Updates

6/30/10

I recently attended a new-age products convention in Denver as part of the team for a product under development (more about that when it's ready for distribution).

I thought about taking photos and presenting a slightly tongue-in-cheek look at the new-age community; but I was so impressed with the sincerity of many of the participants, that I will be taking a different tone here.

Indeed, there were vendors focused primarily on selling anything the metaphysical bookstore owners would carry. Indeed, there was flakiness. But whether I saw flakiness in abundance, or abundance in flakiness, there was also real spirituality as I define spirituality. In and amongst the mineral gems, there were human gems. And this is what I want to write about.

The overarching theme of the conference was that we are in a time of transition. Metaphysical bookstore owners, and those who create spiritually nurturing products and services, are in a position to be light-bearers and healers and inspirers. This was Marianne Williamson's message to the bookstore owners--that they are providing a refuge, not just running a business.

There was encouragement--people who had come through divorces, or deaths, or perhaps had lost everything, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of their old life and striking out on a new venture. They were writing books, they were composing music, they were learning to be healers--they were giving others tools to rise out of the same kinds of suffering they, themselves, had surmounted.

I did not see this as flaky, or phoney, or escapist.

Lately, I find myself in an odd position. I have reconnected with an old flame (my twin flame, to be precise) from an earlier incarnation (see my previous Update for 6/5/10). First I historically identified and substantiated (to my personal satisfaction) a past life in the 19th Century; then I realized that the soul mate I'd been looking for all my life was my first wife in that lifetime; and then I connected with her. We are now together--me on this side, her on the other--and I am telling you, it is possible. When a spouse dies, if they are soul mates, the relationship need not end there. I am, as I tell her, the "oaf," meaning, in physical incarnation; she is quite tolerant of me in this condition; very sweet, actually.⁽¹⁾

But nobody believes it, though my real friends are--well, we will say, "indulgent." Only one person truly believes me, and that person is experiencing a similar relationship themselves. I only know because I dared share my own experience, when asked.

Even in this new-age trade show, the young couple I shared it with didn't believe me (as it seemed to me). The young woman does flower photography; I told her about the flower photography I'm channeling for Abby, and gave her the URL to my Flickr page. I don't know whether they looked at it or not. So, I have gone into a realm where no-one can follow, and that probably includes anyone who reads this Update. (I still refuse to accept the term "blog," because it's an ugly word for a beautiful thing--sharing your innermost thoughts and feelings deserves a better word.)

Despite the fact that most who read this will roll their eyes, there may be a few couples out there who are experiencing this kind of relationship with one of you on the other side. Perhaps a few of you may not have met physically in this lifetime. You will understand exactly what I'm talking about.

Incidentally, I keep expecting to get flack for "spirit attachment". Abby is with me because we are twin flames. I didn't actually believe in the concept of a twin flame relationship before I experienced it. But she is quite free to come and go, and she does, for various reasons, including, as I gather, to get permissions (kind of like renewing or upgrading your visa). At one point on a day-trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park, the team stopped to take photographs next to a boulder (I'm sitting on top of it here), and a bluebird perched on a nearby rock for about 10 minutes. We hadn't seen any other bluebirds, or much wildlife at all, for that matter, on the entire trip. Not long before this, I had been asking Abby inwardly if she was happy living with me. (I had to max out the digital zoom on my camera to get this shot, so I apologize for the quality.) People on the other side occasionally inspire animals to do things as signs--I'm not the first one to report this.

If I understand correctly, Abby is also a musician. She played piano in her last lifetime, and has been studying music on the other side since then. When I introduced her to Liz Story's music, she was enthralled--and there is nothing like sharing inspired music in this kind of relationship with someone on the other side.

So, at the convention, when we heard Lisa Downing playing magnificent piano music on the convention floor, I sat nearby and listened--Abby and I listened--intently. Seeing my interest (and, of course, not seeing Abby), her partner invited me to talk with them as they were packing up. I was surprised to learn that Lisa tours with Liz Story, and that they are personal friends.

I don't like to over-interpret this kind of synchronicity. It's just there and you experience the magic of it, and when it happens, you know there's more to reality than what meets the eye.

The final event of the conference was a joint mediumistic demonstration by Lisa Williams and John Holland. I was, of course, secretly hoping Abby might be able to get through, but I knew that with an audience of a couple hundred people, there must be at least two or three times that many departed relatives clamoring for attention. I had told Abby not to worry about it--there were people who needed the confirmation far more than we did.

Right before the session was to start, I took my usual pre-event trip to the restroom, and who should be there but John Holland. I mentioned to him (as we stood at the urinals) that I was reading his book, and I think he braced himself for the usual selfish fan stuff, but I didn't go there. He asked what my part in the convention was, I told him briefly (and rather inarticulately, because I was surprisingly nervous) about the project, and that was that. Afterwards, on stage, the other medium, Lisa Williams, began her opening remarks by saying that all seemingly random meetings were meaningful. I wondered if John put two-and-two together?⁽²⁾

Anyway, at one point fairly early in the demonstration, John said he felt there was someone coming through who played the piano, who was a musician, and he heard the line from The Way We Were, "Memories, like the corners of my mind...". I thought maybe it could be Abby, but he was looking to a different section of the audience, and I was waiting for the name. There was a long pause, and then someone came up with their father who played the organ (and who had played that tune among many), and John went with him. Later, I felt from Abby that that was, in fact, her (referring, by the choice of songs, to my past-life memories of her playing the piano for me), but that was as much as she could get through. Which is fine. As said, they needed it more than we did. ⁽³⁾

At the convention, I had occasion to talk briefly with quite a few vendors, and I was very favorably impressed with most of them. Among the special tidbits I ran across at the convention, was a book on handling grief by Judy Schreiber-Mosher called "Tincture of Time," which listed several options after one's spouse dies, including continuing the relationship. Another was a book on the lesser-known history of Jesus (sadly, my notes on this one have vanished), which quoted Paul opposing Peter. Here is the quote which I found on the internet: "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." (Ga. 2:11-16) If you had to choose, would you choose the guy that Jesus said would be His rock, or the guy who never met Jesus? Who did Paul think he was, anyway, daring to speak to Peter in that manner? In any case, I thought it interesting that this obscure but crucial bit of history is finally getting some new-age attention.⁽⁴⁾

Oh, Abby is on the project team, by invitation, and she earned her keep. She had told me there would be a significant contact for the project at the event, and about the time I started bracing myself for it not to happen, it happened. I don't know if the project leader will pursue it or not, but it was substantial, and Abby confirmed to me, afterwards, that this was the contact she had been referring to earlier. (I am given to understand that she was allowed use her unique networking talents because it was for the work, i.e., a subset of the work that she and I are trying to do with this website--we are not allowed to use her talents for personal gain.)

So now you can dismiss all I've said above as flakiness; or you can put it on the "I don't know" shelf alongside crystals and auras and the rest. I never write these things with the object of being believed, or, for that matter, of being popular.

That's why I hope it may be of value to someone.

Best regards,

Stephen Sakellarios, Producer

1) See also this account from the life of Gifford Pinchot, a pioneer of the conservation movement and the 28th governor of the State of Pennsylvania. If you think I'm being foolish, you must be prepared to make the same snap judgment about him. My only comment is that our conditioning is so strong that the writer of the article persists in characterizing Gifford's partner as a "dead woman". This means subtley identifying her as her physical body, because that is the only sense in which she is "dead", and this tells us that the writer didn't believe it. We are, in fact, so deeply conditioned that it is almost impossible for the materialistic mind to accept it, so if you don't believe it, I understand. I am told this relationship between Gifford and Laura lasted 15 years, after which he remarried. The only difference is, I won't be remarrying, I'll be rejoining Abby when my time here is up.

2) From John's book, "Spirit Whisperer", page 57: "I truly believe that synchronicities and so-called coincidences are clear signs that Spirit is knocking on your door. Sometimes it can be a soft tap, or for those times when you're not paying attention, it can be a loud bang! Spirit working through synchronicity can manifest itself in some unique ways."

3) Although I don't remember it, my co-worker insists that John specifically said he was being contacted by a man who played the piano, right from the start. If both the father (who played the organ) and Abby were giving similar images at the same time, it could register with John like that. The man's daughter said that it was was one of the songs her father played; I feel from Abby the line about "memories" was a symbolic reference to my own past-life memory of her playing the piano, at the time I first fell in love with her (the piano to the right, at the Stanley Hotel in Estes, CO, is similar to the one I remember her playing, in a parlor with big windows behind it--as you face the windows, her family's piano was in the left-hand corner, facing the center of the room). The title of the song, it occurs to me now that I've looked it up, also suggests a past-life relationship, and would be consistent with Abby's penchant for giving double-evidentials (see previous Update). The medium was strongly drawn to the piano on stage; that the man played organ, and that the song was one of many in his repertoire, isn't as specifically meaningful as this particular song would be to Abby and me. So I think it was probably a combination message (something John told the audience to watch for in his introduction). I had my chance to respond--there was a long pause--but I was too "chicken" to try to explain our unusual circumstances in front of an audience of 200 people without having something stronger like a name.

4) One reason this is important to me, is that Paul's writings are the ones that fundamentalists cite when they say that the "Bible is against reincarnation." In my opinion, when you see something spiritually beautiful in Paul's writings, you're seeing him copy the apostles; when he suddenly sounds less enlightened, that's him talking. Definitely he's a mixed bag, which is why he's been so difficult to dislodge for 2,000 years. I am not against that portion of Paul's writings where he was (presumably) copying the apostles. I am against that portion--such as where he speaks of eternal hell--where I believe he was speaking on his own.

Updates Archive