Since this is the first official month that Spiritual Blog is online I would like to introduce the tradition of a Reflection post. The Reflection post will be the last post at the end of each calendar month. This gives me a chance to reflect on this blog, general happenings, and news around the spiritual blogosphere.

This is not a regular post, in fact it has a much different, less-formal structure. I will not mind if certain readers choose to ignore these posts and focus on the central content instead - think of this as the review of the content on this blog for the last month. Read on »

Anyone who has ever been challenged to strongly reconsider their entire opinion of the world knows that it can become extremely difficult to maintain a stable perspective when someone asks you to just throw all your standing beliefs out the window. Often when our life-perspective is challenged the previous values that have defined us must be replaced with something new—but with what? It never benefits us to hold on to an old part of ourselves longer than the time it takes us to learn the lessons we had to and to move forward with our lives. Read on »

Mental projection is a method of meditation that differs from the process of astral projection in offering a more accessible approach. Astral projection involves an Out-of-Body projection of consciousness, where as mental projection can be done from a meditative state without all of the same sensations accompanying astral travel experiences. Read on »

Each one of us has the potential to be a powerful healer, but this potential is often deterred by unproductive thinking patterns and behaviours. Thinking of healing as a process that just involves the manipulation of subtle energies makes it difficult to be successful at healing. Healing begins with acceptance and awareness - and the energetic transfer comes later.

Understanding the essential components behind healing reduces the learning curves of Reiki, Quantum Touch, and other healing methods that might seem too complex to grasp at first. This article will provide 12 methods to become a better healer. These methods are as applicable to beginners as they are to those already practicing healing. Read on »

In this post I am going to share 2 of the most comprehensive online resources on Lucid Dreaming. Lucid Dreaming is the term used to describe life-like and conscious experiences that occur during sleep. Most people would argue that the vividness, control, and content of our dreams cannot be controlled, but to complete the cliche - most people would be wrong. Read on »

Some weeks ago I was requested to write a review of Our Ultimate Reality, an e-book written in 2005 that has become increasingly popular online. Even though I ultimately found that this book does not offer much original information, it does provide a good overview of a number of spiritual and mystical concepts to those who have just begun to stumble upon them.

Read on »

In this blog post I will present 6 methods to Supercharge Your Creative Power. Creative power is linked to how well a person is able to express and experiences their inner potential - and this post will provide 6 methods to dig into the mind to begin discovering that potential.

Unlimited creative power exists within each one of us - it is just a matter of tapping into it to unblock the limitations of the mind. Read on »

The human mind is often filled with beliefs about experience - what will happen if we do one thing or another. Those beliefs are often based on past experience. You might have placed your hand on a hot stove and ever since you have had the belief that touching a hot stove hurts - makes sense. However beliefs are also based on what other people have told you: If you do that, you will get in trouble, and since that moment you have had the belief of doing that is bad. Today we will look at how to burst some of the belief bubbles that keep us safe from the fuller experience of life. Read on »

The last post I wrote - The Power of Being Yourself - was published at UrbanMonk, and in the previous week I have been finishing the Create Your Dream Life tutorial. It has been a week since this blog has been updated with a new topic, and this post will continue where some of the previous topics left off - how to overcome the shadow of the self to discover a place of truth and stillness.

This post will discuss introspection - the process of delving into the self to find the cause of certain actions, thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Once the reason for a certain aspect of the self is resolved we become more integrated and complete people. Read on »

Just what is manifestation and Creating Your Dream Life and how can You do it? To overview, this tutorial will cover:

• Methods to forge personal dreams and desires into realities using the powerful visualization technique known as Creative Visualization
• Creating a "Matrix Training Level" to 'download' skills, techniques, and knowledge from the subconscious mind to the conscious self
• Exploring emotional and mental dimensions
• Exploring fragmented aspects of self and repairing them
• Recognizing and overcoming self-imposed obstacles

The power of sight is more important than it is often given credit for. The act of seeing creates a magnetic attraction to outer things - the process of seeing is far from passive. It binds how the realities around a person are created. Sight in the mind is a force more powerful than regular sight. The difference is that mind-sight can be powered using consciousness - while external sight is just a representation of the outer world that cannot be changed without mind-sight. Your unconscious mind is impressionable to images in the mind and often creates a life that is based on them.

Foresight and insight are two elements of perception that become sharpened on the road to self-awareness. This sharpening allows a person to adjust the lens of the mind. In observing his or her future dream, hope, or path as something imaginative the person is then able to sharpen the lens to bring the ideal into congruence with the actual, to bring the future into faster alignment with the present.

Introducing Creative Visualization

Creative Visualization is the technique that allows us to sharpen this source of creative power rather than letting it run our lives instead. Practicing the techniques of creative visualization in this tutorial several times per week for at least 15 minutes per session will bring your dream goal closer and closer to actualization.

Calling Your Dream

Creative Visualization is like going to the gym but for strengthening the Mind rather than the body. Each person has the power within them to pursue and find their dream. However when no vision and no practice of sharpening the lens through which that dream is perceived occurs then our goals become scattered all over the mind.

Imagine a red magnet, a blue magnet, and a green magnet floating in the atmosphere. If you reflect the colour of red then the red magnet will begin to move towards you, but if you reflect a blue colour then the blue one will be magnetized to you instead. In our lives we are often reflecting different colours and almost attracting our goals but letting go of them too soon and then pursuing something else. Rather than letting all goals float around like this the aim in this tutorial is to focus on one main goal and to bring it into sharper focus.

The practice of Creative Visualization allows for anything imagined to become potentially real. Hence, there are no limitations or boundaries for practicing this technique.

• You can use it to overcome perceptions of limitation, such as the fear of public speaking (this is one of the main examples I will be using).
• Use it to perform regular tasks with more success and effectiveness.
• Explore your self-image and bring it into congruence with your ideal self-image.
• Use the unlimited power of the imagination to bring expanded awareness into your present life.

Even though this technique has no practical limitations it is easier to get a grasp on the method starting with more concrete and identifiable goals such as learning to do a particular task better, faster, or with increased precision (another example I will be discussing is how creative visualization can be applied to a Sports game).

To imagine something is to start a process of creating that imagined thing into a real thing

The source of all actualization is Vision: Creative Imagination is not something reserved for the poets, the philosophers, the inventors. It enters into our every act. For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as so commonly believed, but because of imagination
— Maxwell Maltz, M.D., Psycho-Cybernetics

The power to actualize our goals and dreams with imagination is often undermined. Consider the idea that anything is possible where the right amount of effort is put into actualizing that thing. For example, a helicoptor was real in Leonardo Da Vinci's mind but it did not exist in the real world at the time, it was just a dream. However this element of imagination later came to exist. The same can be said for all other parts of life that are yet to come into existence due to not receiving enough focus and attention.

The idea of I am a successful business person makes a person become that in one frame of mind. However a person might have the idea of I am a bad cook and this also makes that person into that thought in one mindframe. There are thousands of such mindframes existing based on thoughts. However the one focused on most gains most potential and what gains most potential in imagination becomes real.

If I imagine myself in an ideal state it will happen in a second in one mind state, but for it to become true in this life it takes much longer than a few seconds - the attention I give it is a few drops of power, which in time turns into a stream of motivation, and with enough focus then becomes a flood of potential. There are thousands of versions of You, thousands of different mindstates - and thus the process will take forever unless the person using this technique concentrates on making the one ideal or preferred self become true.

Up until this point we have been discussing Focus on one goal. This focus will open the floodgates for your dreams and goals to come closer into existence rather than being trapped in the imagination. Most people in the modern world have lost touch with this skill we have to focus on things with a deep and penetrating look that draws them out of our creative potential and into the real world in front of us. This sense of focus will be explored for the remainder of the tutorial to provide a new method of understanding manifestation and the nature of personal dreams.

Practicing the Method

There is an attraction at theme parks and arcades that is a game which requires a person to throw a plastic ball into a hole from a distance (sometimes these are moving clowns or a hole in the wall). If the ball lands into the hole a certain number of times without missing a prize is won.

Even though Intuitive visualization can be applied to all practical exercises, for now we will work on this particular technique. The first principle of attaining basic targets is:

Do not think - Just act

The subconscious mind knows how to accomplish the goal with perfection, as soon as we allow the conscious mind to stop thinking and analyzing it. The aim of this exercise is to attempt playing any ball-game, such as basketball, golf, or bowling. Before you throw the ball visualize in your mind the goal target being achieved. No thinking at all is required for this, just visualize the success for a few seconds and then throw the ball.

If done correctly, you will notice that the subconscious mind guides your hands in the perfect position to attain the target - as long as you do not start thinking or worrying about missing it on a conscious level. I have duplicated this process hundreds of times and I have found that visualization for simple targets is an excellent technique to get started with hands-on manifestation.

Remember that in visualization the image of achieving the goal is the most important part. This requires being alert and aware in the present moment. Concentrate on the action, then visualize the desired outcome without thinking, and then do the action.

When we visualize we are effectively pre-constructing the event which will take place. This visualization makes the event happen in one mindstate - and since we do the real action seconds afterwards the two mindstates converge giving a high likelihood of success. The event needs to be pre-constructed as though it is being done, but in the mind, see and experience it happen.

Feeling the success of achieving the goal is crucial to this technique. To visualize shooting a target with a bow for example, and then think -It is too far, I will never be able to hit it- is counterproductive. However by suspending thought in the moment after visualization and just taking action it is possible to achieve anything with greater precision, accuracy, and success.

The aim of creative visualization is to use techniques similar to the one explored on the previous page as a means of achieving your goals. First of all decide on a goal to achieve - this goal can be simple or complex - there are no restrictions with visualization.

Some examples of goals

• Improving success with public speaking
• Coming first place in a race
• Completing a project with greater success
• Selling a new product

Creative visualization can be used to take these goals out of their conceptual framework and to bring them into alignment with a real outcome.

For example, to practice creative visualization on the above goals sit down for at least 10 minutes each evening and visualize a successful outcome. There are 3 elements that make a visualization effective:

1. Perspective
   Try to visualize yourself as you would see yourself achieving the particular goal from the perspective of an outsider. This 3rd-person perspective alters your self-image on a subconscious level and this allows you to be more receptive to achieving this goal.
2. Detail
   The greatest possible amount of detail in a visualization means it should reflect the real situation environment as much as possible. For example, visualizing a successful interview might involve one visualization with 1 interviewer, one with 2 interviewers, one in an office, one in a less formal area, and so forth. Detail is important, otherwise the technique becomes part of imagination rather than visualization.
3. Belief
   Feelings can be visualized too. Feel as though the goal has been achieved while visualizing it, allow yourself to feel happier and satisfied that the goal has been achieved.

Be a Visionary

The idea is to always have a vision of the ideal state of yourself in any given scenario. Long-term change is made up of smaller building blocks. There is potential for a certain level of lifestyle that already exists from childhood that has years and years of energy behind it.

• I am a bad …
• I am good at …
• I cannot achieve …

Hence the process of creative visualization might take a while before the changes start to occur. However the aim is not to focus on the change occurring, but to re-assure yourself that the change has happened already. Every second you imagine it happening it comes closer into actualization.

Never allow anyone to tell you that you are just not creative, or do not have it in you.

Each individual has an innate inner power to be creative and to change their circumstances using that creative power. For a sports game, it takes just a few seconds to hit a goal with greater precision, because the visualization is direct and basic. For long-term life changes it can take months of persistent visualization before the potential raindrops become a river of actualization flowing in the direction of all of your goals.

Build a Secret Place

Creative visualization is a great method to build your own personal training or relaxation space. You can later use this method as a launching ground for all future creative visualizations.

Your visualized place can be a beach, a valley in the mountains, or any other space that you feel at home in. Imagine the environment with a lot of depth, as though you are actually in that place right now. Focusing your senses on the sights, smells, sounds and feelings of that location will help saturate your consciousness with this place.

After a few minutes of familiarizing yourself with the environment and making yourself at home picture a button similar to a computer Save button which is clicked when saving a document. Once you click the button you will save this personal space. You can also imagine a lock that keeps that space safe until your next return. From now on anything you do in the space will be saved when you return there, however you can delete and change the space as you see fit, and you will be able to use it as a place to relax or to practice visualization goals.

Summarizing this tutorial

1. Practice creative visualization with basic goals such as basketball or bowling. Imagine the outcome for 2-3 seconds right before taking the action to ensure the visualization is successful.
2. Use creative visualization for short term and long term goals over a number of sessions to improve success with the use of perspective, detail, and belief.
3. Create a personal space using creative visualization to bring yourself closer to achieving your ideal life goals.