PURPOSE OF THIS SHOW:
-This radio show is for people who have not been able to find answers to their spiritual questions within the religion in which they were born. It is also for those who belong to a church/faith but wish to delve further in their spirituality. We welcome all!
-We believe we are all on incredible journeys to discover the God within ourselves and to discover why we are here, where we are going, and for what reasons. This is a forum to discuss spiritual topics WITHOUT JUDGEMENT. We also hope to help others embrace what their inner voices are saying without fear.
MESSAGE FROM CYNTHIA - May 18, 2012
My husband and I are wrapping up our out-west vacation tomorrow. We left after the last radio show. We went to Zion National Park, Escalante, & Capitol Reef. What spirituality there is here! I had time to contemplate God's grandness and beauty. I will share more after I get home. Please send me an email and tell me what is going on in your lives. info@ourspiritualjourneys.org
On our show last night on May 6, we discussed meditation. I highly recommend CD's by Thomas Windlow, a local psychic here in Cincinnati. Here are my favorite CD's of his:
-Affirmations to Love Yourself
-A meditation to meet your Guides and Angels.
Brecka Burton, on our 4/29 show, is a spiritual healer and intuitive life counselor. She has opened a healing center, A Healer's Place, in Milford, OH. If you'd like to reach Brecka to schedule an appointment or to learn more about her hours and services, call 432-1629. Address to her center is: 1160 SR 28, Milford, OH 45150. Find out more information by calling Brecka 513-432-1629. She is having a Level I IET (Angel Therapy) class on Saturday, May 26. There are only 3 spots left! So don't delay, call Brecka if interested.
If you need to reach me with questions or to talk about spiritual issues, e-mail me. info@ourspiritualjourneys.org
Happy Journeys,
Cynthia
Other reminders:
-Have you checked out our angel corner on this page? Paula will give you a FREE angel reading. Simplly send her an e-mail with your question or concern.
Our guest on this week's show is Jim Donaldson. Read his spiritual story which follows mine below.
Happy Journeys,
Cynthia
Thanks to everyone for your support. We have now recorded 26 shows! Listen to any of them by going to the ARCHIVES link above.
MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY – Cynthia
I was born the oldest child of 5 and attended Catholic grade school, high school, and college. Truthfully, I really began questioning my spirituality/religious beliefs when I was in the 2nd grade. We were preparing for a visit by a bishop, which was a big deal at that time. We practiced daily for this event. We were told the bishop would ask us questions and then he might even answer questions we had. Our teacher asked if anyone had something to ask. Excitedly, I raised my hand and said, “If God knows everything, then he already knows if we’re going to heaven or hell. So, then why are we here?” After a long silence, the nun looked sternly in my eyes and said, “When the bishop comes, don’t raise your hand, don’t speak. You just sit there and be quiet!”
I was stunned and completely ashamed. Apparently, I had done something horrible, but I wasn’t sure what. After that, when I had questions or doubts like this, instead of asking about them, I’d keep quiet and silently make another commitment to pray harder and hopefully answers would come to me. One day, while attending Mass, I said the words, “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.” All of a sudden, it hit me. Doesn’t God have mercy already? Why, yes! So, I wondered, why are we asking Him for it? Shouldn’t we be saying, “God, I am ready to receive your mercy.”? After that, I listened more intently to the Catholic mass, only to find I had lots of questions about what we were saying. But, I wouldn’t dare speak out. I attended Mass more often, thinking if I devoted myself to the faith, I would become “good” and not be so doubtful.
Through the years, however, doubts persisted. If I ever tried discussing these with my school friends, they looked at me as if I was crazy. Most of them loved the very things I couldn’t embrace about the Catholic faith and those things brought comfort to them. …like the repetition of prayers (like the one I just mentioned), the rules and teachings, and the call for faith rather than thinking and questioning (which is apparently what I did “wrong” in 2nd grade)… So, I knew that there wasn’t anything “wrong” with Catholicism, but that is just wasn’t for me. I studied other religions. I concluded that all religions have some truth in them, and they connect with certain people who treasure its rituals and traditions. But nothing felt like a true “fit” for me.
As a young adult, I finally began listening more to my inner voice and trusting that what I felt was right. I stopped going to Church, but I knew God still loved me. When I was remorseful, I asked God directly for forgiveness and received it, even though a priest told me this was not possible. And despite people telling me the contrary, I somehow “knew” I was going to heaven even though I wasn’t “saved”.
Eventually, I was drawn to writers like Gary Zukav, Sylvia Browne, Jon Edwards, and others. The more I embraced what my inner voice was telling me, the more spiritual and the closer to God that I felt.
Today, I feel great about my spirituality, but know I have much more pondering and exploring to do. And how lucky I am that my husband and children are with me on this journey as well. We love talking with each other about spiritual growth, debating questions, and pushing ourselves to find our inner truths. But, we often feel alone. We wish we had others to do this with. In the past, when we’ve tried to verbalize some of our beliefs, we learned that people are not open or willing to listen and, at times, are quite critical.
That’s how we came to create this radio show for people who are open to the realm of spiritual possibilities that would be “safe”, open, and accepting. I'm excited about the possibilities this program may lead to. I hope you come along with me for the ride!
MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY – Jim Donaldson
I was born at home in 1952 in a Knox county KY. I am the youngest of 8 children. At the age of 12 I was walking down a gravel road when suddenly I was overwhelmed with a thought. “From this moment forward, you are responsible for your actions” I was incapacitated for a few minutes with a deep sadness. I knew that my days of flying under the spiritual radar were over. Soon I gave it little thought as I continued with life as before except for that little voice which seemed to be always telling me of right and wrong.
My family went to a Methodist Church as I grew up and understood religion in a traditional and somewhat fundamental way. Our understanding of Jesus and God was the truth and all others were false. Essentially it was “ get saved and do the best you could from there on out.” If you sinned and ask for forgiveness, you were good to go.
Heaven could be somewhat of a crap shoot. If you had a bad period of sinning and died prior to asking for forgiveness – you were eternally damned. I knew that this couldn’t be right. Wouldn’t it be better to die as a baby and have a free ticket to heaven for eternity?
I went to an electronics school in Louisville and at the age of 19 found myself increasingly haunted by the question, “What is the truth about religion?” I decided that I must seek the answer by reading the bible with no preconceived ideas. I began readings and over some months I began to have this sense that the people and experiences detailed in the bible while they probably happened; they also were also symbolic of another layer of truth. It was as if the bible was a great play performed on the stage of life and while the message was valid, there was a deeper and bigger message hidden from me and was performed on a mental stage
There was no simple line of demarcation between the physical and mental – they crisscrossed and intertwined in such a way that they supported each other and propelled one forward with an increasing subtlety that promoted an expansion of understanding. I began to understand the elegance of the bible. Its message was there for all souls – regardless of one’s belief. But there were troubling signs along the way. I wondered why all the fuss. Unless there was some way to take this information and use it in everyday life, it would be relegated to being simply an enigma.
However, my belief was that there was more than that. I found some scriptures which seemed oddly out of place and I saw them pointing in a new direction. It described a hierarchy of consciousness. There were bad people in the bible. There were good and then great people. There were prophets and there were angels. There was Jesus and there was God. All seemed necessary for the play to work. It also pointed to a previous time when the play fell short. These things were all represented in our own consciousness. But how to get to the promise?
Living a good life was not the path to these higher levels. While I hate to quote directly from the scriptures because they can be misconstrued and taken out of context and be metaphors for other principals, I must say that this one was quite clear. “Not by your good works will you see the kingdom of heaven”. Add to that, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. “
I won’t get into the details but ultimately as I tried to understand the messages they became subtler and subtler until one day I found myself meditating. I didn’t know it was meditation until much later. Thus began a day like no other in my life. It was so natural and wonderful. But it was a temporary. And so, the next day I tried meditating again. Try as I may I could not reproduce the experience. I did, however, find some experts on the subject. I began TM and found that it was essentially identical to the technique I had discovered in the Bible. This I have been doing for many years.
As far as my first session with Thomas (a local psychic here in Cincinnati), he told me the following: “I have the sign of the 4 major religions above my head. I have spent past lives as a monk in each of them and learned all that the established religion had to teach. This lifetime’s purpose is to take that knowledge and discover how to incorporate them into a new understanding of religion. I am supposed to write a book. He said that it has been something that I have thought about for a very long time. Which is true.
I feel that it is important to be around those whom I feel are searching for their answers in life. It makes it all more real.