The Mystery of Spirit: Transforming Lives Through the Path of Heart

By George Robbins

Focusing on techniques of spiritual development and awareness of the presence of spirit in ordinary life, Robbins challenges the reader to move beyond spiritual blockages and obstacles and raise the vibrational frequencies that bring us to greater enlightenment. This reduces negative emotions such as despair, meaninglessness, and unhappiness. Robbins wants to help us increase our pro-social activity thereby contributing to a more open-minded service towards others.

In this book he shows how to use effective techniques for practical and spiritual change while following a path of heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982233792

George Robbins

Professor George Robbins has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan and an A.B.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Robbins has a certification in the practice of Self-I-dentity through Ho’ oponopono, which is a Hawaiian Kahuna spiritual path. His lifelong curiosity has motivated him to study adepts from around the world and throughout history and he developed a course “Spiritual Diversity” that he has taught for over fifteen years. In addition to teaching regular courses in social science, he also taught aging death and dying, abnormal psychology and developmental psychology. An educator for over fifty years, holding strong moral and spiritual convictions throughout his life, Robbins engaged in activist peace work to stop the Vietnam War and civil rights activity with M. L. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference to gain the vote in Mississippi in 1964. He Was also involved in many other such activities including the movement to gain the 18 year old vote in the 1960’s.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-3378-5 (sc)

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Balboa Press rev. date:  02/24/2021

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A New Outlook on an Age-Old Problem

1     A Sense of Mystery: Spirituality in Nature

2     Spiritualization through Biology: Another Look at Nature

3     Spirituality in Physics and Other Sciences: Why the Old Division between Science and Spirituality Is Passing Away

4     The Don Juan Lineage of Toltecs: Seeing, Not Seeing, and the Art of Perception

5     Energy: What Many Fail to See

6     Perception: How We See and Fail to See

7     Consciousness: The Mystery of Being

8     Soul and Spirit: Why the Distinction?

9     Building the Soul: The Practices of G. I. Gurdjieff

10   Obstacles: What Could Be Challenges Instead

11   Objectives of Spiritual Paths: Why Many Spiritual Paths Have so Much to Offer

12   Spiritual Indicators and Expressions: Seeing What Often Is Not Seen

13   Spiritual Laws: Universal Understandings That Typically Are Neither Understood nor Are Made Manifest

14   Conclusion

Glossary

Select Bibliography

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

I appreciate the contributions of many people who helped in the development of this book, and this includes the open-minded people who wrote insightful books on this and related topics, my students for the last sixteen years in Spiritual Diversity, and my friends who have discussed the topic and shared their insights with me. My special thanks go to Willard Flynt, who taught paralegal studies at ECC City and reviewed many of my earlier writings while giving insightful and helpful suggestions for my research and writing. Without him, the course on spiritual diversity would not have been started, and this book might not have been written. Thanks also go to Derek Bateman, chair of our Social Science Department, who gave many helpful suggestions in numerous areas and helped me often on the continual computer issues. My son, Nicholas Robbins, gave very helpful suggestions in editing which improved it in many ways but especially in its overall organization. My thanks go to Eileen and Anna Robbins for all their help in countless ways. I want to thank Professor Bradley Kaye, who expertly helped get the manuscript in proper shape. I also want to thank Leane Schultz, Administrative Assistant to our Social Science Department who gave much valuable help to me over many years. Thanks go to Michael March of Balboa for his continual help on a wide variety of problems and for his work on the book design. The editorial department of Balboa carefully edited the manuscript for which I am most grateful. I want to thank Jim Manon and Via Nelson in particular for their effective work on the design of the book. I also was very pleased by the cover design by Adolfo Loreamas and the interior design by Jhundee Pardillo. Without the work of many, this book could not have been produced.

Introduction

A New Outlook on an

Age-Old Problem

The type of problem being presented in this book arises out of the clash between the older middle ages, or more accurately speaking, out of the feudal period and the rise of the scientific age which was more grounded in an all pervasive materialism that threw spiritualism overboard partly for good reasons since it was infested by a far-ranging adherence to superstitions even including outright evils. Unfortunately this meant much of true spirituality was destroyed as well. We now need to restore spirituality by both scientific and spiritual techniques in a very comprehensive way. Reason and intuitions are needed in this effort, which is to say that checking conclusions out by scientific research based on sensory reality needs to be complemented by psychically-spiritually based efforts at knowing. Higher realities of the cosmos have to be accessed in addition to five sense reality. The higher self or soul of humans needs to be known in its full connection to spirit.

We need to confront ourselves more with the question What is the problem? if we are to get to the roots of the problem. Is the absence of purpose the problem? And what are the causes of this problem if we decide it is the root problem? Is materialism the root problem? And if so, what do we need to do about it? Is the absence of attention to powerful spiritual writings central in the maze in which we are caught? Is this related to the compartmentalization of knowledge and the segmentation of our understandings? Are we caught in both a narcissism of self-centeredness and a nihilism of meaninglessness, both of which grow out of a lack of focus on certain areas referred to in this introduction? Is the absence of deep spiritual focus connected to the many extensive crimes of the powerful that most people ignore, both because of their lack of convictions and because of their fear of losing their jobs or even their lives? Is the latter contributing to the unhappiness pollution of the collective psyche of humanity? Indeed, what is the problem? Is there a new paradigm or model for this problem? Where do we begin on the answer to these questions? Why not by building a universal spiritual outlook that goes beyond the paths followed without rejecting the differences?

Freedom would be a good first principle, and it should be a responsible freedom that elevates rather than denigrates, integrates rather than separates, illuminates rather than obscures, and inspires rather than distresses. Responsible freedom, or the freedom of responsibility, does not look the other way when the powerful commit their crimes; nor does it ignore those with imagination who attempt to solve the practical aspects of these eternal problems.

Spiritual forces are, to a great extent, beyond the physical world, yet they also reach into it through nature, which is an expression of spirituality in a more objectified material form. Reaching and understanding the supersensible is difficult to the extent that we are locked into a materialist viewpoint. Until we have deep shocks of whatever kind or mystical experiences, the materialistic density holds sway. Materialist blocks are obstacles to spiritual development, and these must be delineated in the most careful detail, which will be done later in this book. These obstacles express themselves in greed to gratify all the senses, including present-day addictions like drugs and cell phone preoccupations. Such materialistic distractions are lower expressions of the densities of vibrations that distract attention from higher frequencies. They draw people into greediness of all sorts and away from the subtle worlds while convincing people through scientific skepticism that there are no subtle higher worlds unless scientifically verified—which they hardly ever are.

Materialism of the scientific-capitalist age puts all kinds of things on time. The daily workday is most center stage in this respect. Time also sets the stage for education, entertainment, political control and for every other domination exercised over humanity. Only spiritual persistence can actually overcome this materialistic capitalistic imprisoning time construct. Rather than captivation by an artificially constructed time we need to create more opportunities to enter the great silence that offers opportunities for accessing higher spiritual levels. This means leaving the less real for the more real which the powers in charge have long kept as obscured from humanity as possible.

Materialism includes the world of nature in which we live and have our being, and it is interpenetrated by subtle (subtle refers to finer vibrating bodies around the physical in the aura of people and other entities, and also to the higher worlds or planes) and spiritual forces and is not really separate from the spiritual world, but we should be intensely aware of the material world’s imbalances while stationing our consciousness in the ever-balancing heart center. The heart center is everbalancing because the ‘heart feeling’, the love outreach and the concern with all in existence balances anyone by its continual contact with everything in the cosmos.

padre%20pio-2.jpg

Padre Pio

Padre Pio, the Catholic priest, purportedly was witnessed bilocating.

A beginning point in this book will be to focus on indicators that the world is not entirely the way we think it is, and on mystical experiences that show experiencer proofs that the world is much more than most people think it is. These indicators include near death experiences, out of body experiences, bilocation, extra sensory perception, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, past life recollections, post-death experiences of the departed and moments of divine inspiration to name only a few to be considered in this book. The indicators and proofs include several well-documented experiences, among which are the following: Neardeath experiences (NDEs) occur sometimes when people may even be declared dead, but they leave their bodies with nonfunctioning brains and then come back to their bodies, which is their return to some conscious form of functioning that we call life. At that point, they know that the world is not only material but also spiritual, since they realize that their consciousness does not die at death. NDEs are reinforced for many people who have other out-of-body experiences (OBEs). People also have various kinds of ESP, including clairvoyance (clear seeing), clairaudience (clear hearing), and clairsentience (clear sensing), all of which go beyond the physical senses. In addition, people have visions, past-life recollections, experiences of seeing post death appearances, and encounters with trance readings. People also see auras, recognize synchronicities, and have moments of divine inspiration. Some of these people are like neurosurgeon Alexander Eben, who was a confirmed skeptic about such experiences until his body became comatose and his brain stopped functioning, yet he traveled in other planes or other worlds. It is encounters, experiences, and accounts such as these that have set me on my quest to uncover and present as much of this valuable material as possible.

One thing is certain—there is a lot of material of high value, and if you look for it, you will find a lot. The following chapters recount some of this lifechanging information. Extrasensory perception (ESP) includes telepathy (commonly referred to as mind reading or non sensory long-distance transmission of thought); clairvoyance, or clear seeing with psychically developed organs that enable one to see into the higher worlds; clairaudience, or clear hearing that enables one to hear spirits both in nature and from beyond in other worlds; and clairsentience, or clear sensing (smelling, tasting, or otherwise sensing things that are not there physically). There are also visions or seeing aspects of the past such as are sometimes imprinted in rocks or in other parts of nature. Past life recollections are experienced and, according to Swami master Paramahansa Yogananda, are more frequent when people’s spiritualities are highly developed. Postdeath experiences of ghosts and hauntings where spirits are caught in the in-between state of this earthly world and the lower astral are commonly reported. Even trance readings show that people actually have other subtle bodies. All of these are strongly expressed by powerful mystical experiences of people whose views are changed by these ineffable and mysterious events. When people see auras, of which there are multitudes of examples, their view of the world is changed, and this is especially true if they rise to the level of reading health conditions and moral development of those whose auras they have seen. More psychic and spiritual development can also result in recognizing synchronicities whose number of recognitions tend to increase when more attention is given to the possibility of synchronicities. Moments of divine inspiration, reported by Dan Millman,¹ are perhaps one of the most telling of spiritual experiences. The acme of such experiences may be the detection of both spirits and Spirit, with the unity of the expression of spirits being sensed in Spirit.

By not falling into a continually deadening skepticism about the centrality of the law of vibration’s action in spiritual ascension, we begin to maintain a steadier vision that changes into ever higher frequencies, which are most necessary to connect with the All. This brings together three central ideas that have been obscured by scientific or rather by scientism which supports any ‘scientific" conclusion whereas in fact real science always has to be open to change because of the discovery of new and challenging facts. Scientism has been encouraged by the dominance of capitalism which worships the power of money over both scientific and spiritual truth. The forces that be-the money holders and their top henchmen therefore oppose any persons, organizations or other influences which work to elevate spiritual forces that connect to the All and raise the issue of the unbounded nature of reality.

This book maintains that we need to have more face-to-face discussions about the need for attention on spiritual practices to further build our souls. As Jacob Needleman contended in Intermediate Christianity, we need to focus more on and practice building the soul. This view is quite consistent with the message of G. I. Gurdjieff, the founder of the influential Fourth Way spiritual school.

These chapters are filled with descriptions of techniques that help improve the way we live. Some chapters are mainly concerned with techniques that, in almost all cases, can be used by people who follow almost any spiritual path.

This book is meant to be informative and consciousness raising while drawing upon practices from many spiritual paths. The book differs from many books in this field because it is purposely oriented in both a systematic and comprehensive way. It describes not only the material world (nature) but also the subtle worlds, subtle bodies, and energetic fields, and it emphasizes the movement from higher-energy vibrations to the abstract expression of universal spiritual laws. Far too often, the universal spiritual laws have been brushed aside by religious, spiritual, and civilian authorities, unfortunately sometimes almost as a matter of course. This book offers some things that others often do not, including descriptions of many spiritually enhancing techniques and an open-minded approach to many spiritual paths. My approach refuses to denigrate other spiritual paths. Instead, it relies on inspiration and comprehensive expression of information to replace skepticism, nihilism, and apathy. A continual reliance on skepticism and nihilism leads to personal depression and desperation. Defining spirituality as the practice of frequency raising and service to humanity and all of life helps avoid these pitfalls. The intellectual fiddling around and the deadly focus on apathy and do-nothingism must be seen for what they are—the enemy of human progress on all levels and one of the most insidious enemies we can ever face. This book can be seen as being different from many others in this field in that it does not offer abstract discussions of general theological principles but rather seeks to integrate the facts of life with the great universal principles.

This book’s purpose is to serve the expansion of human consciousness by shining a light on universal truths while furthering useful practices from many spiritual paths that illuminate and further the practice of soul building. The purpose is to clarify the deep spiritual paths. It’s purpose is to encourage ever-higher frequencies, which lead to more abstract expressions of the Absolute. The Absolute is referred to by several other names, including the All, the Unspeakable (Toltec), the Great Spirit, Allah, and God. Several words for the Great Force are used in this book. My purpose is to clarify practices and concepts in order to serve maximum spiritual development. The present spiritual crisis calls for a new framework serving as a new paradigm. Helping the construction of this paradigm is central. The journey of life for us all is both practical and conceptual, and we therefore need to integrate both into our purpose. My book is a consciousness-raising and meditational journey toward these ends.

We can have areas of wakefulness if we decide to, and here are a few of these infinite possibilities. One area of examination is to realize that the enormous number of obstacles we face can, with our diligent work, become challenges that turn into our allies instead of being the persistent obstacles that most people take them to be. Some of these obstacles and hindrances to be overcome follow: (1) The dominating concepts of the ruling materialistic paradigm, including the prominent placing of material values in first place. (2) A nearly all-prevalent obsession with consumer products featured in nearly all aspects of our materialistic culture. (3) The rather solid belief in material reality rather than its underlying law of vibrational awareness. (4) Being attached to the outcome of our beliefs and actions rather than thinking and doing things for their own intrinsic goodness. (5) Being led by a multitude of desires grounded in materialistic satisfactions that do little to raise the values that make life worth living. (6) Being self-centered in always considering that everything centers around you rather than your soul being in service of the world. (7) Being self-important in thinking and feeling that you are more important than anyone or anything else. (8) Being consumed by nihilism or the feeling that nothing has meaning, that hopelessness prevails and that there are no things worth doing. These materialistic obstacles naturally culminate in the capitalistic age’s nihilism, which arises as a natural outcome to replace the higher with the lower until the meaning of life has increasingly disappeared.

Another area for observation is attention that shows us how what we focus on begins to make us into what we are. Attention expands our meaning, creates our ever-fuller personality, and develops our soul. This objective is reached by replacing negative thinking with positive thinking. To do this, it is helpful to gain and practice discipline so that one is capable of thinking and acting positively. Naturally, this entails hard work. When following this practice, the law of attraction is activated in a positive way since good attracts good and the developers attract the developers, or those who are positive good value-oriented actors who attract others of like mind. In this context developer means someone devoted to spiritual emphasis and elevation.

Positive, joyful work—a lot of it—is how positive events are made to happen. For me, this has been my lifelong work in causes promoting peace, justice, and better human relationships and in teaching about the same. Writing this book is also part of this process. By working in service to others and in working for God, Spirit, or the Great Spirit, one’s life becomes increasingly joyful.

The exploration and practice of open-mindedness moves us to a closer appreciation of all that is while taking us out of the ruts and rigidities that keep us saying no to new possibilities. All views deserve some of our attention—some, more of it, and others, a lot of it. It definitely helps to see the infinite possibilities that are present before us. Our imagination, if we exercise it, can be liberating. Creativity, a natural outcome of open-mindedness, is actually a positive expression of spirit. Open-mindedness is also at the very center of all learning. How can we learn if we are close-minded?

We need to realize that life is paradoxical—that things, events, and feelings are and aren’t entirely true at the same time. A paradoxical view follows from open-mindedness and liberates us to be free to deal with what seems to be an impossible opposite. We begin to know that everyone is captivated by their lack of the paradoxical viewpoint. How is it possible to see all sides without being paradoxical? Even humor shows us how and why we should be paradoxical, since it centers on paradox and liberates the soul from the ego while simultaneously helping people to feel better. Paradox both encourages open-mindedness and is a result of it. It is important to practice paradox so that its content is absorbed into the unconscious because in this process it becomes a part of our very being.

People really need to enter the silence. Being in nature and meditating increase the possibility of entering deep silence. In the great silence, one enters into the opening to being and hears the call of the Great Spirit. Experiencing Spirit and spirits become ever more possible in silence. It is then that the exercising of spirituality profoundly occurs. It is both a time to think and not think or not do. Not doing is an opening process by which one proceeds in a different way than one usually does, thereby increasing one’s fluidity. In considering silence to commune with Spirit, we must remember that great spiritual adepts went into the wilderness for various periods of time for communing with Spirit.

There is a positive nature coming from learning more spiritual expressions that naturally occurs with open-mindedness. The more spiritual expressions we know, the deeper we know them, and the greater our continual application of them, the more we really develop. Important practices of spirituality include meditation, prayer, chanting, and focus on reading or viewing spiritual presentations and on visiting sacred places and spiritual adepts. Keeping in the company of spiritual persons and those on spiritual paths is a great positive force.

We need to take responsibility for what occurs in the world of our awareness. Hence, if our awareness is higher, our responsibility tends to increase, and if our responsibility expands, our awareness grows. To the degree that responsibility is not taken, awareness declines. Raising questions with a serious attempt to follow through on the best answers brings us into more responsibility. Taking responsibility is always positive. Whenever difficulties arise, we should do what we can. In addition, we should be rigorous in the practice of taking on important responsibilities in our life. Our lives should resonate, remembering that the very causes of motivation are strong beliefs. Without important responsibilities, we are not expressing our strong beliefs, and our motivations are therefore lower than they could be. In taking responsibility, we should always think of others before ourselves. This combats self-centeredness and promotes positive thought and action.

We need to realize the great significance of imagination since imagination opens new doors into the unknown, thereby expanding our awareness further while liberating us from the narrowness of the large assortment of rigidities. We should exercise our imagination whenever possible while encouraging others to do the same. It is always fantastic and illuminating to be open to new things, and imagination does just that. Exposure to nature makes children better learners, and it certainly improves imagination. Schools like Maria Montessori’s Montessori schools and Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf schools promote rather than stifle the imaginations of children, which the typical schools continue to do. Imagination needs to be encouraged in every way!

There is a need to gain experience of will, the development of willpower, and the positive exercise of free will. If we do not have a will, it is hardly possible to exercise our free will, and if we do not act with free will, in what sense can we be said to be masters of ourselves? How can we act responsibly when we do not have an internal guidance system? Here we can see how the obstacles of the external world, social conditioning, and materialism stand in our way if we do not know how to counter them. Developing our willpower is a must if we are to really progress. We must reveal to ourselves and all others that when we have willpower, we can decide to use it, which increases willpower in turn. Discipline increases willpower, and willpower increases discipline. Acting out of a gut feeling or intuition and feeling-based beliefs is an indication of willpower. The affirmation of I can do it is useful, though should by no means be relied on primarily. The founder of the Fourth Way spiritual school, G. I. Gurdjieff, was even able to transfer will to others, as indicated in the writing of his students.

There is an absolute necessity to once again focus attention on the eternal values. Love in all of its aspects and compassion for all life can find a place within the great principle of gratitude for all that we have and for all the positive experiences in our lives.

As we come closer to the essence of all that is, we are led to the great spiritual laws that repression and lies have moved largely out of visibility by the powerful wicked ones who know no limits except those imposed by power over others. Focus on eternal values can once again be the result of free human decision. In the past there was a cyclic age often called the ‘Golden Age’, which was reputed to have higher spirituality. A gratitude for everything can empower us to be able to do this. Love, compassion, concern, justice, and service can be royal roads for this empowering vision that will put us back on the track of a value-based sanity.

We must be aware of what quantum physicists have found and called the observer effect, which dramatically shows us that we affect everything and change everything by the very fact of observing it. If this is true, we are very far from powerless, yet many people today feel they are powerless. This powerless feeling must be countered in all possible ways. Knowing that we change everything by observing it is liberating. This powerfully challenges the apathy-induced powerlessness of our day. This is virtually a physics-discovered proof that attention counts.

There is an array of facts to keep in the forefront of our attention, including the widespread discoveries through scientific methods of far-ranging indicators and even proofs that the material world is not entirely what materialists claims it is, since these indicators and proofs point to the existence of various higher worlds. One of these occurrences is telepathy, which has been widely reported and verified, even by my psychology students over the last thirty-four years. Telepathy shows that our extrasensory perception goes far beyond our material-sensory awareness and can at least on occasion even reach into the higher worlds. There are even accounts of long-term visits to the heavens, and these are not only by the founders of religions. Numbers of humans have visited the lower and higher astral levels. Ghosts or hauntings have been frequently reported to inhabit a space that is in-between the world and the astral world that interpenetrates our ordinary world state. Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have also been reported extensively, and once again, I have received several such reports directly from my students. Most compelling of all, perhaps, are the near-death experiences (NDEs) where people die (are pronounced dead by medical personnel) and then return with reports of their travels in the other worlds. Doesn’t all this merit a closer look? That is part of what will be done in this book. The problem pointed to in this book is a controlling and repressive materialism that denies the Spirit, discourages its expression and even increasingly outrightly represses its expression. A central purpose of this book is to highlight these facts and possibilities and further illuminate the spiritual forces more clearly and forthrightly.

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A Sense of Mystery:

Spirituality in Nature

T o those actively involved in the natural world, it often becomes clear that spirituality is expressed through nature in a multitude of ways not necessarily evident to the person not closely linked to nature. ² Some spiritual paths are more intermixed with nature than others. And those so connected to Mother Earth are also closer to the feminine that Mother Earth expresses. Increasing our contacts and relationships with nature restores the balance with the feminine. Also it has been shown to increase children’s ability to learn. Therefore, it is important to pursue the path of nature in spirituality.

Many naturalists have influenced my views and experience of nature during and since my boyhood on a farm in southern Michigan, where nature was an overarching presence for me. During those years on the farm, I especially studied entomology, which gave me insight into the intricate and multifaceted connections of nature. This immersion in the living presence of all aspects of nature—including humans—led to a mystical viewpoint sometimes reinforced by sensing a numinous, light-filled vision of nature in our woods, an experience increasingly denied to modern, virtually oriented, high-tech people who are not as likely to be in such a setting.

This early experience was later put into practice as a nature counselor in summer boys’ camps, where I was responsible for the nature program, including setting up a nature center filled with exhibits, identification games that I designed, and classes on rocks, insects, birds, animals, stars, and related topics. The nature program also included day hikes, night star hikes, and even two- to three-day canoe trips.

Great naturalists such as Tom Brown Jr., Ted Andrews, Tamarack Song, and many others have contributed greatly to a wholistic view of spirituality and its integration into nature and expression by nature. Ted Andrews has brought many aspects of spirituality into his psychic-level descriptions and experience-filled writings, which he has made available in his many spiritually expressing nature-oriented books. Tom Brown Jr., who was trained since childhood by an Apache medicine man, Stalking Wolf, has gone on to provide instruction on the nature path while writing many sensitive and wonderful spiritually oriented books on nature. Tamarack Song has used his tracking skills and tracking classes to reveal many secrets of the psychological and spiritual qualities of nature. His findings add greatly to our appreciation of the spiritualized natural world. I value these three naturalists in particular and others as well to a high extent that could never be expressed in a mere few words.

The personal impact of nature on one’s consciousness (walking in the forests, hiking on nature trails, rowing and canoeing on lakes and streams, and wondering what is next in the ever-mysterious feeling of nature) will not be left out of my account, nor should the many authors who have made such powerful impacts on consciousness not be brought into critical play. These authors helped me realize that nature spirits and Spirit are deeply connected and ever present, especially in nature. Connecting, communing, and immersing oneself in nature is both a beginning connection with spirituality and also a continuing link that can always expand in one’s life.

Nature spirituality is a recognition of our interrelationship with all that is within the material sensory realm and especially the frequencies of all expressions of people, animals, birds, insects, trees, plants, rocks, and stars and their actual unity in Spirit. The most basic approach to getting into nature spirituality is to immerse ourselves in nature wherever we are—in the backyard, park, forest, mountain, stream, lake, or ocean. Without this, we are not living as a part of nature and are in disconnection from it. Even when in nature, people are often talking so much that they hardly notice what surrounds them. To begin to enter nature, we must enter the silence that is the doorway to nature’s actions in all its manifestations. People who start to do this are better learners. Entering nature reenergizes us. With higher levels of energy, we are more capable of all kinds of achievements.

For everyone, nature offers a grounding for all that is. This includes both spirits and Spirit and vibrational frequency qualities of the natural world well known to the ancients yet hardly even considered by many moderns, who are much more likely to question the definitions of such words than to relate to the intuitively sensed qualities of vibrations and frequencies that indicate their presence. Suggesting that there are spirits of animals, plants, rocks, and stars does not point to the absence of Spirit, for the unity of all spirits comes together in Spirit. A blindness to this truth lies at the root of a range of alienating conditions that affect our civilization, its discontents, its failings, and its obvious inadequacies. This is seen in the extensive range of personal depression, violence, and associated cruelties, including widespread bloodshed of different types.

Nature spirituality counters the range of low frequencies by elevating these into higher frequencies. The higher frequencies that come from above fill nature with their life-promoting frequencies, and we can access them if we strongly will to do so. This connects with the other aspects of spiritual reality that follow, and together they will contribute to progress toward a more informed, higher-quality, sensitized, and purpose-oriented life of dedication toward helping people to move forward in these difficult times.

Beyond this recognition is our feeling, our intuition, and even our possibly developed psychic abilities that unite us with all that is in the material realm while linking us to Spirit. Nature spirituality is a setting for all that contributes to this linking that is so often missing in our virtual reality–dominated existences that so hinder and discourage the highly necessary connection with being—with the Great Spirit—with Spirit.

It is in nature that our psychic and nature spirituality are especially likely to be learned. Increased psychic ability reinforces and makes more likely the increase in natural spirituality. Nature spirituality underlies and is often at the very root of spiritual growth. Psychic abilities of any kind increase sensitivities to higher frequencies, thus aiding the rise of nature spirituality and spirituality in general. Everything is united, and this becomes especially apparent in nature. The range of the great web of nature that helps us understand this covers the elemental-plant-animal-human-higher spirit, Great Spirit web. This also includes the means of apprehension, including the senses, the higher mind, the subtle psychic abilities like clairvoyance, and the often-neglected mystical visionary experiences. It is my thesis that we must traverse this territory to gain traction over negative forces while elevating the higher frequencies exemplified by the mysterious world of Spirit.

People who have had experiences with dowsing can be led to spiritual dowsing, which helps people encounter spirits in nature associated with all kinds of forms of life. Certain sites on earth enhance healing and elevate the growth of spirituality. Sacred sites have been found along straight lines, called ley lines in England and are known by many other names in other cultures. The places where many ley lines cross, called vortexes, are often particularly sacred sites due to their unusual powers. These powers are often positive but sometimes negative. Spiritual activities and healing efforts are enhanced when done at positive energy vortexes. Sig Lonegren uses dowsing devices and his highly focused intent to detect these sites and their qualities.³

There is always water in some form at holy sites, especially underground telluric water—almost certainly vortexed live water with a higher frequency than most of the water we use—which energizes and heals. This points to the significance of water in affecting the frequencies involved in healing and spirituality.

The repressed findings of Viktor Shauberger are most important to note since they are of central importance in improving the nature of water at present. Shauberger was born into a family of forest rangers and he developed a great love of nature, particularly of water. He discovered he could let his consciousness flow with the water in a brook. His consciousness would leave his body and obtain deep insights. When he returned to his body he could vividly remember all that was revealed. He discovered that water recharged itself through its natural meandering in creeks and rivers. He realized that forest clearing would eventually endanger food production since the forest is water’s cradle. These realizations led him to discover many innovations such as the copper plough which would result in much more productive agriculture, but the fertilizer industry intervened and restrained him. His attempts to innovate were repressed both in Austria and in the U.S. Knowledge of Shauberger’s work needs to be revived!⁴

We know that water is critical in its effects on people from the research of Masaru Emoto, who conducted careful research by taking pictures of images in frozen water. These images were formed by both the positive and negative forces that affected the water. Water with negative vibrational charges, such as I hate you, showed ugly formations. Water with positive vibrational charges, such as I love you, had beautiful crystals.⁵ It is therefore evident what we are doing to one another and to all of nature every day by our positive and negative feelings and actions. How revealing that temples were almost always (if not always) built on sacred sites above vortexes of ley lines. Under these, telluric currents of empowered, energizing, and healing water ran! Spiritual experiences have been discovered to be more powerful over such spots of power.⁶

Psychic Ability and Nature

The subconscious tries to make us aware of an aspect of the natural world that can answer our questions and guide us. According to Ted Andrews, a great naturalist and writer of many wonderful books on nature, the natural world usually communicates to us through symbols and music for example an acorn may have been thrown at you and hurt you as a child; the subconscious knows this and will use this image to alert you. The subconscious stimulates the senses so that we notice in nature what is important to us, such as the rhythms of occurring or coming events. Thus, there can be a sudden illumination or epiphany.

A lifetime of work in nature and spirituality led Andrews to significant conclusions about the relationship of nature and spirituality. Andrews emphasizes that there is much misinformation about the psychic world. To work in the psychic field of spirituality requires preparation and business skills, as in any other field. Some people believe they were born psychics and thus do not need to develop their powers. Research into the lives of ancient masters, however, shows that they engaged in extensive study and development.

Andrews tells us that some people think that they must follow their spirit guides, since they know better because they are in the spirit world. However, death does not necessarily make one wiser. Just because guides are in spirit does not mean that they know better than we do. Learning and development in the spirit world occurs, just as they do here. Some people say the things of the spirit cannot be tested, so they should simply be accepted. There are ways of testing things of Spirit. Andrews found that spirits are not offended by being tested.

Some people say they have their guides and psychic insights, and that is all they need to keep balanced and to evolve. However, developing psychic abilities is not going to keep one balanced by itself, because spirit perception and psychic ability are learned skills. Psychic ability does not necessarily reflect a high level of spirituality.

Some people say that since they have balanced their psychic ability and spirit contact, they are qualified to teach, but poor preparation is often more damaging than none. Some people say they must work in the metaphysical-spiritual field in order to grow spiritually. This is an unfortunately common but clearly false assumption, since there is a preponderance of unqualified people trying to teach in this field. Teachers are responsible for the harms to all they mislead, and for the harms those who have been misled mislead in turn.

Fulfilling daily obligations propels us along a spiritual path. It is through our daily trials that we bring out our sleeping potentials. Some people think that if they are suffering and struggling, they must be growing spiritually, but Andrews believes that suffering is good for the soul only when it teaches not to suffer again. Some people say that troubles are just part of their cleaning out of bad karma, but karma is sometimes being confused with bad judgment.

Andrews contends that progress and growth occurs when we are in harmony with the natural laws of the universe. Some people think that others can carry out psychic spiritual activities because they are more gifted. However, we know that everyone has psychic ability. Each of us can learn to work with spirits or learn to develop psychic abilities. Some people believe that once spirit guides them to their purpose, everything else will fall into place. But the truth is that finding our spiritual purpose is no guarantee of its easy realization. Sometimes people’s lives become more difficult after they find their spiritual purpose. Just as important as discovering one’s purpose is persistence in the quest for it. This is where most people fail. Andrews’s advice in this area comes from long, persistent practice⁷ in the realm of nature and spirit.

Empowering Nature

Tamarack Song has taught nature studies and tracking for many years and is certainly one of the very best trackers and naturalists from whom anyone would have a lot to learn. Song’s central notion is that it is most empowering to become nature. To do this, we must learn nature speak, which is the language of all nature. To use nature speak, it is necessary to be in what Song calls our animal mind. He contrasts the animal mind which is primarily influenced by nonverbal cues, with the rational mind, whose words tend to be imprecise. Exercising the feeling mind or the animal mind requires more listening and less talking. Song believes that we are more productive when both the rational and animal minds are used in a balanced way. He observed that animals quickly pick up reactive ideas and feelings and that fear is the greatest impediment to speaking with animals. Song found that in relating to animals in nature, it works best to be accepting of whatever comes. To do this, it helps to be without expectation. Being nature rather than just watching it increases an appreciation of nature, which means that we are less destructive toward nature. Reflective and projective thinking separates us from the now, which means we are not really immersed with nature. We can hardly be in the now when we are addicted to TV and other such secondary translators that tune us into virtual reality. It is necessary to take in the world with all our senses if we are to tune in with nature. In my own experiences, it is clear that moments in nature are more deeply etched in the memory than most artificial or virtual moments. Song makes clear that the animal mind is the seat of our long-term memory and that this is the mind we tend to use in nature; therefore, it should not be surprising that those are the moments we tend to remember better.

Getting in rhythm with nature allows us to more easily become nature. Getting up at dawn puts us into the rousing life of birds and animals and places us in a rhythm for the day. It has even been discovered that dawn risers or morning people are happier than night owls, who are working against the rhythm of the day.

Song advises that we should practice deep listening that carries us into a form of seeing. In contrast, most people look, which is a narrowing of one’s field of vision, while seeing is a broader perceiving. When blind people first have their sight restored, they typically see nothing but electronic impulses. We must learn to assemble all so-called reality with all our senses, and this is exactly what we need to do in nature speak.

To become nature, we must remove ego-created barriers, which is again exactly what we have to do in learning spirituality. We must dissolve all our prejudices by being in the now and being as a question. Song tells us to observe without evaluating. When we are at one with nature, we are fully immersed with each step we take in becoming nature, the journey is the destination, and now is the mode of being. In contrast, people tend to have what Song calls woods nearsightedness by keeping their eyes glued to the ground. Song reminds us that becoming one with the animal you see is the spirituality of tracking. In spirituality, we learn to become one with all that is, identifying with the truth, connecting with the infinite, and opening ourselves to the emanations from above.⁸

Spirits

The naturalist who most thoroughly integrated the natural with the psychic and the spiritual into the spirituality of nature, while retaining an ever-present mystery of the spirituality of nature, was Ted Andrews. He spent almost his entire life on this eternal quest, which he pursued with every part of his being. It is not surprising that he came up with great insights, which I feel are important to explain here.

For Ted Andrews, nature spirituality includes both parts of nature (spirits) and the higher frequency of spirits—the Spirit of and in nature. Ted Andrews describes the seeing, hearing, and sensing of nature by using the psychic concepts of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience. Andrews points out that once you start seeing spirits, it is often difficult to stop seeing them. Clairvoyance means clear seeing on a psychic level, which helps us to connect with spirituality. Andrews indicates that we may see flickering lights. In traditional spiritualism, these are called spirit lights. Andrews found that spirits reveal themselves only when they feel comfortable doing so. They are sometimes shadows where no shadows should be. When we gaze at these places, we lose track of time. Once a spirit reveals itself to a person, often it will continue to do so. Spirits are curious about us, just as we are curious about them.

Clairaudience is clear hearing that goes beyond physical hearing. We may hear it inside us, as if our thoughts are speaking to us, or we may hear it as whispers behind us. We may hear our names called out, or there may be pops and crackles, music and singing, or a ringing or buzzing or soft tinkling of bells in our heads. Wind chimes may jingle when there is no breeze. Tree spirits may speak. Whispering will cause a pine to whisper back with its rustling sound. We can use sounds to call nature spirits. It is important to recognize that all of this is more likely to occur within nature.

Clairsentience is clear feeling. One senses cold and warm spots. The feeling of a spiderweb over one’s face is often the brush of a spirit. A person may take on the emotions of the spirit around them. We may get adrenalin rushes when spirits from the fairies’ realm are present. Adrenalin rushes do not indicate whether a spirit is good or evil but only that it is present. Spirits may also be smelled and tasted.

Andrews maintains that nature speak is the ability to read signs, omens, and messages from the spirit in nature. Spirit in nature, as Andrews uses the term, is the encompassing concept that includes the lesser spirits of nature that comprise the whole spirit within nature. It is in nature where spirit is still strongest and signs of the spirit world are often clearest. When we are in nature, we relax more quickly, and intuition or the nonrational comprehension of many more signals that go far beyond the rational mind increases. The spirit world is speaking to us all the time through nature. Communication comes to us from nature in a variety of ways—especially from the spirits of nature. Opening to spirit guidance as we walk through nature provides tremendous insight. Nature is the most powerful realm of magic and spirituality on earth. Within nature are revelations for solving tasks that seem impossible. Through all the seasons, nature reawakens hope, increases possibilities, and opens the heart to spirit.

Every plant and every other aspect of the natural world has some spirit and some energy associated with it. Animals are always more sensitive than people to the world of spirit. Some animals have strong connections to the faeries’ realm. The faeries’ realm is explained in sensitive detail both by John Matthews and David Spangler, both of whom have had direct contract with it.⁹ The wilder the animal, the more quickly it detects the presence of spirit. All animal encounters therefore have meaning. Animals communicate most commonly through sounds, smells, touch, body, and thought projection. By far the most important form of communication with animals is through body language. All animals communicate with their spirits as well as with their bodies. The first step in communicating with any animal is to quiet the mind. Animals are empathetic. They know if we are tense, angry, or sad. Reach out with your mind and ask the animal if there is something it would like to share with you. All animals have souls that provide a spiritual tie to the earth. Andrews believes that there is unconscious recognition that animals reflect archetypal forces in the world. Animals remind us of our responsibility to the earth. Most animals are telepathic. Ted Andrews had more animal spirit encounters than he could count in his continuous encounters with nature over many years. Andrews writes, Spirit is talking to us all the time through the world of nature. He sees nature as the most powerful realm of magic and spirituality. He believes that people unconsciously recognize that animals reflect archetypal forces in the world. If we are close to animals, we become much more sensitive, and the closer we are to them, the more they remind us of our responsibility to the earth.

The Greeks spoke to spirits through oracles. Native Americans imitate animals in dance and ritual to establish links with the spirit realm. Belief in the spirit realm is universal, though beliefs in spirit are diverse. There is more we do not know about the spirit world than we do know. The ancients and indigenous peoples were in a continuous interaction with nature, of which they were an intimate part, but the modern, industrialized, capitalistic human is most commonly only a student of nature at best and therefore more separated from spirit. As noted before, this contributes to a host of spiritually related problems not so prevalent in the older communal cultures. Being unaware is a factor in the illusory sickness of separation. Our nature deficit is more of a contributor to the problem than most people realize.

We usually first experience spirit through our strongest sense. If we pay attention and acknowledge these encounters, we will start experiencing spirit through all our senses, because our senses work together. As a child, Ted Andrews experienced spirits drawing close when he was reading faerie tales and folklore. If you wish to draw good spirits to you and your life, Andrews advises, sing often and tell tales. If we are open to spirits, they help guide and protect us. They give us signs. Our entire journey through the physical plane is attended to in every aspect by spirits. The names of spirits are not very important, but their messages are, as is how we work with them. Ted Andrews witnessed his grandfather talking to his grandmother in the spirit world through the years.

Andrews wisely notes that birth and death often bring us into more tangible and intimate contact with spirits of many types, but especially with angels, loved ones, and ancestors. In birth, the energy, especially of the womb area, must be brought into vibrational harmony with the energy of the soul being incarnated. Until this harmony is established, the mother experiences morning sickness. If there is something the soul has chosen to encounter physically in the incarnation, a predisposition to a weakness in that area may result. This may be a reminder to the soul that something is out of balance. Just prior to birth, the angels and nature spirits withdraw. There should be prayer, meditation, and conversation with the soul throughout the pregnancy. Nature spirits work to vitalize the embryo. Angels draw closer and become more protective around the mother during pregnancy. This accounts for part of that special glow.

Death is usually a great mystery and is often feared because so much of it is unknown. Andrews thinks that there must be some sort of life after death, or so many people around the world would not be having experiences with ghosts and spirits. Both are spirits in action. Loved ones come back to help the deceased pass over. Strange feelings at funerals are often associated with the close presence of spirits. Angels too help the soul to leave the physical world.

Death can be described as the separation of the higher and lower principles in us. It helps greatly to study the withdrawal process and to visualize the shedding of your physical and subtle bodies. As the time of death approaches, the soul begins to prepare for withdrawal. Those who die unexpectedly have assistance. A group of angels called the watchers, or the angels of the night, work to assist the soul’s transit. The angels of the night are considered the most loving of the angelic hierarchy. Spirits are there to comfort, and this is often true when a family member or loved one has died. Many people experience the presence of loved ones for a time after death. Those you know who die will try to communicate with you in a way you will recognize. They will appear, sound, feel, smell, and taste the same at each visit. These are Andrews’s descriptions, but it should be added that similar experiences have been described in many other accounts. This account by Andrews helps us remember that we too are part of the most sensitive aspects of nature and that the spirituality of nature is never far away.

Andrews contests all that promotes fear. He sees his responsibility as promoting knowledge because it will overcome fear. He finds fear and anxiety to be the greatest obstacles in the development of our spirit sensitivities. Creatively performing daily obligations propels us along the spiritual path. Responsibility emerges as a key