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Showing posts with label soul issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soul issues. Show all posts

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Intuitive Book Review: Whitley Strieber's "The Key" (1)


 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.

A few week’s ago Trish MacGregor wrote an excellent book review of Whitley Strieber’s book The Key on Trish and Rob MacGregor’s Synchrosecret’s blog. The book sounded fascinating, so I went straight to Amazon and downloaded a copy to my Kindle.

This post and the following one will comprise the first of my intuitive book reviews (see here for an overview of the process I employ). This review is quite long, so I am posting it in several posts. Part 1 is an overview of the book and an intuitive reading of the author and book. Parts 2 and 3 will address specific truth claims of the book. Part 4 addresses some limitations of the text as welling as drawing final conclusions.

In these reviews I am going to go beyond standard book reviews, which outline a book’s contents, analyse contents and evaluate its worth. With these intuitive reviews, I will add my intuitive insight into the book and writer’s psyche.

Although this is my first official intuitive review, I have previously done many intuitive readings of people’s Soul Issues and karma, mostly face to face, but many have also been long distance. It’s part of the work I do as an intuitive. Readers might be interested to know that I have previously posted a similar intuitive reading on Julien Assange of wikileaks fame, who came out looking slightly less rosy than Whitley Strieber does!

Almost any creative work will have implicit information contained within its “energy”, and part of this review will involve tapping into that energy. Many years ago I learned how to channel the human psyche and consciousness fields in general when I worked with a group of like-minded spiritual adventurers in New Zealand.

General overview
The Key is a fascinating and eminently readable book written in lively and personable style. Strieber is not afraid to share some of his own fears, weaknesses and confusions. He develops an intimate relationship with the reader, and it almost seems as if we are eavesdropping in on his very strange experience with the man he calls The Master of the Key.

The Key details the story of how, at two-thirty in the morning of June 6, 1998, Strieber was awakened by somebody knocking on his hotel room door. An unknown old man enters the room. At first Strieber thinks he might be a slightly deranged fan, and tries to get rid of him. But eventually, as the old fellow begins to talk, Strieber realises that the stranger has some very important things to say. The author then begins to transcribe notes onto a pad. The stranger stays for a period of half an hour (but perhaps as long as two hours – the time is uncertain to Strieber). Somewhere in between the stranger says his name is Michael, and that he is Canadian, but Strieber eventually comes to consider that, although human, he is not human in the ordinary sense, but some kind of spiritual messenger.

The bulk of the relatively short book comprises the narrative of what happened that night. The Master has a clear agenda in revealing the information to Strieber. This is to help free mankind from its delusions. The stranger forecasts a grim future for mankind and the Earth if it cannot do this. The essence of the message is that the Earth is dying, and that humankind will soon be extinct if it does not acknowledge what is happening and rediscover its spiritual roots.

All this probably sounds just as “loony” as Strieber’s other books, such as Communion, where the author recounts alien abduction experiences. However, as an intuitive myself, quite a lot of the information in the book resonates with what I have seen and experienced intuitively. For this reason I believe that the book is well worth reading. However it should be read in the context of the overall consciousness field which is part of Strieber’s psyche.        

Before I detail specific truth claims within the book, let me address this.

My intuitive reading of the book and author
Any channeled or prophetic work will inevitably contain elements of the beliefs and energies of the channeller or prophet. What aspects of Whitley Strieber influence this work? Before I proceed with this, let me emphasise that I have never met Whitley Strieber, and this is the first book of his I have read in full. I skimmed through his book Communion many years ago, but did not actually read it in depth. I have visited his web site one time a few days ago, and left before reading anything. So, I actually know very little about him.

Using complete transparent enlightenment as a 100% gauge mark, what level of consciousness does The Key resonate at? What follows are my intuitive readings, and I am not asking you to accept them without question. They are not infallible by any means. Consider them to be reflections put to you. Energy readings are a crude and simple measure, but useful in getting a general overall sense of where a work or creator is coming from.

You can use your own intuitive system to sense whether you think my readings are correct. If you are interested in the intuitive process I use to come up with these figures, you can find them in my book Discover Your Soul Template.

The Key resonates at a consciousness level of between 30-40%. The Master’s level of consciousness is about 60%, which is very high, considering that humanity’s average level is around 2-3%. These figures in themselves suggest the work presents information capable of moving humanity forward.

Of course Whitley’s Strieber’s level of consciousness, and the Soul Issues which he possesses, influence the knowledge contained within the book. I am not going to give a specific reading of Strieber’s consciousness level here. I do not feel this is quite the right thing to do. All I will say is that it is considerably higher than average.

Let me turn in more detail to Strieber. What follows might appear negative, but this is the same for any reading of Soul Issues. If I were to detail my Soul Issues here it would also appear "negative". Do not make the mistake of judging these as bad or wrong. We all have Soul Issues, or we wouldn't be on this planet. They represent the delusions that stand between us and God.

Whitley Strieber is essentially doing his best to serve humanity. I do not sense any great drive for power and control, which are the egoic drives which are a magnet for dark energy. In short, he’s one of the good guys. At the end of my last post, Simon Buckland posted a link to a New Age author, Arthur Ray, who allowed his energy to be possessed by darker motives. I wrote about the unfortunate case of Ray on on my old blog. The contamination of a spiritual teacher’s energy field by dark energy is not at all uncommon. Much of the New Age movement is affected by such energy, as are many religious teachers and religious leaders across the world.

The Soul Issues of Whitley Strieber that have affected the writing of The Key include a strong sense of personal guilt, mistrust of humanity, a certain personal pessimism, and strong Christian influences. Whitley Strieber, like many people, has not quite fully accepted himself, and at a certain level sees himself as “bad” and inadequate. There is the strong idea of “sin” and needing to atone for wrongdoings. There is the essential view that humanity is bad, fallen from Grace.

These are very common human psycho-spiritual motifs, especially in the Judeo-Christian world. Streieber carries within himself a strong judgment, frustration and anger at humanity. He is angry at God for allowing the world to become the way it is. This shows itself as a kind of spiritual frustration at the Creator and ‘his’ universe: “Why can’t it all just be simpler?” He wants to know the answers to the big questions at the level of mind (as do we all), but is not quite sure how to bridge the gap between his mind and the mind of God. This reflects a widespread human dilemma. There is a sense of despair and depression at the hopelessness of it all.

Strieber is also questioning why he has been ‘chosen’ to do this kind of work. Part of his soul purpose is to be a medium for this kind of spiritual information, and he has been chosen because it is a good fit for his karmic issues. The idea of rejection - and being made the pariah or outcast - are strong themes in his karma. His task at a spiritual level is to perceive the current delusions of humanity without judgment and anger. In short, to forgive humanity.

One strong karmic idea for Strieber is that of “chains”: being strongly constrained and not allowed freedom. Again, this is an archetypal human soul issue (and one of the strong narratives that runs through my own karma). Interestingly, one fascinating insight provided by the Master of the Key is that “The new man will live in ecstasy, even though he lives in chains.” (at the 25% mark of the kindle edition – I have no page numbers). This suggests that it is not necessary to resolve all Soul Issues in order for a person reach full spiritual realisation. I am not quite sure what to make if this, but it is well worth reflecting on.

All these unresolved Soul Issues of Strieber influence the book and give it a slightly pessimistic feel. In a sense Strieber’s worldview contaminates the message of the Master, rendering his message in imperfect form for the reader. What this means for you as the reader, is that you need to allow yourself a space to sense when these energies are coming through the text, influencing what is written, and perhaps influencing you – for the act of reading a book opens one to the consciousness field of that book and its author.

As one prime example, a common theme in the Key is that the world is dying, and that the human race is in strong danger of becoming extinct.  How much of this is a projection of Strieber’s own fear and pessimism?

Having said this, unfortunately many of my own recent intuitions suggest that Strieber may be on the right track. Strieber says that humanity is being placed under pressure by spiritual forces in order to accelerate its spiritual evolution. There is the suggestion that the dark forces at work in the world are actually helpful in the greater picture. This is an understanding that I share. Yet those same dark forces could also destroy us.

In Part 2 of this review  (click here), I will address some of the specific truth claims contained within The Key, in particular the question of whether the aliens are really here. Click here for Part 3. And you can read the fourth and final part here.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Getting Tough (part 1)

Whether we like to admit it or not the world can be quite a tough place. M. Scott Peck famously stated his best-selling book The Road Less Traveled with the sentence “Life is hard.” He maintained that that’s just the way it is, and there’s no use bitchin’ about it because life isn’t going to hand material and spiritual riches to you on a platter. M. Scott Peck had a point.

Years ago I attended the Discovery workshop in New Zealand with Michael Wall, who was a very good life coach and group facilitator. I was one of the “coaches” there. There were about a hundred adolescents in attendance. In one activity Michael had the kids do, they had to write down their greatest fear on the back of a block of wood. Later they had to karate chop the wood, as a symbol of demolishing their fears. 

Later in the evening, after the day’s workshop was over, I was walking around the back of the building where the event was held, and stumbled across the pile of smashed up blocks of wood. I couldn’t help but looking at what was written on the blocks. The two things that came up again and again were “failure” and “rejection”. It was at this time that I realised that the greatest human fears are associated with failing and being rejected by others.

Whether you like it or not you are going to fail many times in your life, and you are going to get rejected a lot. For many people failure and rejection form a core “soul issue”. As I explain in Discover Your Soul Template, each person carries within their consciousness fields psychological and spiritual patterns of beliefs, and personal stories which emerge from their personal biography and past lives. When you die, any unresolved trauma or negative belief structures centering around those soul issues remain locked within your spirit. They return with you to your next life.

As part of your evolution, you synchronistically attract to you events which reflect your soul issues. In other words, if failure and rejection are soul issues for you, you can be sure that life will serve them up for you until such time as you have worked through or integrated the consciousness of these concepts. This is one of the reasons why the law of attraction as espoused in The Secret and many new age books doesn’t work, or only works imperfectly. You attract not so much what you want, but what you are. You are not going to attract success on a massive scale if you have deep seated beliefs such as the following. How many of these do you carry within you? Be honest! Give a rating of 0,1,2, or 3 for each.

0 = never, or hardly ever at all
1 = sometimes
2 = quite a lot
3 = greatly, or all the time

  1. I’m a failure.    0    1    2    3
  2. Life is unfair. There is no justice. It’s not fair.   0    1    2    3
  3. I’m not good enough.    0    1    2    3
  4. The world is cruel.    0    1    2    3
  5. You can’t trust people. They stab you in the back. People are selfish. People betray you.   0    1    2    3
  6. Nobody cares about me. Nobody loves me.    0    1    2    3
  7. I’m not good enough. I can’t do it.   0    1    2    3
  8. There is no God. It’s hopeless. There is no meaning or purpose to anything. It doesn’t matter how hard you try.    0    1    2    3
  9. I’m unlucky. I’m a victim.    0    1    2    3
  10. All men are bastards. All women are bitches/witches.    0    1    2    3

How did you go? There’s no right or wrong, high or low scores here. Each of us is unique, and personal power begins with acknowledging where you are – what you are. 
In fact all these belief structures exist to some degree in the vast majority of people, right across the world. They are interwoven into personal narratives: life stories that get repeated over and over again through countless lifetimes. I am the failure. I am the one who carries the burden. I am the pariah, the scapegoat. I am the lonely one. I am the betrayer. I am the betrayed. I am guilty. Punish me. And so on…

These of course can be interwoven with stories that are positive. I am the lover, the liberator, the smart one, the wise woman, the leader, the messenger, the rich one and so on. The positive stories can act as attractors pulling us forward towards preferred futures, instilling us with self-belief; while the negative stories act as weights, dragging us down, holding us back. Unfortunately the energy of joy and success don’t get “trapped” in the body and spirit; while trauma often does.

Let’s face it. In the entirety of human existence on this planet, it all adds up to a pretty sorry tale of woe. The amount of suffering in the human collective is beyond imagination. 100 million people died in wars in the twentieth century. 45 million people dropped dead from famine in the early 1950s in Maoist China. Half a million people die each year in traffic accidents.

Within your karma there will be trauma and negative beliefs, or you wouldn’t be here. Life then is going to serve you up suffering – failure, rejection, injustice and so on. Life is going to serve you up difficult times just to make you aware of all this. And it will be good for you!

If you learn the lesson. And that requires you to do the healing, and pull out of the (negative) story.

In Discover Your Soul Template I refer to a particularly difficult time I went through when I went to work at an international school in New Zealand. I was still a young man at that time, and carried with me a great many wounds from a very difficult childhood. In particular, I had big, big issues with a certain female relative of mine, who had just about crushed the life out of me as a child. She did this because she had massive unresolved “men issues” herself; and when I came into this world she dumped them on me. Basically, she had an unconscious intention to destroy me, because to her I represented the energy of “all men”. She beat the crap out of me, and dumped all her shame on me.

While I had done some inner work by the time I got to NZ, the bulk of that trauma still remained trapped within my emotional body. So what did life do? It set up a nice little beating for me. This came in the form of my immediate boss, a youngish head teacher who set about trying to destroy me (same story) as soon as I set foot in the school. She basically did everything within her power to spread lies about me to other staff members, and to discredit me as a person and professional educator.

Perhaps I should mention that she never at any point spoke to me, even though she sat literally two metres away from me in the staffroom. Yes, that’s right. She would not even say hello to me when I greeted her in the morning. This was extremely puzzling to me, as it occurred from the first day I arrived at the school, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what it was that had caused her to despise me.

Yet looking back, this nightmarish situation was one of the most fruitful experiences of my life. I used the whole situation as a catalyst to look deeply within myself, at my childhood and personal karma. I brought forward a great deal of the fear (esp. of women), rage and shame that resided within my soul. I connected with the wounded child within me. Most of all I learned to stand up for myself. I learned to confront my abuser, and to disentangle their projections from my part in the drama. In other words I stopped blaming myself so much when bullies came at me, and to deflect their projections. I learned to stand in my power as a man. For the first time.

A big part of that was getting angry. Very, very angry. And getting tough.

If you live long enough you will face difficult situations. Life can be tough. You have to learn to be “tough” too, even as you permit the softness of human vulnerability to express itself through you.

More about that next post.

Marcus