Still feeling like crap, but good enough to meet family down south in Port O’Connor. I couldn’t leave without posting something, though, since I’m going to a place with NO Internet. That’s going to take some getting used to, but it might be good to get off the grid for a while. 

If you missed the radio show last night, check it out here:

Listen to “Hour of Enlightenment 5/18/17” on Spreaker.

Enjoy! Remember that I won’t be able to check blog comments or Facebook notifications!

Me: How was your Christmas and New Years, Erik?

Jamie (to Erik): What do you mean? (to me) He’s telling me about New Years first.

(Pause)
Jamie (to Erik) Are you joking?

Jamie: I thought he was joking, but actually he was saying it in a joking voice. He said he went around the world for New Years. (pause) Oh, every time the hour changed, and a new group of people would celebrate New Years, that what he did.

Me: So, you’d get pretty hung over, I guess, huh?

Jamie: Apparently, there’s a lot of spirits who do that and kind of go zone to zone and celebrate with people. It’s such a happy time all around.

Me: Well, who do you celebrate with, spirits or, uh, zone to zone with the spirits whose lives were in that zone? Is that what you’re saying?

Erik: There’s a group of us from all over the world that actually get together and go in spirit. Of course when it was your family’s New Years, I was with you, but not constantly, because I had to spend time with my sibs.

Jamie (to Erik): You mean siblings? You don’t have to speak code for me, Erik. Whatever. Now he’s talking gangster ghetto. “You gots to get down wid it, Jamie.”

Jamie and I giggle.

Erik: So, I got to hang with my brother and sisters and you guys, but then when it got to be one o’clock in the next time zone, boom, I moved on to the next celebration. It was amazing.

Me: With your spirit buddies?

Erik: Yeah. For Christmas, I pretty much sat on the couch. That’s my favorite thing to do.

Me (chuckling): I know you’re favorite place. On the black couch in the living room, right next to me, closest to the Christmas tree, waiting for your presents. Okay, I guess we’ll get right to the questions.

Jamie: I want to tell you about one killer prank he pulled.

Me: Okay.

Jamie: Cuz I didn’t see him all Christmas. I wished him a Merry Christmas, but I didn’t get to talk to him. He just wasn’t there. And, um, he was really on the couch, I bet. I was painting the bathroom walls, and the paint kept splattering up from the can into my face.

Me: Ah oh.

Jamie: And without me getting into the pan, like I didn’t have anything in the paint can. I was bending down picking up cloth. It didn’t have anything to do with paint, but I would get paint splatters on my face. I should have taken a picture of it. And he did it three times.

Me: Erik!

Jamie: I was like, “Why was that happening?” I couldn’t figure it out the first time! And the second time he did it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, Erik?’ And I heard him laughing. And I was like, ‘How are you,’ and we had a three minute conversation, and I went back down and then he was gone.

We both laughed.

Jamie: That was pretty cool! There was no way! I’m serious. There was no scientific way that the paint could come out of that can and go against gravity and hit my face.

Me: Oh my god, Erik. I hope it wasn’t oil paint.

Jamie: Oh no. Totally latex. Simple. Easy to wash off.

Me: At what point does a soul lose its memory and why does it?

Jamie: A soul lose its memory?

Me: Yeah, when it comes to Earth. Why does we have to have spiritual amnesia?

Jamie: Oh, he gives me this very kind of cartoon imagery of jumping from a cloud and free-falling, and somewhere in that free fall, the wind gets pushed through you, and all your possessions get floated back up to the cloud to be put into storage.

Erik: All of your possessions like your memories, your plan, your emotions—everything. Phoop! It happens right before you enter the baby’s body, before you’re born. Before you come out of the va-jay-jay.

Jamie and I burst out in laughter.

Erik: And for those unlucky few—the ones who are cut out—

Me: The lucky or the unlucky few?

Erik: The unlucky few.

Me: Oh, the unlucky few? My kids kid each other saying, “Ha ha, I got to be born by C-section and ew, you had to be born through mommy’s disgusting va-jay-jay.

Jamie giggles.

Me: Seriously, that what goes on in my house.

Erik: I have grown to love the va-jay-jay.

How come we always go here?

Jamie still giggles.

Me: Aaaanyway. Back on point. So, it happens sometime before reincarnation.

Erik: Yes. 
Me: Okay. When you’re falling from the cloud, you lose your harp and your memory.

Erik: Yep.

Me: Gotcha. And why?

Erik: You do this so that you can experience a true life! Newness. Awe and wonderment, you know, not based on what you’ve already been doing. We say it again and again. That’s what’s so kick ass about being human. That’s really the attraction to it—this forgetfulness, this drive to come back into the knowing, those lower vibrational emotions—jealousy, anger, hurt, pain which we don’t have in the higher vibrational qualities.

Me: Do you miss that?

Erik (emphatically): Nope!

Jamie: Nope! He’s very clear about that one! He’s smiling.

Me: Do you think you’ll come to a point where you’ll miss it?

Erik: Don’t know about that, but for right now, oh hell, no.

Me: Do you think you’ll ever come back?

(Pause)

Erik (soberly): I don’t want to.

Me: Do you think you’ll have to come back—not that someone will make you come back, but for your won personal spiritual growth?

Erik: Nope. Don’t need to. I’m doing my work right now. And very loudly.

Me: Okay.

Jamie: Loudly for him means publically.

Me: Yeah, I know it’s not just your big mouth.

Jamie giggles.

Me: All right, so there are some souls that don’t lose their memories, right? I mean, look at Jesus. Didn’t he come without spiritual amnesia?

Erik: He came with some.

Me: With some?

Erik: Hell, yeah.

Me: Why? Why did he come with some spiritual knowingness? There was a purpose for that, right?

Erik: Absolutely there was a purpose, and it really wasn’t—it was said in his own words. He really didn’t want people following him, but you know, when someone dies, we out them up on a pedestal and we can p=make up our own stories and they’re not there to defend themselves. A following happens, and it’s very nice because we do want some of the qualities that Jesus had, but he didn’t really come down so he could start his own religion. But his amnesia helped him understand what it’s like to be human and to learn how to teach people who have amnesia. You know, the growth rate of enlightenment or knowing since your birthdate—it could be six years, four years, two—but it could also be sixty. That’s the beauty of it. We have people in so many states of mind; it makes life so interesting. I mean, shit, if we all came here and learned everything quickly, why do we have this place? Why is it useful for us?

Me: Mm. That’s true. So, he and other spiritual teachers like Buddha and others probably had some component of spiritual memory, because they wanted to teach us about how we are part of the Divine, how we are a collective, how we are God, and so on, right?

Erik: That was very nice, and it was a good question, but—

Jamie (to Erik): What?

Jamie listens.

Jamie: Oh, he’s being sarcastic.

Erik: That’s very reading, Mother.

(Reading? Not sure what he means, but…)

Jamie: He’s still playing around with you.

Erik: No, but these figures that come to Earth that have a greater knowing are coming in as reminders, really, and—

Jamie (whispering): He’s giving me the lowdown is what he’s saying.

Erik: Here’s how I see it.

Jamie: He leans forward to put his elbows on his knees, so he’s like five inches away from my face, which is a little too close.

Me: Oh my god, I hope you brushed your teeth today, Erik.

Jamie giggles,

Erik: No, I do not brush, just to let you know.

Me: Well, he rarely did in real life, so I’m not surprised.

Erik: I don’t know why people like that slick tooth feeling. Anyway, on point! I think—

Jamie: What were we talking about?

Erik (frustrated): Oh my god, Jamie! We were talking about religious figures coming back to Earth, well, spiritual entities coming Earth and having this knowingness about enlightenment and life after life and so forth. Shedding a bit of truth. I think that if God made this omnipresent umbrella of All That Is—If God really wanted us to succeed and have life be easy for us and blah, blah, blah, then every little figure that was spiritually enlightened came would have sued the same words, would have created the same religion, would have done the exact same things so that, as humans, we would know that shit was right and we could just move forward and do our thing and be routine, create a schedule, get our enlightenment degree and move on.

I chuckle. I think I need to make up some courses.

Erik: Exactly. That shit’s so funny to think about, but God’s actually way smarter. He says, I’m going to give you bits and pieces and through your experience of those bits and pieces, you’ll put it together for yourself. You’re the one in control, not me. I’m using He just because people usually think of God as a He, which we can get into later. But God was way smarter and totally surrender and said I’m not in control over you. You are. I will be a witness for you. I’ll be here for you no matter what you do. Now that shit is just total unconditional, completely awesome kind of support and love. And so, through this, we get bits and pieces through Buddha, thorough Jesus, through Moses, through all of these people who could see a little bit beyond the veil. So, what we’re noticing now, is we’re having more and more and more of these people coming in.

Me: Mm hm.

Erik: But because we are so stuck in old belief systems, in old religious systems that were set up by humans, we don’t feel like there’s any room for new religion. New religion? What?

Jamie (chuckling): He’s got his face all curled up like, “What? Can you imagine that, Mom? Like them writing a whole new book about how religion should be, etc.” It totally wouldn’t be accepted, and you know why?

Me: No.

Erik: I just wanna state right now that I love all of you readers and family members that have religious beliefs, and I’m not saying you should ditch what you believe in. All I’m saying is that when we, in the spirit world, look at Earth and how you’re trying to digest this enlightenment, religion is outdated.

(Ah oh.)

Erik: I’m going to piss a lot of people off, and I’m sorry, but I’m hoping if you’re reading this and you’re pissed off, that it’ll actually get you to look at what you choose to believe in a little bit differently. Maybe it’ll make it a little stronger, or maybe it’ll make you turn your head to the left or the right.

Me: What part of it is outdated?

 

OUTDATED RELIGIONS

 

Erik: The idea that one person in your religious belief system had all the answers. We have so many people coming in that are so much like Jesus who can do healing—the blind can see, the cancer’s gone. All that shit. They’re all over the world, you know. It’s not just holding hostage of notions like, “These people only come to India or Jerusalem.” They’re popping up all over the place. And we have other that can talk about compassion and love and seeing beyond.

Me: Is there a religion that isn’t outdated? What about spirituality?

Erik: A ha! That’s where I’m going. All of these people who are coming it—thousands, Mom—like where there was one, there are now thousands, and this is what’s supporting the belief in spirituality. This is—Nah, I don’t want to say that.

Jamie: I’ll tell you what he was thinking, though. He did say spirituality was the new religion, but he didn’t want to link the two words.

Me: What do you mean, “coming in”? “Where there was one, there are now thousands.”? Coming in where?

Erik: Being born to Earth.

Me: I thought so, but just wanted to make sure.

Erik: People who are born to Earth who have these insights, this holiness quality, this kind of perseverance that the average Joe doesn’t seem to have but can learn to grow into. These are the thousands that are making a difference in the world whereas in the olden days it was just the one dude. You know, back then that whole, “I lead the sheep, and you are the sheep shit” did really well, but you do that crap now, that shit’s not working. Every sheep thinks for itself. You fucking try to lead me, and I’ll put a gun to your head.

Jamie: That was a bad analogy.

Seriously, Erik.

Erik: We think for ourselves, and in this spiritual umbrella how God exists over all religions, spirituality exists over all of the religions, and God—whatever, Mom. I like to use the term loosely—this spirituality encompasses everybody. Everybody’s a free thinker; everybody can make choices for themselves. It’s all the same material. That’s what makes it so fucking awesome.

Me: So, spirituality doesn’t have one leader. It has as many leaders as it has members. We have teachers, but they don’t lead us. We make our own decisions for our spiritual growth.

Erik: Exactly. The core beliefs are driven by each individual because, you know, one person might come in and have no fucking problem knowing how to love, so for them, that come so easy, they’re not going to put heavy emphasis on it. They might put emphasis on something else like boundaries. Honoring thyself.  But then you come across somebody else who can keep a boundary to no end, but just cannot love themselves. They just can’t.  So, that’s the emphasis they put on in their spiritual journey.

(Jamie listens.)

Jamie (to Erik): You really wanna go here?

Erik: Fuck yeah. It’s sad, because you get into these religious structures, and they’re choosing the scripts they want you to listen to, and they’re telling you the way that you should walk and the words that you should use and how you should eat, behave, when really a leader should ask, “How can you better yourself, and where do you want to go?” And then the leader would just listen to the sheep. But these old school religions don’t quite have that. Some of them are being morphed as our society and cultures grow where the preacher or minster or reverend, whoever, uh, Rabbi, they’re listening more to the individual person and individualizing it. Those are beautiful and unique situations. I praise those people. I praise those leaders. It’s the ones who are sticking so hard and fast to the rules and to the books and to the scripts that are losing insights of really what that individual needs, not what the whole congregation needs or what they feel the whole world should need.

Me: Well, is there any value in the old religions for some?

Erik: Oh, totally. I said that before. When the leaders came in, God sent it in bits and pieces. There’s value in every belief system, every religion. Great, good shit in each one of them, you know, but to swallow it hook, line and sinker, that’s just too much. That’s asking to be pulled out of your surroundings, to get reeled in by something.

Me: So, you’re not being completely true and honest to yourself if you totally, blindly—

Erik: Surrender to this structure and this system when you forgot to follow yourself first.

Me: Yeah. Follow yourself first!

Jamie: Follow yourself first. That sounds so freaking cool. I’m writing it down.

Me: That’s another t-shirt, right there.

Jamie: He’s laughing.