Maria Duval - What are affirmations?

What are affirmations?
Close your eyes for a full minute and observe your thoughts. Try it. According to a study, an average human have 55,000 thoughts per day or 38 thoughts per minute. So, what were your 38 thoughts about? Were the thoughts running so fast you couldn’t decipher its meaning? If you try observing your thoughts in silence with your eyes closed for a longer period of time, you will come to experience how our thoughts are a reflection of our inner beliefs. Every thought you think that is decoded into a word you say is an affirmation. Our reality is created by our beliefs; beliefs are thought patterns we developed since childhood. These beliefs make up our personality; the positive beliefs become our strengths while the negative ones form our weaknesses. So, self development is all about transforming our weaknesses in order to have a more fulfilling life. You would have probably read numerous self-help books and attended countless motivational seminars, yet the dysfunctional thought patterns are still a hindrance to growth. Why? Most of our learning experiences are done on a conscious level. There is still growth and change on this level but some of our erroneous thought patterns are deep-seated. These flawed thoughts ought to be released and replaced with affirmative positive thoughts. When we integrate positive experiences like a duck takes to water, it means we have made an affirmative deposit into our subconscious level. Our self-talk is a stream of affirmations and we are constantly affirming subconsciously through thoughts and speech which in turn become our life experience in every moment. The subconscious utilizes the behaviour patterns learned in the past to respond and react to all that is happening every moment in our life. If the basis for our beliefs is flawed at an early stage (e.g. “I am not good enough”), problems would crop up throughout life. The skills of being aware of our thoughts are not taught in schools as we were growing up. So, as long as we haven’t understood that faulty beliefs are the source of our problems, we would be going around in much despair. Just like how you would re-boot the central processing unit of your computer when you want to start anew, you can re-programme your thought patterns. Positive affirmations can replace invalid beliefs and create the reality you desire. Positive affirmations are short statements that help focus your awareness on your power and ability to create and have what you want. They are stated in the present tense as you repeat and say these affirmations, you will begin to create them as true for you. So in place of the erroneous belief in the example above, affirm: “I accept and love myself for who I am now”; and, “I give myself permission to be all I can be”. Use affirmations to open and expand your awareness of what you can have. Use them to align with your wisdom and to attune with the unlimited abundance of the universe. As you repeatedly say them to yourself, you will create positive, more enriching realities in your life. For a start, you may write your own affirmations on small pieces of paper and plaster them on your computer screen, car dashboard or the bathroom mirror.

Meeyuen Thang is a former journalist and since becoming a mother, her main interests are self improvement and child development, particularly in emotional literacy. You can visit her website at http://www.parentingtalks.com

Real Ghosts, Ghost Hunting, and Quantum Physics
One of the benefits of a lifetime of afterlife communication is that I know a lot about ghosts : what they are and what they're not. For instance, they're not "caught between worlds." And they don't need us to help them "move on." They're exactly where they're supposed to be. You don't honestly think that God, the Creator of the Universe, would leave their eternal fate in your and my hands, do you?

You CAN say that they are "earthbound," but that's because their consciousness never left the earth. And when you die, yours won't either. We're all right here together forever. That's just the nature of the afterlife. Yes, knowing the laws of the afterlife can make these things a lot clearer.

Lately, I've been researching what folks believe about ghosts and hauntings. I've investigated the investigations. Repeatedly I've read, "We don't use ouija boards, s�ances, mediums or occult methods." Yet it's common for ghost researchers to accept, as an underlying condition of their investigations, the erroneous claims of psychics, mediums, and channels.

I'm referring to such concepts as "caught between worlds," "unfinished business," "earthbound souls," and ghost children in distress. At the same time ominous warnings urge vigilant caution in case non-human demons and malevolent entities are encountered. Oh, and don't forget the Hollywood expression, "Go to the light." Scientific research can't be conducted properly on a foundation of superstition.

Let me tell you some things that are true about ghosts. Actually there are only two kinds of ghosts: real and not-real.

The real ghosts are everywhere. They're in your home, in your car, in your school, and in your dreams. Ghost researchers call these interactive ghosts. I call them soul-ghosts, or disincarnate souls. I don't care for the term, disembodied because they do have a body. We just can't see it for the same reason that we can't see sound waves and ultraviolet light. They're outside the range of our sentient boundary.

Soul-ghosts are interactive. They reach out to you, and you feel no fear : absolutely none. They envelop you in a blanket of warm fuzzies. Real ghosts can be mistaken for angels. This isn't a paranormal experience. It's a supernatural and spiritual experience.

The not-real ghosts seem to be everywhere too, but only for people that believe they exist, or at least believe that they might exist. They rarely bother unbelievers. Ghost researchers call the not-real ghosts : residual ghosts. These ghosts seem to defy the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy because they pop in and out of existence like virtual particles. The appearance of this type of ghost can be explained by quantum physics. From the Copenhagen Interpretation, which states that nothing is real until you look at it, to the holographic theory of the universe, all ghosts abide by the laws of quantum physics.

People that experience residual ghosts say that they seem to be caught in a time-loop replaying the same scene over and over. The above mentioned physics also apply to residual ghosts but with the addition of Schrodinger's equations. For every "now" that we experience, a positive wave flows into the future and a negative wave flows into the past like concentric ripples created by a rock thrown into a pond.

The fact that some people experience residual ghosts is due to normal functions of human consciousness. Although some might rather think of it as a "glitch." Residual ghosts are unusual and fascinating experiences with natural causes.

Briefly, a few more types of not-real ghosts are poltergeists, demons, and shadow people. Abnormal psychology applies to poltergeists and demons. The physiology of the eye accounts for shadow people.

So, what's the truth about ghosts? Do they exist? Yes, of course they do. Can the scientific method be used to investigate them? Yes, they use measurable amounts of energy. Can you record their voices and photograph ghosts? Yes, but one needs to be alert to pattern recognition tendencies.

The science of ghost investigation has the potential to make a huge difference in a society still tormented by superstition and fear. You have the equipment. You have the rationale. And you have the compassionate desire to help others.

Copyright 2005 Robbin Renee Bridges

Robbin Renee Bridges, a chaplain and grief counselor for more than thirty years, is the author of numerous published articles and the landmark book, �A Bridge of Love between Heaven and Earth: Self-Induced Contact in the Afterlife.� For more articles about death, ghosts, and the nature of the souls in the afterlife visit http://www.spirit-sanctuary.org

Science Fiction's Influence on Society
Accordingly, the borderline between fantasy and science fiction is blurred, and many bookstores shelve science fiction and fantasy together. The science fiction genre has a strong fan community of readers and viewers, of which many authors are a part. In reading science fiction books, abstract concepts such as mutations, radiation, space travel and planets are experienced.

Although science fiction is often written primarily to entertain, many authors use the genre to provide insight into science, society, or the human condition. But science fiction is visionary by design and prophetic only by accident.

And yet the strange thing is, in some way, some real way, much of what appears under the title "science fiction" is true. Science fiction has ad a role in shaping public attitudes towards the atomic bomb during the fifties and sixties. Modern consciousness therefore is radically different from that of the peoples who inhabited the planet before the emergence of science fiction. America proved especially hospitable to science fiction, even before it acquired a name.

About the Author Francesca Black is a fan of science fiction. She is a freelance writer and writes articles for Science Fiction Corner http://www.science-fiction-corner.com and UFO Gifts http://www.ufo-gifts.com .