Soul’s Code

The current economic crisis is a collective ‘dark night of the soul’  — and a creative destruction of the ego’s fear and trembling

GUEST COLUMN: SMADAR DE LANGE — In 1843, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard published a book called Fear and Trembling, a title borrowed from a line in Philippians 2:12, “. . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian mystic of the following century, argued that the main motivation of the ego is fear-based. Working with fear is at the essence of a spiritual practice, because only when we face our existential fear, can we be set free.

Stock market forces might be causing a “correction,” but a larger “force” is at work. It seeks more than a correction. It seeks an evolution

BY DAVID RICKEY — The media is full of polls that reflect what everyone already knows: Americans are clinically depressed by the depressed state of the economy, and their own investments.

People are losing their jobs across the board, as layoffs seep beyond the real estate and financial sectors and into the upper echelons of the high-tech workforce. Try borrowing money for a house, or even a car. Actually, don’t bother.

Fear, we all know, begets fear. So much of this economic “crisis” is based on perceptions, even illusions. And yet there are very real effects stemming from these illusions.

A real-life mentalist explains how staying connected to lost loved ones can help you deal with grief

GUEST COLUMN: MARK ANTHONY — No one is immune from losing a loved one, and the pain of death and loss comes to each one of us. Healing from the grief of loss is a road everyone is forced down at some point in life, and it is a path no one wants to take. Finding the right path through grief is basic to human survival.

As a medium, I help people connect with their loved ones in Heaven, which many also be referred to as “The Other Side.”

One of the benefits of mediumistic contact with spirits is that it validates a belief in God, Heaven, an Afterlife, and the immortality of our soul. I also know it is possible to contact those who have crossed over to The Other Side. I communicate with spirits on a daily basis and have conducted hundreds of discernments (also known as “readings”).

Oprah says, ‘You don’t have to be thin to be gorgeous.’ But my weight gain led to physical pain. So I discovered the joys of walking

BY SUEANN JACKSON-LAND — At 43-years-old I went to the doctor because my neck hurt. Well, that was part of the reason. I was walking around looking more and more like Quasimodo and less like SueAnn.  The reactions on the faces of people looking at me ranged from genuine concern to suppressed giggles; it was enough to humiliate me all the way to the doctor.  That and, of course, the pain.

Dr. Vanderbeck is a physician who looks directly at you when he’s telling you things you don’t want to hear.  He doesn’t condescend.  “SueAnn,” he began. “You have osteoarthritis in your lumbar, thoracic and cervical areas of your spine. Here’s the report, read it.” He wasn’t smiling.

A seeker is drawn to a visionary woman and the Mexican sanctuary she created — and discovers her authentic self

GUEST COLUMN: MARLA HUNTER-BELLAVIA — From the moment I read about the space Isabel Jordan had created in Yelapa, Mexico, I knew that I was meant to go there. To visit an open palapa nestled between jungle and ocean, away from the touristy crowds, was just what I needed.

And I was excited to think that I would meet the 81-year-old visionary.  Isabel Jordan left  her prestigious position as the Assistant to the Provost (the first woman ever to be appointed to this position) at UC Santa Cruz in California to make a life in a remote village in Mexico for thirty-plus years. She knew that the job she was doing wasn’t her life’s purpose, so she followed a different path. I wanted to learn more, and decided to follow her footsteps.

When I sent off my first email to inquire about availability, I had no idea that Isabel had passed on. She was a total stranger to me. But when I found out that I would never meet her, I cried.

Thou shalt not kill?

Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder allegedly took the ultimate step in his cause when he shot and killed an abortion doctor, George Tiller, while Tiller was attending church. When Roeder was formally charged with first degree murder, reaction from the religious right’s anti-abortion community was swift and predictably ugly. Twitter posts from the fringe said things like: “Oh, happy, day. Tiller the baby killer is dead” and, “God bless the gunman.”  This tragedy is another exhibit for the Soul’s Code Pain Body Index (PBI), and we pray that all beings may be free of suffering.

Yoga for meditation

Our confreres over at Shambala Sun have posted an excerpt from their July issue on the best yoga poses in advance of meditation. Relax and breathe.

Kung Fu and the trappings of transformation

The West Coast new age community embraced actor David Carradine as a kind of icon of east-meets-west mysticism, largely because of his leading role in the 1970s TV show, Kung Fu. He even headlined at the Conscious Life Expo in L.A. in February, 2009 (sponsored in part by Soul’s Code.)  Now, days after his death in Bangkok at the beginning of June, journalists have discovered that Carradine was a split soul, viz. this TMZ story about his fetishes and sex-toy shopping sprees. You don’t have to be in Hollywood to get wrapped up in re-branding your personality as “spiritual,” while holding real transformation at bay. Our thoughts  for Carradine’s safe voyage to the other side.

Reverend Wright on the evolution of God

In a surprisingly sensitive essay in this week’s Time, Orange County, Calif., mega-church preacher, Robert Wright — the controversial cleric tapped by Obama to lead the sermon at his inauguration —  discusses in frank terms the “evolution of God.” Wright writes: all three of the great monotheisms —  Judaism, Christianity and Islam —  have gone through periods of religious belligerence and spiritual tolerance.