Intro to Mikey - Relocating to the West Coast - A Leap of Faith

So, it has been just about one year since a friend of mine told me about the books of Gary Renard. When she told me what they were all about, I knew immediately they were for me. That in itself was very odd, as no one outside of my mom had presented me with something in spirituality that I would feel drawn to explore. And it turns out, this is the best stuff I've ever come across in my thirteen years of studying spirituality and metaphysics, and is the path I will be following until I'm fully awakened.

I have been on a spiritual path since the mid 90s, feasting in what Gary's books refer to as 'the spiritual buffet line.' You know what I'm talking about, reading the books of all those well known spiritual authors, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, James Redfield, Shirley MacLaine etc. They were all very helpful to me at the time, as they got me to break free from some of my old ways of thinking. However, in the summer of 2002, my life had come to a cross roads, that coupled with seeing signs of '11:11' that really freaked me out, while doing some soul-searching away from home down on the Florida gulf coast, going through what some may call 'the dark night of the soul.' I had come to a realization that it was time for me to 'grow up' in the spiritual sense; and my life hasn't been the same since.

From that time on, my life has been all about achieving ascension, enlightenment, mastery, (whatever you want to call it) though I didn't realize it right away. I started furthering my studies of spirituality by reading the Life and Teachings of the Masters of Far East books by Baird T Spalding, as well as the "I AM" aka Saint Germain Series of books by Godfre Ray King.

By the end of 2002, I started working with an audio series called Pathways to Mastership by Jonathan Parker. My mom had loaned the tape series to me back in 1997. Every once in a while I would play the first tape and just found I couldn't get into it. Little did I know at the time I was subconsciously resisting it, as the message was very threatening to my ego. Jonathan's stuff is pretty heavy, it's all about looking at the things within one's self that nobody wants to look at; or what A Course in Miracles refers to as 'the secret sins and hidden hates' we all have about ourselves and are usually in total denial of. Yes, we all have them, we wouldn't appear to be here in a body otherwise. But much more about that in a future post.

So anyway, in 2003 I attended several of Jonathan's workshops in Sedona, Arizona. Much like Mount Shasta, Sedona is a great place for meditating and doing inner work. The vortex energy in these places amplifies everything, which makes your subtle feelings about everything feel much stronger. So much so that when you leave these areas, you feel a great sense of relief, at least that has been my experience. It brings out the stuff buried in the subconscious mind; all the guilt, fear, anger, resentment, insecurities etc. that we all have, but most are oblivious to. Jonathan's guided meditations are designed to bring that stuff to the surface to be healed once and for all, rather than continuing to suppress it. And from my experience, it works. It's just a matter of taking the time to do the work. But I'm certainly not an enlightened being at this time (far from it) but I know I have less ego than I used to have.

Also in 2003, I started reading the spiritual psychology and ascension series of books by Joshua David Stone. My mom had started reading them, and shortly thereafter told me about them. Once I started reading them, I knew there was no going back, and also knew I would not be doing some things in a 'normal' fashion from this time on. This, combined with the work I was doing with Jonathan's guided meditations, totally turned my world upside down. I knew I had I much work ahead of me, and still do to this day.

For some time, Joshua, who passed away in August of 2005, had held an annual event in Mount Shasta, California called
Wesak. The event was held every spring. I purchased tickets for the following spring event in July of 2003, and surprised my mom with them. I even half-kiddingly told her that maybe I would move there too. Well, one week later, not only I was committed to moving there within one year's time, but my mom was coming with me, and we were going to be 'roomies.' There was no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do. It was as if Jesus himself was giving me these thoughts, they sure as hell felt like they were coming from someplace else that's for damn sure!

So in January of 2004, we visited Shasta for the first time for a couple of weeks. And then came back in May for the Wesak event - which turned out to be the final one hosted by Joshua - as well as to find a place to live. Well, the Wesak event is a three day event, going from Friday afternoon into Sunday evening. I would say that the event ran for a grand total of thirty hours. Well, we spent maybe an hour or two there at most. Without getting into details, we just lost interest. But we knew it served a purpose in getting us out there.

So, Friday, June 18, 2004, we left our hometown, New Bedford, Massachusetts (and haven't been back since.) Our stuff was scheduled to arrive anywhere between June 26th and July 3rd, so we had to get there in about a week's time in order to make sure we got there before the movers did. We drove cross country in my Jeep Wrangler, not a comfortable ride for my mom. It was pretty cool to drive cross country, however, it was a bit tiring spending at least 8 hours a day on the road. But we got to see some cool places we've never seen before, Wyoming and Utah come to mind, while seeing some sites we could have done without, particularly the endless amount of corn fields from Indiana through Nebraska. Anyway, we arrived in Mt Shasta (in one piece, barely - long story) on the following Friday and checked into a suite at the Econo Lodge.

After settling into our duplex in the first week of July, and pretty much for the next 6 months after that, I would be saying to myself 'what the hell am I doing here?!' I gave up a pretty good salaried position, working for a bank doing money laundering investigations, with five weeks of vacation time and eleven paid holidays, as well as a pretty nice apartment that came with a very generous rent deal since my grandmother was my land-lady back east. Not to mention I had a reasonable amount of freedom on my job since I worked in Providence, RI my last year and a half there, while the department I worked for was located in Boston and I would only see those folks once every other month or so. And here I am in the small town of Mt Shasta, CA, population less than 4000 people, with no 'real' plan!

So, since my spiritual path and listening to that inner voice led me away from my aforementioned old life to this world of 'the unknown', I was pretty much expecting the following two things to take place: The first being that an ascended master would come knocking at my door and take me to the mountain, or better yet inside the mountain, for some wicked cool healings or something, and tell me how freakin' awesome I am for giving up everything to come out to Mt Shasta, and that I passed a test of faith by coming out here. I had read books about ascended masters appearing to people in Mt Shasta so I figured, 'why not me?' And the other thing I was expecting was a check from God in the mail so I wouldn't have to work and I could just focus on my spiritual path while having some fun too. Those weren't unreasonable expectations, were they?!?!

Well, I pretty much felt hung out to dry. Needless to say, no masters came knocking on my door, while no check from God arrived in the mail either. I had been tricked! Furthermore, all of my intuitions, gut feelings, and inner voices I was getting for several years prior, seemingly disappeared, so I didn't know what the hell to do! Well, after a while, I realized that the 'test', or initiation if you will, was just starting. Fortunately, I did have money to live off of, from stock options I cashed when I left the bank along with a pension. But living off of your savings is not necessarily healthy for one's nerves. And I had not a freakin' idea what I was going to do for work. I just woke up every morning not knowing what the hell I was doing, but making sure to catch my daily fix of The Price is Right, as well as Happy Days on TV Land! Yes, those were weird and perhaps even pathetic times.........and you don't know even know the half of it! Of which, I don't particularly care to admit to at this time.

Also, almost immediately upon settling into Shasta, my mom came across these brand spanking new books called Telos by local author Aurelia Louise Jones. She channels an ascended master named Adama. Her books are all about the Lemurians, people that came over from the lost continent Lemuria prior to its demise, and settled here. Except, that according to the books, they live in what is called the 5th dimension, as opposed to the everyday 3rd dimension we experience, and reside underneath Mount Shasta. One can not see them unless you match their level of vibration. Whether you believe all that or not is up to you, I for one believe anything is possible so what does that leave out? But the important message in these books for the serious spiritual seeker, is that you need to face all of your fears and learn to live from the inside-out. If you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to look at all your fears. Not looking at them, or being in denial of them, will just keep them in place. So I was into Aurelia's stuff for some time, and even attended a few of her channeling sessions in her home in Mount Shasta (in the town, not the mountain) in 2006 and 2007.

In January of 2005, I had a personal channeling session with Aurelia and had a conversation over the phone with the ascended master Adama. I figured, 'what the hell, why not?' It was pretty weird because it was still Aurelia's voice, but supposedly not her talking to me, but the ascended master Adama talking to me through Aurelia. So I let it all out there regarding my fears and all the things that I was feeling very unsettled about in my life, particularly about bringing in money. It was suggested that Ashland, OR would be a better fit for me, as they were more employment opportunities in the area. I had pretty much knew already that I wanted to be in Ashland, but hadn't acted on it since I thought I was supposed to be in Shasta, that's where I was guided to go after all. Anyway, I was told that I could still get the benefits of the Mount Shasta vortex energy, but that it's gentler in Ashland. I remember thinking why the hell am I paying money, as well as wasting my time, for advice on something I already knew the answer to, and that was hardly the first time I had done such a thing. "Tell me something I don't know!!!" was always my motto after such a session with somebody, whether it be a psychic, astrologer, channeler or what have you. A lesson in learning to trust my inner guidance, indeed.

Anyway, I was in love with Ashland before I even stepped foot in Oregon. Ashland is located eighty miles north of the town of Mount Shasta, just over the California border. I had picked up a copy of Ashland's annual publication, The Green Book Directory at a health food store upon my arrival in Mt Shasta. With all of the spiritual and holistic type services being offered there, I knew it would be a wonderful, open-minded community to be a part of. So since I wasn't working, I found myself taking day trips to Ashland over the next few months, and decided that when the one year lease I was in ran out, I would move there. I even started doing volunteer work as a librarian at the metaphysical library in town several months before moving here. The town just felt like a home that I never previously experienced in this lifetime. So on June 23, 2005, I got the keys to my new place here in the south end of Ashland, with a job starting in two weeks at Harry and David in nearby Medford.

So what does all this have to do with Gary Renard's books? Well, nothing really. I just felt a need give some background information before I get heavily into his stuff, to hopefully give you an idea as to where I'm coming from. More to come soon!

p.s. A lot of the semantics and verbiage I use in this post I wouldn't necessarily use now, but was using them here because that is where I was at, at the time....
Also, I know the opening of my blog leaves some unanswered questions so I hope to get into some of that in future posts.

God Is