Writer Dylan Morrison

If you’ve been a regular attender of the faith communities commonly known as ‘churches’ for any period of time you’ll have heard plenty of sermons, talks, exhortations, homilies, addresses from the teaching pastor, minister, priest, lay preacher regarding the Christian faith.

My pastor used to go on for an hour or so perhaps twice a week so I guess that over the 16 years or so that I listened to him I’d absorbed 1664 hours of ‘bible exposition’ between the ages of 15 and 31, when I decided to move on.

Folk now wonder why I can’t drift along to a ‘church’ each Sunday morning, sing a few songs, observe a few necks, hand in my money and listen to a little inspirational message from a professional preacher. Now you know.

Anyway, over those years I’ve never once heard a preacher teach or expound the following series of Yeshua sayings that we’re going to revisit. If you can figure out why send me your thoughts.

Enjoy!

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The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they’re saying ‘Look! A gluttonous human and tippler, tribute collectors’ and sinners’ friend’.

In the next few posts I hope to examine some of the relatively unknown sayings of Yeshua, the Galilean prophet whose teaching challenged the civil and religious powers of His day.

If the Divine exists then surely He is an inclusive God. A Being, responsible for the Cosmos and beyond, must love variety and welcome it into its place in the Divine scheme. A Creator Source must by nature, embrace all that has flowed from His Divine Will and Energy. If He is responsible for it all, He must embrace and welcome it all in its totality.

Such was the view of Yeshua bar Yoseph, the first-century, itinerant, Jewish preacher, who burst onto the religious scene proclaiming the inclusive reign of God to his Galilean listeners. However, many of His early followers eventually walked away, disillusioned by such an inclusive vision. The people wanted a Warrior King, steeped in the dualistic Jewish mindset, who’d get rid of the Roman occupation force (them) and restore Jewish independence (us). Yeshua wasn’t going to play their game.

Within the Middle Eastern social norms, hospitality and especially sharing meals with strangers was high on the list. If you ate with someone you liked them and were making a profound statement of relationship. The only trouble was that not everyone got invited. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ mindset had undermined traditional Jewish hospitality in the guise of religious and political morality. Society was split into the never the twain shall meet groupings of ‘the righteous’ and ‘the sinners’. Into such a social scene stepped the Nazarene with His radical message of Divine inclusiveness.

Traveling around as an itinerant preacher, Yeshua got many dinner invitations from His listeners. Sometimes, a call from a curious Pharisee to share a few hours theological discussion around a nice meal. Sometimes a call from the local brothel, where the girls wanted to hear more about Yeshua’s take on His Abba God, through his gift of storytelling.No matter what the host location, Yeshua would have been wined and dined.

However,in accepting the invitation of Jewish sex-workers and swindling government custom officials Yeshua was making a big, big statement. He and His Abba God didn’t wait for moral change before accepting such ‘sinners’. Their invitation revealed their true spiritual condition. That was enough for Yeshua and He believed, for His God.

Unfortunately this new radical inclusion, outside the moral conformity of Torah observance, wasn’t welcomed with open arms by all God followers. The rule-keeping brigade were distraught. This couldn’t be right! Yahweh had given the Torah to separate the sheep from the goats! Now this Galilean upstart was eating and drinking with the goats!

The insightful tale of Yeshua lodging for the night at Zaccheus’ richly furnished  apartment, backs up this radical new approach to religious ‘outcasts’. The vertically challenged Zac had no qualms about welcoming the Galilean rabbi into His family circle. The amazing fact is that Yeshua wanted to stay with him in the first place. As a top customs official, Zac would have milked the average Jew for as much as he could, by fair means and foul. No wonder he was rich. Such a national traitor and extortionist would have been classified well outside the ‘righteous’ camp.

I wonder what the two men talked about over dinner? Anyway the outcome was almost unbelievable. Zac decided to clean up his life by offering half of his wealth to the local poor. If he’d defrauded anyone, he promised to return four times as much cash to his victims. Amazing! What had triggered such seemingly reckless behaviour? Had Yeshua laid some religious heavies on the little rich guy? I think not. What caused the change then?

In my opinion it was the simple fact that Zac felt comfortable in Yeshua’s presence. He enjoyed the holy man’s company and somehow felt fully accepted for, perhaps’ the first time in his life. Yeshua’s reply to his criminal host changed the religious world forever. ‘ Today salvation has been coming to this home’ What a reply. No rules, baptisms,rituals,temple-attendance were required. By welcoming the Divine Presence resident within Yeshua, a heart transplant had occurred; a Divine rewiring of Zac’s tortured psyche, leading to the surrender of his ill-gotten gains.

I believe that such a welcoming of Divine Presence in the form of Holy Breath/Spirit  is the antidote to the paralysing poison of  any religious legalism we may be locked into. The power to live free of attachments is in the welcome, the outstretched arms of the human heart. May I suggest that ‘salvation’ or wholeness is less to do with Christian creeds and belief systems but an openness to the whispering approach of the Divine.

Isn’t it ironic that religious systems that claim the name of Yeshua, practice the very dualistic model of  human classification that Yeshua Himself loved to break down. The believer/non believer Christian paradigm helps no-one, only reinforcing the old self-righteous religious judgement of one’s fellow-man. In my experience, we’re all children of the Divine Father whether we know it or not. It’s more fun knowing so why don’t we enjoy our birthright and let the ‘righteous’ do their own thing.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had some interesting and often instructive dreams. Last night I’d a dream within a dream.

In my dream’s dream I saw a portal through which appeared hieroglyphics of some kind. As I looked I became aware that the mysterious markings were from outside the normal human sphere and belonged to a higher level of beings.

I then awoke from the ‘dream within a dream’ only to find myself relating it to an unknown stranger who stood beside me, gaining an interpretation of the unknown text as I spoke.

Suddenly, I awoke from  this ‘shell’ dream only to find myself  lying in the silent darkness beside my soundly asleep wife, Zan.

I’ve meditated on this dream today and have a strong sense that I’m to repost my ‘Dream On’ blog from some time back to encourage others to take their dreams seriously.

I’m also willing to interpret any dreams sent to me, especially repetitive dreams or particularly striking dreams that you feel contain a spiritual/psychological message.

Please forward any puzzling dreams to me at dylanmorrison@live.co.uk and I’ll see if Spirit reveals an interpretation that may help you.

Be assured that I don’t charge and never will for this service as I believe that as I’ve freely received so I’m to freely give. Your dream will not be published in any form and any correspondence regarding it will be held in total confidence.

The interpretation of dreams is, I believe, nothing ‘spooky’ but an often neglected aspect of the spirituality of Yeshua, birthed in the Jewish tradition.

Blessings

Dylan

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‘ In the dream, in a night vision, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon one’s bed; then He opens mankind’s ears and seals their instruction….. ‘

Job 33 v 15-16

In the last post we looked at the whole idea of visions and their place in the spiritual walk, if any! In today’s post I want to examine the place of dreams in such a journey.

I’d been a follower of  Yeshua for over 40 years before anyone pointed out this strange quote from the Jewish book of Job. I wonder why? I may be wrong but one possible reason may be its suggestion that Divine communication isn’t dependent on a sermon or homily from a professional preacher. It may be too dangerous for people to begin to hear God’s voice for themselves!

Dreams in ancient societies were always understood to be a means of communication from the gods – today many such native Peoples still hold to that premise. We in the West after the arrival of the 20th century god ‘psychology’ and its cohort neuro- sciencehave concluded that the ancient practice of  interpreting dreams as Divine messages was no more than superstition. Yet the facts are that scientists still can’t fully explain the dream phenomenon – we just believe they can.

As with visions most Western religious adherents are deeply suspicious of anything outside an intellectual framework of faith. Letting go of the conscious mind’s control is seen as a no-no! You never know what could happen? We all hear horror stories of folk who think they’re Napoleon,Joan of Arc or even more terrible, Jesus Christ Himself.We shy away from our subconscious minds believing that if we stuff our heads full of lots of good Bible teaching then God should be able to get through to us if He wants.

Before we progress let me say that I believe the Divine can communicate through the Bible or a sermon based on the Bible if He so chooses.So again, my Evangelical friends can sleep easily in their beds! Sorry, maybe that’s the wrong thing to say as we’re about to tackle dreams as Divine communication.

Let’s do a question and answer thing again and see if it proves beneficial.

Can dreams be a Scriptural form of Divine communication?

Yes. See the above quote from poor old Job and the numerous dreams within both Jewish and Christian Scriptures. You’ll be surprised at how many dreams are hidden in there that we just overlook or spiritualize away, Jacob’s angelic ladder being one of the most famous. Young Joseph rose to political power due to his God-given ability to interpret Pharoah’s nightmares.So too with Daniel etc.

But surely the New Testament is different?

No. Many of the leading characters had dreams, interpreting them as Divine communication. Mary’s future husband Joseph, Pilate’s wife and the mystically inclined  Saint Paul. There are others.

Are all dreams Divine messages?

Personally I don’t think so. Scientists claim that dreams are just the brain’s activity of  safely filing away the days new information. I can live with that for some dreams, especially after I’ve eaten a late night cheesy pizza!

What sets apart a dream with a message?

In my experience I often wake up from these ones with a start.They are easy to recall and seem to have made their way into the conscious mind.

What is the source of such messages?

I believe there are two sources – our Higher Self/ ‘I’  and Divine Spirit.

Can you clarify these two sources?

Often we believe that we consist only of our conscious self. In my experience this conscious self can suppress information coming from the subconscious whether Higher or Lower.A dream soured here is trying to get an important message across to me that will adjust my inner life. It may be a warning that my health is suffering due to suppressed emotion or memories. My primal wounding as a response to trauma is setting this dream warning system off so I can take action. I view these dreams as a kind of internal sprinkler system trying to put out the hidden fires that lie deep within.Nightmares tend to originate in the Lower subconscious whereas more positive and life enhancing dreams tend to come from the Higher Subconscious.This area may be close to the religious terms soul or spirit – the area of Self that borders with the Divine.

Other dreams definitely seem to come from the Divine Spirit, flowing through our Higher subconscious but originating from an outside Intelligence that we call God or Holy Spirit.

How can one tell that it’s a Divine message rather than an internal psyche message?

Both are important to respond to but the Divine message will usually have a future ‘vision’ element to it Divinely sourced dreams are usually life enhancing without any hint of fear. Strangely they also tend to be in colour. It’s like God can’t work with the shadowy world of our  internal grey dreams and turns up the coloured pixels to make the dream particularly alive and memorable. Each person may be different but those dreams I’ve interpreted for others that seem to be Divine in origin usually are in glorious Technicolor!

Why does God have to send me a dream?

The Divine loves to communicate with us, not just on Sundays but at all times. What stops this flow of communication is the blockage mechanism of the conscious mind. It has an important role to play in helping us live in the ‘real’ world but tries to dominate our Being by shutting out messages sent via our Higher consciousness. Mystics, I believe, are those who’ve been able to place the conscious mind in its proper place and let other forms of communication flow.

If the Spirit can’t get through to us by more conscious means then out of love will visit us when the defensive shield of our conscious mind is in neutral i.e. when we’re asleep. His goal as is suggested by Job is to open our ears, in other words to listen. If we don’t listen to the Voice in our waking hours then He will communicate visually and audibly in a dream clip.

What should I do with a dream upon waking?

If you can recall anything from the dream then write it down in a dream journal. More of the dream may reveal itself to the conscious mind later in the day if you use your waking memories as a ‘handle’ on the dream. Ponder over it and don’t be embarrassed or ashamed to do so. You’re not being weird but trying to ‘get the message’ that your psyche or the Spirit is trying to deliver to you. It will enrich your life and maybe even change it.

How do I interpret my dream? Do I need to buy a dream interpretation book? Do I need someone else to interpret it for me?

Dreams are deeply personal things but like all pictorial revelation will usually be symbolic in nature. I find the dream interpretation books a big turn off – symbols appear to mean different things to different authors? How confusing is that! If you are just beginning to interpret your dreams, as with visions, ask the Spirit for the interpretation. Be patient and the meaning of the main players/events within the dream will pop into your conscious mind.

Another tip is to steep yourself in the imagery of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. If you’ve a dream in which you’re riding a horse can Scripture imagery help you out? Yes! Being on horseback is symbolic of holding authority. The Horsemen in the Revelation of John for example were sent out with God’s authority to release certain events on Earth. God may be encouraging you to take authority indeed to let Him supply you with a Divine authority in a situation. Kings rode horses, foot-soldiers had to walk!

If you don’t feel comfortable interpreting your own dreams, try to find a spiritual friend who has some experience of revelatory gifts. He or she may be able to point you in the right direction but remember the dream is yours and you don’t require a guru to reveal the Divine mind. Perhaps talk the dream over with a soul mate – if they think your interpretation is way out then just be cautious. They may be correct.

What will be the outcome of the interpretation?

Like visions dreams are sent for a reason.

They may point out present or approaching danger. By the way if you die in a dream don’t panic  – it usually represents the death of a phase in you life or a relationship that will end.

They may be sent for encouragement to show you that you are on the right track. To empower you and see yourself in a new way. If you see yourself flying in a dream it may mean that you have spiritual perception and can hear the Divine voice, perhaps even have revelatory gifting for the service of others.

Job suggests that dreams can give sealed up instruction. Such sealed instructions may suggest a future purpose when the dream will be applicable. The unsealing may refer to the interpretation process that may take a little time, become clearer at future date.

What about repetitive dreams?

These would appear to be dreams of great depth that reveal a lesson that we find it difficult to learn or absorb into our daily lives. I tend to think that they originate in our own subconsciousness whether Higher or Lower, and deal with strong Primal Wounding issues. That’s just my subjective hunch. The repetition is a means of progressively healing us from such wounds or a sign that we may need further help by a trained therapist that one can trust.

Can you relate a dream?

In my book The Prodigal Prophet I relate the following dream that proved extremely powerful in a time of confusion and turmoil. It seems to be coming to fruition even as I blog and write!

In it I was sitting in my parked car in Priory Lane, a street near my childhood home. As I sat there with the window rolled down a substitute history teacher from my old school approached me. He politely asked what I was going to do, now that I’d retired from the teaching profession.

I confidently replied, “I’m going to speak to people about the Lord.” I was as surprised by my reply in the dream as my ex- colleague. Being the disillusioned son of a retired clergyman he was a card-carrying atheist and a very cynical one at that.

At that point in the dream a police patrol car pulled up behind me and parked. I was sure they were coming to speak to me but instead the two officers crossed the street and entered a house.

I suddenly looked down at my car clock and noticed it was 9.10 a.m. I apologized to my teacher friend saying I’d have to leave as I was late. Starting the car I quickly drove off.

As I lay in the stillness of the night the interpretation slowly came to me point by point. The car was my life’s purpose. At present I seemed to be going nowhere. I was resting close by, but not in, the religious world as represented by the close vicinity of Ballybrigg Priory.

My verbal response to the teacher’s question was my prophetic call to speak God’s words into people’s lives. I was replying to a history teacher’s question so my future purpose would be bound up with my own personal history.

The policemen represented two of the authority figures that I’d experienced as model obstacles; they would no longer bother me and be the focus of my life.

The clock reading was highly significant. 9.10 a.m. was the end time each morning of the pastoral period in school. During this fifteen minute period I’d be bombarded with the pastoral problems of both pupils and staff. This problem solving pastoral life within both the educational and religious worlds was now over.

Starting the car and heading off represented a new direction and purpose in my life that would become clearer in time.

My dream touched me deeply. Was Divine Love so detailed? Was it trying to reach others through dreams as they slept? Could the Divine encourage, strengthen and sometimes warn us through dreams?

http://www.amazon.com/author/dylanmorrison

Recent tragic events that are crashing around us like battered waves on a rocky shoreline, are causing us to wonder where God is to be found. Has he dozed off and let the world system go its merry but paradoxically angst filled way? Religious folk did deeper into their ‘certainty of belief’ bomb shelters, believing the end is nigh and suspecting that the Mayans may have been right after all.

Many are just confused with a deep sense of unease that something is shifting in the affairs of man – a shaking that’s reducing our modern Babel Towers to rubble.

Does the God of Yeshua care and if so why can’t He come to us in our darkness? Serious questions for serious times.

In light of such confusion I’ve decided to repost my article ~ The Inner Void hoping that it can help and encourage us in our search for the Divine dwelling place. May it bless and enlighten you on the Journey.

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One of the strangest rooms in the history of religious experience was the Jewish ‘Holy of Holies’. At first a portable enclosed cube of space, 30 feet by 30 feet by 30 feet, within the skin tented Tabernacle, it was later incorporated as the focal point of  Solomon’s First Temple in Jerusalem.

What was this room all about and has it anything to teach us in our 21st century search for the Divine?

The surprising fact about the holy cube is that it was sparsely furnished. In the Solomon Temple it housed the famous Ark of the Covenant, a gold lined box containing the Torah tablets as received by the Jewish leader Moses. The golden top of the Ark was known as the mercy-seat where the Divine Presence  took up residence whenever He wished. The furnishings were completed with Aaron’s miraculously flowering rod and a jar of manna, representing the Jewish deliverance from Egyptian slavery and the ‘Bread of Life’ that had kept them alive in their nomadic wanderings.

Significantly in the later Second Temple the Holy of Holies was just an empty room, following the disappearance of The Ark and other religious artifacts during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.

It was also fairly small and, perhaps most significantly, dark. And yet this was where the Jewish High Priest entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to meet their God YAHWEH; a meeting with the Divine in a darkened space, lit only by the Shekhinah manifestation of Presence.

May we, in our own emptiness and inner darkness be likened to such a holy room? I believe so. When our lives have emptied of all superficiality through a descent into confusion and despair, when we are alone in the seeming singularity of our inner humanity, when love seems far away and human or religious trust completely non-existent, what is left? Nothing or Ultimate Reality?

In this void within the human heart is their not a space for Divine Love to meet us on our own Day of Atonement, our appointed Day of Sacred Oneness? Does not a Shekhinah Presence come and surprise us in our isolation, causing us, like the High Priest to fall on our faces in awe? So transforming a Presence that our faces shine with Spirit, like that of Moses, after our encounter in desert solitude.

Where do we encounter such Divinity if it can be experienced at all? It’s certainly not experienced in the mind where conceptual truth is mistakenly worshipped as Ultimate Reality. Many followers of Yeshua fall short of their birthright by settling for doctrinal knowledge, a pale shadow of  Divine Presence. Theologians and philosophers frantically search through the conceptual maze hoping to nail such a Presence down, straightjacketing  it in their chains of religious theory.

Fortunately Divine Spirit easily avoids the vain clutches of  such academics to meet the common man in his inner chamber, the ‘I’ room designed for such an encounter. As our false survival selves crumble, their social and material supports tumbling into extinction, a door opens into the darkness of our confusion, where we stand stripped naked of self-assurance and ego.

Here we wait, often in despair for the Divine Light, the comfort of our Creator Parent, our Source, the very stuff from whence we have come. Thankfully such a Light will appear as surely as day follows night but only when darkness has carried out its liberating execution of our enslaving ego. Only then will all make sense; when spirit embraces Spirit and we are One.

So, on our journey into the unknown, let’s not be afraid of our inner world, our Divine meeting place, for to such a place we will return on our parting breath. Better to get familiar with it now I reckon.

Dylan’s author page: http://www.amazon.com/author/dylanmorrison

Dysfunctional Religious Attachments ~ Revisited

The comings and goings of leadership within religious groups is happening all the time. It’s like a sacred form of musical chairs with the Divine being held responsible for each appointment or dispatch from the prestigious seat of power and influence. Sometimes the ‘leader’, or more likely their family, has wisely ‘had enough’; on other occasions the departure is an expulsion for some perceived ‘sin’ on their part.

Loyalty to one’s ‘faith group’ is often dressed in the guise of a loyalty to God. If I love God, I will love the group and particularly His appointed leader(s). If I have issues with the leader(s) I have issues with his/her boss viz God. A few proof texts are thrown into the mix and the believer is locked into a form of social control that they don’t perceive until a personal crisis unexpectedly comes to rescue them.

My friends at Wartburg Watch are presently writing about developments in such a tight-knit religious group in the USA. I’m not surprised by these events having lived through similar ones in the 1980s.

So for any of you who suspect that all is not well in your present ‘faith group’ here is a little blog I posted sometime ago. I trust that it might empower and encourage you to step out from under control and walk in the freedom that Yeshua demonstrated during His time with His beloved mankind.

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Recovering from abuse experienced within a spiritual or religious setting is a long and painful process.While the level of abuse can vary along a given spectrum there are some characteristics common to all cases.

In the same way that an alcoholic denies that he/she has a drink problem or a battered wife’s denies that her husband is an abuser, so too with victims of religious or spiritual abuse. Deep within the abused will be a feeling that something isn’t quite right and yet a strong emotional attachment still locks the victim, for that’s what they are, into a mind-control matrix. The first step to freedom is to admit that one may be imprisoned in such a complex system.

There are a number of phenomena linked to subliminal abuse and control that might suggest you’re suffering a level of abuse.

1) The elevation of the abusive group above all other faith groups.

A clear danger sign is the exclusive nature of such a religious group. The ‘God has chosen us to be special syndrome’ is a symptom of a control mentality.

2) Broken or distrustful relationships with previous friends, family or outsiders.

‘Us and them’ mental strongholds lead to emotional fractures with those previously close to the victim.

When my wife and I left our Shepherding group, an elder’s wife publicly asked the pastor if she could discuss ‘family business’ with us if she met us on the high street. Thankfully and to my great surprise she was told to be as open as she wanted. Yet the question revealed a deep seated ‘us and them’ mentality that was prevalent in the group mindset.

3) A level of ‘committment’ to the group that eats up time, money and emotional energy that’s often to the detriment of normal family life.

Often commitment to God is interpreted as commitment to the group. In my experience this is a real sign of near cultic tendencies within faith groups.

4) A strong charismatic leader with an elevated view of his own position and service.

In my own experience I was drawn to the charisma of my leader through mimetic or imitative desire – I wanted to be as close to God as he appeared to be. Like me, such ‘followers’  can greatly inflate a leaders view of his own importance leading to religious delusions and tight control.

5) A one-man-band leader who insists on doing all the public service of the church.

Variety is a strong characteristic of creation and should be reflected in the life of a faith community. It’s not just the ‘Rev/Pastor/Father Blogg’s Show’

6) A dismissal of genuine concerns by the leader or leadership.

If the leadership of your faith group are constantly ignoring or belittling your and others feelings of unease then it usually suggests a superiority attitude within the group’s leadership team.

7) ‘God has appointed us as leaders and we always will be  – we see any disagreement without us as a lack of  ‘faith’ on your part‘.

In my own experience my ‘Shepherd’ had a great technique whereby I left private meetings with him with the impression that the ‘problem’ only lay within me. It was a brilliant psychological trick skillfully played on all dissenters!

8) A secrecy regarding the financial expenditure of the group, especially regarding the leader’s salary.

We had a great technique in our fellowship for hiding details of expenditure. The salaries of all our workers were grouped together at the AGM giving the impression of an equality within the salary structure. The opposite was the case – if your group is secretive about detailed expenditure beware. You are under a form of financial control that is contrary to basic integrity.

9) A regular feeling of guilt regarding your ‘service’ to God via the group.

Guilt has nothing to do with being a follower of Yeshua. If this guilt lands on you after attending a faith group then you are being abused.

10) A special ‘in’ language that outsiders can’t understand.

A new language that innocently conveys the ‘hidden agenda’ of  the abusers. In my own case such phrases as ‘being under authority’ and ‘ having covering’ were falsely revered as spiritual correctness.

11) A lack of vulnerability on behalf of the leader or teacher.

Most abusive leaders are locked into a denial of their own flaws and weaknesses, appearing strong to their followers.At the same time a level of vulnerability and openness is often required from followers by such a leader. Such a degree of openness keeps the follower locked into the abusive matrix. Remember knowledge is power and especially in abusive pastoral situations.

In my next blog I’ll suggest some ways that you can free yourself from such subtle and often subliminal control once you’ve been honest with yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/author/dylanmorrison

I met two ladies this week who are facing similar intense pressures though in quite different circumstances. Each has chosen their own strategy towards survival.

One has chosen to fight her way through, the other glimpses another path. I dedicate this revisited blog post to my two friends as they tackle their personal ‘storms’.

A Transpersonal Crisis should be welcomed when it appears rather than fought against. It’s the Divine’s means for wakening us from our delusional slumber into a deeper level of awareness.

The so-called ‘Born Again’ experience of Evangelical Christians can be such an event but not the only one in our lives. We don’t experience a ‘new birth’ and then put up the shutters waiting for the promised pie in the sky.

As Lady Julian of Norwich, the Medieval English mystic, claimed: ‘All is well,all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well’. It takes a gift of faith or trust to see life and what it brings along in this way.

A dualist approach that interprets life as one long battle, empowering the ego, is the enemy of personal and spiritual growth. At least that’s been my experience so far!

The Prodigal Prophet

If you’ve never been involved in the market-place of organized religion you’ve missed something very unusual and at times extremely bizarre. You may also be very fortunate not to have been taken for a ride by many who run such religious groups.

If you’ve been, or presently are, an active participator in a particular faith group that expects a high level of commitment from you, then please do read on; it might just save your sanity somewhere up ahead.

I’ve been there and have the tee-shirt to prove it. Read my roller-coaster story ‘The Prodigal Prophet’ to understand where I’m coming from. I’ve painfully discovered that following Yeshua and giving one’s life over to a zealous religious group may not be synonymous.

Blessings

Dylan

The Wizard of Oz meets The Pilgrim’s Progress. Tired of religion? – then read on! A captivating autobiography of religious disillusionment, burnout and Divine Love.

Bumping into the Divine during the’ Irish Troubles’ Dylan Morrison was blissfully unaware of the amazingly painful journey that lay ahead. Searching for a more radical approach to the God thing, he passed through various manifestations of the Charismatic world before becoming a ‘Prophet’ in an abusive international Shepherding group.

The sudden death of his infant son, Ben, became the catalyst for Dylan’s painful disillusionment with religion, replacing it with a deep interest in psychology and self-help philosophies.

Sixteen years later with the dust covered Bible in the attic and the ‘tongues’ long gone Dylan was reinvaded by Divine Love in two mystical encounters. Six months later suffering from nervous exhaustion Dylan was emotionally stripped bare. Healing slowly began with a revelation of the pain of psychological attachments and the sense of Presence at the bottom of the dark abyss.

Dylan believes that the spirituality and mysticism of Yeshua, the Nazarene holds the answers for those tired of religious dogma and presentational overkill. An amazing story of hope for those wounded by abusive religion and life’s tragedies.

Available at http://amzn.to/1i1hJmB

The Prodigal Prophet is now in its final form.

Why not order a copy for Easter or even better download an ebook version for your Kindle or Laptop?

It’s a book for 3 groups of readers.

Those beginning to feel dissatisfied with or disillusioned by their formal faith.

Those who gave up on religion a long time ago.

Those who don’t want to buy into formal religion but yearn for a deep spirituality.

Available through Night Publishing at:

http://www.nightpublishing.com/dylan-morrison.html

Blessings

Dylan

The Prodigal Prophet

I’m delighted to report that my book ‘The Prodigal Prophet’ is now available on Amazon.com, Kindle sites and Smashwords. It’s been a long wait but I trust that my story can bring hope to those who can’t get their head around the whole God thing.

In my 54 years I’ve been round quite a few bizarre religious corners and would love to help you avoid some of the many pitfalls that lurk within mainline Christianity.

The paperback edition, with its truly inspirational cover by Canadian artist, David Hayward,  is now available on Amazon.com at:

Kindle US link

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=the+prodigal+prophet&x=10&y=21

Kindle UK link

Smashwords link

http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=the+prodigal+prophet

Blessings

Dylan

In the last two posts we’ve seen how in times of stress we turn to our subpersonalities to help us survive. These little ‘me’s have been absorbed into our sense of Self following traumas in our infancy.

One such subpersonality is the mirror reflection of our mother/father taken on board when we sensed their disapproval or withdrawal of unconditional love during the development of Self during our formative years. The more the withdrawal of unconditional love and it’s replacement by conditional acceptance then the more powerful the parental subpersonality.

A young child will do anything to have its parents approval and becoming like that parent is one such psychic tendency. In future years, dealing with our own young offspring under stress we tend to switch into this parental survival personality to bring some order to the whole child rearing mess. Hence the whole process is replicated and another young Self twisted by the entrance of the conditional Inner Parent.

How do we find release from the resulting tyrany of these hidden characters or subpersonalities?

Firstly let me suggest that the general soloution lies in the psychic integration of such little personalities within a renewed sense of Self.

How do we get to that inner place of wholeness and acceptance?

The initial step sounds simple but is often difficult for us to take, viz the observation of all the subpersonalities within us. In my own experience these subpersonalities are often more apparent to our spouse/partner or close friends.

Ask them to let you know when you ‘switch’ into another identity if only momentarily. My wife will spot my ‘survival dad’ coming upon me when I go sullenly quiet or passive to cope with pressure. Where did I learn this strategy for survival – yes, from my dad.

So over the next few weeks, try and identify particular parental or other types of survival personalities that you turn to in order to get you through times of stress or judgement by others.

Do not try and get rid of these miniture persons but try and identify their main trait and make a note of them. You might be surprised at how many you get through in the course of a week!

Remember we are not trying to judge, reject or do violence to your subpersonalities at this stage. Our first step towards wholeness is to become aware of them and jot them down in a journal or notebook. Note down too what seems to trigger their usually dramatic appearance.

We shall continue our strategy for dealing with these subconscious little ‘me’s next time.

Yesterday I looked at how an aspect of our mothers or fathers seem to lurk within us, only coming out when we are under stress. I called this little subconscious aspect a sub-personality that is part of our overall survival personality – like an emergency fireman lying around a fire station waiting for the bell to ring.

How did this aspect of our parent’s make up get inside us in the first place?

In our infancy the sense of Self is embryonic. The significant others in our development at this time are usually our parents. When unconditional love is transmitted to us our Self begins to form, gaining a sense of OKness that will help us in later life.

If, however, the flow between our parents and us is a conditional form of love or acceptance, then the developing Self is twisted in its development. Such trauma for the developing infant calls for drastic action. The Self fragments into numerous parts called sub-personalities. One such subpersonality is the parent in me formed when the infant’s subconscious logic argues like this:

My mother/father have rejected my Self – I will absorb part of their personality as my own. They don’t reject themselves so they will no longer reject me for I will be a mirror reflection of their own Self.

Such is the process whereby dysfunctional subpersonalities pass down the generations – a generational curse or what?

How to escape this syndrome?

More to follow.

Do you sometimes wonder if, as the years advance, you’re becoming like your father or mother? Perhaps an aspect of their personality has been lying low in your subconscious for many years, perhaps from the time you were an infant. Now, in particularly stressful situations, he/ she is activated within your psyche to help you survive. They have become a little sub-personality within, that can cause your sense of I much anguish.

More in the following posts of this series.