New Thought

You Did Nothing Wrong! It’s Not Your Fault!

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

I have grown increasingly weary of the new thought, new age, la la positivity movements and their “can-do” attitude subtly laced with shame and guilt. You know the routine:

  • “Think the right thoughts and you’ll get what you want.”
  • “If you don’t have what you want it’s because you aren’t thinking the right thoughts.”
  • “Don’t like your current life state?  Change your thoughts!”
  • “The state of your life is what you agreed to before you came here.”
  • “Suffering is an example of past life karma.”
  • “You must have done something wrong in a past life for this to happen….”
  • “You created this.”
  • “You create your reality.”
  • “If you want more you have to work hard.”

Yadda Yadda Yadda

On all of this I call BULL SHIT!

Seriously, the very last thing we need in our lives is a reinforcement of the messages many of us grew up with:  “You did something wrong. There’s something wrong with you.  It’s your fault. God is punishing you. God will punish you.”

Guilt. Shame. Blame. Over-responsibility.

Again, I call bullshit on this all.

Life is life. Period.

Sometimes in life we experience joy and ease. Sometimes life sucks and we die. Sometimes good things come from hard work. Sometimes only pain comes from hard work. Somedays we feel happy and joyful. Other days we feel depressed. Sometimes it seems we have the power to create our reality……..OR……..was the creation a function of privilege?

At 59 years old, I’ve learned there is really no rhyme or reason to life. Sometimes really bad people do nothing and seem to get everything they want. Often, really good people work really hard and get nothing. Perfectly healthy, really good young people get sick and die by no fault of their own, and absolutely terrible human beings get sick with a terminal illness and live for fucking ever!  No amount of thinking the right thoughts, praying the right prayers, or so-called life contracts or past life experiences change the circumstances of the human condition.

The human condition JUST IS. We have joy. We experience suffering. We find ease. We struggle. And none of this is our fault!!!!!  Our thoughts don’t dictate our life. Prayers and spells don’t change the course of fate. Life just is. And the last thing we need in the already difficult experience of being human is someone gloating about their good fortune and then telling us we don’t have what they do because we signed a life contract or thought the wrong thoughts. F*CK that SH*T!

But here is what we can do with life: Find resources and tools that help us to survive it!

  • Find a therapist.
  • Secure a spiritual director.
  • Ask your doctor for medicinal support (Zoloft is my friend).
  • Phone a friend.
  • Cultivate a daily practice that creates the space in which you can return to a place of inner peace.
  • Exercise.
  • Do what you love when you are able.
  • Drink coffee.  Eat chocolate. Love what you love in healthy amounts.
  • Find meaningful work if you are able, and if not, find something that doesn’t kill your soul.
  • Enjoy nature.
  • Create space to be fully present to your feelings: ALL OF THEM!
  • Honor your sorrow, depression, loneliness, and sense of abandonment. They all have something to teach you.
  • Find practices to free you from any and all guilt and shame based conditioning.
  • FREE YOURSELF from any and all person/teachers/tools that try to heap shame or guilt upon you.
  • And remember this:  YOU ARE A PRECIOUS AND GLORIOUS CHILD OF LOVE/God.  And if you have forgotten this, find tools to help you remember!
  • And if all else fails, exercise my favorite mantra:  F*CK This SH*T!

The Ego Trap of Future Thinking

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 3 Comments

As human beings we are gifted with an instinctual response to pain. This response urges us to do whatever we can to escape pain. In many cases, this instinctual escape response has saved our lives. It may have caused us to pull our hand away from a flame, to run from a burning building, or to seek shelter in the face of a storm. This instinctual response has proven beneficial when facing life or death situations and has ensured that humanity would endure, despite the hardships of being human.

An important quality of this escape response is that it serves us when danger is imminent. This instinctual response is meant for the present moment only, and was never meant to become part of our ongoing psychology. Animals, for example, experience those moments of fight or flight and then are done with them, free to move about their daily lives with a certain measure of ease. They do what they need to do to obtain nourishment. They sleep. They play. They poop. They mate. They don’t waste their time on worry.  As such, they live their lives free of the ongoing obsession with preparing to flee (or fight).

Such is not the case with human beings. Instead, we have been conditioned to exhaust our thoughts and our energies with preparing for possible threat so much so that the present moment itself has become a threat from which we must escape. This is where future thinking has come in.

Future thinking is anything and everything that takes us out of the present moment. (Past thinking does the same thing, but in the opposite direction).

Future thinking arises out of the idea that where we are right now isn’t good enough.

We’re not happy enough. We’re not well enough. We don’t have what we want. We want for more. We’re not pretty enough or skinny enough. We don’t yet own red-soled shoes. We’re lonely. Alone. Afraid. We’re not good enough, rich enough. We aren’t famous. The goal we once set out to accomplish has died on the vine. We haven’t yet met our soulmate. Love has eluded us. We’ve accomplished all we set out to do and we still find ourselves dissatisfied.

Future thinking casts us into the hell of wishing, hoping, dreaming, praying, manifesting, for that which we do not currently have, enforcing the illusion that there is something out there, in the future, that will finally make us happy and ease the pain of being human. Future thinking then causes us to seek outside of ourselves, reach outside of ourselves, throw money at things outside of ourselves that promise to have the secrets to what out there, and in the future, will make us feel better – take away and ease our pain.

Literally every industry is guilty of enforcing future thinking. Education that tells us we will have a meaningful job and abundant wealth after investing thousands on their degree. Healthcare that tells us this treatment will save us, and while there might only be a 0.03% chance of a cure, it will be worth the millions of dollars spent and months of agony for the 0.03% chance we might be cured. Corporations who promise their product will guarantee happiness, make you beautiful, stop the signs of aging, help you lose weight, become cured of … etc. Religion for promising our suffering will be rewarded by a lifetime of happiness in the afterlife or that our prayers will make our circumstances change. Self-help programs which promise wealth and happiness. The Secret and similar new thought programs which tell us our future depends on our good thoughts. Astrology that promises us love and money after x,y,z planet becomes aligned in this perfect way. Psychics who promise better times ahead. Mediums who promise that if we heal the wounds of our ancestors all will be well. Shamans who promise to remove the demon from your second chakra which is blocking your way to wealth. New Age and Ascension practitioners who keep promising if we buy their program, we will receive the codes we need to open our pathways to love, happiness, and wealth.

The key words used in future thinking are: If…then

If you do this, then you will get that. The devil (an outward manifestation of the inner adversary/The Ego), used this trick with Jesus in the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. (Ref Luke 4: 1-14)

“If you turn this bread into stone then you will prove to me you are the son of God.”

“If you worship me, I will give you all these as your kingdom.”

“If you throw yourself down from this parapet you will prove to me God’s words that the angels will pick you up.”

Today’s future thought purveyors are no different. “If you do what we tell you, buy what we are selling, believe as we believe, do as we describe, THEN all your dreams will be fulfilled, and your pain and suffering will come to an end. But the truth is, NONE of these have the power to change the present moment, neither do they have the power to change the human experience.

Pain and suffering are the consequences of being human. So are happiness and joy. It is all part of our human journey and there is absolutely nothing we can do to escape this. There is no magic pill, right thought, or future fantasy that will change the reality of being human.

The key to finding peace and contentment in the human experience has nothing whatsoever to do with the future, and instead has everything to do with being fully present to the NOW. Jesus did not say the kingdom of God was in the future. He said it is in our midst, right here, right now, within and among us (Luke 17:20-21). The NOW is not something to escape. It is something to embrace, allowing ourselves to be fully present to what is right now, instead of wasting our time wishing, hoping, dreaming, fantasizing for a better tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I fully admit to being occupied with future thought myself, throwing my money at future thought purveyors and making future thought promises myself. It’s an ego trap I admit to having fallen into and I am making decisions today that are helping me to unravel from this trap. Join me if you feel so-called.

Deservedness is an Ego Trap

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

All of my adult life I’d had to endure the platitudes of both the capitalistic and new age/new thought/prosperity gospel/life-coach agendas that base their philosophies on the foundation of the perception of deservedness.  Mantras like:

  • You deserve to get paid what you’re worth.
  • You deserve the things you want.
  • You deserve to enjoy luxuries.
  • You deserve what makes you feel good.
  • You deserve to be recognized for your work and your contributions.
  • You deserve the house and car of your dreams.
  • You deserve that Chanel suit or Vuitton bag.
  • You deserve to be rewarded for how hard you work.

Except for the rights beautifully outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which many would argue we don’t deserve), we don’t deserve shit!

Deservedness, by its definition, is a system of reward (or punishment). For our purposes here, deservedness implies reward proportionate to contribution or work. In and of itself, the idea of deservedness looks benign enough. Work=reward.

In practice, however, the reward is determined by the presiding power system.

The Church, as one such power system, for example has created elaborate formulas for determining reward (or punishment) based on someone’s virtuous acts, or lack thereof. Employers determine wage equal to time put in, further based on supply of workers vs. demand, the perceived value (determined by the power system) of the service provided, and increasingly based on how much of their annual revenue has to go to stockholders and CEO’s.

It could be argued that every single one of these formulas is arbitrary based on the whims of a greedy and power-driven culture. A perfect example of the arbitrariness of the system is a retail clerk at Walgreens making $8.50 per hour with zero benefits while their CEO makes $28million a year plus full benefits. How is it that the person on the ground selling the products Walgreens profits from deserves less than the CEO whose primary job is to wine and dine stockholders? In my mind, NO ONE deserves $28mil a year, or perhaps it’s the retail clerk who deserves that salary and not the CEO!  No one said, however, that I comprehend or even subscribe to the rules of capitalism.

Neither do I ascribe to the ego-based, white privilege inspired philosophies of the New Age/New Thought/Prosperity Gospel/Life Coach communities. To suggest that people are paid proportionate to their work or their perceived gifts betrays ignorance based in privilege. To further suggest that our thoughts dictate the circumstances of our lives reveals the arrogance of one who believes they alone have the power to determine the movement of their lives, including (especially) how much money they have and how they DESERVE to use it. When I look at the success (as defined by capitalism) of those in these communities, what I mostly see is pure, dumb luck – or straight up privilege. It’s easier to become successful in a white, male, dominant capitalistic system when you look the part, obey the rules of that system, and have had the privilege of that system paving your path. Some among these communities bypass accusations of privilege by claiming that what they have is a blessing given to them by God. “God loves them so much that God gave them…..” 

God has absolutely NOTHING to do with what one does or does not have. To claim otherwise is a direct insult to every single person struggling in our world just to survive.

What we have or do not have are simply functions of the human experiment. Whether what we have (as defined by the power system) is more or less has absolutely nothing to do with deservedness. When we have more than what we need for basic survival, what we choose to do with that excess is wholly and completely up to us. If we decide to spend that excess on a Chanel suit, it’s because we wanted it, not because we deserve it. Arguing deservedness over the choices we make in regard to our excess resources, is just another way human beings justify their unconscious shame in doing for themselves while others are going without. When we are at peace with the choices we make around the use of our resources, there is no reason to protest or justify our deservedness because we know that at the end of the day, we don’t deserve shit!

Beyond the Law of Attraction

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

The Secret, The Law of Attraction, and New Thought Technology all espouse the idea that our thoughts dictate our reality – either drawing to us or standing in the way of our receiving. The common formula is:

Bad thoughts = Bad circumstances

Good thoughts = Good circumstances and the outcomes we desire

All three of these schools of thought are rooted in a) the law of cause and effect and b) the actions of the ego.

Cause and Effect

The law of cause and effect says that that every action or thought causes an equal effect. In the case of the law of attraction, the effect is determined by the negative or positive “vibration” of the action or thought. The law of cause and effect fits equally within the field of physics, as it does in the ideas of karma and natural law. The law of cause and effect is wholly dependent on dualistic consciousness and the physical realities that exist within the 2d and 3d worlds.

Ego

Egoic consciousness is that which presumes that as individuals we have control over the circumstance and outcomes of our lives. Egoic consciousness arises out of the perception of separation – that we are somehow separate from Source, Soul, ourselves, each other, and all of creation. Egoic consciousness places us in the position of being the makers of our own realities, in essence making ourselves into gods. Furthermore, egoic consciousness (also known as pride) tempts us into believing we are not only the makers of our realities, but that when the outcome is good, believing that we are somehow especially blessed by God. Alternatively, pride also tempts us into believing that when bad things happen to us, that God must be punishing us, or alternatively, that we are at fault for “thinking the wrong thoughts.”  Finally, it is ego that defines God as outside of us, and as a being who closely resembles human beings in thought, behavior, and actions.

Duality

The Law of Attraction (et.al) are based in duality and have their function solely in the 1d-3d worlds.  Because dimensions of consciousness are on a continuum, we may witness some remnants of the Law of Attraction at work in the 4d and 5d realms. Once we move beyond the 5d realm, however, these laws no longer apply. Neither is pride at work in our judgments of our reality.

Union

In the fifth dimension, we move from duality to union. In 5d we no longer see ourselves as separate from each other, creation, and God. Instead, we understand and are operating out of a place of oneness.  We feel the peace and harmony that comes forth from this state of union and we operate out of a state of love.

Consciousness Evolution

The fifth dimension is not, however, the final destination of our consciousness evolution. Beyond 5d we step forth into the vast realm of dimensions that are fluid in nature, undefinable, and varying in density as we move about this fluid realm. In 6d and beyond, not only has the perception of separation fallen away, so has the egoic function of judgment. Here we can no longer give ourselves credit for the circumstances of our lives, neither can we give the credit to that which some might call “God.”  Instead, we understand that we are simply a part of an ever moving and evolving creativity and that every individual and circumstance is part of that unfolding creation. Source is manifesting itself through all that is – both that which we may have formerly judged as good and bad.  Beyond 5d there is no judgment. Everything simply is – including the circumstances of our own life. Everything is simply unfolding according to the movement of Source, as itself and within all of creation. 

Beyond 5d

Arriving at the dimensions beyond 5d takes place in increments as we do the inner work of freeing ourselves from dualism. Freedom from dualism begins with healing the wounds, perceptions, and conditioning that have anchored us in duality – all that which has been rooted in judgment, separation, fear, shame, guilt, pride, sloth, lust for power, envy, competition, gluttony, hatred, and greed. Freedom from dualism transports us out of our discrimination, bigotry, comparison, otherism, and sexism, and brings us to a place of compassion, understanding, generosity, and acceptance.

Sovereign Participant

Beyond 5d we arrive at a place of inner sovereignty, where we have left behind the heavy work of self-transformation (there is always inner transformation to do but this is no longer our focus) and are now open to simply being a part of the never ending unfolding of creation. We come to accept the experience of our lives, simply as it is, trusting that it is all part of the great unfolding. Here there is no need to change what is, but simply to accept it and surrender to the flow, knowing and trusting that all that is coming forth in our lives is as Source intends it. Here we are a willing participant with the Universe in its unfolding. In this state, we are deeply attuned to the subtle movement of the Universe and to its guidance and direction in our lives and willingly respond to it. We also have become adept at refraining from the temptation to manipulate or attempt to control our lives by taking action that is not prompted by the inner promptings of Source, likely because we have learned better through our prior attempts to do otherwise. At more subtle levels of consciousness, the idea of freewill becomes no longer relevant, because what was formerly “our” will is now solely subject to the workings of Source.

Spiritual Obedience

This level of sovereignty is spoken of in both Hebrew and Christian scripture. Paul spoke of Jesus in the role of sovereign participant in his Letter to the Hebrews:

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
Being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself,
and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross.

Phil 2: 6-8

Jesus himself spoke of this sovereign participation:

For I have come down from heaven
not to do my own will
but the will of him who sent me.

John 6: 38

And again:

I and the Father are one…

the Father is in me
and I am in the Father.

John 10: 30, 38b

It is only at this level of consciousness evolution that we can comprehend Jesus speaking of being One with Source (that which he called Abwoon which has been translated as Father) and understand the sovereign participation that allowed him to surrender to his own suffering and death, “not my will but yours be done (Luke 22:42)”.

Reflection Questions:  What have been your experiences with the Law of Attraction, etc.?

How are you being invited beyond 3d consciousness to sovereign participation?

Courses which support Sovereignty