Don’t Be Fooled!

August 9, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Human beings are most vulnerable when afraid. It is when we are afraid that we are most vulnerable to the manipulation of others. Fear causes us to look for something – anything – to help ease our fear – even if what seems to ease our fear is a lie. When afraid, we just want something – anything – anyone – to promise we will be alright. Even when that promise includes something that might cause us harm. The promise might cost us emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physically, and most definitely, financially.

Depending on the magnitude of our fear, we may even be willing to sell our soul.

I have seen the evil that preys on fear at work in our world in a multitude of ways. In truth, it’s everywhere. It’s in the “shaman” that promises to cure your psychosis. It’s in the “influencers” who wave shiny objects in front of us, promising they will make us better, popular, famous, etc. It’s in so-called “reality TV” showing false images of beauty, wealth, status, and fame. It is in snake-oil salespersons promising a cure for cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s, and any other undesired medical diagnosis. It’s in the unsavory fitness and diet gurus promising their way is the only way to weight loss and long life. It’s in an advertising industry that purposefully preys on our fears, promising that their product is the solution to that fear. It’s in anyone speaking from the farthest reaches of the spectrum promising their way is the only right way and that anyone else is wrong.

We are living in a time in which humanity’s fears are at their highest – a world plagued by war, disease (including pandemics), homelessness, poverty, and hunger. The threat of nuclear war feels very much alive. Earthquakes and volcanoes are erupting at unprecedented levels. Our food and water resources have been poisoned. Weather has become increasingly violent. Millions of people recently lost their lives to Covid. A million more are currently facing annihilation under the orders of fascist dictators hiding behind the masks of democracy.

Humanity has good reason to feel afraid. Fear is a natural, human, response to anything that is outside of our realm of control. Fear, however, does not need to destroy us, and it is most certainly not a reason to give ourselves over to the false promises of charlatans, or anyone promising to have the cure for what ails us. Instead, the answer to fear is that which allows us to move through it so that we might return to our center where we can be in touch with – not someone else’s truth – but our own truth. As Frank Herbert wrote in his immortal classic, Dune:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
(Bene-Gesserit Litany Against Fear)

When we are afraid, we are vulnerable to the manipulations of those who prey on our fears. When we sit with, move past and through our fear, we are able to return to our original nature of peaceful equilibrium. In this place of inner peace, we will see and know the truth. We are able to see through the masks worn by those seeking to have power over us through our fears. Equally, we are able to distinguish truth from falsehood. In this, we will see clearly those who might be authentic support for us in the face of whatever we are fearing – not by making us dependent upon their lies, but empowered in our own truth. Becoming comfortable with our fear and learning effective tools for being with and moving through those fears, makes us immune to manipulation and unable to be fooled by those who might otherwise seek to cause us harm.

NOTE: Those who are attempting to fool us often believe their intentions are good. Watch out especially for these for not only are they lying to you, they’re lying to themselves.

Authentic Freedom supports you in learning how to identify, heal, and transform fear. In doing so, you are freed to see and know truth, and identify and avoid falsehoods. Buy the book or take the class!

Love Waiting to Be Found

November 15, 2024 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

*an excerpt from my book, Choosing Love.

A man I know to be one of the kindest, most generous, faithful, and humble human beings, posted a horribly negative comment against our incoming government officials who are of the Muslim faith. I joined my daughter in righteous anger over his comments. How could someone who claims to be a devout Christian, and otherwise a good, kind, and generous man believe such horrible things of our Muslim brothers and sisters? I was angry, but beyond the anger, I felt horribly sad. How could this man, for whom I otherwise have the utmost respect, believe that his hatred and fear of Muslims is any way shape or form consistent with Jesus’ teachings? I wanted to step in and ask him if he had read the story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) – a story Jesus used to teach us that often the kindest and most “Godly” acts are performed by those who are not of our “tribe” or “belief system.” I also wanted to quote the story of the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7: 24-30) who was instrumental in converting Jesus of his own beliefs – who through her persistence and insistence convinced Jesus that he was here for the whole world – not just the tribes of Israel. I refrained from commenting, but I still found myself troubled. So I brought this quandary to prayer.

This is when my compassion stepped in. My friend, in his fear and hatred of Muslims is simply believing what he has been taught by the version of Christianity to which he subscribes – a version cloaked in the same fear of “the other” that he already carried in his mind. To me, this is very sad. And yet, this man, like every single human being walking this planet, is a vessel of Love just waiting to be found. Quite simply, he hasn’t yet found the fullness of his Love – the Love he already is and was made to be, but which is currently hidden beneath a curtain of fear. He freely and generously loves those who believe as he does and in his working profession, generously loves those in need of his service. But, because he doesn’t yet know the fullness of the Love that he is and he hasn’t yet discovered the fullness of Divine love, he is not yet able to love every human being in the way that God does. Here he is bearing out Jesus’ most profound and simplest teaching:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 30-31

This scripture has most often been interpreted as a commandment, but it could just as easily be taken as an observation of what is true. We are only capable of loving our neighbor to the extent that we love ourselves. Put another way, the degree to which we can love other human beings is proportionate to the degree to which we believe in God’s love for us, and the degree to which we are able to love ourselves as God loves us. This is a plain and simple human truth. My friend is unable to love his Muslim brothers and sisters because for some reason he does not yet comprehend the vast and unconditional nature of God’s love and in this, is also unable to unconditionally love himself. He still has more love in him waiting to be found.

The same is true of all of us. Each one of us is Love waiting to be found. And every one of us is somewhere along the continuum of finding and then living from that love. Our actions on this human plane reflect the degree to which we know the love that we are.

This brings me to the topic of evil. In the human experience we witness a whole lot of what we are tempted to judge as evil. Evil, we have been taught, is the antithesis of love and something to fear and work toward eradicating. We are taught that God judges us according to our evil and that we are then punished accordingly. This is not what Jesus taught – but it is how fearful men have interpreted Jesus’ teachings and used this interpretation to gain an advantage. The issue is ultimately one of translation.

Evil does not mean the same thing as the word Jesus used that has been translated into “evil.” The Aramaic word Jesus used was bisha (Neil Douglas Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos). Bisha is an agricultural word which simply means unripe. When Jesus uses the word “evil” in scripture, he is simply observing the unripe nature of the person committing said-evil. There is no judgment here, only a direct observation of the actions arising out of one who has not yet ripened in love.

When we have not uncovered the fullness of our Love, then we act from limited and fearful states. In God’s eyes, we are not “evil” in the way that we understand this word in our English language – we are unripe – our fruit is immature. I like to think of it this way – when we walk up to an apple tree and see that the apples are not yet ripe, we don’t shake our fist in condemnation over the unripe apples. We simply wait until apples are ripe.

The same is true of God. God is watching all of us, patiently waiting for us to come into our own ripeness and loving us through every stage of our own personal process. We are all Love waiting to be found and God is waiting along with us – excitedly and with anticipation – the same way we anxiously and excitedly wait for our own children to reveal who they truly are.

We are all love waiting to be found and the Divine is here loving us into knowing the fullness of this love. It is up to us to say yes. We say yes every time we are willing to receive healing for the fears and unhealed wounds that otherwise hide our love. In the end, this is my prayer for my friend – that he finds healing for the fears within him that are limiting his ability to know and live from the fullness of the Love that I already see glowing within him.

Choosing Love is a collection of fifty-two spiritual lessons and practices for personal and global transformation. These lessons and practices invite you to shake off the cloak of cultural conditioning and discover the freedom of the LOVE hidden within. Here there is no God to appease, no outside perceived authority whose approval needs to be earned, and nothing that can keep you from being and living as your most authentic self. LOVE is who you are. Choose that LOVE.

Buy it Now

A Time of Reckoning

October 15, 2024 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

While the United States is not the center of the universe, it does act like it. And, what is unfolding in the United States as we approach the presidential election, is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm. As I’m not a political analyst, I can only speak of this unfolding through the eyes of what I see and the sensations of what I feel. It’s not good, and the whole world seems to be responding as the evils of our world and humanity’s participation in these evils come to a head. It’s not good.

Something wicked this way comes.

Actually, the wicked is already upon us. Now, it’s up to humanity to decide if we will continue to participate in evil or make a change for the good.

Evil, in this case, is anything and everything rooted in fear: bigotry, prejudice, racism, sexism, genderism, greed, gluttony, lust for power, vengeance, envy, sloth, and pride. Evil is anything that profits from division and seeks only to separate. Evil is anywhere and everywhere in humanity’s addiction to possession and accumulation at any cost. Evil destroys the environment and our access to clean air, water, and healthy food for the sake of money or power. Evil creates enemies out of our fellow human beings simply because they are perceived as different or undeserving in some way. Evil separates human beings into tribe, nation, nationality, political party, race, gender, and religion instead of recognizing we are of one human race.

This evil is present and the powers that be are harnessing this evil for their own sake – forcing humanity to make a choice. Evil desires for us to choose evil, to participate in separation, to create enemies, and to harbor hatred toward our fellow human beings. Our survival depends on us making another choice.

This is the moment of humanity’s reckoning. Do we choose the evil that evil wants us to choose and further our own destruction, or do we choose love instead, and just maybe live to see another day?

As St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1Cor 13: 4-8a)

Humanity stands at a crossroads and we are being given the opportunity to choose. What will be humanity’s choice – the weapons of evil or the forces of Love? The path of our own destruction or the path of our salvation/survival? What do you choose?

Living in Dark Times

July 7, 2024 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

We are living in dark times. In the United States where I live, we are facing very real threats to our liberties and our freedoms. In the past I have hesitated to call these actions “evil” because I do not believe in an external force of evil that is set out to harm us. As I no longer believe in an anthropomorphic “devil,” I cannot believe in evil as a malevolent force outside of us.

I still don’t believe in evil as an external god-like force, but after a week of deep prayer and meditation, especially around the evils I have experienced in my own life, I arrived upon an understanding of evil that I can agree to:

Evil is the physical manifestation of humanity’s fears.

When put into the context of what I believe about our human journey – its purpose and goal – which is to remember our original nature as Love/One by healing and transforming our unhealed fears, non-loving conditioning, trauma, woundedness, etc. I can believe in evil in this way.

Evil arises out of our collective fears and unhealed wounds.

History has shown this to be true. Nazi Germany – the Jewish Holocaust – and now the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Naziism arose out of the unhealed fears/wounds of WW1, which led to the Holocaust. Unhealed wounds over the Holocaust could be argued as the root of anti-Palestinian sentiments, oppression, and now genocide which has become the hallmark of Netanyahu’s hard-right Zionist movement. (to be clear…..I am not antisemitic. I am anti-genocide).

Caste

Something similar could be said of the United States – the core of our current (ongoing) troubles can be summed up in Isabel Wilkerson’s exploration of caste – a system based in the belief that “one kind of person is more deserving of freedom than another kind.” When western Europeans first settled in what later became “America,” they brought with them the wounds of the caste systems in which they were imprisoned. Never healing these wounds, they ended up inflicting the same kind of system on the indigenous who were already here, and later on every single group that was deemed “less than.” Caste, as Wilkerson argues, transcends racism. As such, Caucasians also suffer the effects of caste.

This unacknowledged caste system is at the root of our troubles and at the heart of it resides the unhealed wounds and fears of our collective past resulting in a lot of angry people who for generations have been ignored, oppressed, trod upon, denied dignity, honor and respect. When we examine this description, we see that nearly all of us qualify as suffering from caste in one way or another. The only ones who don’t suffer are those who have positioned themselves as “the ruling caste.” In the United States, these are extremely wealthy white men (and their complicit women) who have both stolen and been voluntarily given too much power.

Stolen power is easy to identify. Voluntarily given power is more difficult to comprehend. Who, in their right mind, would give an already powerful human more power? In short – those who feel most victimized by caste and who are desperately looking for someone to save them – specifically, those of the higher caste who promise to elevate another’s caste once put into power.

This is the work of evil – capitalizing on another’s unhealed wounds, vulnerability, and sense of powerlessness so that they might gain more power. The goal of evil is never to help or assist the “lesser-thans,” it is only to wrest more power from them.

Spiritual Warfare?

But what can we do in the face of such evil? Are we indeed powerless as the powerful and victimized would have us believe? The short answer is NO! We are not powerless and we do have tools and resources to help us combat this evil.

Yes, I said combat. I’ve never been one to jump on the “spiritual warfare” bandwagon, because that platform is rooted in the idea of a malevolent external source over which we have no power, and equally benevolent forces who we must call to our aid – again because we ourselves are powerless.

I do not believe in our powerlessness. Instead, I believe that when we understand the root cause of evil in our world, then we have an entire arsenal of weapons at our disposal – ones we can engage in and call on anytime and which are in our own power to use and through their use effect change.

To effect this change, we must first understand that the root of evil is unhealed wounds and unacknowledged fear. We must then understand that the transformation of evil occurs when we individually and collectively work to heal those fears. Finally, as Ulrich E. Duprée reminds in his book Ho’oponopono – the Hawaiian Ritual of Forgiveness, the fears and unhealed wounds we see in others are merely a reflection of the same fears in ourselves. When we engage in practices which support our own healing, there is a ripple effect that helps to bring healing to others.

With this, I offer two solid and effective practices for healing the unhealed fears and wounds in ourselves which can then help to support healing in others:

Ho’oponopono:

Recite the following mantra, directing the words toward yourself and to any feelings of fear or woundedness you might feel within yourself:

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

Thank you.

Michael the Archangel Prayer:

An oldie moldy from my Catholic upbringing. Again, pray this prayer TO the fears and unhealed wounds within yourself. Feel free to change the language to fit your own personal beliefs:

Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do Thou,

O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Power of God,

cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits,

who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

If you have other tools that you have found to be helpful, please share them in the comment section below! We are all here to take part of the healing of humanity so that one day we can all truly be free!

Trump and Other Demons

January 17, 2024 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

This past week, Donald Trump won the Iowa caucus. My initial reaction was WTFingF? My second thought was a deep disgust for those who voted for him (not that the other candidates are any better). My third thought was a memory – a memory of when he won the presidential vote in 2016. My first response then was complete and total shock. For a day I processed the sense of being betrayed by the American people. Then, I went into deep prayer and pleaded with the Universe to help me understand the meaning of Trump’s victory. The answer from the Universe was immediate – a visceral replaying of the scene from the Ten Commandment’s movie when the angel of death passes through Egypt. I was then told directly, “Donald Trump is playing the role of the Angel of Death – that which passes through, ushering in the death of all that no longer serves.”

Understanding all the lies, corruption, and evil that lay hidden in our nation, I could accept that perspective. Trump’s presidency proved this out – pulling away the veil of all that lay hidden behind the façade of American culture and governance – corporate greed, racism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, government corruption, etc. etc. etc. The effects of those four years have been far-reaching, traumatic, disgusting, and repulsive. That was just the beginning.

Behind and beneath the surface, the Trump machine continues. The evils that he espouses and embodies churns beneath the surface, while he seemingly avoids any consequence for his criminal actions, likewise those who claim him to be their messiah.

There can be no doubt that Donald Trump is either evil or stupid – the willing pawn of powerbrokers manipulating him from behind the scenes, deeply entrenched with all those who believe as he believes. Fearful, hateful, willfully ignorant people who see themselves in Donald Trump and visa versa. To think of another four years of Donald Trump as president, supporting and advocating for evil, admittedly fills me with terror and dread.

In this, I am reminded that angels can also be demons:

Demons Walking Among Us

There are indeed demons among us –

Broken, wounded humans stubbornly rooted in fear –

Ignorant of, yet defined by their wounds –

The effect coming out sideways.

Tentacles of manipulation attempting to control

through guilt and shame-based insults and projections of blame.

“You’re the cause of my discontent.”

When called out for their behaviors

or boundaries set,

lashing out with escalating shrieks.

Becoming slithering shadows or terror and intensifying attacks.

Giving away their power while simultaneously fighting to get it back.

Feeling powerless.

Feigning Power.

A counterfeit.

Bullying.

Fawning.

Flattering.

Demeaning.

Condemning with their own condemnation.

Never once accepting responsibility

or holding themselves accountable to their own wounds.

These are the demons who walk among us.

It’s impossible to help or heal them

for it is in an eternal state of victimhood that they are fed.

Whether he proves victorious or not, I am aware of the deep corruption and evil in our culture that needs to be exposed so that it can be healed, and that perhaps until the sources of racism and bigotry and fully exposed they cannot be transformed. I just hope it’s not through Trump that this healing needs to come about. As it relates to the (very real) possibility of another Trump presidency, I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

Online courses to support you in confronting demons:

The Purpose of Evil

December 8, 2022 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

Before diving into the purpose of evil, I must first share a story. This is a conversation I had with my daughter when she was somewhere around the ripe old age of 14:

Me: “I wish all the evil and bad in the world would just go away.”

Daughter: “But mom, if that happened, there would be no anime.”

Me: …….

Daughter: “You know, no heroes’ journey! What fun would that be?”

Me: …..

Me: “Sigh. You’re completely right! Out of the mouths of babes!”

This was not the first time I was bested by my wise daughter! At the young age of 14, my anime-loving daughter was able to clearly see what I could not:

We need evil in our lives! Evil has a reason and a purpose.

The purpose of evil is ultimately for our benefit.

As my daughter so cleverly pointed out, if there wasn’t evil in the world, how would we ever be challenged to grow? In referring to the classic archetype of the heroes’ journey, my wise daughter said it all:

Evil provides the resistance we need to grow.

Human beings are not unlike plants in this regard. As a germinating plant needs the resistance provided by the seed to grow and is then further strengthened by the resistance provided by the rock and soil through which it must climb to reach the sun, so do we need resistance to grow. Being confronted by evil and the other difficulties and struggles of the human condition, we are being provided with an opportunity for this growth.

Unlike a plant which has no choice but to push through (or die), facing evil also gives us the opportunity to cultivate our will and our power to choose. Struggling with the evils of the human condition supports us in honing our conscience and our consciousness. Who do we want to be and how to we want to live and act? Continually, we are given an opportunity to succumb to evil, be led by evil, or alternatively to make the choice for love. When we choose evil, we suffer the consequences of that choice and are given one opportunity after another to choose otherwise. When we choose love, our path takes on a greater sense of ease as we flow gently toward the next opportunity for our growth. Then we have another opportunity to choose.

Evil is always working for our highest good – continually providing us with opportunities to choose and to grow. Our invitation is not to run from evil, but to face it head on, welcoming its lesson, and accepting the opportunity for growth. In welcoming evil as a teacher, we are fully participating in our own heroes’ journey, and in doing so, writing our own anime adventure!