So you’ve been devoting months, years, or perhaps even decades of your life to your spiritual practice.
But unlike physically tangible pursuits, there’s no easy way to know if you’re ‘making progress’ or not when it comes to your inner spiritual life.
If you’re wondering whether you’re actually growing and evolving and whether spiritual growth is indeed occurring in your life, keep reading.
What is Spiritual Growth?
Spiritual growth is the process of awakening to your true nature, purpose, and potential. When you undergo spiritual growth you experience an expansion in awareness and insight, also known as higher consciousness.
All spiritual growth has one objective: to help you embody your Soul or Higher Self. Once you are able to shift from ego to Soul, there is the potential for you to experience what is understood as spiritual enlightenment, self-realization, “heaven,” Oneness, or moksha in varying degrees.
Spiritual Growth: 12 Signs You’re Growing and Evolving
Here are the major signs that you’re growing and evolving on a spiritual level:
1. You embrace challenges as lessons and opportunities
Whether your car has just broken down, or someone you love is terribly ill, you sense that there’s an underlying lesson and opportunity in the obstacle before you. Instead of feeling like a victim, you feel like a student of life. In other words, you see that life is not happening to you, it is happening for you.
2. You see through the seduction of the material world
Once upon a time, you might have loved buying expensive things, focusing on enhancing your social status, earning more money, or even indulging in spiritual materialism. But now, you understand that the material world doesn’t ultimately bring you the deep happiness you seek.
3. Your sensitivity has heightened
In the past, you might have been living in a numb state where you were disconnected from your body, heart, mind, and soul. But now, you are a great deal more aware of what is going on inside and around you. As such, you might experience more empathic suffering, which can often feel like both a curse and a gift.
4. You feel more love and compassion (for yourself, others, and the world)
With heightened sensitivity, you also feel more connected to yourself and the world. You may feel higher levels of compassion and true empathy for others – even those who are harmful to themselves, others, and the planet. Your open heart brings you more joy, but also more pain. And yet, your heart is slowly learning how to expand and hold that pain.
5. You stop seeing life in black-or-white dualistic thinking
If you’ve been taught anything by your spiritual awakening, kundalini awakening, or dark night of the soul, it’s that there’s more to life than meets the eye. Something that may seem negative may turn out to be positive. Something that seems beautiful may actually be ugly deep down. Everything and everyone have two sides that are interdependent – nothing is totally black or white.
6. You can show more understanding toward difficult people
Because you can see underneath the surface of a person’s behavior – and the various wounds and traumas that may have caused them to misbehave – you no longer carry as much anger or resentment as you once did. You find it easier to show tolerance and understanding toward others, no longer reacting with as much judgment, condemnation, or self-righteousness.
7. You see that life is cyclical and like a spiral
Instead of getting stuck in one mode of being or mindset, you’re beginning to see that life is cyclical. There are good times and bad times. After spring comes autumn and after day comes night. All things are destined to come and go, rise and fall. As such, you don’t get as affected as you once did when life waxes and wanes – it’s just part of life and the journey of Ensoulment.
8. You become less attached to mental stories
The more you become acquainted with your mind, the more you recognize that thoughts, ideas, and beliefs don’t actually define you. Instead, these mental occurrences are like clouds that float into the sky, and then eventually drift away. When you attach to mental thoughts and beliefs, you suffer. But when you recognize that your thoughts and feelings don’t define you – instead, you are the vast Consciousness beneath them – you find it easier to let go and find a sense of inner peace.
9. You find it easier to slow down and do nothing
Our thinking minds are always wanting us to “do,” “get,” “achieve,” “go-go-go!” but the soul, the spiritual center of our being, finds true nourishment in slowing down and enjoying life as it is. If you’re finding it easier to wind down, or at least catch the desire to constantly be “switched on” and change course, this is a clear sign of spiritual growth.
10. You are more interested in letting go of the old than gaining the new
As an ongoing student of the Tao Te Ching – an ancient wisdom text from the Taoist tradition – the topic of letting go constantly arises.
Among many verses on letting go, verse 44 packs quite a punch:
One’s own reputation—why the fuss?
One’s own wealth—why the concern?
I say, what you gain
is more trouble than what you lose
Therefore, a huge part of authentic spiritual growth is the capacity to be not only accepting of letting go, but actually preferring it to “gaining more.” The desire to accumulate is from the ego, but the desire to surrender and be free is from the soul.
11. You have more capacity to be discerning
Spiritual growth is not just about experiencing love, bliss, and expansion – although that is part of it. As we deepen and mature, spiritual growth is also about the capacity to think clearly and distinguish truth from falsehood. This ability to use the mind like a sword is what is known as spiritual discernment.
12. You can access more moments of ‘ordinary magic’
While it’s normal at the beginning of the spiritual journey to want glitch, glamor, and exciting sparkly experiences, the more we grow, the more we recognize the beauty of what is already here, right now. This ordinary magic can be accessed whenever we are present, grounded in the Now, and connected with the heart and soul.
To explain the concept of molding your thoughts and beliefs to someone else’s i of what is or isn’t, we must take a look at how our minds work when it comes to believing or not believing that something exists. Whether it is true or not. This is especially important today when most of us get our news stories in single sentence alerts, and from single sources that already align with your belief system. Of course, this is exactly how we hope science doesn’t work.
Many perceive the human mind is of finite boundaries. In other words, we must be able to see things in a tangible manner; in a way that the mind can perceive the information. (Of course, our minds are not finite, but the Scientific Method has not evolved to take that into account; at least not yet). We make it finite by putting any gathered information in some sort of order. In mental boxes or file cabinet so that we are able to understand the information that enters our senses. If we see something that doesn’t make sense, we can’t just allow it to be simply something that doesn’t make sense…we must make sense out of the nonsense.
How is this done?
By using previously gathered information, which at all costs must be explainable, repeatable, and tangible in order to be considered “real”. Never mind that this method excludes a multitude of existing information. Kind of like how important evidence can be thrown out of a court of law due to improper procedures.
But isn’t information and evidence still exactly what it is…information and evidence?
And what happens when there is the need to prove something that isn’t really based on our definition of what is deemed to be real or not? Well, there is a hierarchy of so-called credible people that we automatically trust to tell us when something is real or isn’t real. Let’s explore how this works by looking at the following playful example:
NEWS ALERT: The LittleOrange Elephant With Bright Red Dots
A person claims that they saw a littleorange elephant with bright red dots, no bigger than a mouse, walk by.
Okay, well, besides being extremely unfashionable with such coloring, this occurrence may be a bit hard for you to believe. But… what if it was your friend that had seen the little elephant? What would you think? Would you believe them? Well, if you are like most of us, you might be thinking your friend may have a small problem and should consider seeking some “professional” help!
And what if it was the homeless fellow living on the street that saw this little orange elephant? What would you think then? I would wager a guess that you’d be crossing to the other side of the street in a pretty fast sprint!
Now let’s say that the person who saw this unlikely creature was the very eccentric artist who is known for her imagination? Would this make a difference? We may think “how cute” it is that she, “thinks” she saw a little orange and red elephant and, by the way, not at all unusual given the character of this creative artist.
Now let’s say that it was an influential person, such as some credible scientist, who saw this little colorful trunk-nosed animal. What would we think now? This is where we begin to really break the rules of “what is,” or perhaps where the “what is” was created.
Most of us would still probably think that this scientist had inhaled a few too many chemicals in his lab, while a few of us may stroke our chins and wonder, “what if he did see this thing? I mean he isn’t just anybody…he’s a scientist after all!”
Okay, okay…are you still hanging with me because now it’s really starting to get good!
Now let’s say that at the most recent annual conference of the Nobel Prize winners (now THESE are the most credible, influential people on the planet, right?) EVERYONE saw this little orange elephant with bright red dots walking across the stage. (And I’m not even going to go crazy by saying the little elephant was dancing across the stage…he was just merely walking; because that’s more believable, right?) Of these highly regarded scientists, how many would admit they saw this little guy? How many would believe it was, perhaps, some sort of terrorist attack? And once word had gotten out, how many of us would be glued to the 24-hour sensationalist cable news channels?
“Did you hear about the alleged little elephant sighting? They said he had red dots!”
“Did this really happen?”
“Are there more little elephants roaming our cities, or was this the only one?”
“Maybe they are really little aliens disguised as orange elephants with bright red dots and they are going to take over the planet!”
You know there would be a series of point-counter-point interviews with “specialists” from various arenas—if you watch cable news channels, by now you realize that there are specialists for everything! Perhaps there is a Cryptozoologist (the study of unknown animals…a “pseudoscience” of course) and a Zoologist (the study of known animals…you know, “real” science) for a “balanced” debate.
Or maybe there is another debate between a Republican strategist and Democratic strategist—after all, it is a known fact that most scientists, as well as most of the academia, are “demo” liberals and it would be just like them to come up with something wacky like this to take the public’s focus away from the real issues – so say their Republican counterparts!
So the bigger question here is…how many people would now believe this all to be true? That there indeed is a little orange elephant with bright red dots no bigger than a mouse running around out there…and it’s still on the loose! I would even bet that there would be an immediate creation of something like The Colorful Little Elephant Society (TCLES)—website, theme song and all!
So, as with anything abstract or “imaginary,” it can be difficult for most people to comprehend information presented in this fashion, even for many scientists! Up until now, we have been comfortable with the certainty of Newtonian Physics that tells us to neatly place everything that is considered “known” into solid theories which ultimately become universal laws. So this shows how the scientific method requires specific criteria in order for something to be proven as truth and classified as “real”.
But what about those people who have been healed from “incurable” diagnoses outside of the required criteria? What of those who have survived cancers (even stage 4) from “alternative” methods? What of those who have been cured of diabetes in only a few months? And what of those who have been totally healed through energy medicine—the most intangible form of health care known (or unknown) to man yet?
We are in the infancy stages of this new idea. Many call it new science, new age, quantum physics. But whatever the term used, the essence of this theory scares many who have relied upon what is considered “known”. And it is incomprehensible to those scientists who feel they must be able to “touch” it, record it and most importantly control it.
Imagine when the idea that our world was not really the center of the universe was presented to the scientists of that time. The confusion, even denial, they must have felt. How can we expand our mind and see what we “think” isn’t there, yet, “know” that it really does actually exist? There is a story that on their first encounter with the Europeans, the American Indians could not see the first strange ship as it approached their shores, mainly due to the fact that it was not in their psyche to recognize it. Perhaps the same may be said about UFO sightings.
Isn’t it possible that this can also be applied to medicine? I think yes!
We seem to always want to “box” up different concepts and then forever rely on these packages for all things that require an explanation. And just like we are reluctant to throw away the boxes we have carefully stored in our attics, we continue to allow ourselves to be buried deeper and deeper in our dogmatic box. We stand with such dogmatic arrogance and conviction that we even deny the possibility of new and different concepts simply because we find it impossible to “box” the “unboxable”.
So why would some of us believe that this little orange elephant with bright red dots does exist, while others simply refuse to believe it? What if it turned out that quantum theory proves that parallel universes do in fact exist and that for a few moments we saw an example of something that lives in another world—a world that simultaneously exists with our own.
If what we actually “know” to be true is in fact not true, where does this put our current beliefs and moreover, our strongly dogmatic position of what reality really is?
Science, via quantum physics, has found that everything we believe to exist really doesn’t exist as we think it does. Based on that premise, how can we state with true conviction what is real and what is not? How can we continue to trust those few who are so entrenched in a medically dogmatic position, even when it is obvious that the system is not just broken, but is decaying from its very core?
Pop Quiz:What color was the little elephant? Did you remember the elephant as orange or did pink pop into your head first? If you thought orange, good for you! If you thought pink, then this is a perfect example of the power of dogmatic belief in action!
In a study sponsored by Yale University — and started before COVID-19 shots were rolled out — researchers tested different messages of how to best persuade people to get injected.
Officially titled, “Persuasive Messages for COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake,”1 the researchers must have had some forethought that people would be wary of an experimental gene therapy, and set to work to decipher the best propaganda campaign to ensure their widespread uptake.
The study’s abstract starts out with questionable statements from the start, parroting the myth that “Widespread vaccination remains the best option for controlling the spread of COVID-19 and ending the pandemic.”2 The authors do not, however, expand on how this is so, considering that just three months after the shot those who are injected are just as likely to pass COVID-19 to their close contacts as those who do not get the shot.3,4
The reasons why people may be reluctant to get COVID-19 shots — such as safety and efficacy concerns — are also ignored by the study,5 which is only concerned with how to best use psychological tactics to get people on board with being injected.
Guilt, Anger, Embarrassment or Cowardice — What Works Best?
The full study, which was published in the December 3, 2021, issue of Vaccine,6 involved two experiments. The first tested “treatment messages” designed to affect people’s intentions about whether or not to get the shot. For the control group, subjects were exposed to a message about bird feeding, while others read the baseline vaccine message, as follows:
“To end the COVID-19 outbreak, it is important for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 whenever a vaccine becomes available. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine means you are much less likely to get COVID-19 or spread it to others. Vaccines are safe and widely used to prevent diseases and vaccines are estimated to save millions of lives every year.”
For the experiment, the following messages were added to the baseline message:7
Personal freedom message
Economic freedom message
Self-interest message
Community interest message
Economic benefit message
Guilt message
Embarrassment message
Anger message
Trust in science message
Not bravery message
For example, the guilt message, which is designed to work by social pressure, reads:8
“The message is about the danger that COVID-19 presents to the health of one’s family and community. The best way to protect them is by getting vaccinated and society must work together to get enough people vaccinated. Then it asks the participant to imagine the guilt they will feel if they don’t get vaccinated and spread the disease.”
Never mind that this statement is false, since they can still spread the disease if they’re injected. Similarly misleading messages designed to demean, guilt and shame people into getting the shot include:9
“If one doesn’t get vaccinated that means that one doesn’t understand how infections are spread or who ignores science.”
“Those who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are not brave.”
“[I]t asks the participant to imagine the embarrassment they will feel if they don’t get vaccinated and spread the disease.”
“[I]t asks the participant to imagine the anger they will feel if they don’t get vaccinated and spread the disease.”
The researchers explained it this way:10
“One subgroup of messages draws on the idea that mass vaccination is a collective action problem and highlighting the prosocial benefit of vaccination or the reputational costs that one might incur if one chooses not to vaccinate. Another subgroup of messages built on contemporary concerns about the pandemic, like issues of restricting personal freedom or economic security.
We find that persuasive messaging that invokes prosocial vaccination and social image concerns is effective at increasing intended uptake and also the willingness to persuade others and judgments of non-vaccinators.”
Propaganda Messages Created With No Scientific Support
It’s ironic that the study includes a “trust in science” message, since the messages used in the study were created in early or mid-2020, before science was available to support them. Yet, as noted by a Children’s Health Defense (CHD) article, “The messages tested by the researchers have been woven into mainstream media narratives and public health campaigns throughout the world.”11
In the second part of the study, the most effective messages from part one were tested on a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. This included the baseline message along with community interest, community interest + embarrassment, not bravery, trust in science and personal freedom messages.
They found that, compared to the control group, psychological messages that involve community interest, reciprocity and embarrassment worked best, leading to a 30% increase in intention to get injected, along with a 24% increase in willingness to tell a friend to get injected and a 38% increase in negative opinions of those who decline to get the shot.12
The messages are designed to not only impact people on an individual level, but also further divide society by encouraging people to pass negative judgment onto others and pressure others to comply with “social norms.” According to the researchers:
“Viewing vaccination through the lens of a collective action problem suggests that in addition to increasing individuals’ intentions to receive a vaccine, effective public health messages would also increase people’s willingness to encourage those close to them to vaccinate and to hold negative judgments of those who do not vaccinate.
By encouraging those close to them to vaccinate, people are both promoting compliance with social norms and increasing their own level of protection against the disease. Also, by judging those who do not vaccinate more negatively, they apply social pressure to others to promote cooperative behavior.”
Shots as a ‘Morally Right Choice’
Since the pandemic began, conforming to confusing and questionable public health mandates has been made an issue of moral superiority — to the point that those who questioned mask mandates were labeled as “grandma killers.”13
In an article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, it’s further noted that “vaccination is a social contract in which cooperation is the morally right choice.”14 It further suggests that, under this social contract, people should change their behaviors toward those who choose not to get injected, and, indeed, people who are “especially compliant,” i.e., vaccinated, were less generous to those who were not.15 Further:16
“If so, vaccinated individuals should reciprocate by being more generous to a vaccinated other. On the contrary, if the other doesn’t vaccinate and violates the social contract, generosity should decline.”
Propaganda Aimed at Making People Feel ‘Disgusting’
CHD pointed out that one of the authors of the Yale study, Saad Omer, “has an extensive interest in public health messaging” and was behind the “Building Vaccine Confidence Through Tailored Messaging Campaigns” in 2020, which used social media to convince people to get COVID-19 and other shots.17
Working with the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines, Omer detailed what worked in the past to increase the uptake of the HPV vaccine, and suggested it could work for COVID-19 shots. The solution, he said, involved appealing to values and stooping so low as to make a person feel disgusting while presenting vaccines as a form of purity. CHD quoted Omer, who said:18
“We wanted to test out, can we have a purity-based message? So we showed them pictures of genital warts and described a vignette, a narrative, a story, talking about how someone got genital warts and how disgusting they were and how pure vaccines are that sort of restore the sanctity of the body.
So we just analyzed these data. This was a randomized control trial with apriori outcomes. We found approximately 20 percentage point effect on people’s likelihood of getting an HPV vaccine in the next 6 months … We are trying out liberty-based messages or liberty-mediated messaging around this behavior related to COVID-19 outbreak.
That wearing a mask or taking precautions eventually make you free, regain your autonomy. Because if the disease rates are low, your activities can resume.”
This is similar propaganda to what’s being used to promote vaccine passports, with many willingly giving up freedoms that, once gone, may be difficult, if not impossible, to get back. By showing proof that you’ve received a COVID-19 shot, via a digital certificate or app on your phone, the hope is that you can once again travel freely, attend a concert or enjoy a meal in your favorite restaurant, just like you used to.
Except, being required to present your “papers” in order to live your life isn’t actually freedom at all — it’s a loss of freedom that you once had, one that disappeared right before your eyes and one that’s setting the stage for increased surveillance and control, and erosion of your privacy.
Propaganda Is the Real Misinformation
Carefully crafted messages that play on your emotions and moral compass are just one part of the campaign to ensure public compliance with the mainstream narrative. Fact checking is another tool being used in order to control virtually everything you see and hear online, in order to serve a greater agenda.19
Take the term “conspiracy theory,” which is now used to dismiss narratives that go against the grain. According to investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, this is intentional, as the term itself was devised by the CIA as a response to theories about the assassination of JFK.
Debunked, quackery and antivaccine are all terms that are similarly being used as propaganda tools. “There’s a whole cast of propaganda phrases that I’ve outlined that are cues. When you hear them, they should make you think, ‘I need to find out more about it,’” Attkisson says.20
Likewise, CHD explained, “The efforts to eliminate ‘misinformation’ resulted in unprecedented censorship of virtually anything that steps outside of state-sanctioned consensus and the creation of a captive audience primed to accept a singular narrative.”21
It’s important to remain aware that messages are being carefully crafted to mold human behavior to comply with COVID-19 shots and other public health measures — and to recognize that the use of propaganda is perfectly legal, even in the U.S.
As CHD continued, “And thanks to a multibillion-dollar budget from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are under the influence of the best messages money can buy — whether or not those messages are true.”22
GOP Senator Demands DoD Investigate Leaked DARPA Bombshell Over Covid-19 Origins
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has requested any findings from a Department of Defense investigation into the origins of Covid-19, following the recent publication of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) report obtained by Project Veritas.
According to the leaked report written by a Marine, EcoHealth Alliance sought a contract to use controversial gain-of-function genetic manipulation techniques to study bat coronaviruses. While the proposal was rejected by DARPA, it was subsequently picked up by Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which funneled money to EcoHealth via a sub-grant.
Fauci has repeatedly claimed NIAID did not fund gain-of-function research into bat coronaviruses.
“It is apparent that Dr. Fauci has not been forthright with the American people regarding his involvement in funding dangerous research,” Sen. Johnson told the Daily Caller.
“According to the Major’s disclosure, EcoHealth Alliance (EcoHealth), in conjunction with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), submitted a proposal in March 2018 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) regarding SARS-CoVs. The proposal included a program, called DEFUSE, that sought to use a novel chimeric SARS-CoV spike protein to inoculate bats against SARS-CoVs,” reads Johnson’s letter.
“Although DARPA rejected the proposal, the disclosure alleges that EcoHealth ultimately carried out the DEFUSE proposal until April 2020 through the National Institutes of Health and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The disclosure highlights several potential treatments, such as ivermectin, and specifically alleges that the EcoHealth DEFUSE proposal identified chloroquine phosphate (Hydroxychloriquine) and interferon as SARS-CoV inhibitors.”
The leaked documents also suggest that Covid-19 was created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Johnson asks the DoD to interview the Marine who reportedly authored the report, and undertake an investigation into its claims.
Neuroscientists have been working on a number of advanced techniques with military applications
Magnetogenetics is a technique of using magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity
In human experiments, scientist experimented with reducing religious feelings
In animal experiments, researchers were able to induce specific behaviors in mice using genetically modified viruses and magnetic fields
Another area of behavioral modification is “digital vaccines,” which is special software for behavioral change
This story is about behavioral modification, both as a philosophical ambition and as a military application. This topic is vast — so I’ll focus on a few relatively recent developments, especially in the area of magnetogenetics. But first, morality pills!
Morality Pills
In August 2020, Forbes published an article titled, “Could A ‘Morality Pill’ Help Stop The Covid-19 Pandemic?” It was based on the opinion of a bioethicist Parker Crutchfield who stated the following:
“Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.”
The problem that Crutchfield was trying to solve with his theoretical ‘morality pills’ was the pesky COVID contrarians, the proverbial grandma killers who refused to comply with masking and social distancing.
“The problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior.”
The author seemed to think very highly of his own ability to make perfect decisions about things — including about the best pandemic response — and therefore he had no qualms about imposing his opinions on others in the form of pills or, perhaps, morality injections. He went as far as to say that “a solution would be to make moral enhancement compulsory or administer it secretly, perhaps via the water supply.”
Crutchfield further referred to his work, in which he explored the concept of enhancing democracy by secretly medicating the citizens. He stated the following:
“Some theorists argue that moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory. I take this argument one step further, arguing that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration ought to be covert rather than overt. This is to say that it is morally preferable for compulsory moral bioenhancement to be administered without the recipients knowing that they are receiving the enhancement.
My argument for this is that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration is a matter of public health, and for this reason should be governed by public health ethics.
I argue that the covert administration of a compulsory moral bioenhancement program better conforms to public health ethics than does an overt compulsory program. In particular, a covert compulsory program promotes values such as liberty, utility, equality, and autonomy better than an overt program does. [emphasis mine].”
Bravissimo! Does this combo of freedom and covertly administered forced medication come with DeBlasio fries?
The good thing about morality pills is that they are seemingly theoretical … hopefully. How about creating fake memories? That, now, is actual science! In 2014, Smithsonian Magazine published an article titled, “Meet the Two Scientists Who Implanted a False Memory Into a Mouse,” which described a series of rather sadistic experiments showing that implanting false memories was achievable. (Should we mandate morality pills for the scientists? Just wondering.)
Implanting a False Memory in a Mouse
The scientists did a number of manipulations that I will describe in great technical detail in just a second — but the gist of it is that they placed a mouse in a particular box and gave the mouse a foot shock while simultaneously triggering a memory of being in a different, “safe,” box from an earlier experiment when the mouse was is that other box without receiving the shock.
They then placed the mouse in the “safe” box again, and the mouse acted terrified, as if it associated that first box with being given a shock, while in reality the shock was given in the second box, not in the first box. The conclusion that the scientists drew was that in the mouse’s mind, it “remembered” being given a shock in the box in which it had never been given a shock.
Great technical detail: Working with genetically engineered lab mice, the scientists injected their brains with a biochemical cocktail that included a gene for a light-sensitive protein (channelrhodopsin-2). The cells participating in memory formation would then produce the protein and become light-sensitive themselves.
Namely, they “surgically implanted thin filaments from the laser through the skulls of the mice and into the dentate gyrus. Reactivating the memory — and its associated fear response — was the only way to prove they had actually identified and labeled an engram [a unit of cognitive information imprinted in a physical substance].
The researchers sacrificed the animals after the experiment and examined the brain tissues under a microscope to confirm the existence of the engrams; cells involved in a specific memory glowed green after treatment with chemicals that reacted with channelrhodopsin-2.”
In order to manipulate a specific engram to create a false memory, they “prepared the mouse, injecting the biochemical cocktail into the dentate gyrus. Next, they put the mouse in a box without shocking it. As the animal spent 12 minutes exploring, a memory of this benign experience was encoded as an engram.
The following day, the mouse was placed in a different box, where its memory of the first (safe) box was triggered by shooting the laser into the dentate gyrus. At that exact moment, the mouse received a foot shock. On the third day, the mouse was returned to the safe box — and immediately froze in fear. It had never received a foot shock there, but its false memory, created by the researchers in another box, caused it to behave as if it had.”
Here you have it. The scientists were allegedly able to create a false memory in a mouse by torturing it and its fellows. False memories, check. How about manipulating religious feelings in people? Did the scientists try? Sure they did.
Experiments To Manipulate Religious Beliefs With Magnetism
In 2015, an article called, “Neuromodulation of group prejudice and religious belief” was published in “Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.”
The authors of the study “presented participants with a reminder of death and a critique of their in-group ostensibly written by a member of an out-group, then experimentally decreased both avowed belief in God and out-group derogation by downregulating pMFC activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results provide the first evidence that group prejudice and religious belief are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation.”
Magnetogenetics
Speaking of magnetic stimulation, let’s talk about magnetogenetics. Magnetogenetics is a biological technique that involves the use of magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity. According to the behavioral research company Noldus, “magnetogenetics, or the use of electromagnetic control, involves activating cells using magnetic fields. With magnetogenetics researchers have found a way to control neurons with electromagnets.”
For context, magnetogenetics is adjacent to two other methods, optogenetics and chemogenetics. Optogenetics is based on switching populations of related neurons on or off on a millisecond-by-millisecond timescale with pulses of laser light. Optogenetics is an invasive method that requires insertion of optical fibers that deliver the light pulses into the brain. Chemogenetics uses engineered proteins that are activated by designer drugs and can be targeted to specific cell types.
The “Magneto” Experiment
In 2016, two University of Virginia scientists demonstrated that neurons in the brain that have been supplemented with a synthetic gene can be remotely manipulated by a magnetic field. In their own words, they “may have discovered a major step toward developing a ‘dream tool’ for remotely controlling neural circuits.”
At the time, Güler, a biology professor at UVA, and UVA neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Michael Wheeler “engineered a gene that can make a cell sense the presence of a magnetic field. They coupled a gene that senses cellular stretch with another gene that functions as a nanomagnet. This synthetic combination turns on only when in the presence of a magnetic field, allowing them to control neuronal activity in the brain.”
“In a series of tests on mice that had the Magneto gene used to express comfort or pleasure, the mice voluntarily went to a chamber of their cage where the magnetic field was present, similar to going there as if food was present.
Likewise, when the magnetic field was turned off, the mice did not display any particular preference for that area of the cage. But when the magnetic field was turned back on, they again moved to that area of the cage. Mice without the Magneto gene did not display any behavioral changes in the presence of magnets.”
According to the Guardian, the premise of the experiment was that nerve cell proteins activated by heat and mechanical pressure “can be genetically engineered so that they become sensitive to radio waves and magnetic fields, by attaching them to an iron-storing protein called ferritin, or to inorganic paramagnetic particles.”
The technique used the protein TRPV4, which is sensitive to both temperature and stretching forces that “open its central pore, allowing electrical current to flow through the cell membrane; this evokes nervous impulses that travel into the spinal cord and then up to the brain.”
The scientists “used genetic engineering to fuse the protein to the paramagnetic region of ferritin, together with short DNA sequences that signal cells to transport proteins to the nerve cell membrane and insert them into it …
When they introduced this genetic construct into human embryonic kidney cells growing in Petri dishes, the cells synthesized the ‘Magneto’ protein and inserted it into their membrane. Application of a magnetic field activated the engineered protein, as evidenced by transient increases in calcium ion concentration within the cells.”
“Next, the researchers inserted the Magneto DNA sequence into the genome of a virus, together with the gene encoding green fluorescent protein, and regulatory DNA sequences that cause the construct to be expressed only in specified types of neurons.
They then injected the virus into the brains of mice, targeting the entorhinal cortex, and dissected the animals’ brains to identify the cells that emitted green fluorescence. Using microelectrodes, they then showed that applying a magnetic field to the brain slices activated Magneto so that the cells produce nervous impulses.”
When the scientists placed the animals into an apparatus split into magnetised a non-magnetised sections, “mice expressing Magneto spent far more time in the magnetised areas than mice that did not, because activation of the protein caused the striatal neurons expressing it to release dopamine, so that the mice found being in those areas rewarding. This shows that Magneto can remotely control the firing of neurons deep within the brain, and also control complex behaviours.”
Let me just say that as a citizen, I don’t feel particularly relaxed knowing that this research exists — especially under today’s circumstances. Usually, whenever there is a technology that is suitable for behavioral modification and crowd control, somebody tries to use it. Politicians and greedy corporate leaders are funny this way! When there’s a hammer …
Dr. James Giordano’s Talk on Military Neuroscience
Speaking of hammers, I highly recommend you watch this mind-twisting, sci-fi-sounding, and frankly creepy presentation on military applications of neuroscience by Dr. James Giordano, Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center who has served as a Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment group of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon.
In his presentation, Dr. Giordano talks about neuroweapons and how new developments in brain science can be used in the military (and beyond). Some of the applications and scenarios he describes will make you scratch your head very hard!
“Digital Vaccines”
Another area of behavioral modification is the so called “digital vaccines,” or behavioral modification software. According to the Center for Digital Health at Brown’s Alpert Medical School, digital vaccines are “a solution to the problem of creating sustained behavioral change” and “a subtype of digital therapeutics, which use neurocognitive training to promote positive human behavior using technologies like smartphone apps.”
They are called “vaccines” because they create resistance to disease through a different mechanism. (I would posit that they are called “vaccines” because it’s a trendy, investor-friendly word that might also potentially come with a lack of legal liability — but that’s just my cynical guess.)
Carnegie Mellon University hosts Digital Vaccine Project, an initiative that focuses on the development and evaluation of “digital vaccine” candidates. Among other candidates, they are talking about a “digital vaccine” for COVID-19, which looks suspiciously like a gamified, nudging bot designed to train people to practice good “health-hygiene habits,” as defined by the owners of the algorithm.
This sounds to me like a good ol’ missionary in a shiny digital form: an unsolicited and unwanted “boss” with a superiority complex and no sense of tact!
Sooner or later, the scientists will figure out that their “patients” become annoyed by the bot out of their wits — at which point the hopeful priests of behavioral modification will come up with a “fix” on top of a “fix” — and money will be made by investors every step of the way — as it usually goes, at the price of the people.
Let me end by saying that technological behavioral modification is a rotten idea, driven by maniacs. The fact that hunger for total control is so painfully prevalent in our world doesn’t change the pathological nature of that hunger.
The need for mechanical control is born out of fear and anxiety, and that’s undeniable. And yes, today, the Machine still reigns and has the power to bully but without a doubt — whichever way we get there — we are moving toward a world where we are fully alive and free. The stronger and braver we are in the face of the darkness, the sooner we get free.
About the Author
To find more of Tessa Lena’s work, be sure to check out her bio, Tessa Fights Robots.
There are 67 controlled studies of Ivermectin’s effect on COVID-19 that show a 67% improvement in COVID patients. There are 298 Hydroxychloroquine studies that show a 64% improvement in patients for COVID-19 patients. Despite the science, Dr. Fauci and the medical elites have blocked the use of these effective treatments for coronavirus patients. Fauci and other top US medical leaders were in on the hydroxychloroquine lie that smeared the treatment as being ineffective and dangerous. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust and a WHO advisory group, was involved in two large hydroxychloroquine trials that used extreme doses that killed about 500 people and was used to sink the use of the drug for COVID.Documents stored on the computers of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) prove that the medicines Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine and Interferon were proven “Curative” for COVID-19 in April, 2020, but the cures were buried as “Top Secret.”
Despite the science, Dr. Fauci and the medical elites have blocked the use of these effective treatments for coronavirus patients.
Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA vaccines, accused Dr. Fauci and others of lying and causing the death of over 500,000 Americans by preventing HCQ and Ivermectin, and other treatments from COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Malone is right. It is well documented that Dr. Fauci and top US doctors conspired to disqualify and condemn hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment. Millions died as a result of this.
As TGP reported earlier — It wasn’tjust Fauci but all of the top US medical leaders who were in on the hydroxychloroquine lie.
Dr. Meryl Nass, MD, broke this story in The Defender. According to Dr. Nass, the top health officials were all in on the conspiracy against hydroxychloroquine.
auci runs the NIAID, Collins is the NIH director (nominally Fauci’s boss) and Farrar is director of the Wellcome Trust. Farrar also signed the Lancet letter. And he is chair of the WHO’s R&D Blueprint Scientific Advisory Group, which put him in the driver’s seat of the WHO’s Solidarity trial, in which 1,000 unwitting subjects were overdosed with hydroxychloroquine in order to sink the use of that drug for COVID.
Farrar had worked in Vietnam, where there was lots of malaria, and he had also been involved with SARS-1 there. He additionally was central in setting up the UK Recovery trial, where 1,600 subjects were overdosed with hydroxychloroquine.
Even if Farrar didn’t have some idea of the proper dose of chloroquine drugs from his experience in Vietnam, he, Fauci and Collins would have learned about such overdoses after Brazil told the world about how they mistakenly overdosed patients in a trial of chloroquine for COVID. The revelation was made in an article published in the JAMA in mid-April 2020. Thirty-nine percent of the subjects in Brazil who were given high doses of chloroquine died, average age 50.
Yet the Solidarity and Recovery hydroxychloroquine trials continued into June, stopping only after their extreme doses were exposed.
Fauci made sure to control the treatment guidelines for COVID that came out of the NIAID, advising against both chloroquine drugs and ivermectin. Fauci’s NIAID also cancelled the first large-scale trial of hydroxychloroquine treatment in early disease, after only 20 of the expected 2,000 subjects were enrolled.
What does all this mean?
There was a conspiracy between the five authors of the Nature paper and the heads of the NIH, NIAID and Wellcome Trust to cover up the lab origin of COVID.
There was a conspiracy involving Daszac, Fauci and others to push the natural origin theory. (See other emails in the recent drop.)
There was a conspiracy involving Daszac to write the Lancet letter and hide its provenance, to push the natural origin theory and paint any other ideas as conspiracy theory. Collin’s blog post is another piece of this story.
Farrar was intimately involved in both large hydroxychloroquine overdose trials, in which about 500 subjects total died.
Farrar, Fauci and Collins withheld research funds that could have supported quality trials of the use of chloroquine drugs and ivermectin and other repurposed drugs that might have turned around the pandemic.
Are the four individuals named here — Fauci, Daszak, Collins and Farrar — intimately involved in the creation of the pandemic, as well as the prolongation and improper treatments used during the pandemic?
On Tuesday European regulators warned that the COVID booster shots could adversely affect the immune system.
This was a huge admission for European officials after pushing booster shots just weeks earlier. What happened?
Then later on Tuesday the World Health Organization joined the EU and also condemned the continued booster regimen.
That was quick.
What happened?
What do they now see about the experimental mRNA vaccines that they did not see just a month ago?
In a statement released by WHO on Tuesday, it said, “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.”
Now the World Health Organization has waved the white flag on Covid vaccine boosters too.
WHO released a statement about Covid vaccines yesterday. It’s filled with the usual public health jargon and ass-covering, but one line stands out:
a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.
It’s over, people.
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Aside from a few unlucky Israelis, no one is going to receive a fourth dose of the original vaccine; everyone with eyes can see it doesn’t work against Omicron. (And if you haven’t gotten a third dose, at this point, why would you? You are getting at most weeks of marginally improved protection for potentially severe side effects.)
Instead the WHO is now promising/demanding vaccines based on whatever the dominant Sars-Cov-2 strain is at the moment.
That promise is as empty as all the others the health bureaucrats and vaccine companies have made.
At least five major variants (“variants of concern”) have developed in the last year, and two have become globally dominant. Even the mRNA vaccines cannot be cooked up and delivered fast enough to match whatever strain of virus becomes dominant. Covid is faster than the scientists.
As a family nurse practitioner, I am always in search of non-invasive tools to help my clients return to optimal health. Many times, when I have been able to identify the health issue, it’s the remedy that proves illusive. I have welcomed opportunities to learn about energy medicine, in particular. Thus, I would like to begin this article with the teaching of Rudolph Steiner that inspired me to look deeper into the healing power of sound.
Magical Sounds of Spring
Rudolph Steiner once said, “It’s the song of the birds that calls forth spring.” These magical sounds bring about seasonal changes in temperature and moisture. As I thought about Steiner’s words, I felt he was giving insight into the symphony of nature and the turn of the seasons. This, to me, was also an indication that the world sprung forth into form from heavenly vibrations. Many cultures share myths of creation with some sonorous event.
Sound is a very broad topic, however, especially in the world of energy medicine. In this article, I will focus on what I have learned about how we can harness sound and vibration for healing.
Cymatics
I recently attended a lecture on vibrational medicine techniques by Mandara Cromwell, DCM. She was the first to introduce me to the history of sound healing and highlighted the work of Dr. Hans Jenny, a medical doctor and natural scientist who once taught at Rudolph Steiner’s school in Zurich. Dr. Jenny later went on to coin a new term, “cymatics” (“kymatics” in German), which he used to describe the study of sound wave phenomena. His invention called the “tonoscope” was the first in history to use technology to make sound frequencies visible.
You may have seen cymatics “do-it-yourself” plates on the Internet. The basic procedure involves sprinkling sand on top of a metal plate; then, as a violin bow is strummed on the side of the plate, the vibrating sand forms geometric patterns.
Jenny’s lectures focused on sound as the organizing and integrating pulse behind all matter. The photos from his book Cymatics1 give a never-before-seen glimpse into the universe, showing that it is full of sound and vibratory patterns. Live footage of some of Jenny’s experiments, generating images produced by his tonoscope, is totally captivating.2
Jenny’s findings on sound creating form are even more insightful, particularly so when he begins to make the connection to the human form. He wrote: “Throughout the animal and vegetable kingdom Nature creates in rhythms, periods, cycles, frequencies, reduplications, serial phenomena, sequences, etc. This is the style in which natural structures are built, and it is ubiquitous. If we take a few examples, we shall see that this is the all dominant mode of appearance. Let us look at histology, the science which deals with the structure of tissue. The very origin of the word tissue, Latin to weave, is a significant comment on the prevailing conditions: cells are arrayed in rows, one pattern following another. . . and fibers continue in sinews which irradiate into the ligaments and bone organization. In the fields of the sensory cells, in the layers of the ganglion cells, and in the immensely complex communications between these systems, we still find that this principle of periodic seriality prevails.”1
Hans Jenny, MD, making sound visible with his tonoscope. Portrait of the author from: Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena and Vibration.1 Used with permission.
Thanks to modern-day equipment developed by British acoustics researcher John Stuart Reid, including something called the Cyma- Scope, it has been possible to continue Jenny’s early studies. Using advanced technology, the CymaScope creates spectacular visuals that allow us to see images of the sound frequencies made by a healthy cell, and, by comparison, the sound and image made by a cancer cell.3
Looking at the sound of cells is a new aspect of the field of cymatics. It seems that when cells are in a healthy state, they produce images of great beauty. When they are not healthy, the sound frequencies of the cells begin to display distortion.
A STRESSFUL TIME
As a nurse practitioner, I observe patients, but also the general trends that have effects on the patient population. Our bodies are burdened daily with numerous toxins that challenge the immune system—through the food we eat, the air we breathe and the countless forms of environmental toxins that constantly bombard us and break down our health potential.
Cymascopic images of the “song” of a healthy cell and of a cancer cell, from Raman-derived sound files, courtesy of Dr. Ryan Stables, Birmingham University, UK. The study was a collaboration between Professor Sungchul Ji of Rutgers University and John Stuart Reid of CymaScope.com. Used with permission.3
Most healers in the world today would also agree that stress is one of the major underlying causes of disease and that long-term chronic stress leads to inflammatory processes that can accelerate the breakdown of the body’s immune system, resulting in a host of diseases. And most certainly, many negative aspects of stress have come into play with the pandemic. These include, especially, the challenge of viewing the devastation of the disease worldwide and the extended period of time we have spent trying to understand the disease and how it will impact us in the future.
Knowing about the detrimental effects of stress on the immune system, I began to search for non-pharmaceutical tools that could help patients begin to manage their stress levels and possibly prevent or dissipate the inflammation that could lead to serious illness. I believe we need tools to offset the effects of stress, so we can better support the immune system. That is our real defense.
Throughout my nursing career, I have watched the western medical field struggle with using “a pill for an ill” and “cut it out” procedures, totally avoiding any other options for patients. But in more recent years, I have witnessed the emergence of more integrative health approaches. I was fortunate to be in one of the first GAPS protocol trainings given by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, and I have learned much in my association with the members of the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) as a chapter leader. The holistic orientation of the esteemed WAPF membership continues to help bring attention to the wisdom of previous cultures combined with today’s technologies.
Cellular Coherence
I have continued to further my education in the emerging area of energy medicine. Hence, my attendance at Mandara Cromwell’s lecture on sound. When I first began listening to Cromwell’s presentation, I already knew about the pros and cons of ultrasound— high frequencies that are inaudible—but I then realized that she was speaking of audible sound: sound frequency patterns that could entrain the cells of the body into a type of coherence or state of health.
The frequency patterns Cromwell works with are called “commutations,” so named by a British osteopath with the distinctive name of Dr. Peter Guy Manners. Manners, who passed away in 2009, spent some forty years researching therapeutic sound with other British and German scientists, striving to find the “prime resonant frequencies” that could most benefit the human form. These “codes” (combinations of five frequencies) were created to bring the body back into resonance with specific sound combinations.
Cromwell spent years studying with Manners, concluding with a doctorate in Cymatic medicine, and has since carried on with Manners’ body of work. Cromwell’s contributions to the field of vibrational medicine have included continued research and development of frequency patterning as well as the invention of the Acoustic Meridian Intelligence (AMI) devices. Her AMI 750 device applies the fully researched sounds to the body transdermally, through the portals of the feet or hands. The commutations (frequency patterns) are transported along the meridian pathways, long known as the “rivers of life” in Chinese medicine.
Using the AMI 750—sound frequencies through the soles of the feet.
In my constant search for tools to improve our immediate environment by seeking “protectors” from electromagnetic fields (EMFs), I have wondered—if we can use tools to diminish and block EMF frequencies, why couldn’t we also use frequencies to heal? Thus, I was fascinated to hear Cromwell describe two published studies showing the regeneration of torn tendon tissue in horses using audible sound frequencies.4,5 The proof, revealed in the diagnostic ultrasound images, made perfect sense to me. The words of the “sleeping prophet,” Edgar Cayce, came to mind: “Sound is the medicine of the future.”
The Oral Health Connection
What happened next in Cromwell’s presentation is exactly what prompted me to write this article. She began discussing how oral health is related to degenerative conditions. … oral healthThere are more than eighteen hundred published studies catalogued on PubMed linking oral health to serious illnesses and disease processes such as heart attacks, lung disease and cancer—and those are only the beginning of a much longer list.
Interestingly, ischemic conditions are sometimes detected when dentists use 3D cone beam imaging or when the patient reports dental pain as a symptom, thereby revealing the underlying deteriorating condition. Cromwell presented numerous thermal images of preliminary research with participants who showed significant inflammation in the oral region linked to an ongoing disease process in the body.6 All participants received the AMI 750 dental health protocol through the feet. This combination of frequencies is known to diminish the inflammatory process in the body. Admittedly, it is difficult to imagine that the whole body, particularly the oral cavity, can be affected by transmitting energy through the soles of the feet. But, we must remember, the principles of the AMI 750 come from one of the oldest medical systems in the world—Chinese medicine.
Before and after the AMI 750 Dental Health Protocol.
In one case, the thermographic image of the participant’s front torso revealed the likely source of her health puzzle—her inflamed breast area showed a pathway of inflammation leading from her oral cavity into her breast.
The next slides were of a patient reporting “tooth pain.” The visit to two dentists rendered inconclusive reports. The thermal images showed the oral and neck regions taken before and after a six-week protocol that used sound frequencies administered through the feet. This technique sends the healing frequencies via meridian pathways to the organ systems. Remarkably, the “after” images showed that the inflammatory process was greatly diminished, and the inflamed lymphatic system was free of the congestion indicated in the pre-protocol “before” images.
The next part of Cromwell’s presentation showed a slide of a woman with two crowns, a bridge and some ceramic fillings. Though the patient reported no symptoms, there was evidence of significant inflammation around all the areas where dental work had been performed. I had to wonder just how long it would take for this level of inflammation to manifest into a health condition. Certainly, stress and other body burdens would also play a huge part in whether the patient could continue to fight off this undesirable trajectory.
Many integrative health practitioners say you cannot heal your body until you fix your teeth. Though this may be true, the thought of using this type of sound could be a possible solution for people who cannot deal with all their dental issues right away—whether for safety reasons (such as identifying a safe schedule for the removal of insufficient dental work) or financial reasons. Could this therapy also be of use as a preventive measure to keep one’s health in balance?
Stimulating the Life Force
The information shared by Cromwell suggests that noninvasive sound may be able to help the body manage the burden of highly inflammatory processes and even undiagnosed infections. What I have observed, coupled with the thermographic images and numerous testimonials I have heard and read, is that not only is inflammation substantially reduced after using this type of audible sound frequency (with the AMI 750 device), but patients’ energy and “life force” returns in an astounding way. Of course, this is what we would expect when two of the body’s major struggles (stress and inflammation) are alleviated. Lowering stress and inflammation empowers our immune system, allowing us to begin to adapt to the challenges of the world much more effectively.
At this juncture, it certainly seems possible that noninvasive sound therapy may be able to create enough “life force” to fight off the onset of disease. With the therapeutic sound frequency protocols that have been developed, we may finally have the tools needed to fortify our surrounding fields and keep our cells vibrating at their optimum health. From the experiments in Dr. Jenny’s laboratory to the research of Reid, Manners and Cromwell, it is clear that it is time to take a closer look at the power of sound waves as a major force of healing and maintenance of overall health.
REFERENCES
Jenny H. Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena and Vibration, 3rd edition. Eliot, ME: MACROmedia Publishing, 2001. www.cymaticsource.com
Reid JS, Park BJ, Ji S. Imaging cancer and healthy cell sounds in water by CymaScope, followed by quantitative analysis by Planck-Shannon Classifier. Water. 2019;11:43- 54. http://waterjournal.org/volume-11/reid-summary
“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” ~Rumi
The Alchemical process of transformation has four distinct stages: Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. These stages are the framework of Jung’s characterization of the four stages of character transformation: Confession, Illumination, Education, and Transformation, culminating in the completion of the magnum opus and the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone.
A robust character hinges on eight core virtues: courage, moderation, wisdom, justice, curiosity, honor, humility, and humor. These virtues will all be needed to navigate the four stages of transformation.
We enter Nigredo with curiosity and courage. We enter Albedo with moderation and justice. We enter Citrinitas with honor and wisdom. We enter Rubedo with humility and humor. One might ask, why enter at all? We enter into self-transformation to prevent getting stuck in self-preservation.
We challenge the lodestone to create steppingstones that will eventually lead to the self-actualization of the Philosopher’s Stone.
1.) Confession (Nigredo):
“When you see your matter going black, rejoice, for this is the beginning of the work.” ~Rosarium Philosophorum
The process of confession begins alchemically with the concept of the nigredo, also called “the blackening.” It’s a psychosymbolic death. This is the stage of revelation and catharsis. It’s where we burn away our psychological dross. It’s where the shadow gets integrated and then mined for hidden gold.
As Carl Jung said, “No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” Our shadow reaches all the way into hell. We climb into hell to integrate it. We climb into hell to animate our inner monster and bring it into sacred alignment with the whole self.
This is no easy task. It’s a dark time. Despair and disillusionment are all consuming. The ego is murdered by the Id. The blackening is a cocooning that cooks the corpse of the ego inside it. Annihilation becomes integration: the marriage of chaos and order, the coalescence of shadow and light, the union of summit and abyss. This gives way to the illumination of the Albedo.
2.) Illumination (Albedo):
“The encounter with the shadow is the ‘apprentice-piece’ in the individual’s development… that with the anima is the ‘masterpiece’.” ~Carl Jung
The process of illumination begins alchemically with the concept of the albedo, also called “the whitening.” This is the stage of awakening and insight. It’s where our new shadow perspective helps us deflate the ego and where unneeded, illusory, or false conceptualizations are shed. It’s where the anima/animus gets integrated and cultivated for maximal co-efficiency.
The personality becomes a masterpiece when the masculine integrates the anima and the feminine integrated the animus, and vice versa. The ashes leftover from the blackening are purified by the persona’s opposite. The black crow is transformed into a white raven. The heavyhearted coal is pressurized into the lighthearted diamond. The end of the lesser work is at hand and the beginning of the higher work becomes manifest.
Anima/animus integration is no simple task. But it is quite rewarding. As we begin to resolve the animus in every yin and the anima in every yang, we discover that there’s a lightside to every darkside, a softness buried within even the roughest patch. There’s even good luck hidden inside bad luck.
A man honoring his anima and a woman honoring her animus is truly a force to be reckoned with, what Nietzsche referred to as the “Primordial Unity.” For they are that much closer to achieving cosmic heroism. They have become a force of integrated nature first and individual human second. This leads to the sacred dawn of consciousness.
3.) Education (Citrinitas):
“Every one of us is a mystic. We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring, compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage – the sage we all are, if only we could see.” ~Wayne Teasdale
The process of education begins alchemically with the concept of the citrinitas, also called “the yellowing.” This is the stage of absorption and wisdom. It’s where our integrated shadow and anima/animus wakes up to the solar dawn of the emerging soul. It’s where the inner student meets the inner master, where Courage meets Wisdom, where the animal shakes hands with the sage. It’s where the wise old man (or woman) archetype gets integrated into the whole.
The dawn of the soul is like the rising sun, golden, radiant, and enlightening. It gives color and shape to the once colorless black and white world. It’s the lovechild of shadow and animus: the rising “son” of our ego’s death. The emergence of Christ consciousness: From the blackening on the cross to the whitening between worlds to the yellowing into rebirth. Our inner sage grips the masterpiece.
As Aristotle stated, “What more accurate stand or measure of good things do we have than the Sage?” The sage leads us into the alchemical success of the magnum opus, the bleeding out into transformation itself.
4.) Transformation (Rubedo):
“Know, all you seekers after this Art, that unless you whiten, you cannot make red, because the two natures are nothing other than red and white. Whiten, therefore, the red, and redden the white.” ~Turba Philosophorum
The process of transformation begins with the concept of the rubedo, also called “the reddening.” This is the “final” stage of transpersonal self-overcoming. It’s where the alchemy of psychology becomes a fountainhead. It’s where the unity of opposites—shadow and light, anima and animus, beast and sage— becomes transcendent, provident, and mercurial. It’s where the Self archetype becomes the process of Integration itself.
The reddening is a bleeding into blackening. It’s the life-death-rebirth process lived through in real time, in each moment, with each new breath. It’s both a rising out of falling and a falling into rising, both a chaos creating order and an order creating chaos. Self-awareness is self-improvement is self-overcoming. There is no self-actualization without self-transformation. And so, the Self archetype is ever in the throes of overcoming itself.
In the end, there is no end. There is no remaining, there’s no settled state, there’s no final stage. The magnum opus eats itself or it doesn’t sing. The Philosopher’s Stone is always just ahead of the curve on the transformation continuum. The journey is always the thing or it is nothing. The sword is always sharpened dullness. The diamond of the self is always pressurized coal. As James Hillman said, “the pearl is also always grit, an irritation as well as a luster.”
