My Wave

In January of 2016 I made a choice to stop talking to my father.  I felt it was the best choice for me; these choices often carry with them a lot of baggage, both good and bad.  For me it was liberating.  I had not realized how oppressive my father was or how much he shamed me in subtle ways (See NextStage Principle #42).  But that is a story for another time.

After I made the decision to cut my father out of my family’s life, I became acutely aware of something my father said to me more than ten years ago.  It involved my father asking Joseph and Susan for advice.  I can’t go into detail about the advice given to him because that is my father’s story, but what I knew about the advice eventually led me to Joseph.  Actually it was my mother who insisted I reach out to him to ask what he meant by it, though I’m certain I already knew the answer (I often ask Joseph questions I already know the answer to for some sort of validation).  I didn’t have Joseph’s email, phone number, Skype username, or any other way of contacting him, but in the age of internet, all anyone needs to find someone who is even remotely connected is a first and a last name.  So I found him on LinkedIn, purchased a month of premium service so I could send messages to him, and requested a connection.  About a week later, I met Joseph “face-to-face” on Skype.

At about the same time, my mother was in the process of separating from my step-father, a move that would eventually end in divorce.  What a great opportunity to rediscover the child I left behind so many years ago, right?  Here I am in my mid-thirties, my brain is fully maturing, I cut an oppressive father out of my life, I reconnected with my mother, and I found a Teacher.  All of this occurred within the span of a couple of months, although – in one way or another – the seeds of each one of these occurrences were planted years ago.

I didn’t know what would happen when Joseph and I first spoke, I didn’t know that the Expanded Awareness Society was in the process of being created, and I didn’t know that Joseph would become my Teacher.  Apparently Joseph was making a show of trying to push me away, but I didn’t sense that.  Who knows what would have happened if I had, I might not be here right now writing this blog post for the Expanded Awareness Society. The only time I recognized that he was attempting to deter me was by saying how “expensive” he was.  My internal reaction was along the lines of: I’ve been here before; this is uncomfortable; why should I have to pay for teaching?; why does everyone want money?; I don’t have any money; this isn’t what I’ve read about the wise person at the top of the mountain. But I wanted to be taught, and I was willing to do almost anything to make it happen (the Expanded Awareness Society Practice will never ask you to do anything that will harm you). Through my own qualms with having to pay for Instruction, I realized the meaning of NextStage Principle #65: that a worker is worthy of their wages.  If you are balking at the fact that you have to pay for – or if you fear you do not have the means to pay for – being Taught, I urge you to take a look at Principle #65.

Because of the internet, we no longer have to climb the mountain to beg the wise person for advice, we no longer have to wash dishes, or chop fire wood, or shovel horse manure, or make any of the other offerings that we used to in order to “pay” for Lessons.  The physical effort is being taken out of it, so – as far as the internet is concerned – we pay for Lessons with coin of the realm. And that is a good place to start.  All we have to do now is sift through the many pretenders, false prophets, and well-intentioned fools and lay-persons that offer bastardized versions of enlightenment for your hard-earned cash, a tall order indeed.  Though I believe there are good intentions in the actions of the majority of the lay-persons on the internet, they seem to be following the old adage “be the change you want to see.”  The problem with this is that you can’t just be a Teacher because you are desperately looking for one, or because you read a book, or because you feel that you are more aware than the average person you have encountered.  And chances are that if you desperately want to be a Teacher, and have no Teacher (students do not count), then you aren’t ready to be a Teacher.  In fact I am certain that one of the many qualifying traits of a Teacher is reluctance, often to the extreme.  Another, is having been, and still being, taught.

So what’s so different about the Expanded Awareness Society? Now, you don’t know me from Jack, but I will tell you first and foremost – just to get it out of the way – that I wouldn’t be a part of anything that I didn’t believe in, that I wouldn’t sign my name, put my picture, or contribute to anything that intentionally, or unintentionally, mislead people or offered something that didn’t live up to what was advertised.  Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I will try to offer a more objective viewpoint.

What’s so different about the Expanded Awareness Society?  I’ve been asked that question, not only by those who are new to the idea, but also by Joseph and Susan.  First off, the Practice does not require you to believe in it for it to work.  In fact I think it works better if you question everything that you are doing, as long as you are actually doing.  The Expanded Awareness Society exists naturally and unforced, and it will continue to exist because those of us who are a part of it believe in what we are doing.  We do this because we are led to do it, and time is not of the essence.  Of course there is a sense of urgency to help others, to be able to share what we have learned, but we understand that something like this can’t be forced or rushed.  Whether the Expanded Awareness Society has 50 or 50,000 Practicers, or whether it takes 100 or more years to catch on, matters little, because what matters the most is that it exists for people who need it.

Another very important fact is that the Expanded Awareness Society adheres to a very comprehensive and ever-evolving set of Principles, which do not restrict a person based on a particular belief system. The Expanded Awareness Society Teachers know that all credit goes to something else, to the Universe, to the unnamed, to the Spirits.  You will never see one of our Teachers “worshipped” or put on a pedestal because we are all human and make mistakes and are sometimes ornery or else we would not be here.  Be wary of any particular belief system that tries to make you think differently.But most importantly now, I want you to hear my results over the past 8 months.

I have seen and felt my karmic inheritance, the “sins of my father.”  I have been able to see where I end and it begins.  I have learned that it is not me.  I have asked Joseph to heal my Crohn’s Disease, my Sacred Illness.  I have felt Joseph heal me.  Felt the warmth in my gut for the first time since I was a child.  Felt the surge of energy that gathers there.  I have heard Joseph tell me exactly what it was that I was feeling inside, the hollowness in my chest, and I have seen him cry as it swept over him.  I have discovered my guardian, my totem, my familiar (who loves me deeply), and I have been visited by other spirits who want to teach me (as I am reading this aloud to my wife and mother, the child with the tarnished bronze skin enters the room). I have discovered that my wife and I are paired, beautifully paired, and that together we paint a more complete picture of our surroundings then we do alone.  I have felt my mantle, or cloak, and I have started to learn to use it, rather than it being activated involuntarily.  I have learned exercises to help me acquiesce, to center my energy, to become much more aware of what is around us all, and my life is better for it.

This list can go on and on and I will share more of my story with you, but the bottom line is this: we at the Expanded Awareness Society want to share this gift with you.  We want to make the world a better place, to leave it better than we found it.  I want you to feel what I feel; to be healed, to be on a path of self-actualization.  The Expanded Awareness Society can help you to achieve this.