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Welcome
Report from Milton, West Virginia
Dreams of Focus
Why the Pineal Gland?
Book Recommendations
Focus in the News?
Who’s Who in Focus
Poetry

From the Editors

Focus, like many of the other principles, is not understood if we use only its ordinary meaning. When we say, "Stay focused!" or "focus that camera on . . .", we mean focus is something like concentration. Certainly, Focus involves intent and limitation, but we would be misguided if we thought of it as effortful concentration. Focus as a spiritual principle is more like riding a band of consciousness. We select it, but once our intent is clear, it is more like "flow." The heart-mind moving in Focus is a spiritual channel.

Report from Milton, West Virginia

This month's principle is Focus. Here is a teaching from one of our dream sisters:

What Service

Have you ever experienced losing yourself in some favorite activity – playing a musical instrument, engaging in a sport or during work on a creative project? Perhaps it is more accurate to say that you have been found.  This is the experience of timeless Focus that inspires us.  From The Invisible Garment:  “Focus is very powerful because it allows for the understanding of humans as co-creators with God."

The Green Dot Story is one such experience.  I had an opportunity to spend a day with Dr. Stacy Groscup, a powerful mentor.  Stacy was an ordained Minister, a Hall of Fame Archer (one of his tricks was to shoot an aspirin out of the air from behind his back), and friend to all.  I wanted to hear his insights about eye dominance in relation to aim, which I understood to mean “focus” in the ordinary sense. "I'll prove to you that it is irrelevant! Come out into the yard, and I'll show you," he said.

Stacy applied some much needed wax to my bowstring.  I was instructed to look at the green dot painted in the center of a 12 inch circular target that he was going to toss into the air 20 yards away.  The first two arrows missed. He asked, "Where were you looking?"

"At the target, of course."

"No, I told you to look ONLY at the green dot!" he exclaimed.

Oh yeah, right - the green dot. My next arrow hit the target effortlessly. He asked in a rather sarcastic tone, "So, what eye did you use in aiming?"

"Ah, there was no time to think," I replied. "I had the bow in front of my head, somewhere, and I looked and responded."

My final experience was in his basement using a blow gun.  After my first dart hit the target, I was told to only look into the back end of that dart and blow another one right into it.  This was also an exercise in experiencing willingness as opposed to anxious expectation.  Again he said, chuckling, "Tell me, which eye did you use this time?" Obviously, neither, as it was my mouth and my breath. Today, I keep on my bookshelf those three lovely darts that are all aligned and connected.

The gift of expanded consciousness, the imaginative or visionary powers of the third eye (probably related to the pineal gland), enable us to become the arrow or the dart. The more clearly we experience our Beingness, the more radiantly we may participate with Focus and contribute to Planetary Consciousness.

--Judie Allen

Dreams of Focus

We can learn about the principles by examining our dreams. Here are examples of dreams of Focus:

I am witnessing in another dimension.  I am not standing on anything visible or solid, nor is there is a sense of floating or being ungrounded.  There is spaciousness all around.   I have been assigned two people.  One is a woman/girl with dark curly hair whom I can see.  Another part of me which I can’t see is to the left and is observing a man, which I also can’t see in the dream but know I am doing it.  I watch as the girl is lifting herself up, sitting up from a lying down position on a rug which looks Navajo. She changes her position and lies down again.  Again, the rug is not on a floor, there is no structure, just the rug but it is held and solid.  I am standing at her head about 4 feet away from her.  I am empty, void of feeling, projections, story.  I am.  I see.  This is what I am here to do.  She glances at me briefly as she changes position and is reassured that I am there, holding the presence.

The stories we tell often filter out the direct experience which is an important aspect of Focus.  In this dream the witness is freed from extraneous elements of form and can dedicate herself to the job of unbiased observation.  The spacious element of the dream enlarges the available field of perception.  Two other aspects of Focus are evident in the dream. One is the openness to the “seen” activities of the woman/girl on the rug without interpretation or projection.  The other is the ability to “see” into the energetic field of the man in a way not available to the ordinary eye.

I am observing gem stones manifest. When I simply observe, the gem stones manifest into their wholeness and beauty. When I have an idea of what they're to look like or become, it impedes and even stops their natural process.

An important element in Focus is letting go of expectations or willfulness.  When the dreamer observes (perceives) the stones, the very act of perception without agenda brings out the inner beauty.

My husband and I are in a small town in the daytime. Stores and shops are on streets going out from a hub like the palm of a hand and 4 fingers. I needed to buy stamps, and a man that lived in the hub told us the post office was at the end of the 4th street on the right-hand side. I had to go down some stairs to get to the 4th street. When I arrived, the P.O. was a large dark brown house. Instead of selling me stamp[s, the male postal employee started a sales pitch on housing - how wonderful and affordable it was in this town. After awhile he finally shut up and got the stamps from a young Korean woman.

A storm came up and we were told to get to safety; I saw women hurrying children into shelters. I asked the Korean woman what was coming, 'because a tornado will rip this house to shreds.' We were on the main floor, lying face down on the floor. She didn't answer; soon whatever was coming had passed. I went back to the hub where my husband was back from giving a woman a ride somewhere in our car.

The man who ran the hub told us that lots of people come to 'the farm' to get their food. They hadn't gone to a supermarket in a long time. He also urged us to move to the little town. My husband and I liked it - no malls, no large box stores; people bought their produce from the farmer, meat from the butcher, fish from the fish market, dry goods from a small shop, etc. It was peaceful; there were no cars on the streets, only in the hub. Streets were for walking and bicycling.

When we left the small town, the rain was pouring down in sheets and I had thrown a white jacket over my head to run to our car. I told my husband we'd be back, and I'll return the jacket then.

This dream is a ‘snapshot’ of the principle of Focus (though other principles are alluded to within the dream as well).  In this "small town" - as small as the pineal gland perhaps? - there are many streets or bands of consciousness one can travel. You can choose only one at a time; but they all relate back to the same hub – the person who is doing the seeing.  The hub is busy, but each form of market is distinct - fish, meat, etc. Streets are for walking and bicycling - the latter often serving as a symbol for dual consciousness, i.e. ordinary and altered consciousness. The dreamer is seeking the ‘stamp’ of authenticity, and then she finds herself prone in the dreaming position. Finally, the rain coming down "in sheets" also suggests the bed-clothes, in the form of the blessing of rain, while the dreamer puts on the garment of ecstasy.

Look in your dreams for references to different forms of consciousness ... to the planet as a whole... to the colors blue or turquoise.

Why the Pineal Gland?

The pineal gland secretes melatonin, a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan. Some experiments have suggested that it also secretes a psychedelic substance, but this has not been verified. Melatonin as an antioxidant may help reduce the damage caused by Parkinson's disease and may increase longevity. The pineal gland itself was once believed to be the "seat of the soul," and some mystics have called it the "third eye" (and the point of the third chakra).
Symbolically, we as dreamers can regard the pineal gland, which secretes its life-enhancing substance at night, as similar to the point of FOCUS from which our various forms of non-ordinary consciousness emerge and distinguish themselves. -TF

Book Recommendations

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More Than Human World, by David Abram.

This book could be a primer on the principle of Focus.  Abram traveled to Indonesia to study the relationship between magic and medicine.  In Bali he passed himself off not as an anthropologist but as a magician.  This identity gave him access to information about the community which would not have been available otherwise. He explores the dependence of human cognition on the natural environment as he delves into the nature of perception.  Connie Kaplan writes the pineal gland assists in becoming synchronized with nature.  Abrams suggests the very foundation of language "echoes the calls and cries of the earth."  The interrelationship of perceiver and perceived and the reality-shifting sense which results from this deep immersion in the more-than-human world provide a wonderful exploration into the Principle of Focus.


Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality , by Dean Radin.

A scientist who has pursued with single-mindedness (focus in the ordinary sense!) the verification of various kinds of non-ordinary perception, Radin here presents the results of many years of experimental research. For your friends who need rational proof in ESP, clairvoyance, or precognition, this might be the book with the best chance of convincing them. From the dreamers' perspective, Radin illuminates what is known about the various bands of consciousness and reports experiments that are good examples. He suggests, too, that all of these are part of an emerging holistic consciousness that will infuse the planet.

Focus in the News

Ask yourself regarding the following story: Is Focus appearing in its common meaning, or in its spiritual meaning as a basic principle of form?

• Headline: Some Americans in Iraq spend off-duty hours on video games; others keep blogs or work on their abs. . . Sergeant Geoffrey Allison made violins.
  Sgt. Geoffrey Allison had stuffed into his rucksack only enough wood to make two violins. An Army medic about to embark on a yearlong posting in Iraq, Allison figured he would be too busy to devote much time to his hobby. But only days into the deployment, he was already sawing and sanding. Allison built a workbench from scrap wood he gathered around his base near the Syrian border. By May 2006, three months in, he had used up all his lumber and had two pieces to show for it: a violin modeled on Stradivari's G-mold pattern, circa 1715, and a Stradivari-style viola with a slimmed-down neck. "I had more free time than I expected," the 39-year-old GI told Newsweek.

The Principle of Focus may be allowing Sgt. Allison to be in the midst of one kind of energy field (war zone) and still be able to tap into a deeper flow which allows the concentration to detail involved in crafting a violin.   Are there places in your life where being particularly “awake” would help you to navigate creatively in energy fields which appear chaotic and dangerous?

6. Who's Who in Focus

Famous people through whom Focus came to life – these have sun in Focus. See whether you can figure out what they have in common! (Read further below to see what we thought.)

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1821-1881
  Known for his psychologically insightful novels; his mature fiction explored themes of spiritual torment, religious awakening and the psychological confusion caused by the conflict between traditional culture and modern Western philosophy. Dostoevsky was also an epileptic.

• Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
  American writer who blended satire, black comedy, and science fiction; best known for Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five.

• Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918-
  Nobel Prize author, sentenced to labor camps in Russia from 1945 for opposition to Stalin, then exiled to Russian Central Asia until 1957. Solzhenitsyn protested the Soviet Union’s oppression and criticized other forms of dehumanization throughout his life.
  
  
• Jules Verne, 1828-1905
  Considered the founder of science fiction, he wrote stories of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.
  
  
• Yuri Gagarin, 1934-1968
  "First Man in Space" - the Russian cosmonaut who was the first to orbit the earth.  He had dreamed of traveling in space since a young boy – and died in an airplane, in bad weather, while retraining as a pilot.
  
  
• Bobby Fischer, 1943-
  First US-born Grand Master of chee (at age 15), who defeated the Russian champion Spassky in a famous match in 1972 but then became increasingly reclusive and declined to defend his title. A fugitive from the U.S. government because he went to Yugoslavia to have a rematch with Spassky - against US policy at the time - he was eventually offered citizenship by Iceland, and he retired there in 2005.
  
  
• William Tecumseh Sherman, 1820-1891
  Outstanding Civil War strategist, known for his "march from Atlanta to the sea," but also criticized for his "scorched earth" and "total war" policies.
  
  
• Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962
  An activist First Lady during her husband's presidency, she continued after his death to work for human rights and women's right. She was listed as the World's Most Popular Woman from 1946 till her death in 1962.
  
  
• H. J. Heinz, 1844-1919
  After selling vegetables for his parents as a boy, Heinz created a popular horseradish. Although the horseradish company went bankrupt, he persisted, creating a new company in 1876 to produce ketchup, pickles, and other items. He also introduced the "factory tour" so people could see how products were made.

Some of our 'famous people' this month are explorers of the inner reaches of consciousness and even the frightening forms that human minds can create. Dostoevsky, Vonnegut, and Solzenitzyn are examples of those. Others are called to distant explorations, in fantasy or reality, such as Verne and Gagarin. Fischer and Sherman seem to have been called to extreme forms of Focus, namely those of conquest. With Eleanor Roosevelt and H. J. Heinz, their more varied lives (after all, Heinz created the idea of 57 varieties - which was just his idea, not an accurate count of products) don't necessarily suggest Focus at all. Or do they? What do you think?

Poetry

Planetary Consciousness

Betty Luceigh
June 2006

I wonder if a monk in a dreary cave mistranslated an ancient text,
 or the tip of his feather twitched on the paper
 and he wrote planET instead of plan IT
Or maybe it was a punctuation mistake,
 the typo of a misplaced period,
maybe a speako in some interplanetary language,
or a teardrop landing on fresh ink, never corrected.
Was planet Earth really planned in advance,
all its evolutions part of a “to do list” written at the Big Bang?
Has matter all this time just been the field laborer
for the pre-set intentions of the Divine?

If there were such a plan for the planet
why would it have been made so difficult
for humanity to understand its own role within it?
Perhaps we humans have not yet reached that sector
in the Consciousness Map of the Universe.
We have acted out of our beliefs, established our values on them,
constructed societies around them,
yet have discovered and rediscovered flaws in their foundations,
and then have fought wars not to change them,
killed more brutally than a wolf pack its prey,
all rather than realize that any belief
is a temporary ordering to provide a temporary meaning.
Is it through the defaults on our planetary obligations
that we must learn to realign or redefine or recreate our principles
to embrace that which is greater than the planet itself?

What if it’s true as some physicists suggest
that reality is a wondrous and strange integration
of idea-fields that become actualized when a choice
enables matter to give them form?
Would not humankind then participate
in choosing an evolving plan for the earth?
Have we, in fact, already been doing so
but from stagnant beliefs based on ignorance
that our choices are only for our self-enlightenment
and that our self-enlightenment is only for ourselves?
How many of us have joined the “Cult of the Binge”
to outsize our neighbors with our cars and houses
and bank accounts and our unquestioned dogmas.

What if our choices instead came from a redefined conviction
that our own expanded personal awareness serves as preparation
for a collective enlightenment and a connective wisdom
that would create a sphere of consciousness
gently accessible to all on the planet,
impossible to deplete from its Divine Source.
Would we then share in co-evolving plans
we have not yet known how to dream alone?
Would we then realize that we need not be victims of limited resources
but co-creators of an empowered future?
Would we then be able correct the teardrop of humanity
fallen on the current page of planet Earth?

For could it be, after all, just this:
consciousness of our planet
includes within it
a plan from our consciousness.

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