Hi everyone, great topic Mike!

For a long time I read Seth mostly as theoretical material. It rang true for me, but I guess I thought it was too complicated for me to apply personally. At about this time last year I started reading NOPR with the intention of really making use of it, applying it to my life instead of thinking of it as theory. When Seth said something like "Your inner self has the answers to all of your problems" this seemed like an almost incredible statement. Now it makes perfect sense to me.

I used to be really unclear about how to tell which impulses were from my inner self,and which ones were (I now realize) fear-based. It's becoming easier for me to discern what impulses arise from fear and which ones may be something I should pay attention to. Really believing that I am a part of something much bigger than the self I know and that help is available is a really important key to this I think. Now I need to remember to listen more often. I'm really just beginning to understand this, and I haven't yet had any exciting incidents to report, but I've experienced enough to know that there's a lot to be gained by remembering to listen.

Hi Eric! Thanks for joining in!! One comment that might speak to you is from 'The God of Jane'... she was discussing this idea of impulses within herself, and she said that when we watch television we can tell the difference between a documentary and a TV drama, even though they may both be showing the same topic. As we come into greater knowledge of ourselves, I think we'll become more discerning. Bottom line, there are no 'wrong' answers. Even if we head off on a tangent of exploring some aspect of ourselves, it's something we needed to or chose to explore...

Something I remembered today from last week. Charles de Lint is one of Marcia's and my favourite writers; he writes what is sometimes reviewed as 'urban fantasy'. Anyway, there's a used bookstore not too far from where I'm staying, but I rarely go in there because the owner smokes and when I do go in I feel like I should bring an organic vapour mask. The other day I was walking by that store and I had an impulse to go in, so I did and I found that either she'd stopped smoking or bought a really good air filter - the smell was still there, but there wasn't a cloud of smoke in the store. I asked her if she had any books by Charles de Lint and she took me over to where the sci fi/ fantasy pocket books are. We didn't find anything there, but I had another impulse and asked about hard cover books. She pointed to the top shelf, and there it was: "Spirit in the Wires" by Charles de Lint. Not only was it a de Lint book, but within the first five pages I realized it was exactly the book I needed to read. I read all 452 pages that day (okay, well into the next morning).

One more thing on this topic, from Jane's book. In there she described and episode she called 'The Lady From Big Flats'. Rather than typing it out verbatim, I'll precis it...

At this point Jane was beginning to explore her impulses and how they sometimes contradicted what she felt she 'should' be doing. On this day she was behind schedule on her writing, she had dishes in the sink, she had finished her morning exercise routine, and Rob asked her if she wanted to go into town with him. She hemmed and hawed, torn between wanting to go and feeling she had other things she should be doing instead. This went on for a bit, and just before they left a friend dropped by for a visit. She knew this visit would last some time, and this put her even more behind schedule. Their friend finally left and they went to town. Jane waited in the car while Rob went into the grocery store, and while she was sitting there she had a sudden sense that a fan of their was going to come over to the car. There was a young man approaching the vehicle, but he walked by and she thought she must have been mistaken. A few minutes later Rob came out with this woman. The woman came over to the car, and told Jane that she had run into Rob in the cashier lineup at the store (they were standing in a line in front of Jane at about the time the young man walked by - so she did pick up on it). The woman was from the nearby town of Big Flats, and she had wanted to meet Jane and Rob for some time but rather than hunting down their phone number, she was confident it would work out. And it did.

Now to me there are a couple of interesting things at work here. The most obvious is that if Jane had simply gone with Rob earlier in the day and/or if their friend hadn't arrived for a visit, the timing would have been off and they wouldn't have met the lady from Big Flats. Seth went on to explain how this was worked out in F2, each with a role to play. The question, to me, is? Could it not have worked out any other way? What if the probabilities changed at some point through the day? Would they have missed each other, or would F2 have simply shifted everything so that no matter what happened to each of the three of them, it would have worked out anyway?

Love,
Mike.

very interesting topic on the following of impulses etc!
Yesterday I once again experienced how important it is to listen to our impulses and how one can regret (me in this case) when you don't trust them.

My husband Gert-Jan tried out his moped, it wasn't used for years and it wasn't insured and because of that it doesn't have a license plate. As he was going outside to "try it out", just around the block of houses where we live, he asked me: Emmy, can you get me the keys of the backdoor?

As I grabbed the keys from the backdoor and threw the keys in his hands and as I watched him start the moped I clearly felt: "Gert-Jan will get a ticket, the thing doesn't have a license plate and he is not wearing a helmet"

Then I thought: "oh but he will just be making a short round" didn't want to be overly worried. But the thought came back like a summer-fly. I thought: I have to say this to Gert-Jan.

But I didn't....

I sat behind my computer to practise some Hebrew and about 15 minutes later Gert-Jan arrived home. He walked in with 2 yellowy papers....and a very sorrowful face.

He got 2 (!!) tickets. One for not wearing a helmet, the other one for driving without a license plate.

(off course, not a wise thing to do, but he planned to just go around the house.... and didn't listen to his impulse to head back before a certain street).

Then we spoke for a long time about following impulses (he is familiar with the Sethmaterial) and I said: what if I had said: you shouldn't go like this, you will get a ticket, would you have stayed home?

He said: most likely yes, since we've seen what happened the last time when we didn't listen to the impulses we got...(and we recalled another not listened to impulse that caused us to miss a flight about half a year ago).

Off course we will never know what would have happened if... But to me it was an important lesson (though a costly one!)
Next time just follow up on it!

Hey there again!

Another example of when I did listen to my impulse and it worked out very nicely:

About a year ago I was visiting a friend in Amsterdam and I suddenly got the strong urge to go to the trainstation and travel home even though I hadn't planned to do this at all. My initial idea was to stay in Amsterdam for one more day and to go home in the evening. The impulse was so strong however that I thought: oh well let's go.

Gert-Jan was at work that day.

As I came home I walked our dog Noa and watched the weather change. Huge dark clouds formed in the sky and I was glad to be inside the house again. The sky looked pitch dark and it was in the middle of a summer day. Noa started running circles through the house, she clearly felt very uncomfortable. I said: Noa, we only will get a little rain perhaps....
But then some minutes later (Noa was still running about) the wind chased around our windows and I started to feel a little scared.

There was such a strange atmosphere....

The sky seemed to break open and huge hailstones started to fall, they were (and this is NOT common in the Netherlands) as big as tangerines. This continued for about 15 minutes with such a force that the street started to flood. And not only that, water was streaming into our house untill my enkles were under water. The only thing I could do was utter: Shit! this is not good! I need to do something!

I was home on my own and hurried downstairs to get towels, I moved furniture, boxes with papers etc. The water kept streaming in. As abruptly this weather started it was over again and I could start to clean up the mess. Phoned a friend for help and also our neighbours had water trouble. Everyone was shocked by the quick little drama that took place. Cars were severly damaged by these huge hailstones and the plants in our garden were ruined too.

Luckily I was home so I could prevent our floor from being severly damaged and dry our belongings as best I could.
If I would have still been in Amsterdam I wouldn't have known our house was flooded, it was a very local weather event, the water would have had its chance to ruin our floor. Also interesting to notice that our dog Noa noticed something bad was about to happen so early as well....

all in all it all resolved itself pretty nicely!

Have you guys read about this guy Cheeky D? He listens to his future probable selves. This is basically the way I think of this, listening to a probable self who knows the answer because he's already had the experiences.


www.realitytest.com/intrview.htm#link18

I know Mark! (Cheeky D.) He does some pretty amazing things and has some way out experiences.

As to impulses, I never tried to follow them, but thinking back, I guess I pretty much do follow them.

About six years ago, my husband and I were living in North Central Massachusetts. We owned and ran a boarding stable. The winters in Massachusetts can be brutal and my husband, who has arthritis, had commented for the past couple of years that he didn't know how much longer he could clean out stalls daily and plow snow. I made sympathetic noises, but had no ideas about what we could do. Even though our stable and home were paid for, we wouldn't be able to afford the property taxes if we just quit.

One day in December of '73, he again casually made the comment that he didn't know if he could continue. I said, without really knowing I was going to say it, "Well, we could sell the place and move." He wanted to know where. Momentarily nonplussed, because I had not given this idea any thought, I said, "Well, we could move to, uh... Virgina."

I had driven through Virginia several times on my way to and from Georgia and had thought it a nice place. I hadn't thought of living there. After I mentioned moving, he immediately agreed to it, although I know he had not previously thought of moving that far away, or even moving at all. From that moment on, we both moved forward with plans to sell the place and move. He took care of selling the place and I got on the internet and researched climate, costs, etc. for the Virginia area. I came down and bought a place and before a year was out, we had moved. We ended up in West Virginia, about 10 miles from the Virginia border.

What is surprising to me is that we both went from having no thought of moving to moving five states away in about 15 seconds. We never second guessed it, never had any doubts about it. We assumed we would do it and just did it.

It turned out wonderfully. We have a small 40 acre farm, a few beef cattle, milk goats, chickens and guineas. We are out in the country, it is peaceful and beautiful. West Virginia is a beautiful state and taxes, housing costs and utilities are low. It is a great place to live if you bring your own money. Jobs are not plentiful in most of the state. I think they take in each others wash, but I am not sure.

Whenever any situation comes up, my response to it is usually right there. I can't remember the last time I was undecided about anything and mulled the pros and cons of various responses. If the situation changes, or I learn more about it, I may change my response, but I do not fuss about it. Seemingly, the answer comes with the question in one package.