Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts

Monday, June 30, 2008

A horse that will show you who you are

The following article is filled with so many insights that I felt it had to be shared and posted. If what you are doing is not working, then you must DO something else... because on the other side of whatever "chaos" your going through is the "flow" you deserve.

Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz

It's Not About the Horse
by Wyatt Webb

If you want to deal with your demons, it's appropriate to make a pit stop at a place as hot as hell -- Tucson, Arizona, in the summertime. It's 100-plus degrees right now -- with dark, ominous clouds erasing the Santa Catalina mountaintops in the distance. It's the monsoon season, which means big storms. But for the five women and two men sitting on hay bales in front of Wyatt Webb, it appears that there are bigger storms brewing.

A sweet, musty smell of horse lingers in the air, and for no reason at all, a 1,300-pound chestnut gelding fittingly named Monsoon rears and tears off in a farting, sweating gallop. This is his way of welcoming people to a new form of therapy that blends horse sense with common sense. Monsoon's massive body, thick mane, and tail fly through the air as he releases a high-pitched scream that rips into your eardrums and rattles your insides.

Wyatt's just as much in awe of this beautiful animal as everybody else is. He tells the group, "That's sheer joy. It's also an emotion that's somewhat foreign to most of us humans on a daily basis."

Perhaps it's time for an introduction.
"My name is Wyatt," he says to the seven people in front of him. "Welcome to the Equine Experience."

By the looks on their faces, these people are ready for an experience. They don't appear to have felt joy for some time. But they miss the feeling, so that's why they're here. They could clearly be elsewhere, but they chose the Equine Experience, which is offered every day of the year at Miraval, one of the top resorts in the world. Even though the people gathered in front of me certainly have the means to be doing something else at this particular point in time, they wouldn't prefer a seat in first class, or a velvet-covered cushion in the lobby of the Four Seasons -- they're right where they belong.

Wyatt starts the session by telling these folks that he's not here to change anybody's life. "I don't have the power to do so," he says. "I don't have your answers. To allow you to think that I do would be a complete lie and a total disservice to you.

"Now I'm certainly not here to argue with or discredit traditional therapeutic modalities. I'm not accusing anybody of doing a shitty job or saying that traditional psychotherapy isn't helpful. But I certainly hope that we can add to whatever already exists in the therapy world as you know it."
Wyatt then shares with them what was told to him by Logan, the counselor who, 22 years ago, helped save his life, his mind, and his very soul. What he said was this: "If you're to achieve the peace, joy, and spiritual fulfillment that you want so badly, it depends upon one thing and one thing only -- your willingness to simply do something different."

So to those clients who have spent half a lifetime in therapy with minimal results, Wyatt smiles and states the obvious: "If the practice that you've been involved with hasn't produced definitive changes, then guess what? It's not working. Maybe what you're doing could be remedied so that you can discover what does work."

Now, even though Wyatt has been a practicing therapist for a number of years, his tools don't involve a leather couch and his helpers don't arrive in suits or high heels. Of course, they wear shoes -- but not the kind they sell at Bloomingdale's.

"You're going to clean some hooves," he tells the group, "and you're going to groom the horse. How you relate to this animal will tell us what you've learned over the course of your lifetime concerning how you relate to all living things. Your basic training has come from learning how to treat people." He pauses and adds, "Remember one thing: It's not about the horse. I mean, sure, I can teach you a few basic skills that will keep you safe in any barn in the world, but what we're here to look at is what you've learned over the course of your lifetime that either works for or against you in your relationships."

He stops for a second and then continues. "Keep in mind that you've been conditioned to be externally focused in all of your relationships. This is one of the true impediments to our being able to learn anything about ourselves. Let me ask you this: How much time do you spend during the day wondering what others are thinking and feeling, and concocting stories about why they're behaving as they do? See, as long as I'm focused on you in such a manner, it will be impossible for me to connect with you because I'm not present with myself.

"So, what I suggest you do is pay attention to what you're thinking and pay attention to what you're feeling. Know that these two things dictate the way you live your life. By focusing your attention internally as opposed to externally, you'll be able to be present enough to connect with any other living thing, which will also cause you to take responsibility for your life and how you live it. Will I judge you? Of course not! But I will observe."

Wyatt promises these people that today he will pay attention. "Ask me for help if you need it," he tells them. "I pledge to tell you the truth, to be kind, but sometimes to be blunt. Together, let's examine the stories you're making up to see how many of them are based in reality. Personally, prior to the age of 36, almost every story I had was based in a lie. But I'd like you to remember that it doesn't take nearly as many words to tell the truth as it does to bullshit somebody."

Here he switches gears, for it's time for a few specifics. "The horses are the same for every person who chooses to be with them. Whichever horse you choose will serve as a mirror to your energy system -- what you think, what you feel, and every move your body does or doesn't make."

He makes it clear that the person dealing with the horse is the one who tells the whole story. And most of the stories he sees have one thing in common: pain. Most of this pain is rooted in self-doubt and fear. For instance, one man in the group says, "I can't remember when I didn't hurt. I think it's the world that messes us up."

"Well," Wyatt asks him, "whose job is it to clean up the mess?"

Then he turns to the audience and says, "We've been imprinted. We're born being called 'bundles of joy.' Well, that's true. Babies generally are full of joy -- they're born happy and remain so unless they're hungry or experiencing some discomfort. Once that's alleviated, they're right back in the joy state. They're at one with everything when they arrive on the planet. They run on pure emotion.

"They don't know what it means to doubt themselves or to be afraid until about five days into the trip, when they begin to soak up the energy of the adults," Wyatt says. "Then they feel the inconsistency. At this point in time, welcome to a world full of scary people.

"Every culture I've ever been subjected to appears to be frightened," he explains. "I've been working as a psychotherapist for 20 years, and if I could boil down every problem that ever walked through any office that I've occupied -- and this includes when I've been alone in the office -- every human being suffers from two things in varying degrees of intensity, two things that are taught to us. They're called self-doubt and fear.

"There's the fear of physical harm and of emotional harm. There's the fear of not being good enough. There's the constant fear of being discovered. In fact, I've done a lot of team building with corporate systems, and what do you think the one thing that CEOs, presidents, and vice presidents of companies don't want the people working for them to know? They don't want anyone to know that at any given moment, they're completely clueless about what they're doing. I've been privy to and a part of this phenomenon by watching everyone run through the world 'bluffing it.' It seems that most people truly aren't aware of what they're doing."

Wyatt's next words take the concept to a deeper level. "Anyone who really wants to grow, expand, and know who they are has to travel uncharted territories all the time. So that kind of person has to live in a world of 'I don't know,' which is scary, but that's the only place where you learn anything. What you always find on the opposite side of fear and self-doubt is joy. Joy is our birthright -- we're born with it. But it gets taken away from us and we have to go back and reclaim it.

"So, what we'll do today is not about discovering who you are. It's about remembering who you are," he says. "End of story."

Wyatt gives the group some things to think about. "Why do we continue to fight with each other? Thousands of years ago, we began with hand-to-hand combat. Then we picked up some stones, which was followed by the fashioning of weapons. Now we have the means to eradicate ourselves from the planet. We even have the audacity to call this 'progress,'" he says. "The problem is that we're afraid, and that's the reason we fight each other. We keep making it about other countries or religions, and it's not. Why can't we sit down and talk about what we're afraid of? We're afraid to tell the truth."

Wyatt shakes his head and mentions that Monsoon solidified this theory for him about a year ago. "One day I was riding him, and I was transitioning from the walk to the trot to the canter. It's called 'changing gaits.' The walk to the trot -- no problem. But even after ten years of riding, the power of that canter still scares me. I tried to push Monsoon into a canter twice, and both times I miscued him. My fear had me off balance -- literally and figuratively. So, I eased back to the trot, and I got frustrated. Like I had done 10,000 times before when things weren't going my way, the tail started wagging the dog, so to speak. I was the friggin' dog, and here we were in a mess again.

"I was about to move into a canter for the third time, and again I felt that I was off balance. This time, I was determined to win. I said, 'The hell with it,' and cued him anyway. Monsoon shifted his massive frame, and I felt his power ripple underneath me." Wyatt pauses and takes a look at his audience, who seems to have forgotten about the prickly hay bales or threatening storm clouds.

"I was so off that most of my weight shifted forward, which in the horse world is called 'throwing the horse on the forehand.' This was his cue to stop. And he did. I flew over his head about 20 feet onto the ground. If I hadn't had a helmet on, it would have killed me. I hit the ground with a bang! People heard it all the way back at the barn, some 40 yards away.
"Somehow in my daze, I managed to get up, checked to see if I was dead, and brushed the dirt and muck off. Meanwhile, Monsoon was looking at me as if to say: 'What the hell are you doing down there?'

"In that humiliating, spirit-crushing, bone-aching, ah-ha! moment, a light bulb went off in my head. I thought to myself, I finally get it. Anytime I'm in a relationship with any living thing and I have the need to win, the possibility for connection and closeness is over. All I ever wanted was that closeness and connection. In fact, I think we're all homesick for it.

"At the time, I wish I'd just been able to get honest enough to back off and go, 'Wyatt, you're off balance. Pull up or you'll get hurt.' But do you think I could even go to that place? I had to damn near kill myself to figure it out. I had this lesson to learn, and my spirit was saying, 'Yes, it's going to be a tough one. So let's go.'

"Thankfully, my spirit also said, 'Put your helmet on, you damn fool, so you can live through it and we can learn it," Wyatt says.

He goes on to explain that he's never had that same issue with Monsoon ever again. "I've had that problem with a few people," Wyatt laughs, "but I've been able to reign it in because when I find myself trying to win, it's time to stop. Because somebody has to lose. This whole culture is set up this way. We've got to win, which means we're going to lose. It means that we cannot even hope to connect with each other." As he gazes at the crowd of onlookers, it seems like they finally get it.

For Wyatt, it's all about connection, and the first step to healing is connecting with a horse. Those who want to connect have issues that include mental, physical, and emotional abuse not limited to marriages on the rocks, parent-child relationships gone bad, and much worse concerns including rape and abandonment.

Now it's time to get to work. The group is brought into a large arena and each person is told to choose one of the six large, inquisitive horses waiting for them. Next to each animal is a small bucket with tools to clean the horses' hooves, and various other grooming utensils associated with preparing a horse for saddling.

Wyatt tells everyone to approach their horse and greet the animal at its shoulder. He takes aside one young man and suggest that he stop rubbing the horse for dear life.

"Try to leave a little fur on the horse, because the sun is gonna come out and I don't want him to get burned," he says quietly to the young man. "You also don't need to sweet-talk him."
"I'm trying to get him to like me so he'll cooperate," says the man.

"So," Wyatt asks, "is this one of your learned behaviors? Is your motto: If I'm nice to you, then you must be nice to me back?"

"I guess I always try extra hard to get people to like me," says the young man. "I figure if I'm the nicest person in the whole room, people will have to be nice to me back."

"Let me suggest to you the fallacy behind that one," he explains. "You're not really being nice to anyone. You're being manipulative. You're only acting nice in the hopes of preventing people from rejecting you. True kindness comes with no charge. Later on, the universe just pays you back."

The mini-dramas being played out on this sandy desert floor can easily become much more serious, though. For example, Katie, a young lawyer whose parents abandoned her and sent her to live in various foster homes is afraid of her horse because she's scared to death of being rejected again.

"If you walk through your fear that something must be wrong with you, then what you always find on the other side is that there's nothing wrong with you. And there's nothing to be afraid of," he tells her.

"What happens then?" the woman asks, sobbing.

"When you get to that other side, there's only one thing waiting -- joy."

Those wanting that feeling are looking for some help -- and God, does Wyatt understand how they feel. After all, it's impossible for him to forget his very first client. This guy was the toughest bastard he's ever worked with, and he almost made Wyatt give up on everything.

That man was Wyatt himself. . . .


For our best and highest good all ways... In every moment.

Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz

Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html

Monday, April 14, 2008

An article I felt guided to pass on...

For our best and highest good...
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz

The Children of the Next 1000 Years
By DRUVALO MELCHIDEZEK


The story you are about to read is true, but it is also unusual. So much so that if you do not have an open mind, it will seem impossible. And if you don't have an open heart, it will not be understood so that the meaning can be lived.


Over the last few years I have been to the Yucatan several times working with the Mayan shaman Hunbatz Men. He has been performing the ceremonies of the ancient Mayan priests in modern day times to bring in and stabilize the new energies of our sun, energies that have never before entered into the Earth and altering the way we perceive life. His work is very important to the unfoldment of the new world on Earth, and to the birthing of our new consciousness.


A few months ago a man named Ellis, who used to work closely with Hunbatz Men came to me and began to tell me this story. He said that in Columbia there was an aboriginal tribe deep in the Amazon jungle called the Kogi. They had no language and "spoke" only telepathically to each other. In truth they made little sounds, but these sounds were not logically arranged into any pattern such as an alphabet. They were just sounds, but these sounds came from the heart not the mind and created images inside your head, and you could "see" what the other person was communicating. Ellis said that they were able to "travel" out of body clearly and knew everything that was happening around the world, though they had never physically left their homeland. They had never even tried to communicate with the outside world, except to a very fortunate few.


The Kogi do not see us as "sleeping" as many of the Hindu and Oriental religions perceive us. The Kogi see us as "dead". We are not alive, but only shadows of the energy we could be. We do not have enough life force energy and consciousness to be classified by them as real people.
And the Kogi believed with the use of their psychic abilities, they could see the future clearly. And what they saw was similar to what many other tribes around the world saw, a world that was about to be destroyed by the misuse of consciousness.


So sometime ago they traveled over the whole world in their light bodies searching for anyone who is alive. And in the whole world they could only find one other tribe who were Mayan that lived far in the jungles of Guatemala. They were so happy to find someone else who was alive.
But the Kogi belief, their prophesy, was that with the coming of the Eclipse on August 11th of 1999, all the world would stop and only the Kogi and this one other Mayan tribe would survive to inhabit the Earth. This is why they were so happy to find someone else other than themselves who understood.


Then when the eclipse slowly revealed its face on the 11th of August, it became apparent to the Kogi that something had happened since the time they had searched the world for life. Something that they could not understand for the "great change" had happened, and we, the "dead" ones were still here. We should have dissolved back into the Dream. Not that they wanted us to, that was not their nature. It simply should have happened.


So the Kogi set out to find out why the "dead ones" were still on Earth, and as they searched the living vibrating records of this Reality, they found exactly where and why it had happened. Some of the "dead ones" had become alive, and had created a dream with enough life force to "save the world" as we know it. In our terms, some of us had created a "parallel world" where life could continue to grow, a world where the "dead" could become alive. The Kogi were so specific to locate exactly who these people were that were creating this change that had altered the world's destiny.


The Kogi saw these people with living bodies of light around them. People who had activated their "Light Bodies" or in the ancient terms, their "Mer-Ka-Ba". Since I was one of the teachers of this information, the Kogi sent a messenger to Ellis and from Ellis to me. They sent me a small amount of tobacco wrapped in a bright red piece of cotton, and simply said "Thank you".


A couple months later, the Kogi sent Ellis another gift to give to me with a message. The gift was a small ball of dark and sticky tree sap about the size of a plum. It smelled of the jungle. There was an energy around this gift of sap that I could feel deep inside me. I felt the connection in my heart.


The message was that they were going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words so that we could communicate. They then said that once connection and communication had taken place, they would ask that I enter into the Colombian jungle and visit their tribe. And that if I would visit their world, they would visit mine. They would then be prepared to come out of the jungle, for the first time in the history of their tribe, and go on world television, no less, and talk to us.


Whatever "talk" means since they have no language that we know, I am not sure. And what it is that they have to say, I also do not know. But through this little piece of tree sap, I am beginning to feel.


After Ellis left on this second visit, I sat and thought about this whole event. Was it true that the Kogi could see this clearly into the Reality? Were they really going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words? What was this really all about? I meditated with the angles, but they only approved what was happening, but would not give me information or assist.


Then last month in November, I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Mexico and about 100 people came from all over Mexico, Central and South America, and one of the countries that many people came from was Columbia. And from this group, there was this young lady whose name I will keep quite to protect her.


She was different than any of the other Colombians. Whenever we entered into sacred space and could feel the presence of God, she would begin to seemingly go crazy with ecstasy. Not that that was really unusual, but it was extreme.


This woman would become primal. Her whole body would begin to shake and a different person would emerge out of her with a different feeling to her words and different body language. I watched her, looking for the reason why she had come to this work and looking for a way to help her.


Then on the last day of the workshop it happened. The group had formed one great circle, and we were singing to God. This lady broke away from the circle and began to dance primitively and unashamed within the center of the circle. She abandoned herself and seemed to lose control. I went over to her and took her hand to comfort her, and she grasped my hand and looked deep into my eyes and made a soft and longing sound. The sound went straight to my heart and vibrated inside my very center, and I could "see" what she was saying. I had never experienced anything quite like this before. I didn't understand at that moment what was really happening, my heart simply reacted.


I took her outside the circle and sat down facing her. Then she made another "sound", and my body responded with another similar "sound" that had never come from me before. Instantly, we were speaking in a new and profound manner that was so beautiful, so complete. It made all the languages of the world seem inadequate and obsolete. For two hours we communicated in images of full color and depth with all the sensory completeness of real life. I learned so much. I learned about life, and I learned about this woman within a woman.


She showed me with her sounds where she had come from, a small village next to the Kogi tribe. She showed me her husband and her three children. I know them like they were my family. She showed me around her village where I met two other older men who were from the Kogi. She showed me how her tribe had asked her to enter this woman's body and to come and see me. She was instructed to teach me how to speak without words. She was told that once she had done this one thing, then she could leave this woman's body and come back home and be back with her family. She missed her husband and children very much. I could "see" how when this lady returned home she would leave her body. I could see her own body lying in a pile of grass inside a grass hut waiting for this moment.


When I returned home, I saw my wife Claudette, who I love so much, in a new light. I loved her in a way that was different, because I could hear the sounds coming from her heart. I could see her pain, and I could see her joy. I was so happy for this experience with the Kogi, but I still didn't know what was happening to me.


It seemed to just bring a great anticipation of something to come.


Then two weeks ago I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Maryland. While I was setting up and preparing for the workshop, I told this story to a woman named Diane who was facilitating the workshop. She asked if I would demonstrate these sound. And I agree to do so.


We sat facing each other, and I asked her to close her eyes. Then a sound came from my heart and at the same moment an image appeared within my mind.


It was a full image of a large cat, a puma, walking along the edge of the Amazon near the water. Then it jumped up onto a tree and began to walk along the edge of a long and heavy branch that slowly sloped down to the ground. It jumped back to the ground and continued to walk along the edge of the water. I opened my eyes.


All of this took only about one minute.


I asked her what she saw, and she began to tell me exactly what I had seen. She described it perfectly. A joy emerged from my heart.


I then asked her to again close her eyes. Another slow and strange sound came from my heart, and instantly another image. I not only "saw" but experienced what seemed like myself, floating out of the woman's body from Colombia and rising high up into the air. Then I felt myself begin to fly very fast over the jungle.


I could see the trees moving rapidly under me. Quickly I approached a village, and I felt myself getting lower to the ground and heading for a specific grass hut. In the next instant I was inside the body of this tribal woman looking out of her eyes. She knew I was there. She did not mind, it was suppose to happen.


Her husband quickly took hold of her/me and was obviously happy that she/I had returned. He knew also that I was there, and was also very happy. Then all three of her children ran up and began to hug her and love her. The youngest one reached in and began to suck on her breast. It was a very moving experience to meet this family that I didn't know and yet I did. Then I opened my eyes.


I waited a moment to center from this experience, and then asked Diane what she saw. She began by saying that she experienced herself as a "bug" coming out of this woman's body. And then she lifted up into the sky and began to fly over the trees of a jungle. She watched as we went down to the grass hut and met the "family". She saw perfectly.


I sat quiet for a long time. I could feel this was a gift of unparalleled value. But what did it mean to the me or the world? All of this was such an unusual experience that I still do not know what this means.


When I returned home from the Maryland workshop, every night for the first seven or eight days, I would find myself dreaming that I was "home" in this village.


The dream would last all night long with a complete memory of the dream the next morning. I would dream that I was doing my chores in the village, and living my life. Taking care of my children and husband. Many, many men from both tribes would come up to me and ask questions with sounds that made images. These people were beautiful and yes "alive". I understood why they saw us as "dead". I could "feel with the sight of my heart" what they meant. I knew they meant to help if they could. They were amazed that I was there. So was I.
Now, it is only the beginning. The Kogi are excited about the way we are growing. They want to come to us. God willing, they will.


They have asked me now to give you a message in your language if you can accept it. You who have discovered your light bodies and are changing the world by your lives.


"You are changing the world into light. Be not afraid of your innocence and your child nature, it is close to God. Let your imagination soar into a Dream where love surrounds all events, then "see" it as real. Let the sounds of your hearts talk to those who are not alive. You have shown them the way by your example, now "show" them the way from within. Listen, and your heart will speak. We are with you now. We will help you.".


May the next 1000 years be golden, and may the innocent children lead the way.


I love you, Drunvalo

Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"
at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html