Birrell Walsh, writer of fiction, non-fiction, and book reviews

Blog-Buddies, in the age of Amazon, book reviewing has assumed new importance. An informative, fair review scores credibility with readers. Any review carries influence, both what it says and what it doesn’t acknowledge.

Yesterday I received notification of a review by an influential writer and empath, Birrell Walsh. With his permission, I quote his review of “Become the Most Important Person in the Room: Your 30-Day Plan for Empath Empowerment.”

Unlike the Amazon review page, which offers no space for rebuttal, here I just might add a comment or three. Sweet though Birrell is, and despite his helpful intent, some of his words really stung.

Will you agree with him or me? Either way, today’s post may take you one step deeper inside the hidden innards of book reviewing. Also maybe inspire you to follow up with Amazon reviews of your own!

Incidentally, some folks think that you must purchase the book through Amazon in order to review it. Not so. You just go to the page for the book being sold, scroll down to Customer Reviews, and add your thoughts.

One of the biggest favors you can do for an author is to spread the word via a review at influential Amazon.com. I am so grateful to you Blog-Buddies who have done that already.

Birrell Walsh Reviews My Quick and Easy How-to for Empaths

It works.

By Birrell Walsh (San Francisco, CA USA)

This review is from: “Become The Most Important Person in the Room: Your 30-Day Plan for Empath Empowerment” (Paperback)

Suddenly a strong feeling comes over you. You feel sad or angry or frantic, for no reason at all. Are you going crazy?

Or are you picking up the feeling from someone else? One in 20 people, says author Rose Rosetree, are empaths; and most are not very skilled at it. If you recognize this experience, if you feel what is going on with other people whether you want to or not, you will be glad to have a book about getting control of this blessing-curse.

Rosetree provides a 30 day program in which you can learn to direct your attention to your own experience, and disconnect from involuntary empathy. Once you know how to get free of the emotions and physical sensations of others, you can afford to turn your empathy back on – when and how you want to.

Rosetree clearly knows what she is talking about. She is aware of the many varieties of empathy and will help you discover which kind is your gift. She writes with humor and lightness. If you follow her program for a month you may find, as I did, that you can turn this experience off and on at will.

Some people will object to her humor. A friend of mine to whom I recommended the book did not like the flippancy, and she found that the techniques succeeded.

More serious is Rosetree’s primary metaphor, “becoming the most important person in the room.” I know she uses this expression because for some empaths, everyone else’s reality is more real than their own.

But do we really need more people who think they are the most important person in the room, yet another Lord Narcissus or Lady Moi? I wish Rosetree had chosen another theme, and emphasized more the sheer joy of encountering The Other. (And she has done some of that with another of her books, “Aura Reading Through All Your Senses: Celestial Perception Made Practical, 2nd Edition” )

No matter, though. If you or someone you know picks up every suffering and craziness in the environment, they should have this book. Rosetree’s methods WORK.

Daring to let everyone be important

Rose here again, Blog-Buddies. Life on earth can be sweet-bitter, for sure. There stands Birrell’s kind review and yet I am not happy.

Others have complained to me, though not so wittily, about the grave error of helping empaths become “The Most Important Person in the Room.”

Sure, many people are already such egoists, or worse. Horrid indeed is the thought of encouraging them further.

Here’s my perspective, though. Between when I published “Empowered by Empathy” and “Become The Most Important Person in the Room,” I taught empaths on three continents and did phone sessions with clients on six continents. Lots of them, actually.

I have spent thousands of hours helping empaths, often traveling minutely into their consciousness via Skilled Empath Merge.

I didn’t find a single empath with a big fat ego. I found people who felt less important, less empowered, less individuated than non-empaths. Not “some empaths,” as Birrell wrote. Every single unskilled empath, period.

Trying to help empaths to overcome their biggest and most universal problem — Hello! Is it really fair to criticize me for that?

In the unlikely event that some egomaniacal narcissistic psychopaths were to purchase my how-to for empaths, would my instructions push them over the top?

Hardly. It is a how-to for EMPATHS. Like a recipe for making a fine cheese souffle. Written for good eggs. Should a steak happen upon the recipe, there is absolutely no danger of an exploding souffle. 

Or any kind of souffle, actually.

Daring to lighten hearts

Oboy, there I went joking again, about that sacred ideal of “souffle.”

About that so-controversial topic of my sense of humor. (A sense of humor, admittedly, not much in evidence as I respond to Birrell’s review….)

Horrors, “the flippancy”!

Note that Birrell, a professional writer, did not say that his friend called my tone flippant. No, “the flippancy” is apparently a fact. To him as well as his friend.

I’d like to share with you, Blog-Buddies, why I use humor in some of my books. Some of my books. Always on purpose.

If you want a more earnest how-to from Rose Rosetree, you don’t have to go all the way back in my body of work to “Aura Reading Through All Your Senses.” Just pick up “Empowered by Empathy.” That would be a better referral, since this is also written expressly to help the 1 in 20 people born as an empath.

You may know, ”Empowered by Empathy” was the first self-help book in English for empaths. Plenty of other teachers for empaths have emerged since then. Most common, I gather, is a so-compassionate tone because those wounded, fragile, empath people suffer so greatly and require absorbent shoulders to lean on.

That’s a fine approach for emerging victims. It’s also fine if you’re not asking your readers to shift their consciousness but, instead, to rearrange their problems. In the manner of Whose Stuff Is This?: Finding Freedom from the Negative Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You by Yvonne Perry and Dancers Between Realms-Empath Energy, Beyond Empathy by Elisabeth Y. Fitzhugh.

More on these books later. For this point, suffice it to say that I use humor quite purposefully as a teacher and healer.

• Humor stops things. Like wallowing. Like getting all sentimental about how hard it is to feel other people’s feelings.
• Humor starts things. Like a moment of clarity that allows a fresh point of view. Or jump-starting a person’s resourcefulness. Because YOU are the one who positions your consciousness effectively as an empath. Only you can do that.

Daring to pioneer

Birrell noted that the techniques in my how-to for empaths really work. He never explored why.

That seems like a key consideration to me. So often book reviews are about style, or the author’s likeability, or whatever the reader thinks a book on that topic ought to include. Call me a Hopeless Consciousness Nerd if you must, but I have a different viewpoint about self-help books.

Content matters to me. If someone teaches a skill set that works because it is dramatically different from everything else out there, I think that’s worth acknowledging.

Empath Empowerment(R) is trademarked because it offers a unique way of using consciousness to solve problems that empaths have.

That system works not just temporarily but long-term. If you use skills of energetic literacy, you can tell drilling down all the way to the level of chakra databanks.

A skilled empath’s aura functions differently from the aura of an unskilled empath. Which would include a clever but unskilled empath who questions, “Whose STUFF is this?”

Empath Methods Viewed Technically

Depending on how you search at Amazon, two books for empaths that are either more popular, or slightly less popular, than “Become the Most Important Person in the Room” are the previously mentioned ones from Yvonne and Elisabeth.

• Yvonne Perry defines an empath as “a person who uses emotional intuition to understand or connect with others.” Techniques she offers include bathing in salt water, breathing, and centering.
• Elisabeth Fitzhugh offers psychologically-based strategies such as “learning to balance and manage receptivity.”

Such approaches give empaths plenty to do, amid all the suffering. Neither approach demands that a reader make shifts in consciousness.

Instead, there are ways to use same-old, inexpertly positioned, consciousness while cleaning your aura temporarily or analyzing your experiences all the better to “manage” them. All the while, picking up ever more STUFF.

(For explanation how that STUFF is picked up by every unskilled empath, see the illustrations in “Become the Most Important Person in the Room.”)

So, yes, if you’re interested in educating prospective readers about “Become The Most Important Person in the Room,” such a point might be worth mentioning. Whether theoretically or in terms of your personal results.

Finally, acknowledging Birrell Walsh

A prolific writer of novels and poems, Birrell has also written this superb non-fiction book, Praying for Others: Powerful Practices for Healing, Peace, and New Beginnings. So far, that’s the only one of his I have read, but I aim to dip into his novels soon.

See more about hard-copy books by Birrell Walsh here.

Here is a link for Birrell Walsh’s ebooks, too.

Amy Dickinson, advice columnist

“How to Help Others Forgive?” is the topic of an advice column by Amy Dickinson. She’s at the top of her field, at the top of her game. So I couldn’t wait to read how the author of “Ask Amy” would answer a reader’s question from stepfather Tom about his stepdaughter. (I’ll call her “Gladys.”)

Gladys already sees a psychotherapist. Yet she is unable to forgive her birth father, and Stepdad Tom wanted to help.  Would Amy recommend a book on forgiveness?

Wise forgiveness advice, yet so second millennium

Amy Dickinson began her response, “There are many, many books about forgiveness, and every one I have ever read says: Forgiveness is a choice. Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. Forgiveness equates with freedom from the shackles of anger and resentment.”

Then she goes on to recommend “Dare to Forgive: The Power of Letting Go and Moving On,” by Edward M. Hallowell.

A thousand years ago, even a hundred years ago, this advice would have been fine. Okay, it would also count as anachronistic advice, since 1,000 years ago you couldn’t recommend Hallowell’s book (published in 2006). 

To be clear, I think Amy Dickinson gives topnotch advice for mainstream American thinking today. I just wish she knew about… 

Better advice for the third millennium

In 2007, a very different book on forgiveness was published. It was called:

Forget wasting time over extra forgiveness attempts. Do some initial forgiveness… if you like… if you can. But then stop wasting time on diminishing returns.

Instead cut your cord of attachment to the person who is bending you out of shape. Because on the level of your aura and subconscious mind, that cord of attachment really is bending you out of shape.

Heal the STUFF and forgiveness won’t be an issue any longer.

Ok, that would have been a pretty long title. The actual how-to book, by Rose Rosetree of all people, is called, “Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourself and Others with Energy Spirituality.”

Cord cutting compared to forgiveness practices

So many forgiveness practices, so little time!

• Forgiveness exercises
• Forgiveness prayers
• Psychotherapy to gradually awaken forgiveness
• Pastoral counseling offered by a saintly spiritual advisor who has personally overcome all worldly resentments.

What kind of person rails agains that? Well, me. Hey, at least I stop short of dissing motherhood and apple pie. There are limits.

Forgiveness conversations are about serious pain. I’m not joking about that. Of course, forgiveness — total forgiveness — would be lovely for each of us, with every relationship. But let’s look at the facts with our third millennium skills of energetic literacy. Because people who lack energetic literacy can’t see beyond surface-level solutions like forgiveness practices.

Energetic literacy brings perspective on the forgiveness process

Of course reading the human energy field in depth and detail is the emerging literacy for this new millennium. Just as the second millennium saw the rise of near-universal Gutenberg-style literacy, this new time is seeing a rapid rise in people who learn how to read auras in such detail they can go all the way to the level of chakra databanks… as in our Aura Reading Film Review of Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe.

Reading auras in this third millennium doesn’t have to mean psychic development. No, it can be learned as a form of literacy, pure and simple. Just as Gutenberg-style literacy could be learned for the last bunch o’ centuries without your having to apprentice at a monastery.

What do cords of attachment have to do with forgiveness?

Let’s give this discussion a human context, the Gladys context. In our anecdote about the loving but frustrated Stepfather Joe, the cord of attachment in question began when Gladys first became interested in her biological father — let’s call him “Joe.” Two energy structures developed, starting from Gladys, connecting the two of them.

The spiritual tie stores a complete record of every sweet thing between Gladys and Joe. Beautiful!

The cord of attachment contains one incident that especially has pushed Gladys’ buttons. Ick!

Using surface perception only, there is no way to know about either energetic structure. However that doesn’t keep them from impacting how Gladys thinks, feels, remembers, forgets. No amount of forgiveness practice will touch a cord of attachment. So let’s consider further.

How cords of attachment prevent forgiveness

Contents in Gladys’ cord of attachment can change over time but will only move in the direction of bad to worse.

And what do you find if, like me, you have spent over 10,000 hours in the field of Energetic Literacy, healing, and teaching about deeper perception?

Whatever happens to get stuck in a cord of attachment will recycle 24/7 in your subconscious mind. There is, literally, a sequence of “cord items,” part of a “cord dialogue” that moves through your aura. When you think about the cordee (the person at the other end of your cord of attachment), the whole sequence will run through you extra times.

Therefore, ironically enough, every minute that Gladys has spent with her therapist, trying to work through issues about her father Joe, guess what? She has triggered extra subconscious run-throughs of all the old distress.

Whatever has been stuck in her cord of attachment to Joe would have gone through her once that day anyhow. Now, thanks to all that forgiveness work, it has gone through her over and over and over again.

So many workarounds don’t really work

Resolving issues emotionally does not remove a cord of attachment.

Praying and receiving answers to prayers will not remove a cord of attachment.

Once it begins, a cord of attachment lasts until the final minutes of your life. Even if you never think about the cordee again. Or see the cordee. The cordee could even be dead. You’ll still suffer subconsciously and aurically in exactly the same way… unless you cut the cord of attachment in a quality way.

Cord-cutting, done effectively, means that you will never again have that cord of attachment. You can, of course, learn more about this from several of the most popular posts at this blog — not a bad way to start.

Many of you Blog-Buddies have also had telephone sessions with me where I have facilitated aura healing with this method. Glad to say, some of you Blog-Buddies these days are even in my Energy Spirituality Mentoring Program, because we are moving as quickly as we can to train professionals in this emerging field.

And ALL of you are invited to take my annual Cord Cutting Workshop, May 19 and 20, in Sterling, Virginia. Yes, the annual fiesta is coming up soon! The perfect answer to, “How can I learn to cut cords of attachment?”

Resistance? Goes away with cutting cords of attachment

When Gladys gets bogged down with resentment, her therapist might think she has a problem with resistance. Tom, her loving step-dad, might worry that Gladys has too much resistance to move forward in her forgiveness journey.

Rubbish!

To me, one of the saddest problems with therapy happens when a client has to sit in the therapist’s office, paying for conversations about why the client isn’t moving forward.

Equally sad is how a talented, well trained therapist, bashes her head against walls. Only they aren’t real walls. Nor are they metaphors. They are cords of attachment, and the therapist is powerless to do a thing… until becoming educated properly about cords of attachment.

Don’t forgiveness practices soften cords of attachment in some way?

Of course, many of us have done forgiveness practices.Of course there was benefit, even miraculous answers to prayers or healing insights or cumulative benefits from working with a skilled therapist.

None of this touched your cords of attachment. Sorry, but it’s true.

This fact isn’t stated to disrespect the power of prayer, the power of now, the power of forgiveness, even the power of face reading. (Threw in that last one to see if your eyes have begun to glaze over. I’m trying to give you a thorough discussion here, Blog-Buddies. I’m aware my blog articles are longer than most. Of course, I also have ultra-intelligent readers and commenters here at “Deeper Perception Made Practical.” )

Gladys could pray about forgiving Joe. She could do a Catholic novena. She could perform a Hindu yagya. She could work on her issues with a therapist for 20 years. That still won’t wash her car. Or brush her teeth. Or cut her cord of attachment to Joe.

Different aspects of life, such as dental hygiene, require skills. Certain aspects of life require effort placed right at the level where the problem exists.

Call it ingenious. Or call it sad. But therapy teaches patients how to repackage the distress from a cord of attachment. To put it in context. To give it the equivalent of gift wrap and perky little bows. Or there’s an alternative:

After cutting her cord of attachment to Joe, Gladys can go free energetically. Forgiveness accomplished for all practical purposes.

What would your life be like after you really had achieved forgiveness?

Maybe you have wondered. One possibility is this:

Although you will always remember whatever Joe did to you, or didn’t do, you stop dwelling on it. Unless Joe’s name comes up in conversation, or you see his photo, you just don’t think about that.

With forgiveness, you will have a new freedom regarding your relationship with Joe. You might decide to give him a new chance. You might decide to let go. You might experiment with different ways of being in relationship with him because now you have freedom from inside to see reality more clearly.

Do that by means of forgiveness practices, through excellent books, and how wonderful!

But most human beings really won’t get there. But my clients and students do. Quite quickly and easily. Because that is what happens when you cut a cord of attachment.

Admittedly, sometimes clients work with me for more than one session. Because when Gladys cuts her cord of attachment to Joe, that is just one piece of the problem. She might also need to cut her cord of attachment to Tom, to her mother, to her husband.

Very often, a client will tell me something like, “I just know I have a block keeping me from x,y,z.” And then, after doing some Skilled Empath Merge (in-depth aura reading of a certain kind), I will break it to Gladys. “You may have oversimplified just a bit.”

We humans love to oversimplify. “One problem.” or “One block.” or “One person’s thought.” Or “The sweetness of forgiveness with remove all experiences of life that are sour, bitter, salty, pungent, or umami.”

My vision for emotional healing in this third millennium does not depend on oversimplifying. Just effective healing, one bit of STUFF at a time.

Dr. Fred Volkmar, Autism Researcher and Molecular Empath

Autism is hardly rare. Not today, and especially not among male children. Yale professor Fred Volkmar is a leader in autism research. He is also a molecular empath. Meet him first on this YouTube Video about autism, if you like.

Today’s post explores what makes him so special, courtesy of a Skilled Empath Merge. Created for you Blog-Buddies as an unusual tribute to Mother’s Day, tomorrow’s holiday, since 1 in 100 male American children is born on the autism spectrum. Like the son of a dear friend of mine, Tracy Monson, who actively works as an advocate for autistic kids. Or the daughter of another dear Blog-Buddy, Row Beatty, who is one fast grower.

Personal growth for such a family is hard but fast. Reason to celebrate around the Mother’s Day holiday.

As for us parents who have not had this highly evolutionary calling, to parent such a child, on Mother’s Day we are just thankful we have had that much an easier job.

Fred Volkmar, who can be trusted for Skilled Empath Merge

So for us, also, reason to celebrate….

Nominated by ANONYMOUS for our  Contest about Molecular Empaths and evaluated there as Nominee #4., here comes delightful Dr. Fred. Read along with me by opening up the  same big Autism Research Hero photo I’m using for this energetic literacy research. If that disappears, click on this dependable Fred Volkmar photosave. He’s great for aura reading and I would definitely trust him as a candidate for Skilled Empath Merge.

Connection to Physical Reality Databank at the Root Chakra

Variable range, 6 inches to deep space. Dr. Volkmar appreciates reality but he can also move out with consciousness into the most abstract perceptions of reality.

Thus, he couldn’t be better qualified to study what happens with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, etc.

Not autistic himself, Volkmar can move into a similar experience. To tell if he has always had this ability or, as is more likely, developed it… we would need to research him earlier in life, way earlier. And then compare.

This is how regular Energetic Literacy skills, such as I’m using here, can answer questions in a systematic way. It’s plodding, compared to folks who do psychic readings, but a way different approach. No matter how good you get at aura reading, using skills of Energetic Literacy rather than psychic development, you’ll wind up being that kind of plodder. Not too shabby, though.

Here and now, just reseaching this first chakra databank, from this one photograph, guess what? It is evident that this is one very, very evolved man with the most extraordinary standing in consciousness to do research in the autism field.

Flow of Energy with Regular (Non-Autistic) People Databank at the Belly Chakra

Hey, what a perfect opportunity for…

A small aura reading technical interlude

You experienced aura readers already know that half of a person’s chakra databanks at any given time are “Standard Issue Human.” Such as the chakra databanks you learn to read in connection with having more successful relationships in “Read People Deeper.”

By contrast, when you use Stage Three Energetic Literacy, whether as an aura reader or a skilled empath doing a merge, you may know that half of a person’s chakra databanks are quite personal — we could even call them “situational.”

Based on how you live, choices in lifestyle, interests and passions and how you spend human time: This causes you to develop different chakra databanks from your family and friends. Some day, maybe Yale researchers like Dr. Volkmar, will explore the connection between neuroplasticity and chakra databanks.

Each person’s hundreds of chakra databanks function at the astral level and correspond to processes at the subconscious mind. They can easily be read with regular Stage Three Energetic Literacy. And the last Aura Reading Workshops, every single workshop participant moved forward briskly to that advanced stage of Energetic Literacy in one weekend. It’s just literacy, folks, no weirder than the Gutenberg literacy that helps you to read this screen right now.

Everybody has a chakra databank like the one I’m about to read. Only it’s usually called “Flow of Energy with People.” I’m naming it differently for Dr. Fred in order to set up a contrast with the unusual, individual chakra databank I am going to read afterwards.

Now, back to Flow of Energy with Regular (Non-Autistic) People Databank at the Belly Chakra

14 inches. Just hanging out with people, not giving a speech or posing for official photographs, Fred Volkmar is (frankly) shy. He needs more personal space than most folks do, recharging during interactions and recharging even more deeply after interactions with people.

I am impressed with the learning this man has done to learn how to recharge so quickly that most people would not notice. But I’ll bet if someone showed Dr. Volkmar this article he would give quite a laugh at being outed in my (hopefully, obviously) affectionate way.

Flow of Energy with Autistic People Databank at the Root Chakra

Expandable, starting with 6 inches. Fred can join exactly where that autistic person’s consciousness is.

• Say that Joe is high functioning and manages to re-position his consciousness in social situations, such as talking with Dr. Volkmar. Volkmar will join him, even coax him, into feeling comfortable at that close-to-regular surface human level. (A bit like how a really good radio interviewer can make a guest feel comfortable, creating a perfect flow for the interview.)
• Say that Gladys is way, way out there, pulsating consciousness out to the moon. Dr. Volkmar can join her there, hanging out, yet subtly demonstrating how to position consciousness at the human level, like a giant with one huge leg striding the world and the other leg like a teenage human. (“Auric modeling,” we call that around Deeper Perception Made Practical.)\

If Volkmar works as a clinician these days, he could definitely “bring back” autistic patients who are eager to learn how to function better. With enough exposure to Volkmar’s energetic “who you be,” that could do the trick.

Decorating his auric modeling with words or concepts could bring results faster. But there can always be such a gap between teacher and student, any student of Volkmar’s would need to be able to manage the auric modeling to bring satisfactory results. Just getting the words and concepts wouldn’t do the trick.

Note: I’m writing this as an aura reader who knows nothing, nothing about Volkmar’s work. I’m not even going to watch the linked up YouTube at the start of this post until I have first done this research.

Perhaps some of you Blog-Buddies are familiar with this autism leader’s body of work and can comment on what I am writing about him, based on Skilled Empath Merge. I would like that!

Sharing Power with Regular People Databank at the Solar Plexus Chakra

Even a casual conversation includes habits of sharing power, which relate to performance at this Sharing Power Chakra Databank.

20 feet of health self-respect.

Sensitivity isn’t uppermost. Nor is the trademark molecular empath’s ability to research the minute, most granular, qualities of another human being.

In my language, evolved for training empaths, Fred Volkmar is a superbly skilled empath. His regular way of being with other people, managing the everyday give-and-take, is to have his empath gifts firmly turned OFF. As any skilled empath has learned to do, whether self-taught or taught my system of Empath Empowerment(R) or owning any method that works.

Sharing Power with Austistic People Databank at the Solar Plexus Chakra

Again, this is one of those beautiful chakra databanks specific to the Yale professor, not something you would probably bother researching in yourself, Blog-Buddies — not unless you, too, had frequent dealings with someone with autism.

18 feet. Volkmar stands firm as human, unbending. He models how to socialize competently within the human spectrum (rather than the autistic spectrum).

Yet, being in the room with autistic Joe or Gladys, Fred’s molecular empath circuits turned ON, giving him detailed access to that other person’s attempts to interpersonally accomplish goals of speech and action while maintaining a sense of self. (This being one way to phrase my working definition of what it means to have, and share, personal “power.”)

The other extraordinary characteristic here is the deep compassion, a kind of nurturing of that autistic person blended with everyday respect. To put it into a slogan, I’d approximate it like this:

“I respect you. I will support you. Sure, I know you can zoom far out; doesn’t shock me. I’m here semi-pretending that I don’t know what on earth that is, to make you come closer to my way of functioning. You can do it. I’ll be slightly tough on you. Let’s not make this into a big, hard deal. Doesn’t have to be.”

Trust springs up like... spring flowers

Regarding trust, I would like to suggest a little workaround that can be useful on one’s path to Enlightenment.

In my experience, we have a fair amount of choice about whether we live in the present or take little trips down memory lane or give ourselves urgent conference calls elsewhere… into energy or What Would Jesus Do or seeking guidance from angels (approaches I summarized at the start to our last Blog post on trust, mostly written by JILL).

If you find yourself doing one of these things, when you become aware of it, in that moment you have a choice.

For pity’s sake, move back into the present.

Rather than dwelling on the old pain, come back into the NOW. Not shoving yourself back. Being gentle with self is always recommended.

What does that workaround  have to do with trust? Let’s explore.

Nobody is that good at multi-tasking

Oh, how clever we may think we are, multi-tasking.

Oh, the secret thrill! There you are, talking with JOE. Unsuspecting man, he doesn’t get what’s really going on.

He thinks you are just talking with him. Really, you’re checking out his energies, trying to decide what is secretly going on with him.

Actually, the joke is on you. Because JOE can tell.

Subconsciously your little secret is quite evident to him. Maybe consciously, too. Because even on the level of body language, your eyes might be glazed over. Or you might seem stiff and withdrawn from the usual rythms and interpersonal flows of body language connection.

Not that JOE can necessarily read your mind well enough to know what you are doing. Subconsciously he can just sense you are elsewhere, or manipulating something.

Multi-tasking about energy can incite a perfectly fine fellow like JOE to treat you badly. Don’t blame Joe for feeling disrespected, even if you never meant to make him feel that way.

Hurt pride, or other feelings, can trigger behavior that you will not like.

Surprise, JOE says something with a disrespectful edge. And there you go, back into spiralling cycles of mistrust.

Your workaround? Stay right on the surface of life, while talking with JOE.

Save your extra research into him for later. As in reading his face or aura from a photograph.

Oops, your auric modeling shows

Auric modeling is my name for it, the way your aura shows to everyone else in the room.

Every one of your hundreds of chakra databanks shows. All of them show clearly.

And chakra databanks alter, depending on how you position your consciousness.

Chakra databanks alter when you multi-task, or you’re shifting away from human reality into aura reading, regardless of which technique you use for energetic literacy.

Consciously, JOE may not notice. He’ll still feel the impact, and that will influence how he treats you.

Other multi-tasking shows equally plainly

So sweet when GLADYS constantly seeks to do what God wants, or Jesus suggests, or what her angels have in mind! All for the Very, Very, Very highest good.

Yeah, it’s so sweet when GLADYS turns her humdrum human conversation with JOE into a sporting event where, multi-tasking, she pauses again and again. How special, turning a stupid, trivial human conversation into a glorious opportunity to do what is Divinely perfect, so in keeping with her Very, Very, Very highest good.

It might even win JOE some extra points, might help him wake up spiritually. Because clearly he is such a spiritual laggard, wasting his time on the tiny small talk. As GLADYS speaks upliftingly, she just might convert him to become a better person. Wouldn’t that be lovely for him?

Hmmm, maybe some of you Blog-Buddies might have an opinion about that. Particularly those of us who have graduated from one of these:

• Spiritual addiction
• A cult
• Addiction to pot
• Any other belief system that causes one to spend every day seeking that super-special spiritual purpose — the elusive One Big Solution that every New Ager and committed Christian is supposed to have — that basis for a passion-filled, purpose-driven life — that go-to-the-head-of-the-line-at-Disneyland super duper pass to perfection.

Regardless, the workaround can help

Carry a notebook with you, if need be. Jot down your reactions to JOE’s pathetic unevolved stupidity in that particular situation (or whatever). Note the problem that (relatively) urgently needs guidance and messages.

Then replace your notebook and reinsert yourself into the human life.

No multi-tasking allowed. Instead muddle through as yourself, with thoughts, feelings, words, actions, social skills. Be the here-and-now human.

Later, during your 30-minute period per day of dedicated spiritual practice, research anything in your notebook. (Or spend that woo-woo time however else you like.)

Enlightened people live in the here and now

Human reality doesn’t make Enlightened folk vomit or shrivel up with disdain. Reread JILL’s excellent recent post, if you like. Notice how she is positioned with others in the human here and now.

Each Enlightened person’s experience is unique, but I think it’s a pretty consistent pattern about living in the here and now.

It’s a bigger here and now, of course, as the human identity has merged with the Divine — fully, completely, irrevocably. More fun in that here and now!

Yet a human like Enlightened JILL is still human. No fancy dancing around that.

Even before Enlightenment, striding forth boldly, each of us can do this much: Doing our level best in human life. Adding humility as needed.

Granted, it does take humility to just be yourself. Ironically, that’s all you ever have been (or could be) anyway. On purpose you could experiment with:

• Intentionally being present, in a sloppy way.
• Paying spontaneous, nonmanipulative attention here and now.
• Not positioning your consciousiousness to do a kind of multi-tasking or simultaneous translation. Letting your consciousness flop around, just being human in the present scene.

Why not? It’s a way to trust life, to trust yourself with people.

Conversations and relationships become way more informative that way. Why informative? You receive human feedback from your human speech and actions.

By contrast, with guidance etc. being the point, life is only informative about how well you received the guidance and how nobly other people reacted to your celestial or Divine messages.

Multi-tasking can be considered the opposite of trust. Trust brings rewards for relationships.

Funnily enough, due to auric modeling, your trust of human life also leads to people trusting you more, too.

Okay, that title is mine. The Guest Post to follow does come from GRACE S.

Context is a recent thread begun by another Blog-Buddy, SY, who sent a fascinating link. Click at will to see how the sort of image we take for granted has been retouched.

You know if you’ve seen resources like this one, just how profoundly shocking it is to see how commonly images are tweaked. The vanity surgeries and makeup and lighting aren’t enough, evidently. Nor is it enough to select uncommonly “perfect” looking candidates for being celebrities and models.

Retouch? Really so wonderful?

My opinion, Blog-Buddies, is that retouching is one more way to be out of touch.

• Out of touch with reality, where human beings look the way they do without having to plasticize themselves.
• Out of touch with inner life, which suffers with every stroke of the vanity surgeon’s knife, every tweak of an image accepted as normal.
• Out of touch with a person’s true gifts of the soul. Although photoshopping an image won’t affect that person’s soul, cosmetic surgery can. Not necessarily in a bad way. But often the shift takes the unfortunate client towards greater mediocrity.

Face reading, done for 10,000 years, reveals the recpirocal relationship between the soul (the inner person, in vivid and very human detail) and the sacred spiritual symbol of human life, the physical face.

We disrespect that value of the natural face… and we can slow down our spiritual evolution, limit our authenticity. A perfect valid choice to make with free will, and one that can win popularity points in today’s society! But is it worth the inner price?

A thread developed about responding to today’s vanity culture, especially if raising children. The words below come from GRACE S., the headlines and a bit of copy editing mine. You go, GRACE!

Wisdom from Grace S. about raising a kid who takes normal for granted

Since [my son JOE] was little we talked about how beautiful our bodies are to imprint him with that basic idea. (And my husband has struggled with weight gain, and we still would talk about what a beautiful man he was while coming out of the shower or changing).

We would also try to find something to appreciate in strangers who look different, like a gorgeous smile or playful disposition.

Personally, I grew up in America but secluded with immigrants who found my body to be repulsive (being rail thin) they valued a hearty, healthy farm stock. Anyway, I certainly don’t take for granted that all of this “beauty” is culturally dictated and fad motivated.

Distinguishing how people look from the content of their character

This week in his a book someone is being called “Fatty Doodi,” and I’ve been working on how it’s ok to talk about what someone did, e.g., “He acted like a jerk.” “He made me mad.”

But it not ok to make fun of how someone looks because you’re mad at what he did.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

Work on expressing what you’re really feeling and experiencing. Get it out. Feel heard. Then work on asking for what you DO want and need from that person.

Bullying via Facebook and elsewhere

We’ve also had to walk our talk with this with another example from recent local politics. Somehow our son got pinned with starting all this smack-talk about a politician. And all the other parents are deeply humored by this, especially on Facebook.

I can completely understand. But on the side I have brought up with them that it’s not my kid. In our family, we do not call people names. Not even when we don’t agree with what they are doing!

Dignity and life skills  are what I really believe in.

It bugs me that there’s this double standard out there about what is bullying behavior.

Mockery is cruel and not ok under any circumstance.

We need to have deeper conversations, empowering conversations (politics for example, so you don’t feel like a victim) about these basic, everyday issues, addressing difference.

Further parenting ideas

I’m with JILL, we don’t do TV & pop magazines at home. So Joe is not getting those imprinted into his subconscious so much.

It’s not as much about sheltering him, it’s more about age-appropriate viewing. What he can understand at what age — JOE is now turning five.

For example, we do talk about how advertising works (which, LOL, is my husband’s field). We discuss that you ARE getting tricked and manipulated and preyed upon.

Here’s a funny example from last year. It was a rare stop at a fast food joint and JOE wanted one of those cheap toys.

He was so smitten by the image/ad that I knew enough to clearly let him know that the toy would be vastly different.

JOE still wanted it. Fair enough. No sooner than he opened it did he want to stomp on it out of resentment for it not living up to his expectations.

I couldn’t blame him.

We talked about how let down he was, and how he got tricked. We discussed how it’s very normal (and easy) to try to trick  someone into buying something. (Stealing your money is the name of the game).

Here Be Monsters

A great book we have read twice now is “Here Be Monsters.” It’s long and chock full of detailed illustrations, a compelling read with characters one can easily identify with, action with no violence, btw.

But here’s to the point. One of the main subplots is about advertising, creating insecurities in order to sell.

For us, this has been a good parenting tool to talk about these themes of manipulation in a non-threatening way.

Thanks for asking! [Blog-Buddies, the reference her follows how I had asked GRACE S. to write a comment on the topic of parenting related to this thread. So glad she did. ]

Sock tantrums

My son is not going to escape societal pressures, for goodness sake. But my goal is that he’s not blind-sided, thus inordinately swayed by them.

Plus that JOE feels valued for something other than his beauty, e.g., Being a good climber, bike rider, friend, conversationalist and more.

The pressures are there for boys too, but dear Lord, I’m never going to have to deal with “These socks don’t make me look pretty” tantrums or “You shouldn’t wear layers, they make you look fat.”

Both of these statements being quotes from three-year old girls that JOE learned from daycare.

Is your life a trust exercise?

How does JILL handle trust? Is it all about staying positive, as so many people have been taught in New Age?

• So many hard-working spiritual seekers today are working diligently to stay positive, avoid negative people, identify psychic vampires and narcissists.
• Or is it more as Fundamentalist Christians feel, knowing they have been saved, so nothing can hurt them now? (And yet perpetually wary of being tricked by Satan.)
• In my work with clients, I continue to meet folks who have developed a spiritual addiction related to guidance, whether healers or seekers or Christians or New Agers.

Whenever possible, they are paying attention to signs, synchronicity, energy, or external validation.

If there’s a conflict, they ask for guidance. What would Jesus do? Where are the signs and meaningful coincidences? Will it be possible to wait until the clock shows precisely 11:11:11 so that thinking will be inspired? How will energies alert that seeker to the presence of danger?

Seeking so hard to find Cosmic subtext, disturbing patterns develop within that hard-working individual, something very problematic at the level of auric modeling.

Working so hard in one of the three ways noted here, the person has withdrawn from human life, become ineffective and weak as an earth personality. It’s like wearing a sign on the level of auras, a sign that reads “Excellent victim potential.”

Paths like these express great trust in angels or God or Jesus. Partly (to my thinking) something else is displayed as well: An extreme lack of trust in their own human intelligence and street smarts.

So I was very curious when, yesterday, a question about trust came to the blog. What about trust on one’s path to Enlightenment? Would trust change along with all the other aspects of consciousness?

After you read today’s article, Blog-Buddies, I hope you will share your experiences on the theme of trust. Hasn’t yours changed, or evolved, over the years?

The question about trust was addressed to JILL, as a recently Enlightened Blog-Buddy who has generously volunteered to answer questions. I was so curious to read Jill’s perspective, and generously she responded right away.

JILL’s response deserves its own standing as a Guest Post, so here comes the sequence.

“FRANCINE” asked about trust because her trust has changed

In my healing journey of the last year, I have changed enormously in my trust of people.

Makes me wonder, JILL, if there is anything you would feel comfortable sharing about your trust of people and how it has developed.

I mean spontaneous trust, mind you. Not how you handled people once they were in relationships with you, saying and doing whatever.

I’m curious about your showing up as yourself, daring to be with them as they show up. Know what I mean?

How trust changes after Enlightenment

JILL’s response begins here:

Very good question. The trust issue is huge for me. Trust, for me, has to do with vulnerability. When I felt most vulnerable – like during the divorce – I was most distrustful and in need of feeling in control in any way I could with my life. I was suspect of everyone’s motives and fearful all the time.

Now that my identity is with God and I see everyone as God, trust is not an issue at all. I am aware that most people act on the level of ego and, therefore, are not capable of being completely honest or trustworthy at that level. I do use human like caution and means for “protection” like legal contracts and not walking down dark alleys at night.

I am able to see everyone as either aware of who they are or not and simply act accordingly with that information. When people are not aware of who they really are, I can still “communicate” with who they really are and trust that they will respond in kind on the level of spirit. But, on the level of ego they may not be aware at all and may even want to intentionally harm me in some way.

I was at an opening for a local restaurant the other evening and it was quite crowded. Usually I would not enjoy that sort of thing at all, but that evening was totally different for me. I was not only comfortable, I felt totally joyful and sparkling and like I was moving around in a sea of love.

I was aware that most of the people were not aware of that, but I felt I was “communicating” with them on the level of spirit and everything moved like a synchronous dance. It was very fun.

A contrasting experience, despite being Enlightened

Then, two evenings ago I encountered some old friends who had betrayed and tried to harm me and my feelings were different.

I was aware of the old hurt and disappointments and felt sad. I wished I could communicate to them what I know now, but I know they don’t want to know. They are all users of drugs and alcohol and the air is thick around them.

At the same time, I know they can’t hurt me now, so I don’t distrust them.

It is like being aware of two different levels of reality at the same time. But, my main reality is that we are all God and only Love while still living and dealing with the ego reality on earth.

It’s still new enough for me that it is kind of weird. It is like the Buddha said when asked how he is different. He said simply, “I am awake.”

And, I know that most everyone else is just not aware, yet, that they can neither hurt nor be hurt.

Rose Rosetree definitely cut her cords to these two characters

Yes, here’s a photo from four years ago, bearing witness to the “Practice What She Preaches” Dept.

Of course I have cut all my cords of attachment to the characters in “Finding Nemo.” Joke. It’s the relationships with husband and son that have gained extra stabiity and sweetness, and why? It’s because I don’t lug around my one-time cords of attachment to them.

Cords of attachment aren’t like fingernails, often needing a trim.

Nor does each cord of attachment work like a lasso, waiting for some restless cowboy to fling it towards you during an idle moment.

There are good reasons, ample reasons, why Gladys’ cord of attachment to Joe will never return for the rest of her life. Nor will it or be replaced by a new, improved, more disgusting cord. Nor will any cord of attachment that has been properly cut ever grow back… perhaps like bedbugs after an unreliable fumigation.

This article helps you to understand a topic that may have seemed worrisome. Or perhaps you’re just curious. Why does a cord of attachment stay cut?

And, by “this article,” I mean the lead article in my free monthly newsletter, “Reading Life Deeper.” To subscribe, click onto The Official Rose Rosetree Website and scroll down for the signup.

No spam ever from this newsletter. That’s a promise.

Subscribe in advance of this Monday, May 7, so you will be sent your copy by email. (At least, that is when I aim for delivery. Not a promise.) Comment below. Happy read!

Not the version of Toni Morrison's face we will be reading

We have actual photos, not just this amazing Toni Morrison grafitti from Vitoria, Spain. But I wanted to lead with this visual symbol of Toni Morrison’s reach. How appropriate that Ms. Morrison would have written a novel called “Beloved.” And, yes, I do plan to read her face. The real one.

To know the work of Toni Morrison is to be impressed. Born in 1931, she has become the first African-American woman — and only the eighth female writer on earth – to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. All the following works are to her credit (and no, I haven’t read a single one of them yet, but am I ever planning to Morrison up at my next library trip).

Prepare for a face reading

Add to that superb list of credits… Toni Morrison’s physical face.

As a physiognomist, I believe that each person’s face is a kind of scripture: A sacred, self-created form that evolves from the age of 18 onwards. From that age forward, we are responsible for our faces.

We shape this physical face data through thoughts, speech, words, actions. Patterns accumulate and outpicture over time, due to the reciprocal relationship between inner person and physical face.

Heredity accounts for only half of a person’s facial characteristics. The other half, far more interesting, reveals the soul.

And as the soul evolves, the face changes.

Toni Morrison, my favorite photo for face reading

Face Reading Secrets(R) is the name of my system for reading faces. You can learn how-to’s from Read People Deeper. 

Also, you can browse the 50 different categories in life on which this face reading (plus aura reading plus body language) book is based, from the list at my website. 

Or check out three full chapters from “Read People Deeper” chapters that I selected as especially good to read if you’re a browser.

When it comes applying the art of physiognomy — reading faces for character — on Toni Morrison, I am going to use the picture right here. Even though it is not a recent photograph, it’s so soulful.

• Undefended.
• Letting herself shine through.
• Nothing fake about her expression.
• Amazing, really! All attributes being very Toni Morrison and otherwise quite rare in a celebrity’s  photograph.
• Plus this one comes with a straight-on camera angle, convenient for physiognomy.

In case the photograph shown here goes away, as Internet pix sometimes do, here is a dependable url for a smaller-sized Photobucket version of this great Toni Morrison picture.

Face Reading Item #1: Lip Proportions

• See the data

Compare the fulness of upper and lower lip. Hey, let’s pause for a…

Stereotype debunking interlude

Ever hear the notion that someone with dark skin automatically has extra-full lips? Hey, compare Morrison’s ”African-American lipfulness” to that of talented, white-as-bread actress Scarlett Johansson. To my knowledge, this actress hasn’t had her lips artificially inflated. Scarlett’s lips just came that way.

One reason I love teaching, and doing, face reading is the opportunity to overcome more maya, illusion on earth that slows down one’s progress to Enlightenment.

Physiognomy helps you to see the actual person, not some ridiculous stereotype. Sure, keep the beauty of cultural heritage. That’s different.

I long for the day when humanity keeps that part and loses the crazy-wrong assumptions about who people are, based on skin color, or even expectations about how people look, based on skin color.

Interlude over, let’s get back to the face reading….

• See the data

Compare the fulness of upper and lower lip. Most people have a fuller lower lip. Sometimes a VERY much fuller lower lip. For Toni Morrison, that upper lip is significantly fuller.

• Corresponding talent

Communication (including writing) that emphasizes perceptiveness.

So, in Toni Morrison’s case, that VERY version of the face reading data would correspond to VERY big talent (and inclination) to communicate about subjective life, and do this with uncanny accuracy.

• Potential challenge

Telling people inside information they don’t welcome or can’t handle. Of course, one advantage of writing is that one can tell all one wants.

For me that was part of the fun of writing my one published novel so far,  (plus two earlier ones I destroyed). The paperback novel about an empath will soon be converted into an ebook, under a different title. In either case, it’s clear I am no Toni Morrison. Though I remain definitely an empath.

Face Reading Item #2: Natural lip liner on UPPER lip

• See the data

This isn’t makeup. It’s flesh. See that flesh-colored outline around the edges of Toni Morrison’s upper lip?

Most folks don’t have that. Interestingly, Scarlett Johansson does have it, but in a very telling variation. If you see this face reading-sized photo of Scarlett, check out the slightly asymmetrical natural lip liner on her upper lip ONLY right below her philtrum.

Yet one more indication that, as a communicator, Scarlett specializes in expressing personal nuances about sex!

• Corresponding talent

Toni Morrison can express personal information in a very succinct manner, communicating a universe in a grain of sand (to paraphrase the famous mystical quote by poet William Blake).

• Potential challenge

Annoyance that other people take so much longer to communicate. Or miss the mark when they do attempt to describe inner life, whether for themselves or for others.

Especially while teaching in universities (including Howard and Yale), has Toni Morrison secretly wondered why some of her writing students took so very long to get to the point?

Face Reading Item #3: Natural lip liner on LOWER lip

• See the data

Find that fleshy outline around Toni Morrison’s lower lip, also.

Natural lip liner is unusual on even one half of a person’s mouth. To have this characteristic on both lips is really unusual. And even among the small group of mortals whose souls outpicture this attribute, Ms. Morrison is a VERY. Note the clear natural outline. Wow!

• Corresponding talent

Super-potent, succinct communication about facts, objective reality, physical life, what happens in the shared human reality of material life.

• Potential challenge

Wondering why people take so long to get to the point about facts. Or describe them in such a sloppy manner.

Why, for instance, would a Rose Rosetree-type blogger include an entire, semi-ridiculous paragraph in order to state, more or less obliquely, and totally unnecessarilly, the exclusion from her own facial repertoire — which would, of course, be extremely relevant to a physiognomy-style analysis of her own personal mouth — of such a characteristic, especially when said physical characteristic is so exceedingly easy to identify, whether its presence or its absence?

Toni Morrison would have said, simply, “I don’t have it.”

Except, of course, she does.

Face Reading Item #4: Burnout line at bridge of nose

• See the data

In a quirky way, this looks like a nose ring. Only it’s not jewelry stuck in a pierced nostril flange. Nope, it’s a half-circle of wrinkle, right at the bridge of the nose.

• Corresponding talent

Wrinkles are God’s makeup. So is the rest of the face, as it evolves over time.

This particular medal, conferred by God, is for working really, really hard.

Combining talent with hard work explains a great deal about the stellar career of Toni Morrison.

• Potential challenge

It’s hard on a body, working that much.

Face Reading Item #5: Even-angled right eye

• See the data

First thing, be sure to tell right from left in a photo. This will not be like seeing yourself in a mirror, where your right eye shows up on the right side of the mirror.

Quite the opposite. So “Go flippo” and cross over in your mind, seeing Toni Morrison. It’s as if you were preparing to shake hands with her, right hand crossing over to reach her right hand.

• Now that you’re looking at the appropriate eye, imagine two dots.
• Put one dot at the inner corner of her eye, by the tear duct.
• Imagine the other dot at the other eye corner.
• In your imagination, connect those two dots with a line. For that eye, the line is quite straight, parallel to the floor where you are, Blog-Buddy.

How rare is an even-angled eye? About 1 in 2,000 people has one.

• Corresponding talent

Toni Morrison’s talent associated with that even-angled right eye will pertain to her career. If her left eye were the one with this rare physiognomy characteristic, the meaning would pertain to her personal life, relationships with family and close friends. But noooooooooooo.

Seeing things as they are — it’s an uncanny ability for accuracy in life.

Imagine, seeing the glass as half full and also as half empty.

Rather useful for creating a fictional world packed with meaning and nuance and accuracy!

• Potential challenge

Toni Morrison might suffer in this regard from a little challenge I like to call “A lack of tolerance for the rest of humanity.”

As in wondering, “Why is that person so pie-in-sky optimistic?” Or wondering, “Why is that person so focused on problems? Context is missing here.”

Oh well, everyone can’t be Toni Morrison. Only one person has that privilege.

And she may have overcome every one of the challenges cited in this face reading. If you want to learn about overcoming any of these challenges, pay attention to what a person says or does.

Or, if you’re an impatient sort, learn aura reading. With full Stage Three Energetic Literacy, you can find the related chakra databank and research that from a photograph or in person.

Postscript to Toni Morrison’s face reading

Another beloved, physiognomy-worthy, photo of Toni Morrison

My inspiration for choosing Toni Morrison was Blog-Buddy Ann’s nomination for our last Aura Reading Contest, where we were looking for possible molecular empaths. Comment 24. Researching online for photographs, this morning, I learned that Toni Morrison was the one who called Bill Clinton “Our first Black president,” perceptively and boldly commenting in “Talk of the Town: Comment,” The New Yorker:

“Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.”

I love that comparison, heard it back in the day, didn’t know the source. Face Reading (at least with my distinctive, trademarked system), isn’t about skin color or race or stereotyping.

I feel a kinship with Toni Morrison in seeking who the person is, what is the life, how the person chooses and grows — that’s really what matters. Behind the stereotypes, reading faces or auras or doing skilled empath merges, we can deconstruct… the real person.

And, speaking of real, I admire how this writer and teacher does photographs. Not a smidge of shyness or phoniness. Somehow her quirky, strong self shows through with uncommon clarity. Even in an obviously posed and restrained photograph, like the one for the cover of this edition of “Beloved,” behold the authentic sparkle.

Take note, all you bestselling writers who have found it necessary to touch up, clean up with a scalpel, and otherwise take advantage of vanity surgery to pull the soul out of your face, just so that you can look like a bright little 20-something.

Such as? Diane Keaton, 64 and making the talk show rounds again, promoting a new movie where she is probably wonderful, but could be even wonderfuller with her authentic face.

Or prolific psychic Sylvia Browne. The list could go on and on.

In our COMMENTS box below, perhaps some of you Blog-Buddies would care to supply a link to a celebrity’s very much retouched, worked-on, face, surgically scrubbed nearly beyond recognition. You know, someone whose score in the facial authenticity department is the polar opposite of amazing Toni Morrison.

365 Ways to a Stronger You

Blog-Buddies, before it turns midnight I want to finish up some smashing of words. Specifically, I am smashing words up into an ebook, via a service called Smashbooks.

Seemed like fun to start with my simplest nonfiction book, format-wise. Plus this one has a better title, perhaps, in its ebook edition.

  365 Ways to a Stronger You:

Balance Your Human Life with Helping Others as a World Server

Yes, that’s the reincarnation of a daybook first published in 2005 as…

Let Today Be a Holiday: 365 Ways to Co-Create with God

Comment here, you interactive person!

I’ll edit this post when the ebook goes live. The print edition is described — and still available — at the main Rose Rosetree website.

To order, call tollfree 24/7, even close to midnight, like now – ha ha! 800-345-6665.

Or preview and even order securely online at the link to Let Today Be a Holiday.

You’re invited to interact here as well.

I love the idea of visiting to you readers. Did one of the 365 chunks stand out for you? Let me know, let the rest here know about you and your insights springboarding off that day’s techniques.

Have you been moving back from a spiritual addiction? This book could help, especially in conjunction with Magnetize Money with Energetic Literacy.

The prosperity and manifestation book tells you WHY it’s important to overcome spiritual addiction while the 365 daybook helps make the HOW more fun.

What is this co-create book about, anyhow?

Here’s my simplest summary:

So many how-to’s are written for beginners.

If you have been a spiritual seeker for a while and are waiting for your next step,

this book was written for you.

Looking at the world through Rose-Rosetree-colored glasses

Hope so. Hope you are willing to see the ugliness. Especially if you have a pure heart.

If not willing, you risk finding bogus ugliness in others and yourself.

Seeking beauty is a great lifestyle. But seeking ONLY beauty makes a lousy requirement for life, a wretched way of attempting to live one’s ideals.

Could be, aiming to find only sweetness and light counts as one of the slowest and most difficult paths to Enlightenment.

Sure, I know this attempt is part of New Age Litany and much Christian culture, like the custom we have light-heartedly debunked previously, blessing people you really despise.

Ugliness remains a fact of life. Beginning, middle, end — you can encounter pain in any phase of a relationship. End-type ugliness hurts particularly.

By the end of your friendship with JOE, it can be tempting to revise the history (even the beautiful parts) by blaming JOE for being a narcissist or toxic personality or a negative person.

What would work better?

Cut your cord of attachment to Joe. Cut it early in the relationship, if you have the skills or else find a skilled practitioner of Energy Spirituality. That gives your falling into friendship a kind of insurance policy.

 Cord-cutting ensures that the score of that cord of attachment’s Yuckiness Index will not climb all the way from 1 to 10. (And cords of attachment to those we love, or invest in emotionally, do usually climb up to 10 on the Yuckiness Index. Trust me. I have seen that in clients literally thousands of times.)

That practical tip about cord-cutting aside, today’s post isn’t really about cutting cords of attachment (which helps energetically and on a subconscious level). Today let’s check out survival skills right at the surface level of reality — a practical perspective to restore balance to your conscious mind plus boosting your effectiveness on your personal path to Enlightenment.

The two trends about ugliness

Two trends are showing up now, bigtime, in pop culture.

The most popular way to interpret interpersonal conflict is to blame the other person. Then drop the relationshp and retreat, panting with anxiety, to your locked bedroom.

Recently we have pursued a thread about negative people, a big fad today about avoiding them and the (dubious) benefits of labeling folks in tricky relationships as:

• Narcissists
• Energy vampires
• Psychic vampires
• Toxic personalities
• Avoid negative people, don’t sully your eyes

Of course, another name for this approach is “A colossal waste of time.”

Prefer to see ugliness in yourself?

Self-blame is another common choice, although not necessarily advocated on purpose. More, the strategy can be promulgated indirectly through religious or cult mind control. How many workshops have you seen devoted to:

• Criticizing yourself, touted as as a wonderful way to improve yourself
• Blaming yourself in every conflict — first, last, and every other opportunity
• Advanced techniques to make yourself a real expert at sticking your nose in poop

Even so, without purposely meaning to, you may have developed big habits for seeing ugliness in yourself.

This habit involves transferring the blame rapidly from other people to yourself. This negativity strategy causes habitual fearing that every shortcoming you see in anyone else has its origins in you. Ooh, what is that “terrible flaw” within?

Think of the last tricky, perplexing or frustrating incident in your everyday life. Were you too quick to blame yourself?

Learning from one’s experience is vital on one’s path to Enlightenment. Yet taking responsibility can be carried to vicious, self-punishing extremes.

For instance I recently learned about GLADYS, a healer who thought “Every client who is attracted to me is mirroring something about me, so I must stay open to finding out what this is… in order to grow.”

GLADYS’ healing practice wasn’t growing very fast. Even worse, GLADYS’ entire life became a kind of healing practice.

It’s one thing to notice patterns in your clients and customers. Quite something else to give yourself the burden of fishing for some deep, dark pathology being shown for your personal edification in that alleged reflecting pond.

Even Sigmund Freud, master deconstructor of symbolism and pathology in everyday life, famously said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

You may be especially at risk for falsely blaming yourself for problems if you have a pure heart.

Do you have a pure heart?

Potentially every human heart is beautiful. Or could be. But many of you Blog-Buddies have an extreme version of this beauty, known as having a pure heart.

One definition of having a pure heart is that you have high vibrations spiritually. Whatever patterns of STUFF you may carry due to cords of attachment, psychic coercion, etc., the clog doesn’t keep you from being energetically free to like and love people, as an initial reaction.

And that pure heartedness generates a deep kind of enthusiasm, like how a poet finds each person’s special excellence.

Pure hearts can be researched through aura reading, especially Stage Three Energetic Literacy. A pure heart can be read with Skilled Empath Merge, too. It’s evident in chakra databanks like these:

• Aura Reading Databank at the Heart Chakra: Emotional Awareness of Other People
• Aura Reading Databank at the Root Chakra: Trusting People (Assessing Their Actions)
• Aura Reading Databank at the Belly Chakra: Creativity in Everyday Life
• Aura Reading Databank at the Solar Plexus Chakra: Handling Conflict
• Aura Reading Databank at the Throat Chakra: Communication in Public
• Aura Reading Databank at the Third Eye Chakra: Spiritual Leadership
• Aura Reading Databank at the High Heart Chakra: Soulful Connection to Other People

Go ahead! Practice your energetic literacy skills on anyone you like. Read auras in person or from regular photos. The information in these chakra databanks can clearly reveal who does, and doesn’t, have a pure heart.

The simplest definition of having a pure heart

It’s simply this, about having a pure heart: You don’t wilfully hurt people, not with intentional cruelty or malicious behavior just for the fun of it.

Psychopaths, about 1% of the human population are just the opposite.

Most folks fall into a well-populated middleground.

• They might experiment occasionally with malice. 
• They might exact revenge and like it.
• They might put ethics aside for the sake of self-interest.
• They might lie to themselves and take the lie into long-term patterns of denial.

So what about identifying “negative people” when your heart is pure?

To sum up the model provided thus far, folks with a pure heart are quite a minority, almost the polar opposite of psychopaths.

I suspect that a large proportion of you Blog-Buddies are in that Pure Heart Fellowship. Who would be more interested in Deeper Perception, even if you learned about problems of your own to fix?

Identifying “negative people” can be useful as a developmental step for people, pure-hearted or not, moving up from victimhood. Avoiding “toxic personalities” and “energy vampires” etc. can be a good coping strategy for a short period of time, a transitional period of becoming more socially resourceful.

But here’s the big problem with this strategy, especially for pure-hearted folk. Psychopaths DEPEND on others feeling guilty or blaming themselves. They will get away with terrible manipulations. And most psychopaths seem charming or confident, not at all like “negative people.”

Inwardly the psychopaths laugh. So do people who are dishonest, scheming, sexual cheaters, etc. They manipulate or bully, even if seeming totally charming.

And it isn’t enough to simply label a person as “bad” in order to avoid the occasional display of hurtful behavior. Anyone not-yet-Enlightened is a mixture.

Protect your pure heart with a better strategy

You can do so much better than simply labeling and then avoiding negative people. Instead, strengthen your own circuits about dealing with objective reality. What did JOE say and do?

Should you start to blame yourself or feel guilty, should you feel anxious about what has happened between you, please don’t limit yourself by interposing the popular label-making coping strategy: “With JOE, is he a narcissist or an energy vampire? Is he a negative person? Because then, of course, I must avoid him. This will cure all my ills.”

Nope. Much more productively, ask yourself, “What did JOE just say and do?”

And then follow up. ”How can I respond to that, with speech and actions, to get what I want?”

Informative! Life becomes informative when you see problems in objective reality for what they are, then take action.

Pure hearts can thrive that way, pursuing life and liberty and happiness. Try it.