Mind Can Make A Hell Out Of Heaven
Maral Mende
So when I first moved to Vancouver, I had a tough time accepting the fact that drug abuse could make people so hollow. Downtown would always give me the creeps, because I felt like I was looking at a zombie apocalypse, with all the drug-abusers screaming and lying around so lifelessly.
As they crossed major intersections without care for traffic, I would gasp at how little life they had in them. It was like their soul was hanging far, far away, from an invisible thread that could snap at any moment.
If you think about it, whenever you have an epiphany, you stop doing the things that were sabotaging any aspect of your life. What changed? Something clicked for you in your mind, and your aperture widened. You could finally see that you had a choice, and you no longer had to sit in the mud.
Vasundhra is the Founder & Writer of My Spiritual Shenanigans. After seeing 11:11 on the clock one fateful night, her life turned around. Ever since, she has been blending modern psychology and ancient spirituality, to help herself and people around the world elevate the quality of their lives.
Wow! This was another master piece. I have always admired your consistency. Your video quality looks so much professional. The audio when the video starts is clear and loud, however at the beginning and end when you are speaking with your video it can be better. I would suggest if you can use a microphone.
While your brain operates as a whole, some functionality is more centered on one side. According to Taylor, the right brain hemisphere is all about the present and interpreting our experience of ourselves in the world through the senses. The right brain thinks in pictures and connects us to everything around us through its awareness.
Your left brain is more like a serial processor, interpreting the world linearly and methodically, and is concerned with the past and the future. The left brain picks out details of the present moment, categorizes them, and assigns meaning based on associations it makes with past experiences. This side of the brain thinks in words and defines us as separate entities while also being responsible for that ongoing chatter which, in my case, was incessant and not very nice.
Laying on the trampoline (makes a great place for a nap BTW) in the sunshine just watching the puffy, white clouds float by against the backdrop of a brilliant, blue sky, I can remember being perfectly content, joyous even, despite having a serious brain injury, having lost custody of my kids, having no significant other, blah, blah, blah. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I actually miss that feeling.
Through her experience, Jill Bolte Taylor became convinced that anyone is capable of attaining this peaceful state by consciously choosing every moment of every day which of their two cognitive minds they exist in and operate out of.
In my own life, I have deliberately developed and maintained my glimpse of nirvana, by not allowing my left brain to bully the right brain and seize control again, through such practices as meditation, mindfulness, visualization, yoga, and other mental health tools. Anyone can also achieve this quiet mind. Brain injury not required.
Great blog Debbie. While I didn't have a brain injury, I did come close to attempting suicide, after which I visited John of God. There, John, throught the entities that incorporate his body while he is in trance, they operated on my left brain. Later on the next evening they also worked on my heart. So in a sense I got to start over as well with a newly rewired brain and indestructible heart. I learned to choose heaven far more often that I choose hell after that experience.
I know for me and for a lot of us, it takes something major like a brain injury or being suicidal to make some drastic changes. However, these can be made without all the drama and pain. How nice to be able to do so. It is a choice, but I had to hit rock bottom before I realized that. So glad I did. Happy for you that you did too.
I find that mind-body focus of my energy really helps a lot (e.g., stepping to the right) and also meditation, stillness, and visualization. It's pretty neat you got to experience the silencing of the left brain, actually. That must have been an interesting experience. More importantly, it's great to see you making all of these new connections (literally and figuratively). Your words are important, Debbie, and they're communicated with such beauty.
Keep up the great work!
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Lori, thank you so much for the wonderful words and encouragement. Your MS has very different manifestations than my brain injury and some striking similarities. We can learn from each other as can any one even without any specific brain challenge as well. The point being that we can all better our brains and our lives as Jill Bolte Taylor discovered and pointed out.
I love your writing Debbie and your journey. It occurs to ask you is the path you describe from one dominance to another, or to a newfound kind of unified wholeness? Is one side of the brain evil and needing to be wiped-out, or is a matter of bring things into balance and harmony?
Lawrence, thank you for commenting and your kind words. I think mine has been a journey of bringing my brain into balance. It was out of harmony before the injury, and I did not know it. That, I believe, contributed heavily to my depressive and anxious state. Before the injury, I let my left brain over power the gifts of the right brain. At first, after the suicide attempt, my left side was shut down. My recovery has been a process of developing the functions of the right brain while bringing back out, with awareness and intention, the attributes of the left brain which has given me a greater appreciation for both.
Now we know God is omniscient ie. He is all-seeing and all-knowing, of everything as well as of what will happen in the past, present, and future. That means He would surely have known that Adam and Eve would, at some point, decide to disobey Him. He would have known that this sin would condemn not just the duo, but succeeding generations of mankind, along with the earth.
Before going into why God decided to proceed with Creation, however, I figured that it would help to narrow the scope of the discussion by considering (and dismissing) several alternative options to explain what happened. As a believer, I kept to the basic assumption that God is good and that He is perfect.
Why did God create the world even though He knew it would go south? Because He desired a loving relationship with man, and was ready to be patient, forgiving, and merciful when man failed. Compare that to a couple who have a child. They already have each other for company, but they desire the companionship of an addition to the family. And even though they know that this child will be naughty, flawed, and rebellious, the hope of the joy that this child brings is worth the heartbreak and the pain.
(If we argue that God was being unfair in putting this temptation in the Garden, consider this thought: There must have been thousands (maybe even more) of fruit trees that Adam and Eve could eat from, but they had to eat from the one forbidden one.)
HAVING A KID, INSTEAD OF A ROBOT???? THAT DOES NOT ANSWER THIS. IF GOD KNOWS THEN WHY. YES I HAVE A KID, AND TE KID MAKES CHOICES, BUT IF I KNEW AHEAD THAT MY KID WAS GOING TO END THE WORLD, I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD HIM. SO PLEASE ANSWER WHY????
God does weep over the pain of this fallen world,but if God was to stop it then he would be taking away someones free will to make good and bad decisions there for being forced to obey and follow God which is not a mutual relationship but a robotic one.If man does not repent of his sin in the end God will punish them for it. He does not wish that anyone parishes though,but that all repent and be saved, But he is God of Justice and their will be justice for those who suffered wrongly. People do not get away with their sin.
Even if there is free will and love why did god cursed Adam and Eve and sent away from Eden. If he knows that his children are naughty, flaw and going to fail but still he loves then no father in the family throw away their kids. Instead they will try to explain and help the kids to understand. Once they understood they will not be the same old.
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Hence the second shock for Satan, despite Jesus was born in all things like His brethren except sin , despite Satan was in HIS SOUL! Removed only BY FORCE on Jesus baptism by John the Baptist. Depicted in
Matthew 11:11 Amen I say to you, there has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12And from the days of John the Baptist until NOW, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.
Throughout the days from the cross, and till Pentecost, JESUS CHRIST WAS THE TRUE KING ON EARTH and He ruled earth as the sole sovereign overall no matter what, and who! Thus, Jesus Christ implanted the seed of His first fruits in every conception occurred on earth, and SOULS were born of God, in the human flesh and blood body as SONS OF GOD in every birth occurred on earth. The entire human race from that moment on ALL had ONE SAME BLOOD, and ONE SAME FATHER
Thanks Leslie for your views on this topic and thanks to all that responded. Very interesting comments. Out of the 3 choices that you offer, I personally believe that option 1 is the mostly likely to be accurate. I believe God made creation perfect (which includes mankind). I do not think God lost control of his creation because he allowed for free will which resulted in the fall of man. God then had his son come down to earth to save it.
I am so glad I found this post! It felt so good that after years of pondering this question I see my beliefs nailed on the head here. God showed just HOW MUCH he loves us by the sacrifice of his Son, and gave us free will to make the decision to have a relationship with him or not. He just wants to be our father & have us be his children.
Glory to God!