Finishing up the third volume of Michael Posner’s oral biography of Leonard Cohen, as full an account of a celebrity’s life as one is likely to get, complete with as many contradictions, paradoxes and self-indulgent scandalous behaviours as you can handle, I was struck by Cohen’s seemingly endless dependence on gurus and teachers to give meaning and significance to his path through life.

I can clearly see the turbulence of the astral body as an attribute of youth itself and little to do with personality types or psychological categorizing. Achieving balance and serenity through practice in one’s twenties is nearly impossible

This heartwarming and honest account of heaven is from the perspective of a teenager. It’s an unvarnished truth about the afterlife with no denial, no whitewash, and no dumbing-down. This fictional book is based on real life out of body and lucid dream experiences by Gordon Phinn.

I was reading a book, interesting and enjoyable, when the author wrote about choosing a course of action that was “in our best interests”. A common enough sentiment, and one I have used myself in many a conversation. But as we pursue our course along the inner journey where all conventional assumptions are challenged and sometimes overturned, such thoughts often turn into questions. I found myself wondering what are “our best interests” exactly?

Just as birth is but the appearance of a start and death the simulation of an ending, so too your “first” exit from the body is but a conscious replication of a long standing practice, albeit an unconscious one.

From time to time I am asked about the possible actuality of “dire predictions”, …of war, environmental collapse, of political upheaval. Whether in public or private forums, I usually poo-poo them and not because I am a skeptical curmudgeon dedicated to some kind of know-it-all denialism.

I have long been intrigued with the struggles of intellectuals and artists to come to terms with what seems to be the chaotic destructive madness of the world as they experience it. Poets, novelists, philosophers, administrators, legislators, and the like, all look to be permanently on the edge of hopeless gloominess about humanity’s performance and potential. 

The self that we think we are, were or will be, is merely an expression of attachment, something we like to love when discontent is at a low ebb. The self is a bauble, a plaything, a vehicle that takes us places and plonks us down to play the game at the local level…

One of the early stages on the inner journey is seeing that we are lost in the fogs of society’s directives and the ego’s fear based vanities. We start to feel as if everything we once knew for sure is wrong and that a new set of truths and values have to be discovered and developed. As we explore these many possibilities for action we usually have to let go of our need for approval from family and friends, those supports we used to take for granted when we played by the rules no-one talked about.

In our indulgence and guilt culture, the importance of desire has been diminished to some level just above crime and punishment. Diminished by some distant echo of puritan piety which values denial and control over daring and experimentation.

All time is now: that is an expression we, in the community of independent spiritual seekers, have all become familiar with, either through our own meditations or reports from lucid dreamers and obe travelers living through complex experiences and returning 15 minutes later. 

The other day I was reminded of the fate of dissidents in Putin’s Russia, the ones who think his rule repressive and his war in Ukraine unlawful. They have to leave in a hurry to avoid frozen bank accounts, harassment, imprisonment or worse. 

My mother didn’t take too well to my passing, a bit ugly for sure, nothing anyone would want to relish, but it was over in a flash, about thirty seconds of agony and then, whoosh, I was gone…

In our human culture many channels have evolved to reinforce the basic drive of fear. After centuries of the geological formation process, poisonous gases fiery furnaces and the like, we left the paradise bubble of spirit for the physical plane, knowing that it was especially designed to accommodate separated forms all dependent on nourishment to survive and thus confined to being either hunter or hunted.

That’s the ones you’d like to forget. The ones that eased your path from ambition to success. The ones that secured possessions and status. The ones that delivered partners, the ones that seemed so willing when your shine was bright and promising. The ones that cut some corners, the ones that etiquette could do without. The dispensable ones. The ones that could easily disappear in the daily charge to connection and convenience. Now it looks more like getting ahead while standing still. Or the spiral that really was a circle. Oh, how I deluded myself!

“Immortality Unleashed” is a new series of essays, explorations and discussions of how this life looks once the bogeyman of mortality is bypassed by the discoveries and insights explored in the previous series “Journey To Knowing”. 

There are numerous accounts of spontaneous enlightenment spread throughout the mystical and esoteric literary archives. With little or no warning people have found themselves erupting into a new and expanded consciousness that could be as overwhelming as it was revelatory. Suddenly they seemed to be living in a new country with some kind of multidimensional awareness they were little prepared for. Adapting was a fierce struggle but somehow the only option. Shrinking back to safety seemed impossible.

“Source” is the place of our inner divinity, shorn of the add-ons of incarnation, all those purgatories, paradises, heavens, hells, cultures, epochs, physical forms and their functions.  It’s the radiant void, the ocean of is-ness, where you are and I am drops of that is-ness, that divinity, without form or distinction.

We have been exploring, this past year or so, the various conditions and challenges that appear to the aspirant on the journey to knowing, the hurdles and portals that manifest to irritate, undermine and provoke us into confronting the shadows of their mystery and lighting them up with our own illumination.

In Leo Galland’s 2018 memoir, Already Here, we read of the challenging life of his brain damaged and developmentally challenged son, Christopher, and his subsequent shocking death from drowning while out hiking in his teen years. He tells of his son’s spontaneous visitations after passing, where he revealed himself as something of an older soul who chose a life with many limitations, to learn and teach by.

As I detail my discovery and extended exploration of the mysteries surrounding our essential being, demonstrating the various methods of ditching the blinders and limitations of any and all belief systems assumed after birth and often inherited from past lives, I often compare my state of being convinced to those of others equally satisfied. The process of becoming convinced continues to fascinate the ‘me’ who finds himself so.

More Adventures In Eternity covers a year in my life where events, both physical and astral, piled up upon each other until a small mountain of mysteries compelled me to climb it and see how everything looked from the summit. As you may imagine, it was a whole new world. Pre-order the e-book on Amazon right now!

It was only a stroke, but it took me away in seconds. Warnings, hints, little blips I should have paid attention to? Nada. I’d been for my morning walk and I felt a strange sensation as I gazed out the window and was wondering if a headache was coming on when suddenly everything was….gone.  But I was there, in some dark nothingness. No sound, no smell, no breath…

Everywhere we look, it seems, we are surrounded by stories. There’s the story of the war with its dead and wounded. There’s the story of the economy with its winners and losers, its owners and its exploited. All of this got me to thinking that our lives are indeed stories to be lived, told, and retold until the need for stories withers away. Are all our incarnations some kind of uber-narrative; the story to end all stories?

The god consciousness, that area which is not a place a sphere or a plane,  but something that exists beyond all attributes of belief systems…

As we move through this journey towards knowing, assuming it is a progress towards greater understanding, there are these illuminated moments where knowing and understanding become so obvious we laugh at our previous efforts to attain that previously out-of-reach plateau they seem to exist on. Suddenly we seem to know it all and know it was there all along, should we have taken a moment to pause in our exertions.

Attempting to assist in the retrieval work ongoing in the Ukraine war zone has brought into focus a number of issues I had not consciously considered for some time. 

Shocking but true. Or maybe not so shocking. Happens all the time doesn’t it? Open the paper, read the news, check Twitter or whatever. It’d be more noticeable if he disemboweled me and fried the intestines for breakfast. But I was just disappeared with a plausible back up story. And they disappeared me in the best way: right out in the open, the mangled corpse, the wrecked car. My first funeral really.

I remembered the other day the oft-repeated remark, at least in my adult years, and the number of occasions when someone of my acquaintance would comment wryly on “getting all your questions answered”. Often reflecting on a sudden passing of a relative, acquaintance, some stranger or celebrity in the news…

Sovereign Abilities is proud to bring you, Gordon Phinn’s new fictional series – Being Born Again. In this new series, Gordon writes original stories based on his years of otherworldly and afterlife experiences and some of the people he came into contact with that were, Being Born Again. Enjoy, Delaying The Inevitable.

Anyone on the inner journey can understand that our perceptions of ourselves vary from circumstance to circumstance. Once you begin to observe yourself in the throes of the actions and reactions and see, without the comforting blinkers that ego provides, the many faces we present to the world, there’s no turning back to the simplified notion of a single identity.

If undisturbed by the irritation of externals, you can move that psyche on a voyage of astral projection, passing through the levels that consciousness has created to inhabit and explore. You are not troubled by anything resembling fear, you know your home base will be there when you return.

On this “journey to knowing” that we have been following together, placing the puzzle pieces to make out the bigger picture, the notion/myth/fable of some ancient plan for mankind pops up from time to time, hinting at a much wider perspective than our daily focus on projects and practices of a psychic and spiritual nature. It has certainly crossed my path at various intervals through the decades and each time I feel I understand a little more.

When I am asked to assist a client with a spirit communication, I fall into my version of “opening to spirit” and do the best I can in the circumstances. And the circumstances can vary significantly from situation to situation. Both the client requesting and the spirit sought can be in any number of moods and manifest any number of attitudes and it’s only my experience as psychic medium that lets me juggle the options until a harmony is achieved.

Sometimes it is referred to as the ancient plan for mankind, and sometimes as the ancient plan of all sentient beings. Either way it refers to evolving through many incarnations on all the planes here on Gaia and often planets elsewhere

It is an intriguing and persuasive metaphor, the notion that a belief can be imprisoning, and one I’ve often hinted it when discussing “belief systems”, those religious, cultural and political ideologies that millions of us humans are partial to. 

Often, after a few breakthroughs in that bumpy and mysterious ride on the illusion-busting journey to more knowledge and less faith, we indulge ourselves in spells of excitement, and that excitement not only powers the desire for more but also rides roughshod over the calm receptivity that gives the transcendence a place to settle and show you its wonders. 

As we move along through that inner journey such experiences can surprise us. Outside any formal meditation, no crossed-legged straight-backed mindfulness, they appear unannounced like surprise guests at the door, gifts in hand. One of those gifts can be a mild OBE, where what I suspect is the mental body, flips away from the active physical, like household chores, errands and driving, and gives visions, like yourself engaged in the current activity, viewed from above or some vaguer beyond, where you know without question, that’s you over there absorbed in your purpose, playing out one of the roles in the game, doing your bit for family, career or society.

Most discussions of “god” are partial, focusing on one aspect of the divinity to the exclusion of all others. Usually that aspect is the anthropomorphic one, God a person, a very wise and all knowing person, who seems to have set the universe in motion a while back and through some combination of magic and very clever science, keeps it going.

While on the journey, the inner one always unfolding, the situation, of you or the world, can seem out of whack, weighted in favor of the winners, monstrously unfair.  The minuses outweighing the pluses in your own account, your faults competing with your wounds for dominance, and the chances for lasting insight, never mind enlightenment, farther than any horizon.

Our journeys through the mysteries of Being and our being within it can leave us quite mystified, somehow simultaneously inspired and baffled.  It is sometimes quite the challenge to keep both feet on the ground while one’s head and heart are in the clouds.  After visiting ‘there’, with all its charms and joys, coming back ‘here’ can feel drab and quite depressing. Is it all worth it?

As we practice our chosen discipline, here in the physical, and extend our explorations in the astral, our experiences seem to sharpen our perceptions and increase the power of our intuitions, most often by clearing out the blockages built by doubt and self-consciousness, leaving us with a clarity that can sometimes be quite shocking.

At some point on our treks through the valleys and mountain paths crisscrossing the intriguing remains of mystical and esoteric teachings that come down to us from ancient times, many of which managed to survive repression by mainstream religions to be modernized by twentieth century teachers and facilitators into conveniently updated Zen, Vedanta, Magick, Sufism and the like, we come across references to the White Brotherhood, the Secret Chiefs, the Ascended Masters.

As we move along the various paths the inner journey unveils, we begin to examine, out of curiosity or concern, the lives of others.   We seem to see them more clearly, now that out own delusions of grandeur have been modified by seeing the untidy and rather tacky aspects of the current ego and some of its past life cousins.  The lenses on our vision seem sharper, less muddied by the prejudices of unconscious judgements and more influenced by the discernment conferred by true humility.

The circuit?  That’s the one where we return to where we started and see our very own footsteps in the sand that we presumed had washed away in the tides of many incarnations, those passages through personalities and cultures that we assumed had left some indelible marks, but then find, much to our pleasurable surprise, that they can fade to insignificance once we shuck the comfort zones their gates and fences provided.  Poverty and wealth, illness and health, ignorance and education, they all drop away as the feathers on Icarus’s wings as he closes in on the sun. Perhaps he dies on that final descent, or maybe he merges with the divine fire, a spark surrendering?

I have previously advised on the practice of patience when those dreaded ‘dry spells’ interrupt the joys of crazy adventures in dreamland, leaving us high and dry with no enigmas to unravel. Certainly, effort, of the strenuous sort, seems not to resolve the blank canvas that upsets us. It’s not pushing ahead determinedly that catches the elusive butterfly in flight, but a unfocused yielding to whatever may come which presses the right buttons. And that yielding, that submission, may take some time to manifest the unseen. You know, days turning into weeks and maybe months before a breakthrough.

They are two different worlds aren’t they? Or are they? One is packed with schedules and duties, commitments and challenge, the other is some kind of magical mystery tour, entertaining, annoying and mostly mystifying. One abides by the rules of making sense and the other most definitely does not. One is lighted and demanding of attention, the other is shadowy, shifty with trickery. One is rule bound with cultural norms, the other operates as though some fun-loving anarchists wrote the guide book.

I once titled a collection of essays, Laughing At The Universe Of Lies. As many of them addressed the many instances of deliberate political and economic fraud, conspiracy and cover-up, it seemed more than appropriate.  Our experience of the world, filtered most often through the corporate media, is one of public figures, drawn from the ranks of government, corporations, banking and intelligence agencies, is one of denial, double talk and bare-faced lying, only some of which is later tackled by the forces of law enforcement and justice. 

If enlightenment is just another “plight in three dimensions” but the endless implications of transcendence when we exit, then is it any more than another stage on the unfolding of our flower blossom? As blissful and serene as the experience may be, with the itch of desire and ambition no longer needing scratched, is it to be prized any more than the inching towards it that many aspirants endure, or the daily dramas and comedies that we all find ourselves in, regardless of our status in the spiritual playground?

A friend, then in the grips of Buddhist practice and philosophy, once asserted to me that we all are enlightened several times a day, but in the rush of perceptions and reactions, forget the content and how effortlessly profound it seemed. I suspected they were correct in their assessment and set myself to locating some methods whereby those inspired moments could be collated and conserved.

Being complete and whole in the moment without crutch or dependency to the past or the future, either recent or distant, has been a goal of several spiritual traditions, perhaps Zen most noticeably.  The western popularizer of that tradition, Alan Watts, certainly established it in his many books of the 60’s and 70’s, several of which came my way back then.  I also recall Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert) spreading the notion with his popular book Be Here Now in that same decade.

As we evolve beyond the acceptable and approved norms of our society and class, risking criticism, mockery and outright rejection every step of the way, we collect various wounds along the path, those slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and we learn to deflect the blows, even as we come to recognize the old wounds they reactivate.  We become careful as to what we say and to whom…

Almost any energetic or spiritual practice will lead you to the opening door of expanding consciousness.  I have met many runners, swimmers, team sports players and yoga practitioners over the years who tell of sudden leaps in what they assume is perception, where watching themselves from near or afar becomes the new norm for at least a few seconds and sometimes minutes.  They see another self, seemingly independent of the one who stretches and sweats, one who is calm, bemused, observant.

When Higher Self envisions us, it sees divine beings lost in belief systems. Systems like democracy, progress, agriculture, manufacturing, worshipful subservience to science, prophets and deities. It sees children playing, frightened and ignorant, educated and desirous, mystified but lost in enchantments. 

As we explore the various highways and biways of the esoteric teachings that guide our inner journeys, we eventually come to the notion that some souls are ‘young’ and others ‘mature’ or ‘old’.  The distinctions manifest in a number of ways.  One is derived from the discussions arising from life-between-life regressions where some recall careful planning with guides for the upcoming incarnation, while others tend to rush in enthusiastically without much forethought, often hell bent on resuming a life dramatically cut short by violence, accident or addiction.  The feeling of being denied one’s life experiences through trauma and tragedy can be overwhelming, often dominating the ‘bliss’ potentials of astral life.

While some of us find citizenship to be “surplus to requirements” for the pressing business of career and family, and others are so disgusted with the fabrications and deceptions of politics, religion and big business they happily drop out of any such commitment, some seek to be citizens of their society, however seemingly corrupted, striving to be informed and actively engaged with the issues and challenges of the day. Others seek to be citizens of the planet, embracing the ideals of multiculturalism, brotherhood and internationalism, hoping to replace hunger with plenty and strife with harmony. And yet others strive, in one way or another, to be citizens of the soul, that amorphous enigma inhabiting all forms with the sentient spark we have come to call consciousness.

Many of us have found our way to the inner journey of spirit after either rejecting conventional religious structures and practice, finding them self contradictory and unsatisfying, or seeing that the scientific materialism we grew up with failed to explain our personal experiences with the mystical and mysterious situations that repeatedly irritated our culture’s assumptions and norms…

Various meditation techniques strongly emphasize the importance of calmly observing the self in acquiring the real knowing of who we are, where we come from and what actually motivates us to thought and action.  The term ‘mindfulness meditation’ is the most commonly used in this context.  It’s one that almost everyone on the inner journey recognizes, regardless of path or tradition.  In aiding our understanding of who we really are, as opposed to who we think we are or would like to be, it is incomparable.

Many of us do it, whether we are consciously on the inner journey or not. As one of the many aspects of compassion, it is instilled in us from an early age, as well as many past lives, where we either employed it intelligently and saw its benefits, or failed to, and realized too late how we’d short changed ourselves and others by its glaring lack.

I reckon it was at least forty years ago when I first started seeing references in past life regression books to groups of guides that the recently deceased would consult in reviewing their recent performance on earth. Entities like Seth spoke freely and illuminatingly about the purpose of many lives, and many of us were aware that both Buddhist and Hindu teachings spoke of the phenomenon without apology.

At whatever pace gives us comfort and a sense of learning we are all moving along in our inner journeys.  And whatever stage you find yourself present is of less importance than the act of doing the travel as consciously as possible. We all have our preferred methods of exploration, rituals we enact when the time is ripe and the urge is on us.

As we move along our inner journeys towards what we assume is deeper understanding of the enigmas and mysteries of our real lives, sometimes racing along without the least bit of resistance, sometimes stumbling about, absentmindedly looking for clues, we come across mentions of the Higher Self, the Monad, the source self, a being whose existence seems as remote as archangels and ascended masters to our apprentice ears, about as distant as a PhD to a kid in grade five.

It would be difficult to recall a time when I had not heard of the Akashic Records in one or other of the many metaphysical books I was reading in my youth. Whether inspired by teachers or channeled  through spirits, the references were unmistakable. In the astral, mental and causal planes at the very least, it was possible to attend a place, a situation, a focus of consciousness, where all the “events” of what we call history could be viewed and re-experienced without the willful deceptions of political and economic power plays that distort the reportage of historical reality here on earth. Beyond the proud  trumpeting of the victors’ triumph and innate moral superiority and the insulted, wounded whining of the losers and the endless ruthless cruelties of the struggles to achieve dominance, whether on a personal, tribal or empire level, lies the actual details of the process laid bare for all to see.

As we open up to our “gifts of the spirit”, our seemingly unlimited potentials, there are episodes of intense excitement, stages where astonishment is almost the familiar state of being, where we seem to be transcending ourselves every other day. We feel boosted into an orbit previously unimagined years before when we pottered about with psychic abilities first encountered in books and courses. We glide into unfamiliar territory, charmed with our new flexibility and ease of access. Growth seems unchecked, the border guards retired for the night.

At some point in this inner journey, at some stage in the shifting of poses that present themselves as personalities in the play-acting of our incarnational dramas, maybe even now as we turn to acknowledge that fly on our dinner plate or that lying skunk on the tv screen, we suddenly see the illusion of it all, and our foolishness in believing that the dream was somehow real.  The bubble that you took for granted has burst.

As we reveal ourselves, with open hearts attuned by discernment to what seems like fresh opportunities for growth, we come across those younger folks, who may not be younger souls, and in fact most likely are not, and are but unrealized seekers fumbling about for paths and portals that are not tricked out with shabbily trendy gurus and self-improvement cults, we are challenged to come up with the goods that fit the keyhole to their seemingly locked doors.

Once we have attained a level of serenity and acceptance in the face of life’s turmoil and committed ourselves to some level of compassionate action, – chakra balancing, distance healing, regression work, psychic circles, prayer groups, hugging, listening, in fact any of the modalities of sympathy and empathy, we are deposited at the door of discernment and choice.

On the inner journey of self-discovery and self-development, the call to service often comes when you are ready to reach out to others less fortunate than yourself. Of course, that’s the social gospel version. On the inner journey the ‘others’ appear lost, confused, mired in illusions. Whether it’s the recently dead, wretched in ignorance, wandering in some fog of despair, or the living, wounded by the cruelties of life’s seeming injustices, the energies of compassion draw us to their plight

We can see, all too clearly, how we entered incarnation, full of aspiration, but succumbed to that treasure trove of fears, anxieties and doubts as our inner bulb of knowing lit up their shadows. We covered up with the “common sense” that family, education, religion and society piles up around the anarchic spirit that all humans come armed with, the one that frightens those who have already absorbed some decades of rational conformity and feel wise in passing it along

For many it comes down to this: we are born, we live and then we die. Anything else is wish fulfillment fantasizing. Their certainties gives them a firm foundation to meet the various challenges life offers, one of which is the obvious: every beginning must have an end, even if it’s hiding somewhere. He who is born must inevitably die.

Even as we progress on the journey of self-revelation, casting away, one by one, the old definitions now pretty much useless, we still cling, albeit unconsciously, to our various notions of significance: (a) that we are achieving worthwhile goals, (b) that we are becoming a receptacle better able to serve the needs of humanity, (c) that our understanding of possibilities is ever deeper and wider, and (d) that our compassion for others is selfless and discerning. All these are easily recognizable to those on the inner journey as we cover our tracks with careers, families and citizenship

Whether you need the pleasures of paradise or the hell realm your guilt and grinding angers demand, it’s all ready and available when you finally employ that aging passport. You choose your bliss, pick your poison, enumerate your preferences and indulge

All of us are moving, at our own chosen speed, towards greater and greater understanding of the mystery of incarnation and the consciousness which seems to propel it all…

Gordon Phinn brings his book to a conclusion with the final two chapters. This has been a fun book to read each week.

Next week Gordon starts his weekly column here on Sovereign Abilities. Don’t miss it!

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion continues with chapter nine

Sunday Morning…

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion

Saturday – Chapter Eight…

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion continues with chapter seven

“I wondered where on earth I was. Not on earth was the answer. Galactic Federation Central was the reply to my where then? Sounded terribly sci-fi somehow. I found myself in a gallery overlooking a rectangular space engaged in a very civilized debate. There was no shouting or waving of hands, and truth be told, not much moving of lips either. I did not have headphones on, but it felt as though I did, as the comments of various delegates were, well, in my head, sort of…”

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion continues with chapter six.

“Am I talking to God, I shouted? There’s no need to shout, came the reply, I’m right here and always have been…”

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion

The story continues…

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion
The story continues…

Knowing, as you all do, that astral beings can transfer from one spot to another without actually traveling, I suddenly thought that when we are projected in our astral bodies we can do the same

The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion – Chapter Three: Monday, by Gordon Phinn

“Apparently your soul, well not exactly your soul, for it seems like there’s this other character they call the higher self, who, as he gets more adept at this incarnation thing (Eric’s term) can project more than one beam of life energy onto the planet at once. And why would he do that, you ask. Well, apparently just for the experience. Or, in mountain climbing terms, because it’s there.”

Gordon Phinn gives us chapter two in his yet unpublished novel – The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion

“You’re dreaming George.  You’re dreaming and you’re not quite used to it. But don’t worry you’re in good hands now.” This was not quite as helpful as I’d hoped. It was the kind of definition that left you on the outside looking in. “Well that’s good to know Mavis. I never would have guessed that being a lost soul would be so much fun.” ~ Gordon Phinn

Join, Gordon Phin in his video as he recounts an astral projection where he examines a school in another reality. Then goes onboard a UFO ship to watch as crop circles are designed. In the final part of the video Phinn finds himself in an active war zone

A guided meditation into the Upper Astral Planes where we meet three souls ready to graduate and one in orb energy body form ready to reincarnate.

Gordon Phinn, has had metaphysical experiences since the year, 1970. He has continued to grow his consciousness and share his knowledge and experiences since that time.