One of the most important books I've read on this journey. I've known about this book for a long time now from Oprah--at least seven years. But if I had read it at any other time before now, I don't think I would've understood it in the way that I understand it now. And I know that reading it again later, I'll probably understand it more and differently than I understand it now. As you grow, your understanding grows and shifts. This is definitely what my soul needs at this time of its journey in order to remember and reach towards its purpose and evolution.

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage one cannot practice any virtue consistently. We can be kind, generous, just, courteous, and merciful sporadically, but to display those virtues, consistently, calls for an enormous display of courage." pg. xvii (words from Maya Angelou)

"I discovered nonphysical reality. I am still growing into that discovery. All creative people--which is everyone--require commitment and time and courage to grow into their insights. Inspiration is one thing. Applying it to your life is another." pg. xxii

"As a way of talking about what we are and what we are becoming, I have used the terms 'five-sensory' and 'multisensory.' Multisensory is not better than five-sensory. It is simply more appropriate now. As one system of human experience winds down and another, more advanced system emerges, the older system may appear by comparison to be lacking, but from the perspective of the Universe, the language of comparison is not the language of lesser and better, but of limitation and opportunity. The experiences of the multisensory human are less limited than the experiences of the five-sensory human. They provide more opportunities for growth and development and more opportunities to avoid unnecessary difficulties." pg. xxxi

"Who among us is an expert on the human experience? We have only the gift of sharing perceptions that hopefully can help those on their journey. There is no such thing as an expert on the human experience. The human experience is an experience in movement and thought and form and, in some cases, an experiment in movement and thought and form. The most that we can do is comment on the movement, the thought, and the form, but those comments are of great value if they can help people to learn to move gracefully, to think clearly, to form--like artists--the matter of their lives." pg. xxxii

"We see through our five senses that every action is a cause that has an effect, and that every effect has a cause. We see the results of our intentions. We see that rage kills: It takes away breath--the Life force--and it spills blood--the carrier of vitality. We see that kindness nurtures. We see and feel the effects of a snarl and a smile." pg. 5

"When perception of the physical world is limited to the five-sensory modality, the basis of life in the physical arena becomes fear. Power to control the environment, and those within the environment appears to be essential. . . The power to control the environment, and those within it, is power over what can be felt, smelled, tasted, heard, or seen. This type of power is external power. External power can be acquired or lost, as in the stock market or an election. It can be bought or stolen, transferred or inherited. It is thought of as something that can be gotten from someone else, or somewhere else. One person's gain of external power is perceived as another person's loss. The result of seeing power as external is violence and destruction. All of our institutions--social, economic, and political--reflect our understanding of power as external." pg. 6-7

"Badge, boots, rank, radio, uniform, weapons, and armor are symbols of fear. Those who wear them are fearful. They fear to engage the world without defenses." pg. 8

"All perceptions of lesser and greater personal value result from the perception of power as external." pg. 9

"Our deeper understanding leads us to another kind of power, a power that loves life in every form that it appears, a power that does not judge what it encounters, a power that perceives meaningfulness and purpose in the smallest details upon the Earth. This is authentic power. When we align our thoughts, emotions, and actions with the highest part of ourselves, we are filled with enthusiasm, purpose, and meaning. Life is rich and full. We have no thoughts of bitterness. We have no memory of fear. We are joyously and intimately engaged with our world. This is the experience of authentic power." pg. 10-11

"No understanding of evolution is adequate that does not have at its core that we are on a journey toward authentic power, and that authentic empowerment is the goal of our evolutionary process and the purpose of our being. We are evolving from a species that pursues external power into a species that pursues authentic power. We are leaving behind exploration of the physical world as our sole means of evolution. This means of evolution, and the consciousness that results from an awareness that is limited to the five-sensory modality, are no longer adequate to what we must become." pg. 11

"All of our great teachers have been, or are, multisensory humans. They have spoken to us and acted in accordance with perceptions and values that reflect the larger perspective of the multisensory being, and, therefore, their words and actions awaken within us the recognition of truths." pg. 12

"From the perception of the five-sensory human, we are alone in a universe that is physical. From the perception of the multisensory human, we are never alone, and the Universe is alive, conscious, intelligent, and compassionate. From the perception of the five-sensory human, the physical world is an unaccountable given in which we unaccountably find ourselves, and we strive to dominate it so that we can survive. From the perception of the multisensory human, the physical world is a learning environment that is created jointly by the souls that share it, and everything that occurs within it serves their learning. From the perception of the five-sensory human, intentions have no effects, the effects of actions are physical, and not all actions affect us or others. From the perception of the multisensory human, the intention behind an action determines its effects, every intention affects both us and others, and the effects of intentions extend far beyond the physical world." pg. 12-13

"Your personality is that part of you that was born into, lives within, and will die within time. To be a human and to have a personality are the same thing. Your personality, like your body, is the vehicle of your evolution." pg. 14

"When a multisensory personality looks inside itself, it finds a multitude of different currents. Through experience, it learns to distinguish between these currents and to identify the emotional, psychological, and physical effects of each. It learns, for example, which currents produce anger, divisive thoughts, and destructive actions, and which currents produce love, healing thoughts, and constructive actions. In time, it learns to value and to identify with those currents that generate creativity, healing, and love, and to challenge and release those currents that create negativity, disharmony, and violence. In this way, a personality comes to experience the energy of its soul." pg. 15

"When the energy of the soul is recognized, acknowledged, and valued, it begins to infuse the life of the personality. When the personality comes fully to serve the energy of its soul, that is authentic empowerment. This is the goal of the evolutionary process in which we are involved and the reason for our being. Every experience that you have and will have upon the Earth encourages the alignment of your personality with your soul. Every circumstance and situation gives you the opportunity to choose this path, to allow your soul to shine through you, to bring into the physical world through you its unending and unfathomable reverence for and love of Life." pg. 16

"Each personality contributes, in its own special way, with its own special aptitudes and lessons to learn, consciously or unconsciously, to the evolution of its soul. The life of a mother, a warrior, a daughter, a priest; the experiences of love, vulnerability, fear, loss, and tenderness; the struggles with anger, defiance, emptiness, and jealousy--all serve the evolution of the soul. Each physical, emotional, and psychological characteristic that comprises a personality and its body--strong or weak arms, dense or penetrating intellect, happy or despairing disposition, yellow or black skin, even hair and eye color--is perfectly suited to its soul's purpose." pg. 18

"From the point of view of the soul, all of its incarnations are simultaneous. All of its personalities exist at once. Therefore, the release of negativity that occurs in one of the soul's incarnations benefits not only itself, but all of its soul's other incarnations also. Because the soul, itself, is not confined to time, the past of a personality, as well as its future, is enhanced when a personality releases currents of fear and doubt." pg. 18-19

"The soul is. It has no beginning and no end but flows toward wholeness. The personality emerges as a natural force from the soul. It is an energy tool that the soul adapts to function within the physical world. Each personality is unique because the configuration of energy of the soul that formed it is unique. It is the persona of the soul, so to speak, that interacts with physical matter. It is a product that is formed from the vibrational aspect of your name, the vibrational aspect of your relationship to planets at the time of your incarnation, and vibrational aspects of your energy environment, as well as from the splintered aspects of your soul that need to interact in physical matter in order to be brought into wholeness." pg. 21

"Karma is not a moral dynamic. Morality is a human creation. The Universe does not judge. The law of karma governs the balancing of energy within our system of morality and within those of our neighbors. It serves humanity as an impersonal and Universal teacher of responsibility." pg. 25

"In order to become whole, the soul must balance its energy. It must experience the effects that it has caused. The energy imbalances in the soul are the incomplete parts of the soul that form the personality. Personalities in interaction are souls that are seeking to heal. Whether an interaction between souls is healing or not depends upon whether the personality involved can see beyond itself and that of the other personality to the interaction of their souls. This perception automatically draws forth compassion. Every experience, and every interaction, provides you with an opportunity to look from the point of view of your soul or from the point of view of your personality." pg. 27

"It is appropriate that we respond to his or her circumstance with compassion, but it is not appropriate that we perceive it as unfair, because it is not." pg. 27

"Of one thing we can be certain: A person that is engaging in violence is hurting deeply, because a healthy and balanced soul is incapable of harming another." pg. 28

"Feelings, as we shall see, are the means through which we can discern the parts of itself that the soul seeks to heal, and through which we come to see the action of the soul in physical matter. The road to your soul is through your heart." pg. 28-29

"This, then, is the framework of our evolutionary process: the continual incarnation and reincarnation of the energy of the soul into physical reality for the purposes of healing and balancing its energy in accordance with the law of karma. Within this framework we evolve, as individuals and as a species, through the cycle of being unempowered to becoming empowered, yet the experiences that we encounter in this process need not be the kind that we have encountered to now." pg. 30

"Reverence is engaging in a form and a depth of contact with Life that is well beyond the shell of form and into essence. Reverence is contact with the essence of each thing and person and plant and bird and animal. It is contact with the interior of its beingness. Even if you cannot sense the interior, it is enough to know that the form, the shell, is merely an outer layer, and that underneath it the true power and essence of who a person is, or what a thing is, is present. That is what is honored in reverence." pg. 34-35

"Process is honored in reverence. The unfolding of Life, the maturation process, the process of growing through and coming into your own empowerment, is a process that needs to be approached with reverence." pg. 35

"Reverence is a perception of the soul. Only the personality can perceive Life without reverence. Reverence is a natural aspect of authentic empowerment because the soul reveres all of Life. Therefore, when the personality is aligned with the soul, it cannot perceive Life except with reverence. Approaching Life with reverence not only protects the soul from the karmic obligations that are created by personalities that do not honor Life, but it also is a step toward moving the personality into alignment with the soul because it brings an aspect of the soul directly into the physical environment." pg. 39-40

"The central position of the heart in the higher order of logic and understanding of the multisensory human, and the sensitivity to emotional currents that is characteristic of multisesnsory humans, appear as extraneous to the five-sensory personality because they do not serve the accumulation of external power. As we have come to seek and wield external power consciously, we have come to view feelings as unnecessary appendages, like tonsils--useless, but capable of creating pain and dysfunction. Thus, the pursuit of external power has led to a repression of emotion. This is true of us as individuals and as a species." pg. 44

"Without an awareness of your emotions you are not able to experience reverence. Reverence is not an emotion. It is a way of being, but the path to reverence is through your heart, and only an awareness of your feelings can open your heart." pg. 45

"Understanding evil as the absence of Light requires you to examine the choices that you make each moment in terms of whether they move you toward Light or away from it. It allows you to look with compassion upon those who engage in evil activities, even as you challenge their activities, and thus protects you from the creation of negative karma. It permits you to see that the place to begin the task of eliminating evil is within yourself. This is the appropriate response to evil." pg. 56

"From the multisensory point of view, insights, intuitions, hunches, and inspirations are messages from the soul, or from advanced intelligences that assist the soul on its evolutionary journey. The multisensory personality, therefore, honors intuition in a way that the five-sensory personality does not.To the five-sensory personality, intuitions are curiosities. To the multisensory personality, they are promptings from, and links to, a perspective of greater comprehension and compassion than its own. To the five-sensory personality, intuitive insights, or hunches, occur unpredictably, and cannot be counted upon. To the multisensory personality, intuitive insights are registrations within its consciousness of a loving guidance that is continually assisting and supporting its growth. Therefore, the multisensory personality strives to increase its awareness of this guidance." pg. 64-65

Techniques to engage and discipline the intuition:
- "The first of these is to honor emotional cleansing at all times. If you are emotionally blocked and you cannot, or you do not, know what you feel, or if you have blocked what you feel so effectively that you become emotionless, you become a negative person, and you also create a physically diseased body. By keeping your emotions clear, emotional negativity does not reside in you, and you become lighter and lighter. This opens your intuitive track because it allows you a clear sense of loving. It brings you closer to unconditional love and renders you harmless. It lightens the quality of your frequency, so to speak, and therefore the guidance that you receive is clear and unobstructed as it enters your system. . .
- The second is a cleansing nutritional program. Being physically toxic interferes with intuition.
- The third is to honor the guidance that you receive. Emotional and physical cleansing leads to intuition, and this leads to learning to respond. You must be willing to hear what your intuition says and act accordingly. Many people do not wish to hear what can be heard so easily, and, therefore, they deny that they hear anything.
- The fourth is to allow yourself an orientation of openness toward your life and the Universe, to approach the questions in your life with a sense of faith and trust that there is a reason for all that is happening, and that that reason, at its heart, is always compassionate and good. This is an essential thought that needs to be in place in order to activate and cultivate intuition." pg. 68-69

"Intuition can be thought of as a type of wiring that can be used by various sources. One of these sources is the soul. Intuition is a walkie-talkie, so to speak, between the personality and the soul. This happens through the higher self. The higher self is the connecting link when the soul speaks to its personality. It is the dialogue between the personality and its immortal self. The personality-soul communication is the higher self experience, but the personality does not communicate with the fullness of its soul." pg. 70-71

"All of the energy of the soul does not incarnate. To incarnate, the soul creates a personality from those parts of itself that it wants to heal in the physical environment, and from those parts of itself that it lends to the process of healing in that lifetime." pg. 71

"The personality is never separate from its soul, and the soul and its personalities are continually assisted and guided with impersonal compassion and wisdom. This is so for both the five-sensory personality and for the multisensory personality, but the five-sensory personality is not aware of its soul or the guidance that it receives from its higher self and from more advanced souls. The multisensory personality is aware of its soul--it seeks to align itself with its soul, to become the physical embodiment of its higher self--and it consciously invokes and receives the loving assistance of its own soul and of other souls that assist it." pg. 74

"You are a system of Light, as are all beings. The frequency of your Light depends upon your consciousness. When you shift the level of your consciousness, you shift the frequency of your Light. If you choose to forgive someone who has wronged you, for example, rather than to hate that person, you shift the frequency of your Light. If you choose to feel affection, or kinship, with a person rather than distance or coldness, you shift the frequency of your Light." pg. 78

"If your thoughts are thoughts that draw low-frequency energy currents to you, your physical and emotional attitudes will deteriorate, and emotional or physical disease will follow, whereas thoughts that draw high-frequency energy currents to you create physical and emotional health." pg. 79

"By choosing your thoughts, and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you determine the quality of your Light. You determine the effects that you will have upon others, and the nature of the experiences of your life." pg. 79

[So many important passages, it only allows the ones I chose up to pg 79! I have them all the way to pg 234!]

Book: borrowed from SSF Main Library.