There are three conditions we need for expanding awareness of our true identity as universal spirit:

1) We have to be willing to tune into it…The only snag is our own misperception that all this can be found only in a galaxy far, far away.

2) We will need to get up-close and personal with the parts of our consciousness that have gone off the deep end into negativity and destructiveness...Our problem is our mistaken notion that our life is a fixed mold we have been plopped into and must now learn to cope with. We think it’s all somehow separate from what we think, will, know, perceive and feel.

3) We need to use our thinking apparatus to reach out to the universal spirit and create, and we need to realize that we create with both our conscious and our unconscious thinking and willing…

Creating is pure fascination, and this fascination doesn’t cease simply because what we create is, at first, perhaps a little less pleasurable or brilliant. It’s like passing our finger over the flame of a candle; if it doesn’t hurt too much the first time, we might do it again, but more slowly…This is when things start to go South…

Our creations start to take on a power of their own. For every created thing has energy invested into it, and this energy has a self-perpetuating nature; it gathers its own momentum. The consciousness that teed up this fun experiment may want to play a little longer than is “safe,” until it no longer leaves itself enough power to reverse the course of things…Our consciousness must counteract the momentum by “remembering” what it already knows—it could be another way…

Then the world becomes our oyster, wanting us to find that pearl.

Listen and learn more.

Gems, Chapter 1: Expanding Our Awareness and Exploring Our Fascination with Creation

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #175 Consciousness: Fascination with Creation

We may periodically have the universal dream of either riding on a train or being about to take a train, anxious that we may miss it, have missed it, or are getting off the train. So, do we follow the movement of the train, or do we stay behind? We have choices.

We may not always make choices consciously, but we do always choose intentionally. For instance, if we choose to go on a path of self-searching, hoping to find more meaning in life, we are making a choice. Just as we are making a choice when we choose not to do this…When we live any day as though it doesn’t matter, we are making as active a choice as when we decide to listen within and figure out what is going on…

Choices, choices, choices. Do we want to follow our inner evolutionary process or stay behind? We got options…Am I willing to be all-in? From one side of our mouth we may be saying ‘all aboard,’ but nevertheless, we’re holding something in reserve…

Let’s be realistic here. It’s impossible to always be following our inner movement faithfully 100% of the time. If we were that aware, we wouldn’t be here on this dualistic planet…Holding on to the false reality we create with our misconceptions about life, our strategic defenses and our illusory fears, somehow makes us feel safe…We’re lazy and easily lured by the line of least resistance. We particularly enjoy the illusion that there's no requirement to move along on our evolutionary journey…

The notion of an “illusory reality” may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s not. We constantly make up stories about life that simply aren’t true. This causes us to live in this temporary state of illusion…Strange as this may seem at first, there isn’t anything we experience that doesn’t need to happen exactly as it does. This isn’t because a God-in-the-sky is meting out punishments and rewards; that kind of thinking totally misses the point. Rather, our experiences are the net result of where we are on our journey…

To be angry, self-rejecting or impatient about where we are in our growth process is akin to a child being upset because it is not yet an adult…We stunt our growth when we’re impatient about our current state. We end up hating ourselves, denying this, feeling guilty and projecting this onto others. That’s how we cripple ourselves from expanding our consciousness—that’s how we miss our train.

Listen and learn more.

Gems, Chapter 2: The Evolutionary Process & Why We Can’t Stop It

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #218 The Evolutionary Process

The swing of the pendulum alternates between emphasizing individual and group consciousness. It has been in motion since mankind first set foot on planet Earth. During each phase, we move to a higher level of development, leveraging what we have learned from the previous phase.

Over the past few hundred years, the emphasis has been on the individual. We were learning certain lessons related to individual rights. We have the right to be ourselves, to be different, to not conform, and to become more self-responsible. As we turned the corner into the current century, this phase approached its end.

This doesn’t mean the individual is no longer important. But rather the emphasis must now shift once again to the group. It is important to distinguish between the healthy development of group consciousness and the blind movement of creating a mass consciousness. In the latter, people feel disconnected from themselves, from nature and from each other.

Whereas group consciousness honors and supports individuals, mass consciousness eliminates them. Mass consciousness doesn’t require individuals to stand in their own right. Actually, it thwarts this, imposing conformity and blind following.

Since the movement is continuous, what’s right at one point in time may be totally wrong at another. When we reach the switchover point—whether we’re talking about a person or the whole planet, doesn’t matter—strong new energies will come flowing in from another sphere. If we attempt to halt this movement—by not feeling, not trusting or not following our own inner movement—a painful crisis will erupt instead. The energy has to go somewhere.

Listen to learn more.

Gems, Chapter 3: How Consciousness Evolves Between Individuals and Groups

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #225 Evolutionary Stages of Individual and Group Consciousness