First You Sigh

By Beth Johnson

This comfortably written book is a courageous out pouring of one's personal journey of learning how to meditate. The book weaves a compelling storyline into an inspiring how-to-guide, teaching a unique method of meditation. The downhome, conversational style of the author invites you into her world and tells you how it was to struggle with knowing there was more to life than she was experiencing. She felt a longing for something that she found hard to express and yet the feeling was with her constantly. The only thing that she was certain of was that the feeling felt Powerfully Sacred. As you read on, you see her moving closer and closer to the unveiling of this mysterious feeling that had been with her since childhood. She tells you about the myriad of New Age things she tried in search of a doorway inward. She wanted to see and feel this incredible Knowing that seemed to live within her. The first glimpse of this wondrous sacredness came in a most unusual way. So unusual that it took her a while to be able to share it with anyone. Once she was able to muster the nerve to tell her best friends, the doorways opened and it was obvious this was too wonderful not to share with everyone. Simply said, this small, powerful book takes the mystery out of meditation and teaches you to cherish the time you spend going within. It will take you step by step through the "Owner's Manual of Being Human" and surrender you into the lap of your Soul. This book will teach you without feeling like you're being taught and inspire you to move forward in your own personal growth and love of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth Johnson
• Release date: Aug 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466011014

Beth Johnson

Beth Johnson is a native Texan whose grassroot approach to spirituality and meditation will thrill the hearts of those who read this book. She lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country with her beloved husband, dogs, cats and horses and regularly gives her time to anyone or any group that is seeking a path inward.

Book preview

First You Sigh

by

Beth Johnson

Copyright 2000 Beth Johnson

Smashwords Edition

SILENT PLACE CREATIONS

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Cover Design by Kim Weldon

Angel by Ann Conner

Contents

One

Intimations of Immortality

Two

Growing into My Self

Three

The Adventure Begins

Four

O-p-e-n-i-n-g

Five

There’s No Panic, But Hurry Please!

Six

Getting to Know You

Seven

The Silent Place

Eight

The First Time

Nine

Using the Vortex, a Gift of the Earth

Ten

Lessons Learned

Eleven

Witnessing the Ego

Twelve

Earth Graduate

Thirteen

My Life and My Group Expands

Fourteen

A Guide to the Silent Place

Recommended Reading List

Bethisms

To Mom

I surrender to the highest vibration of all, Love, so that I may reach you with this message.

I miss the physicalness of your soft touch and the sound of your sweet voice, but your incredible omnipresence is so undeniably here that I feel you have never left my side. I am so thankful you agreed to be my mom and I will be forever grateful for your presence in my life. You did a great job of giving me unending support and guidance, while always maintaining our covenant of free will. I created this book in your name and now I intend to share it with the world.

I know you are proud of me. I love you, eternally.

Bethie

Acknowledgments

For those of you who bother with reading this part of a book and have not written one yourself, let me say that writing an acknowledgment is hard. How do you properly thank someone for being the being that they are? All those I want to thank have given of their entire selves. Their efforts have been more than instrumental; they have been crucial to sustaining the drive, creating the structure, supplying the love, and allowing the manifestation of this book. My gratitude and appreciation flow from my heart:

to Bruce, my dear and wonderfully supportive husband, who has been steadfast in his belief in me from the moment we met. To have a husband who would both financially and emotionally support the idea of a book on channeling is amazing enough. That he would participate in the editing and the publishing is love made manifest! Only the two of us can possibly know how precious our love is;

to Wanda Evans, my editor and publisher. I knew I would find just the right person to help me take my book to the next level, but even my great imagination could not have dreamed up someone like Wanda. When she completed my manuscript, she immediately gave me a call. With every word she spoke, I felt bathed in her support. She has a manner that is unique in the business world, one to be emulated. I would describe it as clear, confident compassion. Just what my book and I have needed. Bless you, Wanda;

to my friend Lynda, whose angelic-like presence planted the seed for this book. Never once did she waver from her belief that it would someday be published. It took the combination of my willingness to take the risk and step beyond the boundaries and her persistent insistence for this creation to happen! We all owe her for her vision of this book with its important message for those of us who yearn to grow and seek enlightenment;

to Cheryl, whose talents I relied upon heavily the last four months of the writing of this book. She was capable of a whole array of things that I found necessary to complete it. She was a cheerleader, typist, strategist, supplier of yogurt, and lives-long spiritual playmate;

to Kara, who introduced me to channeling and supported me by constantly updating me with new and wonderful information from the Light Being world and who surrounded me with her unbounded love;

to my faithful friends and fellow meditators, Vicki Tanigaki and Nancy Kennedy, who were kind enough to put on their editing staff hats for me when I called upon them for their assistance. They provided a unique blend of intelligence and creativity, which they gave unabashedly;

to all the members of my meditation groups in Dallas and Houston for having the courage to follow their spiritual paths. I was able to use every meditation as a building block to create the foundation for the teachings in this book. A special thank you to Kelli Schmit and Christine Gold who were gracious enough to write personal accounts about the value of toning in meditation, which I have included in this book.

And, thanks to my family:

to my sister, Ann, who has added to this book her touch of academia, professional experience, and well-placed words of encouragement. She has always been the best shoulder to lean on that a girl could ask for, and while writing this book I leaned plenty during the slow times. Ann is deeply rooted in the love of the spiritual journey, as well. She founded the Jung Center of Orlando in 1993, where she now teaches and has her practice;

to my brother, Ray, whose humor and love of life are unparalleled. Many people say I take after him and I consider that an enormous compliment;

to my Daddy, who taught me stick-to-it-iveness, conviction, and never say die.

As you so well know, I have appreciated every big and little thing y’all have done. Thank you all. I love you.

Bethie

Special Thanks to:

Kathleen Morrow, a remarkable individual I am so glad has come into my life. I refer to her as my Angel Writer. Kathleen is the one who gave this book its first breath and sustained its life while I gathered the forces within me to become a writer and bring the book to completion. Her creative juices and wonderful sense of humor have made our friendship mind-expanding as well as fun. Thank you, Kathleen.

A Note from Kathleen Morrow

I cannot talk about Beth Johnson and Lynda Standley Richardson without including Veniece Standley. Beth, Lynda, and Veniece came as a package. Veniece, one of my mentors, wanted to introduce me to two of her favorite women in the entire world, so we met in a small German restaurant on Houston’s west side. I had the sense that I was talking to three expressions of the same gentle soul. It was almost eerie. The three women even looked alike, blonde and fine-boned and handsome (Even at eighty-two, Veniece was still a remarkably good-looking woman.). They talked alike, too, soft-spoken but enthusiastic, punctuating each statement with dark-eyed flashes, sincere, excited, the two younger women exhilarated by their new spiritual undertaking, Veniece delighted to support them.

Many things about that first meeting impressed me: Beth’s modesty and sincerity, the directness with which she recounted her extraordinary spiritual experiences, Lynda’s quiet (almost angelic) determination, Veniece’s obvious love for them both. But, what impressed me most was a very short segment of conversation between Beth and her mother.

The most wonderful thing — one of the many, many wonderful things — my spiritual experiences have given me, Kathleen, is release from bondage to fear, Beth said. She stopped, looked for a long moment at her mother, and continued. I don’t even fear death anymore. Not even the death of Mother is dreadful to me now. The Entities have taught me there is no death. You’ll be with me forever, Mother, just in a slightly different form.

Beth, oh, Beth, I’m so glad to hear you say that, Veniece replied. It has worried me, knowing that you feared my death more than I do.

I didn’t realize until a few days later how timely the conversation was, as if the Universe had moved to allow everyone to prepare quickly for what was just ahead.

Four days after our luncheon, Veniece died, as gently as she had lived, in her sleep.

There’s sadness, of course, Beth told me over the telephone. "But, I’m rejoicing, too. Mother knew before she died that life just goes on expanding eternally. And, I knew it, too. That knowledge is sustaining me now.

I decided during Veniece’s ceremony (listening to dozens of testimonies to Veniece’s commitment to loving and to life) to say ‘yes’ to the invitation to join in loving partnership with Beth and Lynda (and the spirit of Veniece). As busy as my life was, my Soul had discovered a new job to do — I was being called to wrap words around the intuitive, soul-fueled insights that Beth and Lynda were bringing to life.

As the book unfurled, I moved from writer to friend to confidante to some undefined status that allowed Beth and Lynda and me to serve one another in a wonderful dancing swirl — the more I was able to agree to be who they needed me to be when they needed it, the more they were able to serve me the same way. In the process, the writing of this book was transformed from work to fun!

My life changed in other ways, too. Some of those ways are too subtle and personal for me to describe here — tiny shifts of internal energy that opened vast new vistas of love and life. It was as if my own internal voice began to whisper, then shout: My God, woman, wake up! There’s a whole Universe out there waiting to be explored!

Other changes were more pronounced. I’m a freer woman, a person who spends less time in the claustrophobic domains of fear and worry, who senses the dance of soul partnership in every last one of my daily interactions and friendships.

So, Beth and Lynda (and you, too, Veniece) I’d like to say, Thanks for dancing with me. It’s been a jiggy-waltzy-polka-two-step kind of whirl. I can’t wait until we find a new tune — something none of us have ever heard before — to enliven our lives and broaden our Souls and cause us to dance lively to the awe-inspiring vibrations of the vast, broad, love-infused Universe.

Kathleen Morrow

Foreword by Lynda

Beth and I have been friends for thirty years and have shared many of the same self awareness methods over these years, even though we were sometimes coming from different directions. After my move to Dallas ten years ago I knew I was ready for a new path, so when Beth and I found Kara we knew it felt right. Soon after that, Beth started channeling this wonderful new information and it's hard to describe the excitement I felt. I suppose I kept after her to record so I could transcribe these new messages for my own selfish purposes. I was dying for more as this whole new world was opening up for me and I just wanted to soak it all up.

I had meditated some over the years but never with a great sense of satisfaction. When Beth taught me how to meditate using toning and vibrations, I was so thrilled with its ease and the profound sense of tranquility it brought. Making the sounds aloud is a little awkward at first but is the most wonderful way of putting the mind at rest. When I first began to feel the vibrations caused by the toning, I felt them just in my throat and my chest. When I continued to tone though, I began to feel the vibrations all the way to my fingertips and toes.

Although I wasn't sure what I was feeling, I allowed myself to go with it and feel consumed by the toning and vibrations, which have been key in making my meditations much deeper than ever before. I always come away feeling more clear, even if I only spend a short time at it. There is something very special about the group meditations, as the whirling vibrations and energy grow and fill the room. When I'm feeling stressed about something, I have found that if I just sit down and spend a few minutes focusing on my breath and toning I begin to feel connected to my Soul and I'm much better able to handle whatever has me stressed out. What a wonderful feeling that is!

The most important thing I have learned is trust. Trust in the knowledge that I do have the ability to make choices and trust that living in the moment will take me through my decision cycle quite naturally. This newfound clarity was invaluable when I moved to Singapore. I was feeling pretty scattered and disconnected. I knew I was really going to miss attending the periodic group meditations, so the first few times, Beth and I arranged to meditate at the same time. Here we were, half a world apart and I could actually feel her energy. During the first few months after my move, meditation, with the use of toning and vibrations, was my friend. I feel grateful now that I was able to trust — trust myself and trust my life process.

Lynda Standley Richardson

Introduction

It took me a while to grow comfortable with the idea of writing this book. I don’t have the patience to write a thank you note, much less a whole book! If it hadn’t been for the sheer magnitude of the message that I had to share, I probably would have disregarded the idea completely.

This mind-expanding book idea did not originate with me. It came from my friend, Lynda Standley Richardson, who planted the seed with my mother, Veniece Standley. The two of them unceasingly nurtured it with their enthusiasm.

The subject first came up on a spring day in 1994. Lynda and I were sitting with my mother in the sunroom of my parents' home in a green and leafy section of Houston. Mother was reading the transcript of my latest channeling. Yes, I said channeling. If you are unfamiliar with that word, you are not alone, for it was the first time Mother had been introduced to channeling, and it had been only six months since this hardly-a-common-conversational-subject awakened in me.

If you have heard of channeling and perceive it to be either weird or mystical, you are correct on both accounts, for here are the definitions of those two words from The New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language:

Weird, n. Destiny; a person’s allotted fate. . .adj. . .Suggestive of unEarthliness.

Mystic, mystical, n. Views or tendencies in religion which aspire toward a communication between man and his Maker through the inward perception of the mind. . .a seeking to solve the mysteries of existence by internal illumination.

In ancient times, those who approached the questions of life such as Who am I? Who is my Maker? or Where did I come from? in any other way than pragmatic, Earthbound thinking, were considered mystics.

Today we might say that they thought outside the box. Mystics felt they would not find the answers to these age-old questions through reading the written word or using the logic of the mind, but instead believed their attention would be better placed in simply observing life. They felt this practice of observing one’s self would greatly benefit them in gleaning treasured insights. They spent much of their contemplative time sitting in silence, listening to and observing their inner worlds.

So, if we use this understanding of weird and mystic, I would fit right in — a good ol’ homegrown Texan mystic! Yup, that’s me!

Even if you are familiar with the word, channeling, I would like you to know what I think it is; this will allow you to get to know me and my take on this subject.

First of all, I will tell you what I think it is not, for it isn’t some magical gift that some are born with and some without. Quite the contrary, channeling is something everyone does, and it occurs anytime our ego selves step aside and allow our aware selves to tune into the channel of pure knowledge. Henry Reed describes it this way in his book, Edgar Cayce on Channeling Your Higher Self:

"He . . . describes his gift as the ability of his subconscious mind to interpret the impressions coming from the subconscious mind so that the objective mind could express it in words."

In recent years, channeling of the spoken word has been brought to the spotlight. There are volumes of channeled material to be found at your local book store. Some of the authors feel their information came from