3 EYE OPENING SPIRITUAL PRACTICES that bring consciousness into your relationships at home - with friends - at work.

1 STAY ON THE THREAD: Stay on the 1 Thread (Topic) in the conversation for more than 3 contributions.

Perhaps you will find this familiar. We call it "The Red Car Principle." Someone will start a conversation by saying: "I am thinking of buying a red BMW". The next person responds saying, "I really like BMWs." The third person will say ", I bought a new red dress!" The fourth person jumps in with "There's a great dress sale at the mall." This is the world of communication whiplash that we live in. Put this scenario into a boardroom or a spiritual conference or a family holiday dinner and the result is at best indifference. At worst, it can lead to alienation, frustration and separation. So try to stay on the Thread or topic in your conversations, gatherings and meetings. This Practice by itself has an immense power to bring people into a higher relationship. Conversations can be unfulfilling and divisive because of the modern mind and its associative thinking process. The self-centered ego plays a major role in keeping us apart. Continuing a thread focuses our attention on an aspect of the invisible realm. This helps to change the frequency of the conversation. The mind's tendency to jump from topic to topic is curtailed. The ego's control of shifting attention to its agenda is diminished. An inner stillness grows, so does the opening of a spacious, flexible intelligence that is the springboard for newness. Focus on the thread with the attention that it necessitates becomes a means, a pathway to authentic responsiveness, creativity and a shared sense of connectedness.

2    NO CROSS TALK: Do not express personal agreement or disagreement to others statements.

The willingness to participate in a transpersonal conversation leads to being together in a deeper way. Agreement and disagreement exist in every human interaction. They usually are expressed directly and very personally. This practice asks us to tone down the sympathy or antipathy to the statements of those we are in dialogue with. For example, you might NOT say, "I love what you just said or "I don't agree with Bob". It is not that debate does not have a place in society but for entering a higher form of gathering it stops the flow of energy. It is more arguing than discussion. "No Cross Talk" helps with competition because some of the focus is taken away from reacting to each person's contribution. All of the judgment is not eliminated but the curtailing of its expression allows us the freedom to listen in a more objective manner." "No Cross Talk" promotes autonomy because it forces us back to ourselves. This gives room for the emergence of a higher sense of Self and alleviates the tendency to be dragged down to a relative way of interacting.

3    NO QUESTIONS: Don't ask questions; rather contribute your comments to add to the conversation.

One might think that questions would open a conversations or gatherings to interrelatedness and encourage expression. That is possible with a highly sensitive and trained facilitator. More often questions open the space for those who have a tendency to argue in the guise of discussing. The question can be a front for someone to express expertise in opposition or in competition. The most common scenario is that the questioner wants attention and to show his or her superiority. Due to the nature of the post modern mind and its training in critical analysis and fault finding, a question is often a temporary diversion from the wholeness to a person. In most conversations there is a questioner and a listener. Both can be on auto-pilot creating an unfulfilling mechanical interaction.


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"The sense of feeing like an outsider, of someone who does not belong anywhere is many times one of the hallmarks of those who are marked for awakening. So many who are waking up to Spirituality tell the same story. Their fundamental unanswered questions persist-“Who am I? What am I doing here? Is there a purpose to this life?"

-Ron Friedman, from "Marked for Meaning