Conscious Aging with John Robinson, Ph.D.

Mystical Activism not only awakens direct awareness of divine reality, it allows us to reach out to spiritual entities outside the conventional space-time universe. Did you know that we can dialogue with God, our soul, deceased loved ones, ancestors, spirit guides and angels?  The only obstacle is our disbelief. And in this process, we receive not only invaluable spiritual guidance but support, love, and encouragement as well. Who would you like to talk with most? What questions would you like to ask?
 
I learned the dialogue process from psychologist Ira Progoff, the creator of the Intensive Journal Workshop. He, in turn, had studied with Carl Jung, who described "active imagination" dialogues with numerous incorporeal beings. I soon discovered that the dialogue process could easily be adapted to conversing with spiritual entities. Here's how this works.
 
Thousands of years ago, as humans were evolving their remarkable speech, language and conceptual abilities, a curious thing happened. The cerebral cortex began structuring two separate – though interconnected - forms of consciousness. The left hemisphere specialized in the language skills critical for survival. Now humans could define social roles, pass on discoveries from previous generations, record their history, create science and technology, make long range plans, and tell stories about their lives. This process also created the ego, a structure that soon became the personality's director of consciousness. While this conceptual programming of the left-brain was unfolding, the right brain maintained its highly developed capacities for here-and-now awareness, visual-spatial analysis, emotional intelligence, and facial recognition. It also maintained its mystical consciousness – the awakened thought-free sensory awareness of the sacred present.
 
Unfortunately, as time passed, our right-brain mystical consciousness was progressively demoted – thought and speech were far more useful and exciting to the ego. Without direct access to speech and language functions, the right-brain could no longer compete with the ego for director of consciousness or spokesman for reality. Little by little, language replaced mystical perception, we stopped seeing Creation, and humanity came to dwell entirely in its own labyrinthine mental world. But mystical consciousness was not lost, it still holds powerful resources for personal transformation, including conversing with spiritual beings from the "other world."
 
Our split-brain structure naturally and beautifully lends itself to spontaneous dialogues between the ego of the left hemisphere – the "I" or "me" talking about "my" problems, and figures coming through the mystical portal of the right hemisphere to respond to us. In this process, you, as ego, can ask questions or pose problems, while the "other" responds with new information. At first, this process can seem a little artificial or contrived, but once it gets started, you will be amazed at what spontaneously emerges. And, you can tell the "other" is responding because the conversations completely surprise you with information you didn't expect changing your whole perspective on the problem.

Two Examples of Sacred Dialogues
Let me give you a couple of personal examples. The first involves a conversation I had with my deceased father, who has become a strong support figure for me now in my work. The initials refer to me (M) and my dad (D). Near the end my soul (S) chimes in.
 
M: Hey dad, are you there?
D: Sure, John boy.
M: You make me laugh with that name you had for me.
D: I liked calling you that. Makes me feel close to you.
M: Thanks. Really. I love you.
D: Right back at ya.
M: So, dad, you expressed a desire to return, to help us here. What is our work? How can you help? What advice can you give me?
D: People have so many problems there on Earth all based, as you know, on the world of thought. So many foolish ideas, identities, childish prejudices, vain goals. Tell people to wake up. Tell people to stop thinking and see where they are. Your work is so simple, straight forward, obvious, and that's its strength. No complex philosophies or theologies. Just plain confrontation and revelation.
M: I think that's true. But where do I put forth this challenge? Certainly in workshops and talks, but that just tiny sliver of the world.
D: Your Milwaukee talk is a good place to start.
M: OK, but where else?
D: Write something direct, forceful, confrontative for Creation Spirituality, Sage-ing International, or Progressive Christianity.
M: Yes, I need to write a pithy article. And I need to speak from sacred consciousness to those around me. Those are good ideas. Something will catch on if I get a strong, direct piece out there. We have to start now. What do you want to do here?
D: I want to come over and be with you. You can be my mouthpiece. Others won't see me.
M: What do you want to say?
D: Love the world. It is love that brings the world alive. Love is the energy of awakening. This is what Einstein was saying to his daughter. It's a force. Just say it.
M: OK, so here's my message. I just wrote it. "A lifetime of study, a master's degree and two doctorates (psychology and spirituality), interfaith ordination, numerous articles, nine books, and the wisdom of age, can all be distilled to this: Stop. Stop talking, stop thinking, stop whatever you are doing. We are standing right now in Heaven on Earth. Reality is conscious and alive. It knows us. Divinity is everywhere and everything. We don't see this because we only see our thoughts that create another world, a world that is crazy and ugly. Stop everything, wake up, and SEE. When the ego goes, thought goes, beliefs go, false self and false world evaporate, and the whole house of cards falls apart to reveal that we never left the Garden. We are divine beings in a divine world - pure consciousness, joy, beauty and love. And in the great unity of being, I am you, you are me, we are God. Everything else is an illusion. This is the 'other world.'"How does this seem, dad?
D: You nailed it.
M: Soul, what do you think?
S: Say it LOUDLY! Say it POWERFULLY. Say it often. Eventually, it will resonate with what people already know but don't realize they know it.
(The message was later posted on the Creation Spirituality Website)
 
In this next dialogue, I ask God for support and guidance on how to handle the exhaustion I felt getting ready to present at a large workshop on the Divine Human and Mystical Activism.
 
M: Hello God. Are you here?
G: Always. How can I help you?
M: I head off to the Sage-ing International conference for my 3.5 hour workshop and 1.5 hour discussion group the same evening. I am feeling tired from preparation and I'm afraid I won't have the energy to get through both presentations with enough animation to make real contact. 
G: Let go of your worry. I will carry you. I am you. Relax and let me be you. Soul can help too if you need fierceness. Let me be your tiredness and I will transform it into freedom and love and joy. Let the pressure go. Watch me become you. You don't have to be or do anything. You don't exist anyway. Forget yourself.
M: I don't exist. I am not this exhaustion. I am free.
G: Relax John and let me take over the plan. I'll follow your plan but I will be so much more than that. The class will be me and they will realize it by the end of the workshop. Just stay in my consciousness. Feel my presence. Feel my energy carrying you, lifting you, being you. This is the mystical activism that you are teaching and revealing. Be what you are teaching, be me.
M: I am what you are. I am divine. I am you and you are me. My separate boundaries dissolve into the sea of divine consciousness and I am that. I come from that. I speak from that. I teach from that. I can feel you spreading inside me now and I am the divine force of conscious presence. This is my destiny, to be what you are. Live me. Be me. Be the teaching in this workshop. Fill the class with your energy and change everyone into conscious mystics. May they all open to this experience of divine fullness and be awakened to their real nature. Take me over, God. Take us all over that we may finally live in love and peace. I have come to show people a different glimpse of reality, to show them what reality is. We are one Being as countless true selves in love again with the world. I open this possibility to the world after so many dark ages. My gift is the revelation of our own divinity and our home in Heaven on Earth. We can see it now. It's only a matter of waking up and assuming our new experience as gods in God…creators of the divine world. Such joy!!
 
Conclusions
Mystical Activism: Transforming a World in Crisis teaches this kind of dialogue process as a source of spiritual direction, inspiration, loving support, trust and hope. Reading these dialogues, you can see that mystical intuitions come not from the logic and concepts of the left hemisphere but from the awakened consciousness of the right through which other spiritual beings offer their guidance. You can even have profoundly meaningful dialogues with the Earth herself. Just ask! This, too, is Mystical Activism - using mystical consciousness to find new ways of addressing the profound problems of our times. And help is always available.