Once again, I find myself being inspired to write a blog post after reading the work of Neale Donald Walsch. This time the book that inspired me was: Friendship With God. The particular passage that stoked the flames of inspiration within me, spoke of how we have been conditioned into perceiving God as a parent; a parent who can get quite shirty with us if we don’t love “him” in the way he demands. It went on to say, that if we could simply accept God as a friend and seek to develop that friendship, our lives would be much more in line with our soul purpose. Of course, those are my own words that describe a vastly truncated version of what I actually read, but I hope you get the gist of what I’m trying to convey here. What nailed it for me to write this post was the piece that suggested we could start The Lord’s Prayer with, “Our Friend” instead of “Our Father.” So, feeling suitably inspired, I decided to take it upon myself to amend The Lord’s Prayer and I hope you feel as I do, that this is a far more realistic version.
The Friend’s Prayer
Our Friend, who art everywhere,
Hallowed be thy nameless and formless Self,
Our kingdom is One kingdom,
Our will drives us on,
Everywhere; not just within the constraints of man-made religion,
You give us every day, everything we need, and
You accept us exactly as we are without judgement,
I was perusing the books of Neale Donald Walsch recently on eBay, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a “Book Four” in the Conversations With God series. I have found the CWG trilogy to be a very significant part of my spiritual evolution, so when I saw that there was a fourth part, I just had to have it. It truly is amazing how “The Absolute” has its unique way of reaching out to us when we need support and guidance, in EXACTLY the way that is most suitable and relevant to us at the time. I have been asking so many questions lately, and like some kind of Divine Christmas present out of the blue, this book has provided me with answers. I have barely started reading the book, but already, like a piece in a Divine jig-saw puzzle it has just slotted into place in my life and, as well as answering some of my questions, it has also given me the inspiration to come up with an analogy that I have called, “Silver Medal Syndrome.”
I think that many people reading this post will be able to relate to what I mean here. Regardless of what the media would have us believe, there is most definitely a shift in consciousness going on, as I type even. People are gradually waking up to their true nature. However, for many, and I include myself here, we “know” from the perspective of knowledge, that we are already awake and have nothing to seek. But, we do not have the “knowing” of our awakenedness. What I’m getting at, is that there is a difference between knowledge and knowing. Knowledge comes with words, but knowing only comes with experience. So, we have the knowledge that our true nature is consciousness, but in our physical form we are not yet evolved enough to know this experientially. This is where the analogy comes in.
At the moment, we have the silver medal. It’s better than bronze, but it’s not quite gold. From my own experience, when we have Bronze Medal Syndrome, we are on the path but we think we know more than we actually do. Then, we ascend to Silver Medal Syndrome (SMS). It’s not bad, in fact it’s a great effort, but we still only have knowledge. One of the draw backs of SMS is that even though we know that we are awake but not quite there, we still sometimes think and act in ways that we know are not conducive to our spiritual evolution. We might even follow this up with feelings of guilt after the event.
It is important however, to try and not beat ourselves up when this happens. Remember, it’s all a part of the training, the experience of life…and we are all ultimately GOING FOR GOLD!
I was browsing on facebook one day when I noticed that a you tube video by a man called Rupert Spira had appeared on my wall. I was attracted by the title and decided to give it a go. To say I was blown away is an understatement and I am now a Rupert convert. This man really ticks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned and he is my current “man of the moment”, relegating Neale Donald Walsch down to #2. He has a very calm, almost deadpan, manner about him and explains potentially complicated subject matter in a way that is mainly easy to understand. In the last video of his that I watched the point of discussion (and this is not word for word, it’s simply my way of explaining things) was about how our true nature is always present but the mind, or ego, prevents us from recognising it. He used the analogy of a cinema screen and a film; how the film is simply a series of images that masks the screen, but whilst it is showing, the screen is ever present although not visible. When the film is over the screen remains.
It is the same principle as our true nature (the screen) being ever present before and after we take birth in the world (the film). Many people still do not understand who they really are simply due to ignorance of their true nature. In the video an audience member asked a question regarding this and Rupert gave the following explanation:
“Ignorance is a point of view; it’s not something that is really there. It’s a way of seeing, it is not something that is seen”
There are many ways to describe our true nature; and they are all accurate. Truth, God, Bliss, Awareness and Consciousness are just a handful of ways to describe who we really are. In the following example Rupert referred to us as “happiness” and he said to the same audience member:
“Happiness is not a state that comes and goes, it is the true nature of consciousness and is ever-present. It reveals itself when the layers of ignorance periodically dissolve away”.
He also referred to:
“the dissolution of thoughts”
as being the cause for happiness to reveal itself. Of course, it has been stated many times before that the infinite, creative force that we know as “God”, of its own will, splits itself into billions of particles and experiences the physical life in order to know experientially what it previously only knew as concept. So, in other words, the infinite voluntarily becomes the finite on a temporary basis. Although the finite is always only an illusion. Rupert describes this phenomenon thus:
“The finite mind is infinite consciousness modulating itself”.
Rupert Spira is one of many wonderful souls on the planet right now who truly are a fountain of wisdom and wonder. I’m not on a commission; honest! but you could do a lot worse than check out this man’s you tube channel. God bless!
“Quite remarkably, within a few days things started to change”
The first thing I noticed was that even though my actual situation had not changed, my perception of it had. As you can imagine, I was still feeling quite frustrated at not being able to get about, but I was no longer worried. I could tangibly feel myself growing out of the situation; I could feel myself moving away from it. I could also feel the expansion of my soul beyond my physical body, although this is quite commonplace after the whole business of 2012. It also turned out that while all this was going on I only had to cancel one booking relating to my work as a medium. A couple of friends ferried me around to engagements and flatly refused to take any petrol money from me. Then, what I consider to be a miracle happened.
Out of the blue, someone just gave me £1000, yes it’s true; I was given £1000 and told I did not have to pay it back. So, with the bit of money I already had, I now had enough to buy a car that would be a bit better than just a runaround. Then something else happened that was more than just a coincidence.
I was now in a position where I had the means to buy a semi-decent car, but I still had no semi-decent car, and there was the little matter of my income. At this point I should add that for the previous two years I had been working as a volunteer complimentary therapist for a few hours here and there at a day services hospice not far from where I live. I decided at the outset that I wanted a job on the permanent staff and I was prepared to do any job that was going; it’s such a wonderful place, I just wanted to be more involved. The hospice closes over Christmas and New Year, and even though I had made it known that I wanted a permanent job there, it was not expected that there would be any vacancies until we were well into 2014, after an evaluation had been carried out.
So, I had a half-hearted look on the hospice website just prior to Christmas and sure enough there was no vacancies, except for a couple of jobs in the charity shops. By now it was Wednesday, January 10, and my first volunteer day of the new year was on Friday, 12 January. The journey is only a little over six miles, so with a bit of care I could use my car to get me there. On the Wednesday night I had another half-hearted look on the website and to my amazement, not only was there was a vacancy, but the vacancy was in the department where I worked as a volunteer; however, the closing date was Friday. I suddenly became frustrated; I’m not the greatest lover of application forms and decided that I was not going bother. It was too short notice and I was not going to rush the application. The next day though, something inside me told me to print off the application form and get it filled out. So with my new-found lease of life, I printed off the form and got most of it filled in. I completed it on Friday morning and handed it in when I went to do my volunteer work. I did not even expect to be called for an interview because I have no healthcare qualifications and I knew that fully qualified healthcare professionals would be applying.
About four days later I got a letter saying “come for an interview”. So, I thought to myself that I would go for the interview, but I would have no chance of getting the job. The interview date was also my next volunteer day. I had the interview after doing a therapy and left the building believing I’d made a complete hash of it. I was told that it would probably take 3-4 days to let me know the result as there was more applicants to interview. So I went home.
Two hours later I got a phone call; “we would like to offer you the job”. I was so surprised, the lady on the line had to ask me twice if I was going to accept; I just couldn’t believe it. Within a few days I got a letter of confirmation giving me a start date of 26 February; all I needed now was a car!
Just under two weeks before I was due to start work, my friend’s son took me to Bristol to look at some cars. The cars we went to look at were not suitable, but whilst we were there we “accidentally” saw a sign on a car parked on the side of the road as we were driving by. On the way back we stopped on the off-chance and rang the number displayed in the car window. Enter Marcus. He turned out to be a decent sort and we returned the next day to look over a selection of cars that Marcus was selling. I chose one (see Gladys below) and it was a case of alls well that ends well!
It’s amazing how life can take you down one day and lift you up again the next. It must be awful for people who do not have a spiritual understanding; I find life’s shenanigans stressful enough, so what must it be like for those who have no understanding of how creation functions? A couple of months previous I had finished reading the book When Everything Changes Change Everything by Neale Donald Walsch. It speaks of how the universe is in a constant state of flux and that by our very nature we are beings of change, because all is energy and in constant motion. So, having read that book I knew I had to simply accept that situation as being part of the latest phase of change in my life, in the knowledge that it was impossible for it to stay the same and would eventually be resolved. Compared to what others have to endure my situation was nothing, but in context to the way my life is at the moment it was potentially a huge problem; indeed, the old me would probably have had a breakdown.
Remember that we are always in control of our lives and it is not the situations we encounter that determine whether we are happy or not; it’s our perception of them!
The theme of the film is use your soul to achieve your goal and works on the principle that it is possible to combine spirituality with business as a method of attracting more abundance into our lives. The Last Formula will feature interviews with highly successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life, including my personal favourite, best-selling author of the Conversations With God books, Neale Donald Walsch. Neale was actually broke when he started writing those books but became a best-selling author within a year.
I’ve put The Last Formula at the top of my “to watch” list and can’t wait for it to be released!
Today we are very lucky to have as a special guest on my blog; TV/Film producer, amongst other things, Denny Morales. Before I bring Denny on here is a little bit about him.
Denny (Right) with best selling author Neale Donald Walsch
For 14 years, since the age of 16, Denny Morales was directing, technical directing, and performing camera work for PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates. He earned an Emmy award for technical directing in 2005. Throughout the years working at the television stations, Denny worked on short films as a sideline, doing producing, cinematography, and many other jobs on the set. Denny finally broke off from his television job in 2008 and set about starting up various businesses, where he gained experience in marketing and business management. In 2011, he started Watery Flame Productions, fully focusing on creating his own films and television shows that geared towards uplifting the world.
So, without further ado, here he is, all the way from Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s Denny Morales. Hi Denny, thanks for coming all the way over from LA. Come and sit yourself down and I’ll put the kettle on and crack open a packet of chocolate digestives!
Hello, Richard, the pleasure is all mine, and by the way the chocolate is how Richard got me into this interview, so that’s the secret ha ha.
I’d like to kick off by asking what drove you at such a young age to achieve so much in the TV industry?
Well, Richard, for some reason I always had this passion to do more with my life. For some reason I always thought I was dropped off on the wrong planet, ‘cause my mind always processed so fast. I always knew what I wanted and just went after it. I wanted to be a TV/film director from the time I was 12. I remember, my high school was a vocational school, and I was taking television production, and in that class we would go to the local PBS station and actually work as crew on a live show. I remember every Monday going to that TV station and asking for a job; every Monday. It was really never enough for me, I can feel the fire inside of me to this day.
That sounds amazing Denny; so how old were you when you received your first Emmy award and how did it make you feel?
I was 26 years old, and I remember looking into my mailbox that morning and seeing the certificate there, I felt numb for a second because I couldn’t believe I just won an Emmy for a national award. I knew then that I always wanted that feeling and to do more meaningful things like that.
After hitting such great heights at such a young age you then came back down to earth with a bump; you lost everything in fact. Are you able to share with us what happened?
Yes, I always tell people that in that moment it was really, really scary but it was the biggest blessing in my life. I remember thinking “how could anyone be fired from their job”, I just didn’t get it because I was such a go-getter; until it happened to me.
I couldn’t take the job anymore, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t getting me to my goals, I had realized I wanted to do my own thing and wanted more out of my life, so that’s when my drive and performance went down, and that was it. I lost my job, house, wife, cars and dogs. Around the same time I found out my brother had gone to prison for murder, and I lost my grandmother; which would make anyone really think about going insane.
How did you go about building yourself up again?
So after I lost it all, I remember the night I was homeless. I called my mom, and told her I needed a place to stay. Fortunately my mom is awesome and of course is always there. But that night as I slept, I broke out into shaking and cold sweats, and just bawled my eyes out. As I awoke the next day, it felt like God grabbing me and taking me under his wing and leading me to the bookstore. I went every day from opening to closing. And read every business, spiritual, and self help book I could get my hands on. That lasted for about seven months. Wow, what an amazing experience. That was just the start. From there I began building myself back up again. The way I wanted to.
Denny, we have spoken on the radio before and you know that I am a huge fan of Neale Donald Walsch. Can you share with us how you came to have such a high profile author as a client?
While I was pretty much living at the bookstore during that seven months (Editors note: I bet they “loved” you Denny, seven months in their store from opening to closing, reading all their books and not buying!!!), I ran across three books that would change my life forever. Conversations with God, books 1, 2, & 3 by Neale Donald Walsch. Those books touched me so deep, that I did what it took to raise funds to go to one of his retreats. And I finally made it. By the time I made it, I had read CWG probably over 20 times. I think it was ingrained that Neale must have felt it. Or I just put it out; the intention of wanting to work with him. ‘Cause at that retreat, after he found out what I did, he asked me to bring my cameras and shoot his next retreat. From there, we also came up with the idea of pitching a TV show starring him that would be perfect for the Oprah Winfrey Network. It’s still hard to believe that my mentor, the guy that I look up to, wanted to work with me. It proved to me that creation really does work.
Tell us about your company, Watery Flame Productions?
Watery Flame Productions is dedicated to producing creative content such as films, television shows, and events that impresses upon audiences on a deeper level, reminding them of who they really are and inspiring them to let out their hearts desires in life. Our films, documentaries, television shows, and events consist of story driven themes and uplifting experiences that relate to higher consciousness philosophies, providing viewers with inspirational, introspective, and positive content to take away with them.
OK, I’m going to diversify now, who is your favourite band of all time and why?
Ha ha, I love it Richard. Actually I’m a fan of Joan Osborne. She sings that popular song “(What if God was) One of Us”. We think it’s just a song, but it’s a very profound question that can lead to a truth to what might just be going on. (Editors note: I totally agree with Denny on this one. It really is a fantastic song, and very profound in that God is One of us. Just as us(we) is(are) One God. See below.)
And what is your favourite album of all time, and why?
Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Favorite song on that is “Beat It”. I love MJ’s stuff ‘cause of his passion.
Now here’s one I bet you didn’t expect Denny. Would you share with us your most embarrassing moment ever?
Ha ha, I remember one time on a date, we went to a movie. I had to use the restroom, and when I was walking out my date points down to my shoes, and I had a piece of toilet paper stuck on my shoes. HA HA and she’s still dating me. (Editors note: Nice one Denny; a man after my own heart)!
Thanks for that Denny. You will be relieved to know that there are no more questions like that coming your way! Would you like to tell us about any projects you are currently working on?
Denny (Centre) with his coach JT Foxx and “Arnie”
Yes, we are currently working on a passion of mine. I found a really cool tool, on how to create what you desire, and it started working for me. So, I decided to make a film out of it and interview successful people that were using it, and called it The Last Formula. We asked Neale if he could be our first interviewee, and he loved the idea, so after that we got some good momentum going. We have interviewed greats like Tony Hsieh, Larry Winget, Dina Proctor, G. Brian Benson, and so many more to come. Very excited about it. Please drop us your email so you can get the launch of it at http://www.thelastformula.com. (Editors note: You’ve got my email address Denny so keep me informed, it sounds great and something I’d be interested in)
Well, it looks as though time has beaten us, so all that remains is for me to say thanks once again to Denny Morales for nipping across the pond to speak to us. Now I don’t want you to miss your bus Denny, but before you go could you leave us with a few words of inspiration?
Richard it was a pleasure, and thank you so much for allowing me to be me. I would like to leave with anyone tuning in; if you’re being challenged right now, just know that, that’s the universe’s way of giving you the experience to know how great it feels to be happy. We wouldn’t know what happy felt like if we never had sadness. True living is right in the middle, so you can appreciate the energy when it vibrates.
Wonderful! Thanks again Denny and I hope it’s not too long before we chat again.
Editors note: Not only did Denny agree to this interview, but he also agreed to make a short video especially for YOU, the readers of my blog. He is a very busy man and I am eternally grateful to him for finding the time to do this for us.
I once read a great quote by Albert Einstein describing relativity and I want to share it with you as a preamble to what will be my first actual blog article for many weeks. I will be sharing with you in another article soon as to why my blogging has been at a premium lately, but first it’s over to Albert.
An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour. That is relativity.
And so with that quote in mind I want to share with you my experiences from last night, 3 April 2012, which contained one of the longest 90 minute periods of my life. It may seem that I am about to embark on a lamentation of doom and gloom. But actually some very positive conclusions were drawn from the experience.
Last Saturday I received a phone call from a lady wanting to book me for an evening of clairvoyance at a pub in Shurdington, just outside Cheltenham. My first thought was to turn it down as I do not like working in pubs. As far as I’m concerned anywhere where alcohol and spiritual work cross paths is a no-no for me. I have worked in pubs in the past though; in situations where people book function rooms and hold clairvoyant events. In truth, I never liked doing them, especially before the smoking ban came into effect. Even though people were not allowed to smoke in the function room for the duration, you still couldn’t stop the stench of cigarette smoke wafting throughout. I should also explain that especially in the UK, pubs have history; in many cases they are 100’s of years old and the energies within these establishments can be very negative to say the least. Indeed I remember the last time I worked in a pub around four years ago, it wasn’t an evening that I remember fondly. But nonetheless I did take the booking for Tuesday April 3 at 7:30 p.m.
I turned up at the venue and it was apparent that the people running the event, who also happened to be the proprietors, did not have a great deal of experience in organizing such events. But when I got up in front of the small audience and started speaking I knew straight away that I was in for a hard night; what I didn’t realize though was just how hard it would be. I should also point out here that I’m not a great lover of clairvoyant nights in general. I don’t feel that clairvoyance has got anything to do with spirituality; all you are doing is communicating with the astral planes, which will be at various degrees of ease or difficulty depending on the energies in the building and the receptiveness of the audience/congregation. Without wishing to sound judgemental, these events tend to attract people who have no particular interest in spirituality, but who simply want a message from the medium. Generally speaking they will only respond to stuff they want to hear, so when I stood up to do my preamble and I felt the coldness from the audience I knew immediately that it was going to be tough.
I should also point out here how clairvoyance works and explode a few myths. Firstly, these events tend to be called “clairvoyant nights” because clairvoyance is a word that people understand. It comes from the French, meaning “clear seeing”. In reality mediums generally work with three faculties; clairaudience (clear hearing), which is a like a silent voice in the head, clairsentience (clear sensing), which as the name suggests means working with your sense of intuition, and clairvoyance. When a medium links in to those realms of higher vibration, those who wish to communicate will give the medium their information using one of those three methods or a combination of all three. The medium then has to interpret that information and pass it on to the sitter via the voice. Bearing in mind that literally everything has a vibration, this also applies to the information supplied to the medium and the medium’s voice. The sitter then needs to respond to the medium, also via the voice, which in turn also has its own vibration. It’s the coming together of the three vibrations that create the harmonious link between the two worlds. To many a medium’s frustration, no matter how many times you say this to people, you still get those who do not respond, or who respond in a negative way. When this happens the medium has to work extra hard to get the information across, and if they are not experienced in dealing with negative responses they can die a death right there and then. So, with ten years experience under my belt I died a death last night. I have never before experienced such negative and non-responsive people; and just for good measure I had a group of teenage girls giggling and talking among themselves virtually all the way through. Before I get to the nitty-gritty I should explain something else about mediumship.
To say that mediumship is important is like saying you would cause an impact by removing a single grain of sand from the Sahara Desert. We only think there is something “mystical” about it because we have lost sight of the “Self” (who we really are) whilst in these physical bodies. We are all beings of light with unlimited potential; no limitations whatsoever, except the ones we impose on ourselves, therefore we are all mediums. To think about it logically, why should we not have a link back to where we came from? I’m not even a great lover of calling myself a medium either, because by doing so, I’m putting myself in a box and giving myself a category that somehow limits me.
So, there I was, waiting for the ground to open up and swallow me; but wait…… surely there is a positive to come out of this negative? Of course there was, and in many ways, I am so glad for that most awful of experiences. Firstly, I cast my mind back to how the old me would have dealt with it. I would have shown my frustration and eventually I would have probably stopped, sat down, and told those being disruptive that I wouldn’t continue unless they left. I may also have reacted with a slightly aggressive tone and become very impatient. It’s also true to say that any decent medium doesn’t mind getting a “no”, it just means we have to do bit more work, but the absolute worst part of the evening was the horrendously long periods of silence when I lost my link completely; a silence intermittently broken by the giggling of the teenage girls. But I realized that I have evolved quite a lot over the last few years. I was very aware of my reaction, and even though I was not exactly best pleased at being in that situation, I saw it as a challenge that needed to be met. I also realized I was being tested and I shall explain.
Here I am, someone who has been guided by Eastern philosophies and who calls himself a devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba; I even have Baba’s quotes on my stationary, “help ever hurt never”, “love all serve all” and Baba’s teachings are very precise; “see God in everyone”. He also very often reminds us that “hands that serve are holier than lips that pray”. I’ve also read Paramahansa Yogananda, Eckhart Tolle and Neale Donald Walsch, so I am more than aware of the importance of letting go of the ego in order to realize the “Self”. So, was I really going to succumb to my ego and pass judgement on those who clearly did not know any better? Was the evening about me and my image or was it about doing God’s work? Was I really going to forget all the wisdom that’s come my way over the past few years for the sake of my ego being knocked? I’m just so thankful that I had the vision to see what was really happening from a spiritual perspective. Another thing that I’ve learned recently is that it is not our circumstances that depend on whether we are happy or sad, it’s how we deal with them. I’ve also learned that the universe is in constant flow and that it has been created as a paradox. So within the realm of matter’s ebb and flow we are not always going to have circumstances that we like. But what we can do is accept that they are the only set of circumstances we have at that moment and deal with them in the best way possible and to the best of our ability. So, all these things were going through my mind and I simply got on with the job. The old me would also have immediately blamed my angels and guides for not doing their job properly, but I understand that it was only because of the hard work and support of those “unseen forces” who work with me that I was able to see it through. It was such a relief when it was all over, but it all ended on a positive note.
I was very surprised that some of the ladies in the audience came up to me afterwards and shook my hand and thanked me for their messages. Some others were also apologizing for the behaviour of those who had been disruptive and said how disgusted they were. They informed the pub management who also apologized to me and informed me that the perpetrators would be barred from attending any future events. In reality the energy in that room was the most negative I have ever encountered; that was the crux of the problem. The giggling girls didn’t exactly help, but in the years I have been working as a medium I’ve encountered a lot worse. I explained to all those who offered apologies that they were not necessary and that we should try not to judge those who disrupted; they clearly didn’t know any better.
I wasn’t booked at that venue by coincidence; I was booked in order to be tested. I’m very grateful for the experience but I wont be working there again.
Once again, I find myself being inspired to write a blog post after reading the work of Neale Donald Walsch. This time the book that inspired me was: Friendship With God. The particular passage that stoked the flames of inspiration within me, spoke of how we have been conditioned into perceiving God as a parent; a parent who can get quite shirty with us if we don’t love “him” in the way he demands. It went on to say, that if we could simply accept God as a friend and seek to develop that friendship, our lives would be much more in line with our soul purpose. Of course, those are my own words that describe a vastly truncated version of what I actually read, but I hope you get the gist of what I’m trying to convey here. What nailed it for me to write this post was the piece that suggested we could start The Lord’s Prayer with, “Our Friend” instead of “Our Father.” So, feeling suitably inspired, I decided to take it upon myself to amend The Lord’s Prayer and I hope you feel as I do, that this is a far more realistic version.
Author - Richard F Holmes 