Michael Newton's Life-Between-Lives hypno-therapy

Based on the descriptions of Life Between Lives from various clients, Michael Newton has compiled a collection of ideas to explain the reoccurring phenomena of The Spirit World and The Soul. This is essential reading for the study of Michael Newton’s Life Between Life therapy.

Source

The Spirit World

Our physical universe appears to coexist with other physical and mental dimensions. These alternative dimensions of consciousness may be layered within our own physical space, parallel to our space, or linked by unknown designs around our dimensions. Contained within our universe are energy waves that appear to be guided both by design and wisdom from a higher consciousness. Our dimension is inhabited by the vibrational energy of immortal beings we call Souls who evolve by gaining knowledge and acquiring wisdom. Souls exist multi-dimensionally, both within and beyond linear time and space. The natural domain of Souls who come to earth is the non-physical dimension that we call the "spirit world" where Souls go between their incarnations. The spirit world is a place of love, kindness and compassion as well as one of order, planning and direction. It is possible that a higher space of perfection (beyond the spirit world) may exist which is not accessible to Souls still incarnating in the human body. Our human reality is a three-dimensional material universe that includes movement and, therefore, a passage of time with the aging of all things physical. Time exists as an expression of change. However, in the spirit world Souls exist in a Now time, which is not on one timeline and is not absolute. The spirit world is characterized by the forces of creative energy, universal thought, and support for spiritual enlightenment designed for the apparent purpose of training and growth in all Souls' evolution toward perfection. At the same time the spirit world offers a space of quiet contemplation and reflection between lives. The human body and physical brain contain the spiritual mind of an immortal Soul. Conscious thought consists of ideas generated by the human and Soul mind in association with each other. Indications are that unconscious intuition, insight and conscience are influences of the Soul. Each Soul is part of a decision-making process in choosing a body for the next life to experience certain karmic lessons as an outgrowth of former lives. All information and experiences accrued through human bodies is retained by the Soul. The reservoir of these Soul memories and accumulated wisdom derived from experience is referred to as the Superconscious mind. The Soul's prior history is retained in higher consciousness, the Superconscious mind, and may be released into human consciousness through various means, one of which is hypnotic regression. However, pre-existing amnesia may be a partial or complete blocking agent for some which may limit recovery of past life and between life information. While Soul memory may be hidden from the level of conscious awareness, thought patterns of the Soul influencing the human brain may induce motivations for certain actions. We do not know the degree to which human choices or actions are influenced by the Soul since this variable is different with each person. Reincarnation, or the transmigration of the Soul, is designed to advance Soul development through the choice of a specific body that will be involved in certain timeline events. This choice is governed by the special needs of the Soul to advance from lower to higher levels of learning based upon performance and desire, as well as karmic issues from former lives. During physical incarnations on earth various possibilities and probabilities arising from karmic influences and Soul contracts are subject to the free will of the Soul. Thus, humans are not bound to a predetermined existence. The meaning behind the existence of each individual has been planned in advance to allow all Souls to come into their physical incarnations with a purpose. Goals are originated, in part, by karmic patterns from former lives and, in part, by specific lessons relating to the ambitions of that Soul. These objectives are established in concert with a Soul's spiritual peers, personal guide(s) and a Council of enlightened spiritual Elders. A new age of spiritual enlightenment has ushered in a period of human history where, with increasing frequency, people are seeking different approaches to exposing their immortal minds. A significant catalyst in this process is Life Between Lives Spiritual Regression utilizing hypnosis.

The Soul

The soul can not be defined because it has no limits that are perceived about its creation. The most consistent reports of its demonstrated essence is that the soul represents intelligent energy which is immortal and manifested by vibrational waves of light and color. All human beings have one soul that remains attached to its chosen physical body until death. Souls play a part in the selection of their next physical body during their reincarnation cycles. The soul typically joins its physical body after conception between the fourth month and birth. Each soul has a unique immortal character. When joined with the human brain this character is melded with the emotional temperament, or human ego, of that brain to produce one personality for one lifetime. Souls reincarnate with human beings for countless lifetimes to advance through levels of development by addressing karmic tasks from former lifetimes. Souls grow in knowledge and wisdom through this learning process while pondering their thoughts and deeds in past lives with peers under the direction of teachers. At the moment of physical death the soul returns to the spirit world, the source of its creation. Since part of a soul's energy essence has never left the spirit world during incarnation, the returning soul rejoins with that essence of itself. This, spiritual learning never ceases for the soul. The spirit world also offers souls the opportunity for rest and reflection between lives. Souls appear to be members of specific spirit cluster groups to whom they have been assigned since their creation. The teachers of each group are the personal spirit guides of members of that group. Members of these groups reincarnate with the soul and assume meaningful roles during a soul's life on earth. Rather than being defined as a place of ultimate non-action, or Nirvana, the spirit world appears to be a space of soul transition into higher forms of energy with capabilities for creation with advancement. The spirit world has an area of influence which is undefined except that it includes our universe and nearby dimensions. No earthly religious deities are seen in the spirit world by returning souls. A soul's closest connection with the divine is with their personal spirit guide and members of a council of benevolent counselors who monitor the affairs of each soul. Souls from earth feel and sense the presence of a God-like Oversoul or Source emanating from above their counselors. The spirit world is composed of highly advanced non-reincarnating soul specialists who regulate the work of advancement for the souls in their care. When incarnating souls develop to a high level of experience, performance and wisdom they will cease to incarnate and become advanced beings themselves who assist the still-incarnating souls. The ultimate goal of all souls appears to be the desire to seek perfection and conjoin with the Source that created them.

NDW: The Spirit of Living Well

Neale Donald Walsch on how every one of us is a psychic.

Initially published on NDW's BeliefNet blog on Saturday December 6, 2008

Are psychics an avenue to greater understanding, to answers for which we yearn, to insights about ourselves and our future?

Let me say this about that. Every one of us in a "psychic." That's because every single one of us possesses so-called "psychic powers." So, can a person tell us things about ourselves that could be useful to us? Yes, I believe other people can do that. Do we need to go to a professional psychic if we want such answers? No.

I was telling you yesterday about a wonderful lady, Lauren Simon, who is a licensed therapist working with people suffering from sexual abuse. Yet that is not the only field in which this remarkable person is involved. She also knows how to tap into your own intuitive power, and get the answers that can only come from you.

She will be sharing that information with you in a special class that she is giving, and that you can take in the comfort of your den or living room.

Lauren says, "There is never any real need for you to go to another individual for a psychic reading, ever. I agree it's fun, exciting and it can be educational. It also can be dangerous, upsetting and harmful if you go to someone inexperienced or even worse, some phony who is all to eager to cash in on the spiritual movement."

Well, I agree with Lauren completely on this. That's why I'm excited about her class. It's called Connecting To Spirit , and it's an exciting, fun, fast paced Tele-Workshop, held once a week for four weeks, with each session designed to enhance your natural intuitive abilities and empower you to use them.

During the sessions Lauren shares her simple process and the events in her own life that opened her to trusting and receiving. She then gently guides you to do the same.

"Each week we'll be joined by a fascinating special guest, who will be sharing with you what Connecting to Spirit means to them and what their own personal process is," Lauren says on her website (www.spiritoflivingwell.com).
What Lauren aims to do is to teach you how to trust what you "receive" during your own intuitive "hits"...and how to, as she puts it, "strengthen those intuitive muscles on your own."

All of the Connecting to Spirit sessions will be simulcast and recorded, and you can join them either by phone or through a special live webcast. If for any reason you have to miss a session or if you simply want to experience the call again, the recording will be available afterward.

Lauren tells me that the next workshop begins on February 5 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. (Pacific) and will continue on the 12th, 19th and 26th. I can tell you, this is something that you don't want to miss if you have the least little bit of curiosity about your own psychic sense and how to use it. Or, for that matter, if you just want a little "lift" right now as to try to get into the spirit of living well during these very challenging times.

For more info, and to sign up for the teleclass, just go to www.spiritoflivingwell.com

I have always been fascinated by physic abilities -- my own, and others'. How about you? Have you ever had any astonishing (or just plain incredibly useful) experiences with a physic? Or with your own psychic abilities and your own intuitions? I'd really love to hear about them.

Filed Under: Conversations with God, intuition, Lauren Simon, Neale Donald Walsch, psychics,spirit of living well
posted by Neale Donald Walsch @11:59am

NY Times: This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis

November 22, 2005
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Source

Hypnosis, with its long and checkered history in medicine and entertainment, is receiving some new respect from neuroscientists. Recent brain studies of people who are susceptible to suggestion indicate that when they act on the suggestions their brains show profound changes in how they process information. The suggestions, researchers report, literally change what people see, hear, feel and believe to be true.

The new experiments, which used brain imaging, found that people who were hypnotized "saw" colors where there were none. Others lost the ability to make simple decisions. Some people looked at common English words and thought that they were gibberish.

"The idea that perceptions can be manipulated by expectations" is fundamental to the study of cognition, said Michael I. Posner, an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of Oregon and expert on attention. "But now we're really getting at the mechanisms."

Even with little understanding of how it works, hypnosis has been used in medicine since the 1950's to treat pain and, more recently, as a treatment for anxiety, depression, trauma, irritable bowel syndrome and eating disorders.

There is, however, still disagreement about what exactly the hypnotic state is or, indeed, whether it is anything more than an effort to please the hypnotist or a natural form of extreme concentration where people become oblivious to their surroundings while lost in thought.

Hypnosis had a false start in the 18th century when a German physician, Dr. Franz Mesmer, devised a miraculous cure for people suffering all manner of unexplained medical problems. Amid dim lights and ethereal music played on a glass harmonica, he infused them with an invisible "magnetic fluid" that only he was able to muster. Thus mesmerized, clients were cured.

Although Dr. Mesmer was eventually discredited, he was the first person to show that the mind could be manipulated by suggestion to affect the body, historians say. This central finding was resurrected by Dr. James Braid, an English ophthalmologist who in 1842 coined the word hypnosis after the Greek word for sleep.

Braid reportedly put people into trances by staring at them intently, but he did not have a clue as to how it worked. In this vacuum, hypnosis was adopted by spiritualists and stage magicians who used dangling gold watches to induce hypnotic states in volunteers from the audience, and make them dance, sing or pretend to be someone else, only to awaken at a hand clap and laughter from the crowd.

In medical hands, hypnosis was no laughing matter. In the 19th century, physicians in India successfully used hypnosis as anesthesia, even for limb amputations. The practice fell from favor only when ether was discovered.

Now, Dr. Posner and others said, new research on hypnosis and suggestion is providing a new view into the cogs and wheels of normal brain function.

One area that it may have illuminated is the processing of sensory data. Information from the eyes, ears and body is carried to primary sensory regions in the brain. From there, it is carried to so-called higher regions where interpretation occurs.

For example, photons bouncing off a flower first reach the eye, where they are turned into a pattern that is sent to the primary visual cortex. There, the rough shape of the flower is recognized. The pattern is next sent to a higher - in terms of function - region, where color is recognized, and then to a higher region, where the flower's identity is encoded along with other knowledge about the particular bloom.

The same processing stream, from lower to higher regions, exists for sounds, touch and other sensory information. Researchers call this direction of flow feedforward. As raw sensory data is carried to a part of the brain that creates a comprehensible, conscious impression, the data is moving from bottom to top.

Bundles of nerve cells dedicated to each sense carry sensory information. The surprise is the amount of traffic the other way, from top to bottom, called feedback. There are 10 times as many nerve fibers carrying information down as there are carrying it up.

These extensive feedback circuits mean that consciousness, what people see, hear, feel and believe, is based on what neuroscientists call "top down processing." What you see is not always what you get, because what you see depends on a framework built by experience that stands ready to interpret the raw information - as a flower or a hammer or a face.

The top-down structure explains a lot. If the construction of reality has so much top-down processing, that would make sense of the powers of placebos (a sugar pill will make you feel better), nocebos (a witch doctor will make you ill), talk therapy and meditation. If the top is convinced, the bottom level of data will be overruled.

This brain structure would also explain hypnosis, which is all about creating such formidable top-down processing that suggestions overcome reality.

According to decades of research, 10 to 15 percent of adults are highly hypnotizable, said Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford who studies the clinical uses of hypnosis. Up to age 12, however, before top-down circuits mature, 80 to 85 percent of children are highly hypnotizable.

One adult in five is flat out resistant to hypnosis, Dr. Spiegel said. The rest are in between, he said.

In some of the most recent work, Dr. Amir Raz, an assistant professor of clinical neuroscience at Columbia, chose to study highly hypnotizable people with the help of a standard psychological test that probes conflict in the brain. As a professional magician who became a scientist to understand better the slippery nature of attention, Dr. Raz said that he "wanted to do something really impressive" that other neuroscientists could not ignore.

The probe, called the Stroop test, presents words in block letters in the colors red, blue, green and yellow. The subject has to press a button identifying the color of the letters. The difficulty is that sometimes the word RED is colored green. Or the word YELLOW is colored blue.

For people who are literate, reading is so deeply ingrained that it invariably takes them a little bit longer to override the automatic reading of a word like RED and press a button that says green. This is called the Stroop effect.

Sixteen people, half highly hypnotizable and half resistant, went into Dr. Raz's lab after having been covertly tested for hypnotizability. The purpose of the study, they were told, was to investigate the effects of suggestion on cognitive performance. After each person underwent a hypnotic induction, Dr. Raz said:

"Very soon you will be playing a computer game inside a brain scanner. Every time you hear my voice over the intercom, you will immediately realize that meaningless symbols are going to appear in the middle of the screen. They will feel like characters in a foreign language that you do not know, and you will not attempt to attribute any meaning to them.

"This gibberish will be printed in one of four ink colors: red, blue, green or yellow. Although you will only attend to color, you will see all the scrambled signs crisply. Your job is to quickly and accurately depress the key that corresponds to the color shown. You can play this game effortlessly. As soon as the scanning noise stops, you will relax back to your regular reading self."

Dr. Raz then ended the hypnosis session, leaving each person with what is called a posthypnotic suggestion, an instruction to carry out an action while not hypnotized.

Days later, the subjects entered the brain scanner.

In highly hypnotizables, when Dr. Raz's instructions came over the intercom, the Stroop effect was obliterated, he said. The subjects saw English words as gibberish and named colors instantly. But for those who were resistant to hypnosis, the Stroop effect prevailed, rendering them significantly slower in naming the colors.

When the brain scans of the two groups were compared, a distinct pattern appeared. Among the hypnotizables, Dr. Raz said, the visual area of the brain that usually decodes written words did not become active. And a region in the front of the brain that usually detects conflict was similarly dampened.

Top-down processes overrode brain circuits devoted to reading and detecting conflict, Dr. Raz said, although he did not know exactly how that happened. Those results appeared in July in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A number of other recent studies of brain imaging point to similar top-down brain mechanisms under the influence of suggestion. Highly hypnotizable people were able to "drain" color from a colorful abstract drawing or "add" color to the same drawing rendered in gray tones. In each case, the parts of their brains involved in color perception were differently activated.

Brain scans show that the control mechanisms for deciding what to do in the face of conflict become uncoupled when people are hypnotized. Top-down processes override sensory, or bottom-up information, said Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard. People think that sights, sounds and touch from the outside world constitute reality. But the brain constructs what it perceives based on past experience, Dr. Kosslyn said.

Most of the time bottom-up information matches top-down expectation, Dr. Spiegel said. But hypnosis is interesting because it creates a mismatch. "We imagine something different, so it is different," he said.

NY Times: The Possibilities in Hypnosis, Where the Patient Has the Power

Here is an article published in the NY Times in 2008 about the possibilities of hypnosis.

By JANE E. BRODY
Published: November 3, 2008

Source.

My husband, Richard, smoked cigarettes for 50 years, having failed several attempts to quit on his own. When a friend told him in August 1994 that hypnosis had enabled her to quit, he decided to give it a try.

“It didn’t work; I wasn’t hypnotized,” he declared after his one and only session. But it did work; since that day, he has not taken one puff of a cigarette.

Gloria Kanter of Boynton Beach, Fla., thought her attempt in 1985 to use hypnosis to overcome her fear of flying had failed. “When the therapist brought me out, I said it didn’t work,” she recalled in an interview. “I told her, ‘I heard everything you said.’ ”

Nonetheless, the next time she and her husband headed for the airport, she was not drenched in sweat and paralyzed with fear. “I was just fine,” she said, “and I’ve been fine ever since.”

Like many others whose knowledge of hypnotism comes from movies and stage shows, my husband and Mrs. Kanter misunderstood what hypnosis is all about. While in a hypnotic trance, you are neither unconscious nor asleep, but rather in a deeply relaxed state that renders the mind highly focused and ready to accept suggestions to help you accomplish your goals.

Hypnosis has been mired in controversy for two centuries, and its benefits are often overstated. It does not help everyone who wants to quit smoking, for example; then again, neither do other kinds of treatments.

And the patient’s attitude is critical. In the words of Brian Alman, a psychologist who practices hypnosis in San Diego, “The power of hypnosis actually resides in the patient and not in the doctor.”

Roberta Temes, a clinical hypnotist in Scotch Plains, N.J., insists that hypnosis cannot make people do anything they don’t want to do. Hypnosis can succeed only in helping people make changes they desire, she said in an interview.

In her book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis,” Dr. Temes points out that success in achieving your goal is the best proof that you were really hypnotized. She also suggests a second or third session if you didn’t quite reach your goal after the first try.

What Hypnosis Can Do

In effect, hypnosis is the epitome of mind-body medicine. It can enable the mind to tell the body how to react, and modify the messages that the body sends to the mind. It has been used to counter the nausea of pregnancy and chemotherapy; dental and test-taking anxiety; pain associated with surgery, root canal treatment and childbirth; fear of flying and public speaking; compulsive hair-pulling; and intractable hiccups, among many other troublesome health problems.

Writing in The Permanente Journal in 2001, Dr. Alman said that “useful potential” for benefiting from hypnosis “exists within each patient.” “The goal of modern medical hypnosis,” he said, “is to help patients use this unconscious potential.”

Dr. Alman described a 65-year-old concentration camp survivor who repeatedly choked when she tried to swallow, though examinations of her esophagus revealed no obstruction. After three hypnotherapy sessions, her problem was solved. “I was liberated from my esophagus,” the patient said.

You may not even have to be face to face with a hypnotist to benefit medically. Dr. Temes said hypnosis could be helpful even if done with a cassette tape or CD, or by telephone, which she offers as part of her practice. She said many helpful CD’s could be found through the Web site www.hypnosisnetwork.com.

Ellen Fineman, a physical therapist in Portland, Ore., had had five surgeries to repair a retina that kept detaching. Hoping that a sixth attempt would hold, she used a hypnosis tape prepared by Dr. Temes for patients undergoing surgery.

The hypnosis tape “was very calming and reassuring,” Ms. Fineman said in an interview.

“It told me that I would be in the hands of professionals who would take good care of me and that I’d have minimal swelling,” she said. “This time the surgery went superbly — no inflammation, no swelling and no more detachment. The surgeon was amazed and asked what I had done differently this time.”

While not everyone is easily hypnotized, nearly everyone can slip into a therapeutic trance, Dr. Temes maintains. Another of her patients, Dr. Susan Clarvit, a New York psychiatrist, thought she could not be hypnotized — she was too scientific, too rational a person, she said.

“But I was desperate,” Dr. Clarvit said in an interview. “I was pregnant with my second child and too nauseated to be alive. Dr. Temes asked me what I held most often, and I said a pen. She hypnotized me so that when I held a pen I had an overall feeling of wellness. I held a pen all the time, even while driving, and didn’t feel nauseated.”

Under hypnosis, Dr. Clarvit was given a posthypnotic suggestion that linked holding a pen to feeling well. Such suggestions enable people to practice a new, desired behavior after being brought out of the trance.

Someone trying to overcome snacking on sweets might be told, “When you are hungry, you will eat vegetables.” The suggestion to a smoker might be “you will drink water when you want a cigarette,” and someone terrified of public speaking might be told “you will do deep breathing when you feel scared.”

Many patients are also taught to practice self-hypnosis to reinforce the new behavior. Dr. Karen N. Olness, a professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University who is the president of the International Society of Hypnosis, said that “self-hypnosis training in children is an effective and practical strategy to prevent migraine episodes.”

Indirect Benefits

Sometimes patients with well-established illnesses can benefit indirectly from hypnosis.

Dr. Alman told of a woman with multiple sclerosis who was treated with hypnosis for depression that had failed to improve with antidepressants. Almost immediately, he reported, not only did the woman’s depression ease, but her gait and speech improved markedly.

He explained that for many patients the medical problem is so complex that specific directions and commands may be ineffective. The benefit from hypnosis may rely more on unleashing unconscious processes within the patient. He suggested that there exists “a wealth of material in the patient’s unconscious that can be used in healing” but lamented the fact that although medical hypnosis can often produce rapid change even in difficult cases, it is “underutilized as a therapeutic tool.”

As with any other profession, some hypnotherapists are more talented than others. Dr. Temes suggests that word of mouth may be the best way to find someone practiced in hypnosis for the kind of problem you’re trying to solve. Also helpful is the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, at www.asch.net, which maintains a referral list of therapists, both certified and not, by location and specialty.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

Op-ed for the NY Times
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Omaha

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.

To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

Since 1992, the I.R.S. has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income. In 1992, the top 400 had aggregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4 million on average — but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5 percent.

The taxes I refer to here include only federal income tax, but you can be sure that any payroll tax for the 400 was inconsequential compared to income. In fact, 88 of the 400 in 2008 reported no wages at all, though every one of them reported capital gains. Some of my brethren may shun work but they all like to invest. (I can relate to that.)

I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. They love America and appreciate the opportunity this country has given them. Many have joined the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to philanthropy. Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.

Twelve members of Congress will soon take on the crucial job of rearranging our country’s finances. They’ve been instructed to devise a plan that reduces the 10-year deficit by at least $1.5 trillion. It’s vital, however, that they achieve far more than that. Americans are rapidly losing faith in the ability of Congress to deal with our country’s fiscal problems. Only action that is immediate, real and very substantial will prevent that doubt from morphing into hopelessness. That feeling can create its own reality.

Job one for the 12 is to pare down some future promises that even a rich America can’t fulfill. Big money must be saved here. The 12 should then turn to the issue of revenues. I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Warren E. Buffett is the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway.

Krugman on American healthcare and the unfair TeaParty movement

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Credibility, Chutzpah and Debt
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Publishedin the NY Times: August 7, 2011
Source

To understand the furor over the decision by Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, to downgrade U.S. government debt, you have to hold in your mind two seemingly (but not actually) contradictory ideas. The first is that America is indeed no longer the stable, reliable country it once was. The second is that S.& P. itself has even lower credibility; it’s the last place anyone should turn for judgments about our nation’s prospects.

Let’s start with S.& P.’s lack of credibility. If there’s a single word that best describes the rating agency’s decision to downgrade America, it’s chutzpah — traditionally defined by the example of the young man who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy because he’s an orphan.

America’s large budget deficit is, after all, primarily the result of the economic slump that followed the 2008 financial crisis. And S.& P., along with its sister rating agencies, played a major role in causing that crisis, by giving AAA ratings to mortgage-backed assets that have since turned into toxic waste.

Nor did the bad judgment stop there. Notoriously, S.& P. gave Lehman Brothers, whose collapse triggered a global panic, an A rating right up to the month of its demise. And how did the rating agency react after this A-rated firm went bankrupt? By issuing a report denying that it had done anything wrong.

So these people are now pronouncing on the creditworthiness of the United States of America?

Wait, it gets better. Before downgrading U.S. debt, S.& P. sent a preliminary draft of its press release to the U.S. Treasury. Officials there quickly spotted a $2 trillion error in S.& P.’s calculations. And the error was the kind of thing any budget expert should have gotten right. After discussion, S.& P. conceded that it was wrong — and downgraded America anyway, after removing some of the economic analysis from its report.

As I’ll explain in a minute, such budget estimates shouldn’t be given much weight in any case. But the episode hardly inspires confidence in S.& P.’s judgment.

More broadly, the rating agencies have never given us any reason to take their judgments about national solvency seriously. It’s true that defaulting nations were generally downgraded before the event. But in such cases the rating agencies were just following the markets, which had already turned on these problem debtors.

And in those rare cases where rating agencies have downgraded countries that, like America now, still had the confidence of investors, they have consistently been wrong. Consider, in particular, the case of Japan, which S.& P. downgraded back in 2002. Well, nine years later Japan is still able to borrow freely and cheaply. As of Friday, in fact, the interest rate on Japanese 10-year bonds was just 1 percent.

So there is no reason to take Friday’s downgrade of America seriously. These are the last people whose judgment we should trust.

And yet America does have big problems.

These problems have very little to do with short-term or even medium-term budget arithmetic. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its current deficit. It’s true that we’re building up debt, on which we’ll eventually have to pay interest. But if you actually do the math, instead of intoning big numbers in your best Dr. Evil voice, you discover that even very large deficits over the next few years will have remarkably little impact on U.S. fiscal sustainability.

No, what makes America look unreliable isn’t budget math, it’s politics. And please, let’s not have the usual declarations that both sides are at fault. Our problems are almost entirely one-sided — specifically, they’re caused by the rise of an extremist right that is prepared to create repeated crises rather than give an inch on its demands.

The truth is that as far as the straight economics goes, America’s long-run fiscal problems shouldn’t be all that hard to fix. It’s true that an aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the United States has far higher health costs than any other advanced country, and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved.

So why can’t we do that? Because we have a powerful political movement in this country that screamed “death panels” in the face of modest efforts to use Medicare funds more effectively, and preferred to risk financial catastrophe rather than agree to even a penny in additional revenues.

The real question facing America, even in purely fiscal terms, isn’t whether we’ll trim a trillion here or a trillion there from deficits. It is whether the extremists now blocking any kind of responsible policy can be defeated and marginalized.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 8, 2011, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Credibility, Chutzpah And Debt.

Mike Dooley and Arch-Angel Metatron on Solitude

From Mike Dooley on 29 July 2011:

Baby souls follow.
Young souls lead.
But old souls are happy to dance alone.
Not that I'm spying on you,

The Universe

PS: Your wisdom is showing.

Sitting in front of my computer alone in solitude for hours on end is me fulfilling my spiritual mission, according to Arch-Angel Metatron as she is channeled through self described “Earth Keeper,” James Tyberonn. This channeled message was first published online on Galactic Friends on 10 July 2010. But it was republished online on Lightworkers on 12 April 2011 by the same channeler. See the bottom of this copy and paste of Tyberonn’s blog post for the two source links.


Being Alone
“The Sacred Divinity of Solitude”
Updated & Republished By Request
Arch-Angel Metatron channeled by James Tyberonn

Greetings Beloved!I am Metatron, Lord of Light, and we welcome this gathering. We surround each of you in a specially created vector of Unconditional Love. A vector of nonlinear space that is uniquely opened as each of you read these words from your own space and chosen time.

The present phase of linear time on your planet is a uniquely opportune juncture for self-review and chosen solitude. Masters many of you, particularly those above the age of 49, the seventh 7 year cycle, find yourselves in a state of solitude, after spouses have passed, relationships terminated and marriage contracts have ended. And although this path is at times quite lonely, quite difficult and may feel 'unnatural' for many of you, it is with purpose. So we tell you to use this time wisely, embrace it. You are on the cusp of a great graduation.

Now there is a recurring message in many of your religious texts that says "For everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven"

Indeed there is a time for solitude. Divine Solitude is a noble condition, and one that offers quantum leaps in terms of growth, when understood, and recognized for its profound purpose.

You see the Divine-Self is ultimately, conclusively alone in its final pursuit of omnipotence.
In your terms, the soul enters the earth alone, and the spirit departs the earth alone. Ascended Masters that walk the Earth, have for millennia sought solitude in their incarnations before achieving Mastery. So it is with many of you now.

Dear Ones, Many of you who find yourself alone at this time, are of the belief that you must find a partner. Many of you seek your 'soul mate' your twin flame. Yet we tell you, in many cases among the advanced souls, you are alone because you have planned it. Indeed it is a special and noble undertaking. It is time for Divine Solitude.

Solitude for those seeking sanctified light, for those seeking, what is termed 'consecrated enlightenment' chose specific periods in their life plan, to be alone for a time. This does not mean you will always be in solitude, it simply means for a time you have chosen it to 'work on the self'; to achieve self love. Among souls seeking Mastery, approximately one of every three or four lifetimes, is a lifetime chosen for solitude.

Loving the SELF is a Requirement

Love of self is a condition that many, especially those from Christian heritage, have lost. Christianity with its teachings of original sin taught you that you were flawed in your nature, that you needed forgiving. You spent lifetimes prostate asking forgiveness for who you are. You lost your sense of your divinity, and found it easier to give than to receive. Balance was forfeited.

Now, we tell you that as the Earth transforms to the new Crystalline Age, the nature of energy resonance and the dimensional grasp of the planet is expanded. There is a lessening of the influence of duality/polarity for those of you that choose to extend beyond the third dimension.

You may ask whether solitude or partnerships bring greater advancement to the soul. The question is timely and especially pertinent for many of you in the dawn of the Ascension.

The short answer is that both coupling and solitude have their divine purpose.... and we underline the word BOTH. Much is gained in being in committed loving relationship. This is the natural circumstance in most sojourns on the plane of Earth.

But Masters, we tell you that there is also great purpose also in solitude. It is in fact a requisite.

It is no error that great numbers of you on the finals steps of the path of enlightenment are alone in this period. Now is the prelude to the coming Ascension. If you are among these, we tell you that perhaps your solitude is appropriate. Perhaps it is as it should be. You see it is how many of you planned it.

Yet many of you feel that the loneliness is too much to bear and that you must pursue a partner...the elusive twin flame. Dear Souls, there is much confusion around the concept of the twin flame, the 'soul mate', and the role and nature of optimal partnership in Mastery of Self.

Solitude and Nondependency

Solitude is intended to be a period of sublime reverence of self. Your life and your experience in this plane is your own creation, your own living tapestry, woven by your individual belief. Within solitude, the soul is prompted into self-review, and opportunity is given to dive deeply into the deep waters that flow within you. To swim in the ocean of SELF, and in so doing rediscover the love within, to learn what a brilliant spark of God you truly are.

Relationships are a method of reflecting the affectivity of your belief system, and giving you feedback on what, simply stated, is working, and what is not. Detachment requires the individual to explore the self, to reacquaint with the inner horizon, and this facilitates and necessitates sovereignty. Sovereignty is the prepotency of Mastership.

A relationship of two sovereign nondependent humans has greater balance, greater creativity, and greater longevity than a pairing of two beings co-dependent on one another. Do you understand?

Ultimately each soul must clearly define SELF in order to gain Mastery. Self Mastery is embodied in periods of planned detachment. It is that period in which impeccability is crystallized. And we tell you Dear Ones, crystallization, through impeccability is a necessary phase of Self- Mastery. It is a calibrational juncture in the multidimensional sojourn. One enters the void, the great mystery in the quest for fortitude and sovereign vision, alone, without a shoulder to lean on. And in the process, one discovers sublime wholeness and self completion.

Do not misunderstand our meaning; there is great validity in coupling, in the natural aspect of soul mate. But conclusively one walks the path of Mastery in sovereign detachment.

One becomes enlightened when one learns to transcend the physical self. Each of you must endeavor to the final conquest of what we term as 'impeccability'. Impeccability is the crystallization or uniform clarity of the soul, and it is a necessary virtue of Mastery. This involves release of dependency, the release of all that does not serve your divinity. It is a rebooting and reprogramming of all you are.

We have told you that the language, the fabric of higher dimension is sacred geometry. Impeccability is the geometric clarity of the soul mind. By defining oneself through impeccability one becomes crystalline, and thus more capable of Divine Consciousness within the geometric light of coherent higher planes. It is only accomplished by deciding who you are, what you believe, and then living it. Recognizing your truths, and aligning fully to them.

Question to Metatron: Are you saying that loving relationships, such as marriage, are not our ultimate union?

Metatron's Answer: Remember that in the highest realm you are in sacred Oneness, each a part of the Divine One. So in terms of duality experience, the answer to your question is yes. In this context, YES! Masters, in highest reality, you are a unified plural consciousness.

Relationships in the linear duality experience are a means to the end. We are saying that loving relationships are a sacred, joyful tool of achieving Self Mastery, but that ultimately in each soul's journey; there is requisite ultimate growth into sovereignty. The sovereign self is a sufficient self & truly has no dependent need of another. Such conceptual dependency can be a deterrent to Mastery.

In truth you merge in sovereignty with your other half. The other part of your soul that separated in duality expression. Each of you have a male and female component, and the other half is re-merged in the Integral Divine Self before rising into higher realm.

Many of you consider a soul mate and twin flame the same. Only the syntax is in parity. The true meanings are different. The twin flame is the other half of the same soul, split in duality, and these are rarely in physicality together. The 'soul mate' is in our terms, another soul with whom you have contracted to grow together within physical duality, as a means of development and exploration of love with another soul. Movement toward common purpose.

The seeming paradox in linear relationships, that of the 'soul mate' concept (not the twin flame) is that a relationship of two non-dependent sovereign beings, has greater joy, greater balance, greater interface with the divine, greater opportunity for advancement than a relationship based on co-dependence. Do you see?

In this time, in this now, many of you are actually merging with your etheric (non-physical) twin flame, and molding your sacred fullness into one physicality in order for you to enter the crystalline realm in wholeness. In most cases this soul reconnection is accomplished in solitude or in sovereign non dependent relationships.

So we say embrace your chosen period of SOVEREIGN SOLITUDE, it is the sign of your souls intent to enter into Crystalline Mer-Ka-Na Mastery.

The Divine Feminine

We add that many who are in this life, of the female gender, have chosen particularly effacious roles in the balancing of the planet at this time. Is it not true that the planet has been imbalanced in an overage of patriarchal energies for millennia? That is why it would appear that a vast majority of those drawn to the 'New Age' are female, you see, to anchor in the Divine Feminine. Females have been conditioned and labeled in your current paradigm as the 'weaker sex'. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Many of the females, who find themselves now in single status, are conditioned to feel they must have a partner. Again, we say, embrace your solitude. You chose it, we honor you for the path you have chosen.

The ideal for the planet, is not to be female or male, rather a perfect balance of BOTH, but it is at the moment still in an imbalance of patriarchal resonance. We honor those of you in female biology, you're strength is indeed progressing in creating the nurturing balance.

Truly the over-soul is androgynous, self-contained. Self-sufficient. That does not mean that love is not the frequencial basis of the soul, indeed it is the highest vibration. It is the resonance that is produced by the Ascended Soul to the Cosmos, and reflected back as a collective harmonic of crystalline love. There is a time when those of you have played the role of soul mates, will individualize, and in your terms, part in joy. The evolved soul in achieving omnipotence, will become consummately self sufficient, and in so doing radiate spectacular unconditional love to ALL. That is as it should be, as it must be. It is how you Ascend.

Embracing Sovereignty

The final graduation of the soul is not done in pairing, you see. It is done within the Divine SELF in universal harmonic to the All that is. Do you understand? This is the activation of Self to the divine resonance of the Quantum Crystalline Field. Separation must osmatically occur before the final collective reunion, it must occur to allow for the final coalescence into the ALL THAT IS.
It is who you ARE. It is the IAM that I AM.

Our point here, is that if you find yourself in Solitude, recognize its purpose. If you are in a relationship refine it in beauty to the greater love of non-dependence. You will indeed discover the love expands and the relationship becomes more splendid in non dependency; just as you are discovering relationships of co-dependency are imbalanced one way streets, and fail.

In sovereignty humanity will see themselves in this framework as being 'whole' and not being their partner's property or someone's 'better half'. Each will bring their integral, whole SELF in fullness, in robust flow of energy into relationship, in a manner that often does not occur today. There are pre agreed points that allow for freedom of choice and for change, even if that change is to end the partnership. In sovereignty individuals share their best, without compromise of ideals. Each will recognize the divinity of the other, and retain the integrity of SELF.

They will afford their own promises, promises and choices of a new paradigm, but there will be avenues and opportunities of adjustments and the ability of reviewing terms. This will allow for greater recognition of the SELF. These will be designed to prevent energy blockage and reduce dysfunctional marriages and divorce complications and lawsuits, you see.

Some relationships in these terms will indeed last a lifetime, some will not. But the archetype of sovereignty will better support both, based on choice and mutual agreement of each individuals terms. And as such independence becomes joyful , devoid of one partner being dominant and imposing their beliefs, morality and will over another.

Humankind, in mass today, truly does not recognize or understand their soul, their divine SELF. Self is unfortunately regulated to the realm of ego personality by the masses. It is true that a higher degree of the light quotient is awakened on the planet now, than has occurred at any other time, but it is still only about 10% of the population of eight billion plus that has awakened. That is a sufficient number to bring about the Ascension, but much has yet to be done.

Religion in the New Paradigm
Religion in the new paradigm, must be individualized, must truly recognize the nature of SELF the nature of the DIVINE SOUL. None of your world religions truly answer these questions today. None of your religions answer the questions of mans true Cosmic Extra-Terrestrial multi-dimensional origins. And that must come to understanding in the new paradigm. None of your current mainstream religions can accurately and completely express the true history of man on the earth. As such, there is no one true religion on the planet today. Most are bought and sold on preset regulated templates. Each claim to know the path to God, to be able to lead the way to God, yet none truly do. Each has its dogma, each has its hierarchy and controls.

Man searches for GOD more fervently now than at any other time in on the planet, and so this seeking in itself has the potential to bring in the light. Few religious teachers are true teachers, scholars perhaps, but not true teachers, you see. Others are charlatans, even within metaphysics and the so called 'New Age'. Few who make claim to channel Ascended Masters or Angelics truly do.

Discernment

When integrity is not maintained the connection to true spirit is disconnected, and all who are human are subject to fall in and out of integrity. Truly the way in the Ascension is the ability of each soul to rise into his/her higher self. Look inside and find your own divinity within your heart. Not through blindly following a guru, evangelist, channeler or spiritual leader, but through SELF. Accept only what you discern individually to resonate as true, Dear Ones, and do not give your power to another. Each of you can and must channel your higher selves. Study, look, listen, discern, review and only accept what resonates within you.

The way to the divine, Masters, is through the sacred sovereignty of SELF, and in the Ascension, the way to the higher SELF is through self-definition, and seeking that aspect of God inside each of you, with the great desire that is embedded in each of your souls. Study, seek, and work ! There is little hope for the lazy. You are here to make known the unknown ! Work at it ! Be a warrior of light within duality, for the true battles are within for self mastery. The path is not easy. But within Self Mastery lies an energy so exquisite that it fuels all you require to move forward, and there is another level above each you ascend to. Consciousness ever expands.

You Are Never Alone
Oh Dear Human, We truly do feel your occasional despair and longing, and know that we want you to know that we honour you, know that you are never truly alone. Spirit embraces you, and we are especially available for you to find solace and comfort in the walk of divinity that you are undertaking. For we assure you, that you have chosen to be exactly where you are, and there is a great reason, a noble aspiration and goal in your celibate secular aspect.

It is the very sense of resulting loneliness that so often feels bittersweet and hollow, that compels you to seek the rich ocean of wisdom available to you in rediscovering the vast solace within your own divinity.

So we gently urge you to understand that this, for many Master Souls is precisely why you are outside of relationship at this profound time on your planet.

You are then not alone because of a failed relationship, you are not alone because you are incapable of finding a partner. Indeed you are in noble solitude because you have chosen to move higher, to focus on the inner soul. Every soul enters in solitude, and will depart to higher realms in solitude. But that solitude is an opening to your true nature of plurality consciousness, you are reconnecting to the bigger part of you, and that part does not know loneliness. Lonely only exists in duality.

Dear Hearts, use this time wisely, and embrace it., for you have chosen a path that Masters on the 'Cusp of Graduation' often select. We know it is not easy, but the very real pain you at times feel, is the motivating driver of inner reflection. You are on the cusp of a great quantum leap.

Closing
Discover your path. Discover yourself. Love yourself, love one another, love the divinity inside you and inside every one ! Discover the multidimensional aspects of your true Soul. That is the nobility of solitude.

And thought the path is at times quite difficult and lonely , know that such is the challenge of duality, for above, you are whole, and lack no thing. In the higher realm, Masters, you are in your sacred nature of integral wholeness, in complete and abundant bliss.

I am Metatron, Lord of Light, and I share with you these TRUTHS!

You are Beloved.

...And so it is.

http://www.galacticfriends.com/updates/channeled-updates/4960-metatron-sovereignty-update-july-1010.html

http://lightworkers.org/channeling/129148/being-alone-sacred-sovereignity-solitude