Prophecy, fortune telling and the truth.
Time: 1:25 PM
Date: 24th March 2008
There have been a handful of stories that have changed my life. The following has been one of them. It offers insight into both the dangers and the upside of a mysterious discipline: Fortune telling and prophecy.
The true story:
Wanda had a dream when she was at College in Memphis Tennessee. In this stirring dream she is told repeatedly that she will die in the year she turns 43. Over the years after college, the dream recurred. Again and again, Wanda was haunted with the specific prophecy of her death.
Through marriage, through childbirth, her move to a job in New York city - over many years of her life, aspects of the dream did vary. There were different people in the dream and different settings. The crushing message, however, was always the same: Wanda you will die in the year you turn 43.
In the year Wanda turned 43, her dreams seemed to suggest that cancer was attacking her body. Wanda checked herself in for a mammogram. The results were negative.
She sought a second opinion. A specialist agreed to conduct a biopsy. The test revealed a solid malignancy in Wanda's left breast. Beyond that, the cancer cells were quickly invading other parts of her body!
Wanda tried a number of approaches - traditional and non traditional - to heal the cancer. Biopsy, heavy chemotherapy, intense mental imagery, intuitive decision making: This combination appeared to heal the cancer. But violent mood swings, deep depression and complete hair loss now plagued Wanda. The battlefield had shifted. Her war for life continued.
Wanda's next dream: A powerful being approached and said that her time on earth was up. Wanda was commanded, "you have to leave."
Wanda didn't want to die. She was determined to do anything possible to go on with her life.
The final dream was the clincher: A presence appeared and informed Wanda that she had to leave because she had signed a contract prior to this lifetime. Her contract stated she would leave at the age of 43.
In the dream, Wanda put forward a case of why she wanted her contract or ‘fortune' to be renegotiated. The powerful presence agreed to change her contract. She awoke from the dream trembling and sobbing with immense joy.
Five years on from this dream of renegotiation, Wanda's health and wellbeing were completely restored. Wanda was loving life and helping others heal.
Dreams are like intuitive hunches or synchronicity. They are just very different windows into exactly the same pool of profound information. In this pool - sometimes referred to as the ‘quantum realm' - the separation between past, present and future becomes blurred.
This story (first told in Robert Moss's great book, Conscious Dreaming) doesn't need to be - and shouldn't be - about interpreting dreams. It points to the necessity of wisely managing our relationship with any messages about our future.
Wanda could have received her messages of prophecy through various gifted psychics, her own hunches, a friend's insight or a string of seeming ‘coincidences'.
It would make no difference at all to the primary point: We should see any message about our future as pointing to a possibility. Never see messages of prophecy as a sign post towards fact. That's no matter how convincing, authoritative or dramatic the messenger.
The moment we believe our future is fixed, we cross a line. We are no longer standing in our power.
Sheldon Kopp wrote a book titled, "If you meet the Buddha on the road - kill him." This title is a metaphor for not giving undue power to anything outside ourselves in this world of form.
This includes not surrendering to our partner, our counsellor, our minister, the tarot reader down at the local markets, the medium on TV, the gifted psychic, the monk, the spiritual teacher or the guru - nobody! In this world, there is nothing higher than you.
Surrender to some higher power by all means. But what if we believe that something or someone in this world holds a complete embodiment of our higher power? We are destined for trouble. Many people dangerously surrender to a higher power without knowing it when they have a session with someone drawing upon spiritual gifts.
An alternative healer once told me, "You can't imagine, Michael, how many people I treat who have been misled and messed up after going from one psychic to the next."
It's not going to the psychics, clairvoyants, mediums or intuitives that is the problem.
For me, on my journey, the insight I have received from others with intuitive skills has been immensely valuable. Some of these people have been professionals. Others have been friends, family and even strangers who have approached me randomly.
When I listen to these people, I remind myself of something one of my teachers passed onto me, "When you eat a watermelon, spit out the seeds. Don't swallow anything whole."
Some of these well meaning people have said, "Michael in the future I see you doing XYZ". On hearing these possibilities, my responsibility is to be plugged into - and tracking - my own intuition.
Perhaps part of what they have to say is worth me remembering - as a potential scenario. They could be insightful and helpful in one moment. Seconds later they may slip into fantasy or destructive content generated by the ego.
In the Zen tradition it is said, "heaven and hell are less than one tenth of an inch apart."
‘Heaven' is alignment with truth, wisdom and what is life supporting. ‘Hell' is alignment with the ego or illusion. Everybody, including those with spiritual gifts, seems to have their fair share of indulging both.
Dr David Hawkins, author of "Power Versus Force", after many thousands of experiments with kinesiological muscle testing came to an interesting conclusion: Nothing tests weaker on the body via a kinesiological test then the concept of ‘spiritual deception'.
Not even rape and murder receive a greater level of disapproval from that deeper and wiser part within us. False prophecy becomes spiritual deception when we don't maintain our own discernment.
I have to confess, at times, I wish my future was fixed. Either that or someone could tell me exactly what to do with my life. The weight of conscious and responsible decision making can be heavy. The weight of knowing that my future requires my deliberate participation and that nothing is fixed is difficult also. But these are burdens that I believe we are all equipped to carry.
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Michael Dayes
Phone: 02 96532967
Mobile: 04 1234 2114
Postal: PO Box 788 Darlinghurst
NSW 1300 Australia
Appointment room: 26 Yarrara Road
Pennant Hills NSW 2120
www.michaeldayes.com
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