Last night was a nightmare. For the first time in my life, I didn’t get one wink of sleep. Not one. And every time I looked over at my clock, the anxiety about whether I’d ever go to sleep got worse and worse. Then, at around 2:00 AM, I heard the TV in the den blaring. Could that be Erik? If so, he didn’t help matters at all!

And now Erik has a message about how to translate what he shares in the blog into action. I sure wish he’d get the Nike endorsement!

Me: One blog member has this to say: “All the things in the blog are wonderful, but unless we can experience them firsthand, that feeling of no judgment and unconditional love, that we are all one, there is no good or bad, it’s all just an idea, not real. How do we experience the feeling that we are not alone?–”

Jamie: Wait.

Me: Huh?

Jamie: He’s stopping you for a second.

Erik: Tell who ever wrote in that they’re the ones who create their own reality. It has to start with them first. They’re sitting at home safe in their little haven sending in this question to you – it’s almost like an excuse.

Me: Ah! He just doesn’t know how to do it. Most of us don’t, Erik! It’s hard to take knowledge and put it into reality. He goes on to say, “I cannot accept that we are here to learn but never achieve until our previously planned exit point comes around and then it all magically makes sense. I wonder too if this is in part what The Shift is about. Is it time for us to wake up while still in the physical? If so, how do we do it?” He just doesn’t know how to do it.

Erik: People are getting in their own way. There’s no step-by-step process here.

Me: Is it just the Nike way? “Just do it!”

Erik: That person—when somebody reads that question—

Jamie (to Erik): No, wait. What?

Erik: When thousands of people read that question, they’re all going to resonate with it. They’ll rally around and go, “Yeah! How? Why aren’t we?” Well, guess what? You are the one who’s supposed to be showing the other people! You can’t feel it because you’re not giving it out and so you say, “I don’t know how to do it! What’s the process?”

Jamie: Yeah, he’s making this goofy surfer dude voice.

Erik: There is no process. You’ve got to go back in just this one lifetime because I really won’t let you use other lifetimes as an excuse—and by the way, tell that reader there’s no fucking magic. You don’t die and just get it all. There’s still struggle and learning over here. It’s just still individualistic. It’s not under a government or a society. So, don’t think that you’re escaping or getting away scot-free. That’s bullshit, like fairy dust and crap like that. Made in dreams. So, where to start is pointing a finger at yourself, not pointing a finger at a teacher or a blog site or some kind of concept that we’re talking about. If you turn around and you point it at yourself and you say, “Why don’t I want to believe in this?” or “How can I achieve it?” and that is by looking at what do you believe in. It’s looking at “Why am I choosing to believe in it? Is it really me or is it something I was taught to believe in?”

Me: Oh, yes!

Erik (with passion): So many of us are fighting. It’s this internal boxing match that our parents did their best and they taught us these things out of love—

Me: Exactly.

Erik: –and as we grow up, we realize it was bullshit. They were conned by their parents who were conned by their parents and so on. But many are in this position where they say, “Now I’m conned, but now I’m wedged in this freaking in culture and society where I gotta change, and what am I going to go with—loyalty to the teachings of my parents or loyalty to how I feel for myself?”

Jamie: Holy shit! You’re giving me goosebumps, Man! You’re on your soapbox today, Erik!

Me: Yeah! Pretty good, Erik! He goes on to say, “How do we experience the feeling that we are not alone whether than try to convince ourselves that we aren’t?” I think that spells it out in a nutshell.

Jamie: It does!

Me: He wants the feeling, you know?

Jamie: Yes! He’s doing this funny Baptist preacher thing, “Amen!”

Me (sighing in mock exasperation): Of course, of course.

Erik: You’re right. Get out of your fucking head! Why are you torturing yourself? You have to feel first and think second. Tell them their phattest homework is to sit down and feel it first, and then feel it out.

Me: Exactly. Okay.

Erik: And if they feel so alone, Mom, you gotta let them know they’re choosing that because I’m telling you, the life that is around them—the air, the plants, the trees, the animals, the people—are not alienating them. They’re choosing it. They’re choosing only to identify with the negative and alienation feelings. As soon as they start to stop judging themselves, start looking at their own beliefs, they’ll start to see the light and the beauty and “coincidences”—

Jamie: He puts that in air quotes.

Erik: — that life is offering every step of the way; people choose to live in a dark room. God doesn’t give it to them. Nobody is making them stay in the room. They do it to themselves and then they like to give out excuses and point fingers everywhere else but at them. As a community, everyone, we need to stand up and reach out and really show them our hand and say, “I’ll hold it. I’ll hold it for you while you sit in the dark. And then when you’re ready, I’ll walk you to the door.”

Me: Aw. Beautiful. Goosebumps. You’re awesome, Erik. You’re really on a roll today!

Jamie (half giggling/half choking up): I know! Who are you? I felt goosebumps on the back of my head and my legs.

Me: Well done, my boy.