Practical components – LP Core Study Guide –

Each of the LP levels has a practical component that you must engage in if you are to make discernible spiritual progress. That is, it’s not enough just to read the books. While reading the books will bring you progress (I do have many anecdotal statements from people who have experienced significant shifting after simply reading the books and absorbing the right thinking contained therein), this progress will not be permanent unless you back it up with the spiritual practice and real world changes. The bottom line is, if you don’t engage in the practice, and if you don’t commit to the changes required, you’ll simply settle back down into old patterns, old ways of thinking, and states of reduced consciousness. There is no way around this. You must walk the walk.

At the core level there are several practical components. One, you must learn to take care of your physical unit properly. Considering that your body is a vehicle designed specifically to carry your high power spiritual consciousness, it doesn’t make much sense to treat your body poorly and/or fill it with garbage. If you want to make good progress on this spiritual path you need to maintain your physical unit in good function and repair. Basic guidance on sleep, nutrition, and so on is provided in The Great Awakening: Concepts and Techniques for Successful Spiritual Practice.

Another practical component you need to learn is proper breathing. As outlined in The Great Awakening, proper breathing is critical. Proper breathing will help ground you, calm you, and keep your bodily consciousness on an even keel. In fact, proper breathing may mean the difference between continous forward movement, and panicky and fear based setbacks. This is especially true at the intermediate and advanced levels where you will come into contact with who you really are, so make sure you have a good handle on what proper breathing means, and how to accomplish it automatically and without thinking, before moving on to the next level.

A third practical component of the LP Core is trust. As part of your spiritual practice you really need to learn to trust yourself, trust intuition, and trust your inner guidance. The truth is that as part of your socialization you have been taught to not trust yourselves. Science pooh poohs things like intuition and the higher senses and many of this world’s religions teach you to fear the spiritual realms (demons, hell, damnation, judgment, etc.) so many of us have this deeply ingrained distrust of the non-physical. You have to get over that and learn that not only is there more to life than what is visible with your physical senses, but that this “more” isn’t going to hurt you, drag you to hell, damn you, or blow you and your family up. Of course, and at the same time, don’t throw up your hands and just believe everything that comes to you. You always need to ground and practice discernment. It won’t do any good if you run off and follow every young, ego challenged channeler who believes themselves to be channeling the lord high poohbah of the great [insert famous spiritual or alien name here] brotherhood of the traveling gym shorts. You need to trust yourself and the spiritual realms, but you need to remain critical and grounded as well. It is a bit of a balancing act, especially at the beginning when you are just starting out, but the LP teaches you well and you’ll eventually develop your own inner “bullshit detector” as I like to call it. If you need help in this regard, or just have some questions, please feel free to ask them on the forums.

Fourth, you are going to need to practice intent. As noted in The Great Awakening, intent is a very important part of spiritual awakening and empowerment, but not in the passive “I’m just going to sit here and ‘attract'” type of way, but in the active and directed “I’m going to create what I need to move forward whether anybody likes it or not” type of way. Seriously. You don’t need to sit back and trust the universe sends you what you want. You need to actively pursue and demand. The simplest and most effective way to do this is to simply repeat the mantra “I wish to move forward” whenever you think about it. Say to yourself, multiple times throughout the day, I WISH TO MOVE FORWARD or I WISH TO HEAL. This signals to both your guides and the energies of creation that you want to create conditions that will support your forward movement. If you do not do this then you will run up against the inertia of energy, the status quo of this planet, and (especially at the intermediate level) the resistance of others. Constantly reinforcing and rehearsing your intent to move forward will ensure you continue to draw energy in the direction that you need to awaken and advance. Of course, as you will learn as you walk this path, and as we will see in The Black Book, the importance of consciousness and intent goes beyond mere awakening and empowerment to the actual definition and manifestation of reality. But don’t worry about that now. It will become clear as you progress along The Lightning Path.

Fifth, make sure you develop your ability to visualize things. Make sure you practice your visualization! It is important. In The Great Awakening I provide some guidance on how to develop your ability to visualize but it will also be helpful to find other ways. In this context the right brain development exercises I provided in The Great Awakening are CRITICAL. And just in case you didn’t hear me the first few times I’ve said this, let me say it again with underlining. Right brain development exercises are critical, so START NOW. Learn a musical instrument, learn to draw, learn to write poetry, take up tai chi or dance or some other form of movement based practice, engage in creative writing or whatever you choose. Just do something to balance the left and right hemispheres of your brain. If don’t start doing this now you’ll find yourself blocked when you get to the advanced levels of study. You really do need both sides of your brain working in tandem, and at equal strength, if you are going to be able to experience and handle what is to come.

And that’s about it. The only thing I want to say in closing is that all of these practical components are important. From trust and breathing to visualization and the right brain development exercises I emphasize, you need to do these things. If it helps, consider these like the admonitions to learn “reading, writing, and arithmetic” that you used to get in grammar school. These things are basic spiritual techniques, practices, and orientations that you absolutely must have if you are to be able to progress towards more advanced levels of spiritual awakening and empowerment. Put another way, these are the foundations upon which you will build your connection to The Fabric of Consciousness and your understanding of all things spiritual. Like all built things, if the foundations aren’t solid and adequate, the structure will not stand.