the poor and made from the minds of the mildly mad, Lucidity is digital proof that you don’t need Hollywood and millions of dollars to make your dreams come true.

 

That’s all the warning you get from us! Now, go watch it now!  (preferrably not at work, but only because it’s loud, and you may find yourself watching it for longer than you should, and then feeling too psychedelic for that afternoon meeting.)

Rick Stack and Chip Coffey on the Radio

Yesterday the Coast to Coast AM Radio Show played host to two terrific guests.


Chip Coffey Chip Coffey - Growing Up Psychic - Click to see more!was interviewed the first hour, talking about his new book, Growing Up Psychic: My Story of Not Just Surviving but Thriving–and How Others Like Me Can, Too. He also discussed his role hosting the Psychic Kids television show (which I think has been a groundbreaking show!) and his own experiences growing up psychic. You may also know him from his participation on the show Paranormal State.

 

Seth - The Nature of Personal RealityThe next three hours were devoted to Rick Stack. Many of you already know him as one of the students in the original Seth classes that Jane Roberts and Robert Butts held in their home, but he is the current publisher of many of the available Seth books, including The Early Sessions as well. (Website: Seth Center) Rick also has a terrific practical understanding of the Seth material, OBEs – he has his own book called Out of Body Adventures, and also teaches Seth classes in New York City and online.

Thanks to a generous individual, there is currently an audio version of all four segments available on YouTube right now – click here to listen!

[An interesting correlation… in the first hour, Chip described growing up having paranormal experiences in a house that was in Elmira, NY, the same town where Jane Roberts channeled the Seth Material!]

I’m glad to have been able to listen to both Chip and Rick – great program!