What is truth?  And I guess the question that has to follow that is… who’s truth?  Right now, there seems to be a lot of truth floating around out there.  Some of it is really true, much of it appears to be true.  But the appearance of the truth is not always the truth. 

When we were children, our parents knew the truth, and we believed their opinions about things relative to right and wrong (unless, of course, it involved our friends).  As we grew older, we saw that some of the things they thought were true, were not.  Eventually, we learned to form our own opinions of things.  We then defined our own thoughts and truths.  But why are there so many truths?

That is because truths are subject to opinion.  And adding to that is that we don’t look into things anymore.  We don’t do our own research.  Who has the time?  So, we take things that we hear, and take them at face value, so we only get partial truths, and when that happens, we don’t really know what the truth is.  We hear a friend tell his version of the truth, and because he is our friend, we believe it to be true.  But is it really true?  It is to our friend.  But is it in reality?

But then it gets worse.  We defend this truth very passionately.   I used to think that religion and politics were the only two subjects that someone would go crazy over, or kill for.  Now it seems that everyone has their own truth, and they defend that to the depths of their being.  They don’t listen to facts.  They prevent other truth tellers from talking.  They simply hang to their beliefs as if it would kill them to listen to differing opinion.

When psychic/medium John Edward was in town many years ago, he asked the audience “How many of you are skeptics?”  I, and about 20 other people in a packed Florida Theater raised our hands.  He looked at the amazed crowd and told them, “You should all be skeptics.  You should all be saying, ‘prove it to me.’”  Now, if that is true for belief in the information passed on by psychics, why isn’t it true when we hear something?  Why aren’t we saying, “Prove it to me?”  Why do we accept it?  Is it because it was on TV, or in the paper, or on the internet?

One of the greatest abilities of humans is the desire to know more and to question everything.  This is especially true for children as they keep asking questions until people give up answering.  Where did we lose that? 

In this year of political battles, it is very hard to determine truth from the piles of felgercarb that keep accumulating.  My suggestion is to keep an open mind.  Listen with your head.  But then listen with your heart.  Listen with your gut.  What does your intuition tell you is correct?  But most importantly, question everything.  I don’t care who you follow, or which “side” you’re on (why does there have to be a side?).  Question everything you hear.  Somewhere in there, we can find the truth.  And isn’t that what is important?

Lies

by Brian Dean

What are lies?  Aren’t they the opposite of truth?  But what about half truths?  The better question might be… why do we lie?

When we were children, we maybe backed into something because we weren’t paying attention, and in turn broke something.  Most likely, the first words out of our mouths were, “I didn’t do it.”  In that case, we were afraid of the repercussions of breaking whatever we did.  I think that carries through today.

Many times when something goes wrong, we look for a scapegoat, or some way to prove that we were not responsible.  Depending on what was done, those repercussions could be mild or severe.  And depending on how we feel about it, we could own up, or try to wiggle out.

As people, we make mistakes.  That is how we learn.  If everything we did was perfect, and we did nothing wrong, well first of all, the world would be pretty boring.  Secondly, we would not learn because we learn (hopefully) whenever we make a mistake. 

We see someone do some feat, like a dance.  We get out there and try it, and we fall down.  We learn from that fall.  And then we get back up and try again.  Hopefully, we keep trying until we get it right.  And with each step, we learn. 

But say we made a mistake, and someone got hurt.  We could lie.  Or we could take ownership of our mistake, and do whatever corrective action is necessary.  I find as a society, we tend to not own up to our mistakes.  It is always someone else’s fault.  But that is no way to live.  If we own the things we do right, we have to own the things we do wrong, even when it truly was not our fault.

Many years ago, I saw a client for massage for the first time.  I scanned her as I usually do and found her neck to be a problem area.  I worked deeply into her neck, and she said it felt good as I did it.  Later that evening, she called and told me that her neck was in pain.  I did not remember there being anything in the paperwork telling of neck issues (something I confirmed the next day).  When she thought about it, she remembered a doctor telling her that she had bone spurs in her neck.  Since my scanning just led me to that area, and did not tell me what an x-ray would have, I could not have known.  And although there was nothing else to keep me from working that area, I worked it deeply.  But I still owned up to it (and felt really bad that I had hurt someone).  I corrected the problem the next day with energy work. 

We have to stand up for ourseleves when we are right, but more so when we are wrong.  That way we won’t have to tell lies.  After all it is far easier to tell the truth, than to keep track of what lies we’ve told to whom.  As trite as it sounds, honesty is the best policy.

Learning

by Brian Dean

I don’t know about everyone else, but I like learning things, at least things that interest me, things I can see helping what I do in helping others.  I get drawn to new techniques, styles, new methods and movements.  But I also get drawn to learning new ideas, new processes, new feelings, and new life lessons.

I like to think I am continually learning, and isn’t that what we are here to do?  What happened today, and what did I learn from it?  Was I involved in an argument (either between myself and someone else, or between others)?  Did I come up with a reasonable solution? 

When I helped that person today, did I learn any new ways to approach the problem they had?  Did I see something different in what they were telling me, or in what they were doing?  This is learning.  And in that learning, we are approached with solutions and we have to feel which one is best. 

Learning is noticing what is around you.  It is being able to see with more than your eyes.  It is picking up every little nuance, every movement, every feeling.  It is compiling everything that is going on to give an overall picture.  And then we look at this picture and see what part of it sticks out.  What part draws us?  Then we see what fits, and what does not fit in.  In this moment, we see truth, we alternatives, solutions.

But it is not only noticing what is around.  It is also being willing to listen to different points of view, to look at evidence, to see what other people have to say.  In some cases, we might think that other person is a whack-job.  But in other cases, we might realize that they do have a point, and accept some or all of what they are saying.  In this moment, we are redefining, or better yet, refining our truth, our beliefs.  In that way we learn. 

I like to say that I am continually learning.  One of the things I know about energy work is that the more I learn, the less I truly know because I see how much more there is out there.  The day I stop learning is the day I get put in the ground.  Learning is growth.  Growth is change.  Change is progress. 

Be open.  Be willing to listen.  Be willing to learn.  What have you learned today?

Perfect Moments

Brian’s article “In The Moment” from last month’s newsletter has been published.  The article appears in the April edition of Natural Awakenings for Jacksonville as “Creating Perfect Moments”.  The article appears on page 13.  If you are not in this area and wish to read the article, see last month’s newsletter here.  The article is about midway down.