Yesterday, while I was getting my haircut, I received a text from Tiffany (from the Joyride Show,) asking me to meet her at a pizza joint to surprise Emma McIntosh who had just arrived from Belgium the day before. I told her I’d be there shortly and when I arrived, there was Emma in line to order. I snuck behind her and grabbed her shoulders. When she turned around, her stare was blank followed by a look of shock. So fun to surprise people. We have never met in person, so it was very special indeed. I also met her mother, who is an absolute doll. Tonight, Tiffany, Kerry, Kari, Emma, her mom and Robert are going to meet at my house for a little get together, then we’ll go to Lupe Tortillas for Tex-Mex and margaritas. Emma and her mom are in for a treat because they’ve never had either! That should be on everyone’s bucket list!

Enjoy the last part of Erik’s take on gossip, but first, don’t forget that tomorrow at 7 PM CT is Erik’s Hour of Enlightenment radio show. Call 619-639-4606 15 minutes prior to talk to Erik. http://goo.gl/aFHTzJ

Erik: When people talk bad about others, it depends on the goal of what’s happening. Most of the time when people are like, “Oh, I can’t believe that they did this or that,” they’re in ego, and ego needs that attention to be fed and be fulfilled. That’s because ego is always empty, wanting to be fed. The drama that’s created by gossip and the attention or energy that comes from it fills the ego. It fills the ego’s need. That’s why people gossip and create drama. The ego needs that to survive.

Kim: What if you want to share a truth and what if it’s like, “I want to share this about this person because I don’t want you to get hurt?”

Me: Oh, yeah!

Kim: So it’s still kind of like gossip.

Erik: Even that, even if you’re trying to protect someone else from getting hurt by that person, just remember that you’re sharing your perspective. You’re sharing your experience, so be very mindful that you’re not bringing someone else into your experience because, to them, it’s an illusion. It’s not their reality.

Me: And they might have a different experience with that person.

Erik: And maybe they’re supposed to have that experience.

Me: Maybe!

Erik: It doesn’t hurt to want to help people and prevent them from getting hurt, but be mindful not to convince them that your perspective is the right one. Don’t capitalize on your perspective because then you’re right back in ego.

Me: Okay.

Erik: You’re right back in that self-centered, egoic mindset.

Erik exhales deeply and wipes his brow.

Erik: I know it’s hard because everywhere we turn around there’s a booby trap that the ego has set up and we fall into it and believe the illusion.

Me: So true!

Erik: A lot of people ask, “How do I remind myself to stay just within myself and not fall into the traps of ego?”

Me: Right. How do you stay transparent?

Erik: By staying in the Now. By staying present. All gossip is is information associated with the concept of time because it’s, “This happened. Can you believe it?”

Me: That’s the past.

Erik: Or, “Watch out! This person is bad! He might hurt you!” That hasn’t happened yet. It’s in the future. So you’re pulling them out of the Now.

Me: Oh, yeah!

Erik: And because you’re responsible for doing that to someone else, you’ll experience the collateral effect, too. So just be careful what booby traps you set up for yourself.

Me: Yes. There are so many out there!

Kim: He’s showing the movie, The Goonies. Do you remember that one? I don’t know the characters’ names, but there’s this one little boy that says, “Booby twap!” He couldn’t say it right.

Me: I don’t remember that. I don’t think I’ve watched it before.

Kim: Erik’s showing the clip from that movie.

We both chuckle.

Erik: So, yeah. Being transparent is being present. The more transparent you are, the less identity you’ve created with events, people and things around you. And the more present you are, the more you’ll see how completely useless it is to gossip.

Me: Yeah. That’s good.

Erik: It’s a waste of your own good energy.

Me: That makes total sense. I can’t say that I’ve never gossiped. I have before, and you’re right. A lot of times it does bite us in the butt.

Erik: Yeah, we’ve all done it and we have to forgive ourselves. It’s a part of the experience, and again, look at the silver lining. There are silver linings in all things, so even if you’ve gossiped and it bit you in the butt or if others have gossiped about you and made life hard or whatever, look at the silver lining and know that it was always for your favor, always for your abundance. If someone gossips and says bad things about you, if you react with negative emotion, then that’s what you’ll experience, but if you look at the silver lining in it, there are always gains to be had.

Me: Always. Always.

Erik: We so often overlook the silver lining.

Me: Yeah, we do, but there’s always value in every experience—everything!

Erik: When we overlook the silver lining, we forfeit that value that’s right there waiting.

Me: I know! I had one person, a dear friend in my life that always gossiped about other people, and finally, I thought, ‘If she’s gossiping about them, she’s probably gossiping about me!’ And she was, actually.

Wait, am I gossiping about her, now?

Me: So, when someone gossips to us, how do we handle it?

Erik (smiling really big): It depends on what you want to experience. Most people—it’s a natural default mechanism—let their egos default to reacting especially without thinking. They have to send them a message or whatever. They have to backfire and react. If you react, you become.

Me: “If you react, you become.” Boy, that’s powerful! I like that.

Kim: Here’s a great example. I’ll use myself as the example. I had done a Channeling Erik session with a lady who interviewed Jamie Butler a long time ago overseas on a radio show Skype session and made a YouTube video of it.

Me: Okay.

Kim: We were asking Erik is eating meat was okay, and he was like, “Of course. You just give gratitude, set your intentions, blah, blah, blah.” Well, some vegan person, vegetarian or whatever took that video and recreated it, and boy, she called me some names I’d never repeat! It was awful!

Me: Aw!

Kim: So she was gossiping, you know, and I wanted so bad to backfire and say, ‘It’s because of people like you that we will never know world peace!”

I laugh hard.

Kim: But I was just like, ‘Whatever. I’m just not going to react.’ Because if I reactd, I become and I take on more garbage.

Me: Yeah.

Kim: It was a very low vibration, so if you choose not to react even though it hurts and you want to prove your point like, “This is good. This is okay,”—she didn’t even know who Erik was, so it was so ignorant of her to even bash Erik. So, it was something I chose not to react to because I didn’t want to become a part of that.

Me: Yeah, not everybody is conscious. She’s obviously not a very conscious person, otherwise, she’d know that plant souls have just as much value as animal souls.

Erik: Right, and a truly conscious person doesn’t need to bash another at all, ever in any way because they’d know it’s a waste of perfect energy. We’re always perfect energy until we bring on these ideas that create otherwise. So by not reacting, you remain transparent. As soon as you react—I’m not telling you to walk around in ignorance and be numb to things and blank. You can react, just don’t become. Too often people react, and then they stay in that reaction and regurgitate it for days like, “I can’t believe that happened! I still can’t believe that happened!”

(Long pause)

Kim (to Erik): I don’t want to talk about that. He wants me—I guess I can share it in a way. You guys probably know I’m an army wife, and when my husband leaves for training, I’m like, “So. It is what it is.” If I react to it, it’s like –

She listens to Erik.

Kim: Oh, okay. So a lot of times, these army wives will default to, “Oh, I should feel bad and assume that shit hits the fan when the husband is gone.” So they create that reality and it’s insane what they go through!

Me: Oh!

Kim: They plug into it. That’s their default. They have an attachment to that certain idea, and instead of remaining transparent like, “Yeah, it is what it is. So What? I’m right here, right now,” and I’m not trying to be calloused about it, but I try to stay transparent. I don’t let myself become identified with it.

Me: That’s good!

Kim: Then I don’t become it.

Me: Yeah, don’t let it label you. Don’t let it identify you in some way. That’s right, and if somebody does gossip to you, we can say something like, “I really don’t want to be a part of this whole scene.”

Erik: Yeah, it’s the attachment with the identity in it that people create that allows them to be affected by the gossip.

Me: Okay, well, we’re out of time, so any last words, Erik, about gossip or transparency?

Erik: Don’t talk shit about others! It’s not nice!

Me: I know, man!

Kim laughs.

Me: And don’t do shit that people want to talk about! That’s another part of the equation.

Erik: And if they do talk about you, let ‘em talk. You don’t have to respond. Stay transparent.

Me: Sounds great! Thank you, Kim. Thank you, Erik.

Erik (blowing kisses): I love you, Mom.

Me: I love you, too!

I share Kim’s website, and she talks about her upcoming east coast tour with Erik