Steven Lane Taylor, author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat and one of my guest contributors, is the most insightful expert on the nature of the divine flow that I've encountered. His messages are gentle, loving, intelligent, witty, yet straight to the point. Every week I look forward to reading and posting his consistently illuminating perceptions on how the flow influences the different aspects of our existence.

My own awareness of how the divine flow runs through each of our lives has substantially evolved with the help of Steven's gentle guidance and my own personal observations and growing understanding of its dynamism. As I have occasionally, in retrospect, assessed the most significant experiences of my life, an important realization eventually occurred to me:  the paths that made my life simpler or brought me abundance, improved health, or meaningful friendships came to me out of the blue. I did not have to consciously pursue the specific opportunity, it just happened — unexpectedly presented to me by a friend, family member, or other acquaintance, or "accidentally" discovered online, in a store, at a meeting, special event, or even delivered to my door. Read the rest of this entry »

With the arrival of rescue crews and doctors in Haiti, we are beginning to hear many joyful stories about people being pulled out of the rubble, and lives being miraculously saved. For countless thousands of earthquake survivors, however, there is not a lot to be joyful about. These people have forever lost cherished friends, beloved family members, and respected co-workers. And right now they are grieving.

Although one of the keys to living life in the divine flow is maintaining a positive attitude, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for that positive attitude to be genuine.  That means that feelings like sadness and sorrow must be allowed to run their natural course, because only then can there be an authentic return to a more optimistic outlook on life. Read the rest of this entry »

I usually turn down book reviews because they have proven to be a lot of unrewarding work. But when I learned that one of the subjects of a recent book offering is Dr. Andrew Weil,  a well-known integrative medicine practitioner who I greatly respect, I became curious about his earlier background and decided to accept the offer to review "The Harvard Psychedelic Club" by Don Lattin and participate in the TLC Book Tour.

Upon finishing the book I was pleased I accepted. Lattin, an award-winning author and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, expertly guides the reader along the '50s and '60s psychedelic time line full of fascinating historical characters — icons who were fundamentally instrumental  in establishing the American counterculture movement, which evolved into today's Mind, Body & Spirit era of holistic health, meditation, and yoga.

The storyline involves four legendary figures — Harvard research psychologist Timothy Leary, Harvard psychology professor Richard Alpert (later in life known as spiritual teacher Ram Dass), MIT philosophy professor Huston Smith, and Harvard Medical School graduate Andrew Weil — men who passionately dedicated their lives to the exploration of human consciousness, spirituality, and holistic living. Read the rest of this entry »

As I very slowly make my way up in the Twitter numbers game (shamefully through no effort of my own), I can't help but wonder the significance of this popular Short Message Service (SMS) toward the progress of our virtual culture.

There are the obvious, but perhaps unanswerable, questions that are worthy of asking about Twitter, such as:

• Can you, most of the time, say what you really want, or say anything meaningful, in 140 characters or less?
• How can one person read tweets from hundreds of Twitterers, let alone hundreds of thousands?
• Or why would somebody want to follow a Twitterer who sends on average 50 tweets per hour…every hour? Read the rest of this entry »

In these weekly messages I often mention the word "ego," and I write about the various ways that choices made from your ego can severely limit your ability to be "in the flow" and fulfill your heart's desires effortlessly.

Usually, the ego is associated with an inflated sense of self-importance—of pride, arrogance, or grandiosity.  And it is easy to see how decisions based on those aspects of your ego can lead you into troubled waters. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists group the world's many species in classifications of increasing size and complexity: each individual belongs to a species, a genus, a family, a phylum, and so on.  Just as there are hierarchies of increasing complexity among earthly creatures, so is the spiritual realm structured into "levels" whose entities grow in size, complexity, and purpose.

The spiritual hierarchy does not occupy some distant "place," like the Sunday School heaven floating above the clouds. All levels of the spiritual hierarchy blend and interpenetrate one another. What holds them apart as distinct bands of activity and purpose is the vibrational frequency of each level. Read the rest of this entry »

Every night, in the dream state, your soul communes with your higher self and probable/reincarnational brethren, and carries guidance and advice back from its nocturnal sojourn. Given the choice, most people would readily say they welcome such guidance, yet they struggle to hear but the faintest echoes flowing from the higher realms. What tools are available to loosen the barrier between waking self and higher self?

First, one must recognize a cold truth: the higher self's plan for a lifetime may horrify the ego. The ego's wants are simple: shelter, food, love, sex, health, money: as much and as often as possible. There is nothing wrong with desiring any of these; they all contribute to a stable, comfortable life. But here lies the challenge to even the most evolved ego: the higher self may consider fulfillment of these wants an impediment to its life plan.
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A lot of the media are saying that the Mayan Calendar predicts December 21, 2012 as the "end of the world." For those of you who are already in the know about the history of this ancient timetable, this is utter nonsense. But as we delve deeper into some of the facts and theories surrounding this date, we begin to understand the thinking behind such doomsday predictions.

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar started 3114 BC with an end-date of December 21 or 23, 2012, spanning a time of 5125.36 years. On this date, the Long Count calendar will reach 13.0.0.0.0, with 13 units being a 144,000-day cycle. Does this date signify the end of civilization and a resetting of the calendar, or can it even continue beyond this time?
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Every culture, from aboriginal tribe to complex civilization, recognizes the significance and esoteric mystery of dreams. History, literature, and poetry swarm with dreams' prophetic and symbolic power. Modern western thought, its vision narrowed by the blinders of materialism, struggles to make sense of dreams. In one view, the purpose of sleep is to allow the body time to rest and heal, with dreaming a mysterious byproduct. Dreams are variously explained as the random static of neurological chaos; a means of emotionally processing the day's events; or the symbolic patina on material rising from the deeper strata of the psyche. Whatever one's view, all agree that the realm of sleep and dreaming remains a dark mystery.
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If you think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life — think again. A new study by three University of Rochester researchers demonstrates that progress on these fronts can actually make a person less happy.

"People understand that it's important to pursue goals in their lives and they believe that attaining these goals will have positive consequences. This study shows that this is not true for all goals," says author Edward Deci, professor of psychology and the Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences at the University. "Even though our culture puts a strong emphasis on attaining wealth and fame, pursuing these goals does not contribute to having a satisfying life. The things that make your life happy are growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community," Deci says.
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