Alzheimer's: Does the soul forget?

This beautiful video about Alzheimer's and its effect on the mind had me asking the question: when the ability to remember and communicate disappears, where does the mind go? Are we still at some level whole beings?

I believe so. To me, it's like a perfectly intelligent being trying to use a computer that has a fragmented memory. Programs crash, emails don't get sent properly. The operator is intact, but not the machinery.

Are there other ways to reach the being behind the broken body? Yes. This is where energy medicine comes in. By communicating directly with the being through their energy field, we can reach out and receive coherent responses.

Just as the conscious mind is bypassed when reading the aura, so can a scrambled subconscious if the intent is to hear the individual at soul level.

Workers adept in these skills can connect with the etheric body in the same way one would connect with a soul that has passed on. With intent, one can home in on the field at the frequency from which it communicates best. Receiving images and words and emotions in this way, one can still maintain contact with the person affected by Alzheimer's even when the conscious mind is no longer able to communicate.

As an example, I was in a restaurant recently when a woman came in who was greatly afflicted with another condition that affects reason. Her schizophrenia rendered her loud, violent, and capable of reason in short bursts of clarity.

On this particular day, her voice began to escalate, and restaurant staff were concerned that she would become violent.

Sitting at my table, I centered myself and offered her healing energy. It wasn't necessary for me to look at her or speak to her or even approach her, since this work can be done from great distances. Within a minute, she had calmed down and left the building without the need for physical intervention.

We can still send love to people afflicted with conditions that affect their ability to communicate and connect. We can still let them know at soul level that others care. And we can see the evidence through the body's responses that the soul hears us.

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Do you uplift or destroy with your logic? The Ace of Swords

Today's card is all about the kind of clarity we derive from rational and linear thinking and the danger of being too rational in ways that disrupt relationships and cause alienation.

Sometimes, holistic thinkers are all over the place, and it can show itself in their environment and in the way they conduct ourselves. The office worker whose desk is always a disaster can actually manage quite well for a time, knowing what is where on his desk almost by intuition. An employee who thinks holistically might make a proposal to her boss in a roundabout manner, because she sees the big picture and has trouble communicating in a linear fashion. This can drive a linear thinker crazy and make them impatient.

The office worker needs to take time occasionally to tidy his desk. Both parties in a discussion need to understand how the other communicates. Rational thinkers need to give holistic thinkers time to get to the point, and holistic thinkers need to structure their communication better so as to be heard by rational thinkers and not try their patience.

When our homes, offices or lives are in disarray, applying a linear strategy is often the most expeditious way to get the problem solved. Make a list of things to tackle. Start at one end of a room and clean to the other end. You'll feel better and more organized afterward. The new year is a great time to start off with a clean slate, so use the holidays to tidy up and get organized for January.

On the flip side, we need to be careful not to be overly rational when facing an emotional situation. Sometimes, we can escape into our heads when our hearts feel overwhelmed. It takes courage to be truly present when a loved one is hurting or when we ourselves are upset. When we get together with friends and family over the holidays, we can avoid conflict by trying to understand our different communication styles and being patient with someone who may say their piece with more emotion or in indirect ways. We can keep our heart open as well as our ears.

Rational thinking has its place in terms of organization and helping complete tasks efficiently, but it must be married to the softer, intuitive side of our nature so that we maintain our compassion and humanity in all situations. When that balance is struck, we move forward in our lives in harmony.

The Bull in the China Shop - The Prince of Swords

It's not surprising that this card would show itself so close to Christmas. This headstrong, single-minded prince doesn't have a problem with getting the job done even if other people get upset along the way.

As we finish up preparation for our holiday festivities, it's easy to get impatient with long lines at the store, recipes that don't turn out the way we planned, and last-minute changes to our holiday get-togethers.

This prince can also lapse into confusion when things don't go his way. He's so singleminded that when plans go awry, he lacks the flexibility to go with the change in flow.

It's important during this hectic time of year to reprioritize and remind ourselves what the season is really about, and don't sweat the small stuff.

Tarot Card of the Day - The Eight of Pentacles

It doesn't surprise me that I've drawn the eight of pentacles today. I've been given an amazing gift by a dear friend, a scrying mirror. Using this blackened mirror is like working with a crystal ball. You gaze into it and allow images to surface. I've also been exploring with increasing depth the experience of lucid dreaming and what lies beyond the dream terrain, something I'll be discussing in greater detail in my upcoming workshop on lucid dreaming.

The eight of pentacles prompts us to recognize ourselves as divine beings. To do this, we have to use whatever means are available to us to plumb our own depths and discover what we are when we strip away our ego identities and all the material trappings that prop them up.

We can meditate, scry, and explore what lies behind the lucid dream. We can disconnect from the noise of the thinking mind and attain a state of pure beingness during meditation. We can interact directly with our subconscious archetypal material with scrying, and we can learn to realize clear light consciousness with further exploration of the lucid dream state.

We need no longer be content with stories from sacred texts and spiritual leaders. We can discover these truths for ourselves and know our divinity if we have the courage to traverse our inner terrain.

Not again - This time, I'm revisiting the Queen of Pentacles!

You have to wonder how likely is it that you can shuffle the same deck of cards and pull out the same card. This marks the second time in the last week I've pulled the Queen of Pentacles, and I just pulled the ten of swords two days in a row! To stay true to the process of giving a daily determination about the card I select, I'm going with the card I draw each day, promising to expand on the meaning of the card if I draw the same one. I was surprised though to draw the same cards twice in the same week.

 To this end, watch your life for synchronicities, repeating patterns, seeing the same object repeatedly. The universe is sending a strong message. I always say, if you see it three times, sit up and take notice.

Here's a fun experiment: do several different spreads in a row and see how often at least one of the cards you turn up is the same. I've done readings where the same card shows up two spreads in a row and in the same location.

To balance out the Queen of Pentacles, be sure to bring compassion into play. When abundance comes your way, remember that it's always a flow in and out. So, be sure to give where you can of your time if not your money. It's all about the energy exchange.

Consider whether there is balance in your life in terms of spiritual and material emphasis. Are you so focused on paying the bills and putting the holidays together that you've not taken time out for your spiritual practice? Be sure to enjoy the etheric as well as the tangible things in life!

The Same Card - Would you believe it?

Each morning, I pick a tarot card to provide a reading on the events of the day. Today, I shuffled the deck and picked the same card I chose yesterday - the ten of swords. What are the odds?

I took this as a prompt to examine the issues this card brings up more deeply. So, if you have a tendency to waver between defensiveness and reclusiveness, both of which are protective mechanisms to ward off hurt, you have to acknowledge that these mechanisms are actually masking fear. At some point, we've been hurt by someone important to us and we developed ways to keep people at bay so we wouldn't have to risk that level of hurt again.

So below the fear we can usually find grief. A loss of some kind or a sense of abandonment has left us at sea, not being able to trust in a benevolent universe or God. We don our armour, prepared to attack or retreat, when what we really need to do is stand our ground without the armour and take the risk of being loved and accepted or being rejected.

How do we do that? We acknowledge that we have the strength to let in love or withstand rejection. We take the responsibility of experiencing our loss and sense of abandonment for what it is without adding on top of it any value judgment on our own lovableness. We accept that this feeling comes to all of us at some point in our lives, because someone who is also suffering in their own way inadvertently hurt us because they were not able to look beyond their own pain to address our needs.

A good exercise is to simply experience our defensiveness without analysis, and feel it drop down into fear (even abject terror). Stay patient with the feeling and watch it dissolve down into grief. Allow tears and a softening at the heart and experience your own vulnerability.

Stay with this long enough and you'll start to feel an opening of emotion at the heart. You may feel young and childlike. You may sense your connection with the divine that is a natural part of allowing yourself to be truly open emotionally. You may come full circle and realize that divine love is always there, cradling you, despite any rejection that may be handed out in this world. In arriving at divine love, you find the cure for your loss and, therefore, an ability to make your way in the world without wearing armour or carrying a sword.