You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
This was my blog from 2010-2017. It will stay up indefinitely as an archive. (Here’s why I chose to rename my blog.)
Please enjoy the resources here, and visit mikesententia.com for my latest work.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
So often, there’s a gap between our conscious beliefs and our true beliefs. Resistance oozes from this gap.
Conscious beliefs are what we say we believe, to ourselves and others. True beliefs are our true model of the world, what we unconsciously expect to see.
A fun example: I often tell energy workers about Energy Geek Games, using this example, “Blindfold your partner and send energy to one of their hands. Don’t tell them which one, and don’t touch them. Using only your energy, try to get them to feel it.” The people I’m talking to are trained in energy, and they’ll tell you that energy is real, they feel it, it’s obvious. But when I tell them people are getting up to 90% accuracy, they’re surprised.
Why? If energy is obvious, shouldn’t 90% accuracy be easy? Yes, it should, but “energy is obvious” is only their conscious belief. They’re surprised because their true belief — their true expectation of how the world behaves — says that energy is only felt when the person knows what to feel, that maybe isn’t real in the same way that gravity and magnetism are. I never make a big deal of it, but it’s fun to see people bumping into their true beliefs.
That’s a fun example, but it’s not always painless. Resistance — that fatigue and distraction when we try to do something physically easy but emotionally difficult — comes from those doubts, from that space between our conscious beliefs and our true beliefs. From not wanting to do the test that, deep down, we expect might show us that our conscious beliefs are wrong.
This was the source of all my resistance around testing my techniques: That I told myself these techniques would definitely work, but truly I had the same doubts as those surprised energy workers.
But as I’ve tested techniques, some successfully, some not, I’ve brought my conscious beliefs more in line with my true expectations, and brought my true expectations more in line with the world. And I’ve learned how freeing it is to do the work that I’m resisting.
This week, when a healing technique didn’t work for a client, I encountered more doubt and resistance. But it was smaller than before. I acknowledged my doubts, listened to that part of myself, and moved through it. By making my true doubts conscious, I was more able to release them.
We have two paths. We can protect our conscious beliefs, or we can explore our true beliefs. Here’s what I’ve learned: That exploration is hard at first, but it gets easier every day we do it, and it leads to a peace I never experienced while hiding from doubts.
The true beliefs don’t have to be about energy. They can be about a business succeeding, about people liking us, or pretty much anything.
What are you resisting?
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
The Energy Geek Meetup is this Wednesday. We’ll be doing energy exercises based on the methods used in modern science, to make sure we’re actually using energy (and not placebo). Here are three easy exercises you can try at home, no equipment required.
We’ve all sent energy to a partner, and had them feel it. Now let’s make that exercise more scientific.
(All of these exercises are for two people. One sends energy, the other receives.)
If the receiver knows what the sender is doing, the sensations might be caused by suggestion and placebo, rather than energy. So the receiver should wear a blindfold ($3 at Walgreens), or face away from the sender for the full 5 minutes of the exercie. Also, many people change their breathing when building energy, so the receiver should wear headphones (playing white noise) or earplugs. This applies for all these tests.
This test has five 1-minute rounds. Here’s how each round works:
Why do these 1-minute rounds? Because sometimes it takes a few moments to feel energy. Sure, if a person knows the energy is coming and they expect to feel it, then this combination of energy and placebo can produce instant results. But when a person isn’t sure that energy is coming, it often takes a few moments.
I tested this exercise last weekend, except I wasn’t doing 1-minute rounds. Instead, I just waited some amount of time, then sent energy, and waited for the receiver to feel it. But there was a delay in feeling sensations, so it wasn’t clear if the sensations were from my energy or not. Would they have felt those sensations anyway? Hard to say. That’s why I added the 1-minute rounds, so there’s a clear timeframe for when energy is happening.
If this doesn’t work: It’s easier to send energy via physical contact than through the air. Try touching the receiver to send energy. (Touch them without sending energy for the placebo.) This isn’t as solid as hovering your hand, but it’s still a good exercise, and still far better than an exercise with no placebo.
Note: If you haven’t practiced with this person before, first practice sending energy without any blindfold. Let the receiver learn what your energy feels like when they know it’s coming. This will help them distinguish the ordinary sensations in their body (that occur during placebo rounds) from the sensations caused by your energy.
This exercise is mostly for receivers. It’s about feeling energy in different locations in the body.
Some people always feel energy in their head, regardless of where the energy enters their body. (Or they always feel it in their chest, or some other single location.) So let’s practice feeling where the energy is in the body.
Identify four locations. For example, head, bicep, chest, and stomach. We’ll randomize the location using two different coins (like a penny and a nickel), so make a chart like this:
As before, the receiver is blindfolded, and the sender announces 1-minute rounds. But now, the sender always sends, and randomly determines the location. (Hover your hand over that location, don’t touch the receiver.) The sender says where they feel energy. Repeat 5-10 times.
So far, we’ve been feeling the presence (or absence) of energy. But energy isn’t just one thing — there are many types of energy. For this exercise, pick 2 types of energy. For example, you can try:
First practice without blinding, letting the receiver know which energy you’re sending. Receivers, try moving the energy into yourself then to different parts of your body, your head, chest, etc. See how it feels in each location, and see where the two energies feel the most distinct and identifiable. You’re learning to send and read these two types of energies.
Then add blinding, using the same procedures as above. Flip a coin to choose the type of energy. Let the receiver feel it, work with it, and identify it. Repeat 5-10 times.
What worked? What didn’t?
Some of these exercises might not work right away. That’s OK. In fact, that’s the point: To learn, we have to try things that are difficult, things that might fail. Only then can we grow our skills to rise to that challenge.
The Energy Geek Meetup is for practitioners who want to take their energy skills and confidence to the next level. We’ll do exercises just like these ones together, in a supportive community. It’s the 4th Wednesday of every month, 7-9pm, at the Embodiment Arts Collective, 3490 20th Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco (near 24th st BART). Suggested donation $5-10.
Please RSVP on Facebook or Meetup. (Popular events draw more people. RSVPing helps us grow. Thank you!)
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
I fear for my country.
Muslims are already being threatened and attacked. Gay and trans Americans, African Americans, so many Americans fear for their safety. We will recover, in years or decades, but that period will be measured in human suffering and human lives.
But it’s more than that. Much, much more.
(If you’re still processing the intolerant violence, you might want to bookmark this article and come back when you’re feeling more whole.)
I fear the death of our democracy. I imagine Trump following through on his promise to jail Clinton. (Or just trying, that would be enough.) Then our 2020 election featuring another FBI leak and another special prosecutor. When running means going up against the FBI, who could win against that? And who would try, when losing means jail? We’d still have elections, but not democracy, like so many other countries in the world.
I fear war with a nuclear power. The Cuban Missile Crisis with Trump instead of JFK — today’s would involve a no-fly zone in Syria and a Russian plane. War doesn’t require malice, it doesn’t even require incompetence. It only requires arrogance, thinking diplomacy is simple, and ignoring the career diplomats and generals who have kept the world from annihilating itself for the last 70 years. How many times did Trump say, “I’m smarter than the generals”?
Already, you’re likely arguing that those things could never happen. That everything will be OK. But the universe doesn’t come with that guarantee. There’s no “things must be OK” clause written in the stars, or in the physics that governs them. World wars are allowed to happen. Democracies are allowed to crumble. These things happen in the real world we all live in.
At the start of World War 2, Britain signed a defensive pact with Poland. It was supposed to stop Germany’s expansion. Then a vague letter from Britain caused Germany to believe that Britain wouldn’t honor the pact. Germany invaded Poland, Britain was treaty-bound to intervene, and you know the rest.
Wars are born of ambiguity over whether a major power (Britain) would actually defend a minor power (Poland). During the election, Trump said we might not defend NATO allies that don’t pay their dues. If he repeats that as commander-in-chief and Russia believes him and invades Estonia or Latvia (like it invaded Ukraine last year), 27 countries are treaty-bound to intervene.
Peaceful democracy isn’t the default. Wars are allowed to happen. Democracies are allowed to crumble. As surely as age and decay are the fate of everything around us, war and autocracy are the defaults unless we take action to prevent them.
Maybe someone will stand up. Maybe that soldier will refuse to shoot down the Russian plane, ending his career to prevent war. Maybe the special prosecutor will refuse to prosecute, ending his career to preserve our democracy. But those extraordinary acts aren’t the default.
We can no longer afford to rely on someone else to solve this. That wishful thinking is the reason I didn’t write this until after the election. It’s why 2% of voters voted third-party, pretending that Clinton was the same as Trump, and why 47% of us didn’t even vote. Wishful thinking dug this hole, and it’ll keep digging until we accept that truly bad things do happen, and that we cannot count on anyone but ourselves to stop it.
I’m going to give you some steps to take, but first a word for the disengaged and the Trump supporters.
To those of you who are disengaged: I get it. Every election, both parties say that this is the most important election, that the other side will wreck America. Then the election ends and nothing changes. It can feel more like rooting for a sports team than deciding on the direction of our country. But do this for me: Take the visualization skills you’ve developed for your practice, and truly visualize each of those scenarios. Special prosecutors making political opposition a crime. A game of chicken with a nuclear power. Imagine them as clearly as you can, allow yourself to care about the outcome, and allow yourself to be disturbed. That’s the first step to fixing anything. (Don’t worry, visualizing won’t make it so, any more than the thousands of practitioners who visualized Clinton winning made it so. If you want, visualize a peaceful democracy afterward, one that we have all worked to preserve.)
To those of you who voted for Trump: I get it. No one in power seems to care about you, about how the economic recovery isn’t helping your family or your town or your culture. You voted for Trump in spite of his racist rhetoric and authoritarian tendencies, not because of them. I believe you. Now is the time to work for the change you need, while also defending the tolerant democracy we all need. Write Trump, tell him, “I support you, I voted for you, I want change. But please, stop attacking immigrants. Denounce the hate groups that act in your name. Publicly state that you will not lock up your political opponents. And listen to the generals, who really do know more about war than you. I support you, I want you to succeed, but America can’t be great if we abandon the things that make us exceptional.” You can email his team here.
And for everyone, here’s what we can do:
If you see a minority being harassed or threatened, take action. That might mean starting a conversation with the victim, ignoring the attacker, creating a social situation where the attacker feels awkward and leaves. (Here’s a handy guide.) Or it might mean stepping between harasser and victim, showing that hurting one of us is hurting all of us, that we won’t tolerate intolerance. Hate thrives when the rest of us are too afraid to act, and it shrinks when we refuse to accept it. So take action, whether it’s quiet or confrontational. Show how Americans embody our highest ideals.
(Some of us are wearing safety pins to show that solidarity, and as a pledge to take action.)
In the coming months, there will be leaders calling for letter-writing campaigns, protests, and the other acts of democracy we all take for granted. Listen to them. Act. We still live in a democracy, and we can preserve that if we choose to. Don’t just share on facebook or sign an online petition. Actually take the 15 minutes to write a paper letter, or the afternoon to join a protest. Show that you care enough to spend that time, to show our leaders that you will also care enough to vote. We can drive our leaders to action, if we are willing to take action ourselves.
And when people say it’ll all be OK, say, “No, it won’t be OK. Not on its own. Not if we don’t act. But together, we can make it be OK, if we work for it.” Then show them how.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
(We’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week.)
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
The placebo-controlled sigil study ends this Sunday. This is your last chance to try it before I post the results. It takes about 15 minutes, and it’s a great way to build confidence in your skills.
If you’ve only tried one sigil, go back and try the other. You wouldn’t want to have only tried the placebo, would you?
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
I’ve gotten some requests for more book chapters, and they’re on the way. A quick update for you on this:
Last year I didn’t get much done on the book. Between a 12-month consulting project and a close friend dying, it was a tiring year.
For the past couple months, my writing time has been going to Healing Lab, a company I’m starting to do scientific research into biofield healing, publishing case studies and double-blind trials of some of the healing techniques I’ve discussed here. I hope to have the website and the flyers for volunteers done next month, and I’m pretty excited about it.
After that, I’m really looking forward to resuming my book. It’s been a year or more since I worked on it, and I’ve figured out a lot about how to teach Direct Magick since then. Most of what I’ve written won’t change, but were some techniques (like sensory connections) that I wasn’t sure how to include, and now I’ve figured that out. So I’m eager to return to my book too.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
I just wrapped up a great interview the Taylor Ellwood. Thanks to everyone who tuned in, and a big thanks to Taylor for having me.
If you missed it, you can listen to the recording. One hour of us discussing magick, energy healing, science, and how to build magick into something even more amazing.
I promised links to resources. Here they are:
My book, An Initiation into Direct Magick (work in progress).
Exercises on finding and awakening your ethereal muscles.
Chewy ideas on magick and science, where I discuss many ideas we touched on in the podcast.
All my case studies of various healing techniques and psychic intuitions I’ve done.
And if you finish all that and want more, see the Step by Step Guide to Learning Direct Magick. Older, but more complete than the book. Look here after finishing the book.
Thanks for tuning in, and if you’re new here, welcome to my blog.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
Podcast is this Monday, July 6 at 6pm Pacific. Info:
Tomorrow, I’ll be discussing ethereal software, Direct Magick, building magick into a science, and much more with Taylor Ellwood on his radio show, Magical Experiments.
Taylor is managing editor at Immanion Press and has written a slew of books on magick. I had dinner with him at Pantheacon, he’s a really bright, insightful guy, and I’m looking forward to being interviewed by him.
View the interview here, Monday at 6pm Pacific.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
This week I’m taking care of Lisa. I don’t seem to have the spare focus to write. I’ll return to weekly posts soon.
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.
As I think about Healing Lab, doing energy healing as a business, supporting myself with my magick, it’s scary. Is my energy healing good enough? Do I teach and explain magick well enough? Am I ready?
This week, I’ve changed goals: I want to prepare for Healing Lab. That feels safe.
I’m aware of the trap. If “prepare” means you’re thinking about reading about learning those skills, that’s a problem. So I’m preparing by doing them. Healing, so I learn better healing techniques. Teaching, so I learn to explain better. Writing, so I have a book to share, and so I learn to inspire better.
I don’t think anyone outside my head will notice notice difference between preparing and doing. But in here, it lets me focus on the work instead of the worry.
(And I’m writing more. This post, plus progress on my book again.)
If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.
