People always focus on what they are interested in.

If you decide you want to buy a new [insert your favorite car here], you will suddenly see cars of that type everywhere. If you decide you want to be a great tennis player, you will focus on information about playing tennis, and information like that will "magically" begin to appear in your everyday existence.

I have also noticed that the level of people's competence in something is directly proportional to their level of interest and motivation. My wife claims to be terrible at math, but she has no difficulty navigating multi-million dollar financial documents where she works, because she wants to get it right.

And no matter how mechanically inept one of your friends says she is, she almost certainly knows how to drive a car (a very heavy, powerful, arguably complex machine), because she was motivated to learn how to do so.

I personally don't care how outlandish information might seem to someone else, as long as it works.

I think it's good to look at everything with an open mind. However only the individual can discern what resonates with them.

If you're questioning that you may be impressionable, you're doubting your own judgement or not trusting yourself. I'd say if something feels right then it is right. There is soo much out there right now that we all have to get quiet and use our own inner guidance to discern the authentic from the fake.

Personally, I can't believe how much I've opened my mind in a few short years but occasionally I do come across something that doesn't sit quite right with me, so I usually go with my own gut feeling as opposed to what others think.

Thanks for the link... I'll check it out :)

I watched the entire video and went to her website http://www.ascension101.com/

There is some really great stuff here and I'm glad that you shared this information with us.

There were two observations within me that I really want to share with the rest of the group.

First I was struck by how wonderful it is that we are living in this fantastic time in the history of our species, to be incarnate in a time of such amazing change, and within that change, we are fortunate to be participating in a forum of sharing this type of information regardless of each of our individual location of existence upon this globe.

And further on this point, each of us just don't have enough time to go through all the material available to determine what may be useful for our personal development, and Michael's decision to share something that he found valuable/interesting certainly narrows down the effort each of us has to make individually to stumble upon information of this nature.

So Thanks to Michael, and thank you for everyone who has taken the effort in the past and the coming future to share interesting information that they believe has been helpful for their development.

And of course, thank you to Simon Templeton for not only the Inward Quest experience, but also for starting the Psitek site with all the fantastic (free) books, which really got many of us initially involved in becoming participants here.

Now I come to the second observation and perhaps the most important part of my answer.

I didn't completely connect with (completely embrace) the entire interview, in fact there were some aspects that were not for me, and by that I don't mean the information that was being discussed, but rather, I had moments of suspicion or distrust in certain sections.

And here is the important part.

I notice that within everything that I am genuinely interested in.

Upon reading most people's comments on ideas that are posted here (I'm not referring to this particular post) I realize that I'm not the only one who picks up shades of brilliance intertwined with possible ulterior motives within information of this nature.

Far too often, we tend to criticize things (ideas) if they don't survive our rather narrow and stringent criteria of scrutiny without a single blemish of uncertainty and doubt

But how can you expect perfection in anything when we, who are trying to comprehend the best we can within the light of our own understanding, are ourselves limited in our ability to analyze something greater than our current understanding?

Could our doubts about anything be the result of our own limitations of comprehension?

And if that's the case how does one stay within the cleared path while traversing a minefield of knowledge?

And the best way to answer that is with a quote from Ineliz Benz's own website about the dangers of spiritual awakening http://www.ascension101.com/awakening/46-dangers-of-spiritual-awakening.html

"What you can do to protect yourself is to develop a big sense of self trust. Your instinct will show you red flags when something is not right"

This approach has served me well so far and I find myself quite at ease with things I don't agree with, or for that matter rejecting ideas that were very important to me at earlier stages of this spiritual journey.

Ascension was a very important to me in the 90's and I really wanted to develop abilities to transform myself and assist others through this process. While I did begin to experience change and was able to assist others (strangers) in strange and magical ways, something wasn't right about the whole change that I was going through. There was a "heaviness" in my consciousness that I couldn't change.

The best way I can describe this is, I was trying to get somewhere by "doing" things and "practicing" things and "meditating" things, all the while, I discovered that I was adding layers and layers of further "pre-determined" concepts and expectations upon an already complex and burdened personality and trying to "Ascend" somewhere to a layer of myself that was "lighter" and thus closer to the source.

I found that I was not doing any real work of my own. I was simply reading and learning and repeating exercises and techniques that were presented by others who had experienced a sort of awakening and were now ready to share and teach what they knew.

So If I didn't experience exactly what they had experienced then I had to process that as bad advice, or deception, or scam etc., etc.

Meanwhile the problem was really me.

I was too F@#*&ing lazy to follow my inner guidance which was attracting all these ideas to me to serve only as a catalyst to give me enough momentum to work on myself with the guidance and trust from within.

Eventually I found that the "Ascension" thing is no longer my cup of tea for I am far more interested in "releasing" the artificial self and "allowing" the guidance of the inner self (which may or may not be the same thing, I don't know)

I am finding that eventually you get to point where you have to stop chasing knowledge and technique.

They are distractions and they distract you from yourself.

It is almost like saying "Thinking is what stands in in-between of inspiration and comprehension"

And if you get that statement you will realize that your "self" wants to awaken you at the pace that is a perfect match for your individuality and all the exterior "methods" that you keep on learning will slowly put you into a spiritual hypnosis that is just as complex as the person that you were, that needed the spiritual help in the first place.

To the best of my understanding what stands between your inner self and the outer self are all the layers of database knowledge that you believe is your identity.

And learning, and learning, and learning keeps on adding more and more to that database identity.

I am finding that the strange thing is that when you allow your inner self to guide you, you are attracted to the same knowledge as before, but now you use that knowledge to learn just 1 or 2 nuggets of specific knowledge, but mostly to remove old knowledge that you have accumulated over the years which have embedded themselves in your psyche and have remained un-examined and hidden.

I find this approach of using information to un-ravel all the nonsense I have accumulated far more rewarding, because what is emerging out of it is an identity that is able to remain neutral and calm within most situations, making "existence" a pleasant experience.

'growing up', no doubt, entails recognizing the limits of cultural guidelines and the veracity of 'new knowledge'.
as the student of life perceives or tries to understand how he/she fits into the scheme of things,
the innate thirst of our 'souls' for completion of our destiny ought to be welcomed.
be open to receive what is happening without prejuice, yet take time to measure if/how it fits.
may we all continue to unfold