Sunday, December 5, 2010

"A Benevolent Virus" - Book review

I just completed  reading a new book "A Benevolent Virus" by Frances O'Brien. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, once I picked it up I had trouble putting it down.

How do you live when you know what it's like to die? This is the question this new spiritual fiction asked and it delivers a remarkable set of stories of Near-Death Experiencers.  

O'Brien did a wonderful job in portraying what an experiencer goes through during and after an experience. She introduces real characters in a modern day setting that struggle to come to grips with the truth and love they experienced.

The experiences are based on real research that only lends more credibility to the stories as they weave back and forth on the way toward integration.  A benevolent virus is a term that Dr Kenneth Ring used to describe the potential of the near-death experience to impart lessons and tools for living to those who hear or read these powerful accounts. This book is surely going to live up to its title.

O Books, Paperback available at Amazon


Kinship

We are not alone on this earth/Gaia. We wander our paths feeling alone, separate from everyone and everything. At times on my life’s journey I have witnessed the interconnectedness we all have to the loving Divine Self / Source.  Its our minds and physical nature that keeps pulling us toward separateness and when we buy into it, it feeds the ego until it becomes unbalanced. Then we find ourselves teetering on the need and desire for more-and-more with disregard for our fellow beings and the earth we walk upon. I’m not saying our mind is the enemy. I feel we are missing a greater part of being human and connected to the Oneness. 

When we feel separate and we begin to “THINK” of ourselves as me, we also then “THINK” of people not like us as “them” or “others.”  There are no others!!!  Oh, how I would like to shout that from the rooftops. We only have to look at our world today to see how well the belief in being separate is going. Separateness keeps us from completely living our lives and detaches the union of our True Be-ing’s perspective.

Once we touch the Oneness then we understand that we all come from the Divine Source, that everything comes from the “One.” The source is within each of us and thus we are all connected to each other and everything. No thinking necessary, Once we surrender our thoughts we can then feel and know the deeper unified consciousness.

The seed of the tree doesn't think to sprout and grow roots into the earth and branch upward toward the sky. When we are conceived in the womb we don't think about growing a body with legs and arms, or when to start our heart beating. That is all divine nature and our true being working with the Source to deliver our consciousness into this physical world.

As humans we crawled out of the caves and away from the tribes to develop societies beliefs and civilizations. We used our minds all the while as we moved forward and at the same time distancing us from our interconnected Divine Self.

Now that we are here, we need to practice loving mindful attention focused on our connection to our true being in-order-to overcome this separateness and recognize our kinship with the world we live upon. Only then will we live a life with satisfaction and contentment, casting away unnecessary desires for more-and-more. Through our kinship with all, we can make an even better world.