The Spiritual Forum

Episode 231 - Produce Your Life! with Randy Adkins

Are you living your purpose? Are you creating your life or letting circumstances drive it? What do you have to offer the world? Randy Adkins is passionate about inspiring individuals to live authentically, discover their purpose, and lead fulfilling lives. He is an ordained congregational minister, software programmer, corporate consultant, community leader and Distinguished Toastmaster. Randy hosts the Produce on Purpose podcast and has recently published the book, Produce on Purpose: Experience Life Being the Real You. Through his writing teaching and speaking, he inspires people to integrate spiritual growth principles into everyday life and become leaders and change agents – producers of their own lives. Some of the things we discuss in this episode are:
• The roles of actors, directors and producers - we have the ability to be producers of our own lives
• Cultivating our imagination allows us to be able to create in this world
• How to wake up consistently at peace
• We can create ourselves out of our current world conditions
• We wear masks to hide our emotions or be socially accepted
• Part of our purpose is to have intentional aim
• How to find your purpose
• We have a choice in saying yes to our purpose
• Even in a dark world we all have light to share
• There are seasons to our lives
Website: www.RandyAdkinsJr.com
Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1960236016?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_D90GRYZ1SJHDTZ99CMR3
Podcast: https://www.randyadkinsjr.com/speaker/podcast/
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 230 - The Power Of Pause with Rob Wykes

“Somewhere just at the edge of the apparent end of a matter is a door to a place where we might put a breath into the sentences of our lives – a place where we are stripped of all questions where more than we can imagine takes place.” - Rob Wykes in Pause - A Spiritual Power
Opportunities to enter a spiritual place are all around us but we often don't recognize them, opting instead to move on to the next thing. In his book, Pause - A Spiritual Power, author Rob Wykes helps people to identify those moments and enter places of ‘spiritual pause’ which exist ‘just at the fingertips of our mortal grasp.’ A former builder turned Chaplain and then charity Chief Executive, Rob trekked through Europe, India, Iran, and Pakistan as a young man, where he awakened to the deep and profound experiences that cross cultures. While he is a practicing Christian, the power of pause is not confined or defined by any one faith tradition. In this episode Rob defines pause as a spiritual power, talks about the importance of attending to the spiritual life, and shares his own pause experiences. Some of the things we talk about are:
• There is much more to us than meets the eye
• What is spirituality?
• Categories don’t apply to our spiritual nature, so words can’t describe
• God inhabits the spirit not the mental or emotional
• Pause is when we get to the edge of the material
• Why pause is a spiritual power
• The spirit within us is fixed and needs no improvement
• The soul, like the body needs feeding too
• How prayer can be an internal conversation in our head
• What ‘ask and it will be given’ really means
• At the end of our mortal grasp is the spiritual realm; at the end of our prayers, we discover God
• Unity and individual experiences
• The importance of being expectant, waiting and listening
Links:
https://youtu.be/J8b9ho7vL0s
https://robwykes.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rob.wykes.1
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 229 - Let Your Life Speak

Kate McNally grew up in a mainstream Christian faith, where she could not find the connection to the divine that she sought. Her path took her through psychology, science, and the pursuit of a successful career, but ultimately, she found solace for her soul in the Quaker tradition. There she discovered a spiritual community and a stripped-down, simple way of following the basic commandment, “Love one another.” In this episode we learn about the Quaker faith, talk about her book, Quaker Quicks - A Simple Faith in a Complicated World, and explore the faith of Jesus rather than the faith about Jesus. Some of the things we discuss are:
• Peace, equality, simplicity, truth/integrity are the four core testimonies (values put into action)
• Ministry is where your great joy meets the world’s needs
• Every human can have a direct unmediated experience of the divine and every person/creature has a bit of God in them
• Accountability, discernment and shared leadership
• Curiosity about Jesus the human being
• What “follow me” means (letting your life speak)
• The ways many churches have missed the mark by glorifying themselves
• The focus on Jesus’s death versus life
• A new refreshing definition of perfection
• Trying to be perfect doesn’t get us closer to God
• How our strengths and weaknesses are inextricably linked
• The impactful behind the scenes work of Quakers on the world stage
A Simple Faith in a Complicated WorldL https://www.amazon.com/Quaker-Quicks-Complicated-Quakers-journey/dp/1803413034
Kate's blog: http://www.bravespaces.blog
#quaker #followme #spiritualjourney #loveoneanother
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 228 - Transmuting Fear Programs

In this second conversation with Serena Faith-Masterson, Rev. Carol explores with her some of the fear paradigms that plague the world, and what we can do to transmute them and raise our consciousness. Over 35 years, Serena healed from severe trauma, dissociative identity disorder, PTSD, depression, eating disorders and many other emotional issues. Twenty of those years was under the guidance of Norma Delaney, who taught her how to connect to her authentic self. Serena had been raised in a satanic cult and subjected from infancy to covert MK-Ultra mind-control experiments, where in her courageous fight to survive, she dissociated into over three-hundred unique personalities. Today she is a fully integrated person. In the epilogue of her memoir, I Am Serena, she wrote about the fear in our world (made more evident during Covid) and the opportunity to create something completely different by connecting with our souls through breath. In our first conversation, Episode 225 - The Power of the Soul, Serena shares her healing journey. This episode focuses on how to live in a world filled with fear programs, and choose life. Some themes we cover are:
The nature of fear and what it does to us
We are all running fear programs whether we know it or not
What we focus on we create
The brilliance of our soul
How to make the best choices for ourselves
The waiting nature of the soul
What we do to raise our consciousness impacts everyone
We get to choose in every moment to live as higher consciousness
“Our Soul voice tells us how brilliant we are, how loved we are, how exquisite we are. Our Soul honors and encourages us; she never judges us. She holds us with pure love, no matter what we do or what we experience.” – excerpt from I Am Serena
Episode 225 - The Power of the Soul: https://thespiritualforum.org/podcast/thepowerofthesoul
Links:
Serena’s website: https://www.iamserena.net/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Serena-Serena-Faith-Masterson/dp/1733097082
Free breathing meditations: https://www.iamserena.net/breath/
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 227 - Animals and Christian Ethics

“God gave animals to humans for food.” “Jesus ate fish.” “Jesus helped fishermen catch fish.” “God loved animal sacrifice.” These are just a few biblical arguments that many Christians make to justify humanity’s current utter domination of animals. But how do they jibe with what the Bible really says? How do our behaviors harmonize with the Christian ethics of love, mercy, peace, service and humility? How should we apply any of this to today’s world? Rev. Carol and philosophy and religion professor emeritus, Dr. Lisa Kemmerer cover all this and more in this engaging episode. Dr. Kemmerer is internationally known for works focused on animals, the environment, and disempowered human beings. She is the author of over a dozen books and founded and directs the educational, information-sharing non-profit, Tapestry. Her latest book, Animals and Christianity, was written to empower Christians to talk to one another and encourage people to start conversations with their Christian friends and family. It is the focus of this conversation. Here is a summary:
• The fallacies in biblical arguments and the importance of reading scripture
• Love is not limited; it is not a zero-sum game
• The human factor - oppression of slaughterhouse workers
• The corrective attempts of the Prophets to turn people back to God’s original intention
• What we really need to sacrifice
• The importance of context in moral arguments (i.e. today’s fishing is nothing like fishing in biblical times)
• The excuse of sin
• The story of the snake and Balaam’s donkey and what they tell us about animals and historical misinterpretations
Websites:
Animalsandreligion.org
Tapestry - http://tapestryofpeace.org/
Lisakemmerer.com
Lisakemmerer.org
Animals and Christianity book: https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Christianity-Religion-Lisa-Kemmerer/dp/B09WPTLSP7
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 226 - The Astrology of Phoenixes and Angels

Are you a phoenix? Or an angel? Did you know that most people with spiritual abilities/interests have planet placements in the eighth or twelfth houses? What does that mean? The answers to these questions and more can be found in this episode with Carmen Turner-Schott. Carmen she is a licensed clinical social worker, psychological astrologer, author, certified Reiki Master Energy Healer, Quantum Healing Hypnosis (QHHT) Practitioner and Akashic Records International Consultant and avid dream researcher. She brings her knowledge of astrology together with these multiple modalities to help people with healing and psychological processing. Carmen is the author of nine books on astrology and healing, including her most recent book, Phoenixes and Angels: Mastering the Eighth and Twelfth Astrological Houses, which is the focal point of this episode. Some of the topics we discuss are:
• How knowing your astrological chart can support your life
• Characteristics of 8th and 12th house people (see summaries below)
• 8th and 12th house planet placements are often considered a blessing or a curse
• Why some people don’t seem to be in alignment with astrological chart readings
• How to access your own chart
• What is currently happening with the planets that is impacting our practical lives
8th house Phoenixes:
• Ruled by Scorpio
• House of death, loss, emotional/mental/physical rebirth, healing
• Deep and emotionally transformative energies
• The most resilient house
• Financial or spiritual inheritance
• Do well in crisis
• Attract people who feel comfortable sharing their problems and secrets
• Keep secrets
• See truth when others don’t
12th house - Angels
• Ruled by Pisces
• Rules dreams and sleep
• House of cosmic consciousness, meditation and spiritual service
• Have to work on balancing spiritual and practical worlds
• Have to develop boundaries so they can be in service
• Gets psychic information through dreams
• Spiritual gifts like seeing auras and feeling energy
• Addiction and escapism tendencies
• Want to take on the pain of other people
www.carmenturnerschott.com
Social Media Links
Facebook Pages
https://www.facebook.com/www.deepsouldiversastrology
https://www.facebook.com/CarmenTurnerSchottWriter
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/carmenturnerschott
@CarmenTurnerSchott
Instagram: carmen_turner_schott_author
Twitter: @astroawareness
© the spiritual forum 2023

Episode 225: The Power Of The Soul with Serena-Faith Masterson

“Learning to differentiate our head voice from our Soul voice begins this opening. Our head voice says you should, you must, you did it wrong; but our Soul voice tells us how brilliant we are, how loved we are, how exquisite we are. Our Soul honors and encourages us; she never judges us. She holds us with pure love, no matter what we do or what we experience.” – Excerpt from I Am Serena
Raised in a satanic cult and subjected from infancy to covert MK-Ultra mind-control experiments, Serena-Faith Masterson developed over three-hundred unique personalities in her courageous fight to survive. In her remarkable and inspiring memoir, I am Serena, she authentically shares her 35-year journey to heal severe trauma, dissociative identity disorder, PTSD, depression, eating disorders and many other emotional issues, and integrate into the whole person she is today. She did this by connecting to her authentic self under the guidance of Norma Delaney, a woman who committed over twenty years to helping Serena heal. In this episode, Serena shares her journey from hatred to love of self, her relentless pursuit of truth, and the brilliance of her soul to navigate the fulfillment of her life purpose. Today she lives joyfully, free from her past. Some of the key ideas discussed are:
• We are in truth, divine beings
• The Kingdom of God dwells within
• The applicability of Serena’s healing to everyone
• The miracle of breath
• The love affair that matters
• Integration requires facing truth and releasing rage and judgment
• It takes perseverance to discern what you are feeling, what is truth and what is a lie
• The wisdom of Kuan Yin
• The infinite love of God/our Soul
• With Spirit ANYTHING is possible
• We are never alone
• How we impact consciousness
• Fear is NOT the reality on this planet!
If you are curious or skeptical about childhood ritual abuse, here is an informative published research paper on the subject: https://www.academia.edu/2128441/The_role_of_ritual_in_the_organised_abuse_of_children#:~:text=This%20paper%20is%20based%20on%20qualitative%20interviews%20with,of%20religious%20or%20mythological%20justifications%20for%20organised%20abuse
Links:
Serena’s website: https://www.iamserena.net/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Serena-Serena-Faith-Masterson/dp/1733097082
Free breathing meditations: https://www.iamserena.net/breath/
© the spiritual forum 2023

The Great Awakening Through the Mayan Lens

Two years ago, Rev. Carol had a fascinating conversation with Solveig Barrios, founder of the Mayan Wisdom Project. From Guatemala and born in a line of Mayan spiritual leaders, Solveig's whole life has been a journey of discovering the deep knowledge and wisdom of one of the most ancient and enlightened civilizations in the world. She founded the Mayan Wisdom Project to allow universal access to the incredible healing technologies known to the Mayans. Today we are in the midst of a great awakening and potentially a political collapse. Solveig shares her perspective on what is happening in the world through the lens Mayan Wisdom. After two years, this is a good time to revisit this conversation and reflect on where we are and the possibilities we can create. Some of the things we talk about are:
• The significance of 2012
• Why Mayan wisdom can now be shared
• Five cycles of evolution (fire, agriculture, science/reasoning, space time, ether)
• How we became attached to the third cycle
• Illusion and reality
• The period of awakening and transmutation
• Predictions for 2025
• We are going against nature – we are going against ourselves
• The deeper way the Mayans view nature
• What we call technology is not what technology is supposed to be
• Why we will not pull off going against the fifth cycle
• We are masters not victims
• Everything that is happening now is perfect
• The purpose of duality
• What evil is in Mayan philosophy
© the spiritual forum 2021
wisdommayanknowledgeunityspiritual pathhealing