Monthly Archives: April 2023

by | April 25, 2023 · 3:26 pm

Healing the inner wound

When heartbroken or in pain every feeling is sharper. You are more sensitive and will be opening the gateway to your intuition. It is an opportunity of connecting to your soul. Yet we often prefer to numb these feelings by fleeing into distractions.

Life happens and a loss can be very painful to deal with. Society will be indoctrinating you with the mantra that you should just deal with it and you put on that false smile to the external world.

It‘s the reason why most „selfies“ and postings on social media share primarily happy moments or a false identity. You don‘t want to hear about the breakups, the deaths, the financial travails, and mental challenges.

But the body always keeps the score. Suppressed feelings and trauma seek other avenues. It is one of the many reasons why psychosomatic and mental illnesses are skyrocketing with an estimated 800 million people worldwide suffering from some type of mental health disorder.

When an inner wound has not healed it is also all too easy to numb that wound with addiction. These could be anything from alcohol, overeating, shopping sprees, and spending hours watching Netflix. A powerful addiction is to a false sense of self that goes into war mode each time it feels threatened by a different opinion, belief, or mindset. 

Suppressed inner feelings and emotions will inevitably seek an avenue where the body or the personality is the weakest.

A seemingly insignificant event on the other end of the world might trigger a deep sadness. An inconvenience such as a delayed flight or someone „stealing“ your parking causes an angry outburst far in disproportion to the incident.

Worse still, the suppressed emotional wound finds expression in a life-threatening disease.

Photo by Rodolfo Quiru00f3s on Pexels.com

Whatever loss you have suffered you need to acknowledge that anger, that sadness, that feeling of emptiness or self-blame. It is the first step in the healing process. The famous psychotherapist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross describes five stages of dealing with the pain and loss of a loved one: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.

It is much easier to transition and transmute a difficult situation if you seek a professional who can guide you through the process. He or she could offer tools that enable you to take a different perspective.

In retrospect, many of the most difficult chapters in your life can turn out to be an education in higher consciousness or have made you a more compassionate understanding human being. 

Awareness to the truth of your human vulnerability, weaknesses, fault lines, and authentic identity and at the same time practicing self-love will make you immune to the pull of external manipulation.

Showing vulnerability will connect you more deeply to your fellow human being. They are the building blocks of healthy friendships and relationships. Elementary, empathic human connection is ultimately the most important element in living a quality life of bliss.

As John Lennon dreams in his song “Imagine”:  “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”

Reino Gevers – Author – Mentor – Speaker

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by | April 17, 2023 · 6:55 am

Moving beyond religion

One of the greatest obstacles to the elevation of consciousness is a mindset cemented into the “isms” of fixed belief, ideology, religion, or philosophy. It has been the root cause of much human suffering over the centuries.

With much of traditional religions having succumbed to the practice of empty rituals, the spiritual vacuum is being filled by political preachers and ideologues fanning the flames of fanaticism.

If the shutters to the mind remain closed there is no sunlight that can penetrate the inner room. The mind is captured in the conceptual prison of a one-sided truth. All the others are wrong, belong to the wrong crowd, the wrong tribe, and the wrong race, gender, or religion. There is a disconnect with soul authenticity.

Yet, innately we are spiritual beings living in a human form.

In a famous 1959 BBC interview, Carl Gustav Jung was asked whether he believed in God. The pioneering psychiatrist and psychoanalyst responded: “I don’t need to believe, I know.”

At the time the remark caused some controversy because Jung did not subscribe to a particular religion or doctrine but viewed spirituality as a fundamental aspect of human nature that could be explored through personal experience.

In a similar vein, the great scientist Albert Einstein was skeptical of organized religion and the concept of a personal God, but had great respect nevertheless for the ethical teachings of especially Buddhism and Judaism.

In Ideas and Opinions Einstein stated, “In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests.”

The human mind is too small to grasp the universe

According to Einstein, the universe is vastly complex and the concept of “God”, as explained by religion, far too simplistic.

“The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written.

“The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.”

Einstein was convinced that everything was determined by forces over which we have no control, all of creation from the insect, to the human being and the stars dancing “to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”

Religion has for eons imposed it’s view of God and creation on humanity, most often using it as an instrument of control and manipulation. Those who did not conform to conventional doctrine and dogma were at times and still today in some countries are brutally persecuted.

A unifying force permeating creation

Many of the Mystic teachers tend to avoid using the term “God” because of the many misunderstandings this has caused.

Instead of a judgmental deity, they rather speak of a unifying force that permeates all of creation. Rather than believing in dogma or theology imposed externally by a religion they believe that “God” can be experienced through contemplative practices such as meditation, prayer, and mindfulness practices such as deep encounters with nature, art, and music.

Einstein’s hope was that the “religion” of the future would be “a cosmic religion” liberated from dogma and theology.

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

The parallels between the thinking of physicists such as Einstein and the Mystics of the early Middle Ages is profound.

The 13th-century Mystic Meister Eckart believed that God was beyond all form and creation and that the ultimate goal of the spiritual path was to transcend the limitations of the physical world and attain union with the divine. God was present in all things, and everything in creation was a reflection of the divine, the physical world an expression of the spiritual realm.

To put it simply creation is constantly changing form in an endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Our purpose in life is to grow and evolve into ever higher consciousness.

The spiritual teacher and author Richard Rohr emphasizes the importance of recognizing the divine in all people, regardless of their background or beliefs. He believes that love and compassion are the most important aspects of spirituality and that they should be expressed through service to others and a commitment to social justice.

The Irish, poet, philosopher, and priest John O’Donohue describes the beautiful complexity of growth in consciousness within the human soul:

“It is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows. Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way. Real growth is experienced when we draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze. Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possibility, presence, and creativity. Complacency, habit, and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life.”

Reino Gevers – Author – Mentor – Speaker

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by | April 11, 2023 · 7:49 am

Walking like a pilgrim

Ancient cultures and religions for thousands of years worshipped nature as an expression of the divine. With technological progress has come a disconnect with mankind primarily seeing the external world as a means of exploitation and subjugation.

In order to survive as a species we need to reconnect to nature and our spiritual purpose. One of the most underestimated and effective means of realigning body, mind and soul is by taking a walk.

You could either see a walk as a daily physical activity to stay fit or alternatively go for a deep walk with a higher intention. Or, you could go on a meditative pilgrimage walk lasting several weeks with deep spiritual significance.

A hike is generally goal orientated. You are aiming to reach a certain destination, walk a number of steps a day or just carry out a recreational activity.

Over the years on my pilgrimage walks on the Camino de Santiago in northwestern Spain it is interesting to observe people starting the 500-mile (800-kilometer) walk as hikers purely as a physical endeavor or adventure and then transitioning into pilgrims.

There is a deep mystery about these ancient pilgrimage paths and walking in the footsteps of people who have walked these paths for hundreds of years. Their collective traces and memories seem etched into the cobblestones, waymarkers, dusty paths, and old chapels.

“It doesn’t take long for the Camino to start walking you,” a pilgrim said to me on one of my first walks.

As you find your natural rhythm and walk off the distractions of the “monkey-mind” caught in thoughts of the past or the future, you become increasingly connected to the natural world around you.

Photo by Akshaya Premjith on Pexels.com

Walking like a pilgrim

You don’t have to walk long distances to walk like a pilgrim. Instead of being goal-orientated it is all about walking with mindfulness, taking in the aroma of herbs along the path through your nostrils, hearing the water of a creek in the distance, enjoying the morning song of a blackbird, feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin and opening your eyes to what you see around you.

A pilgrimage walk is a destination with meaning, like walking from the magnificent 14th-century Wells Cathedral, Somerset England, to Glastonbury Tor – a significant spiritual place of worship since the time of the Celtics. But it could also be walking between an ancient oak tree and a bridge crossing a river.

It can also be a walk to resolve a particular question, an unresolved problem, or to say a prayer of gratitude. You could ask the universe for an answer as you do your walking and open yourself to the whispers from the universe in the form of signs and symbols. Sometimes the answer would come in a casual remark made by a stranger.

Many philosophers, writers, artists, and poets have found inspiration while walking. According to legend the Greek philosopher Aristotele taught his students while walking. The composer Johan Sebastian Bach in 1705 walked 205 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck along the Baltic coast to find inspiration. The great Persian philosopher Rumi said about walking:

“Keep walking, though there is no place to get to. Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not for human beings. Move within. But don’t move the way fear makes you move.”

Reino Gevers – Author – Mentor – Speaker

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by | April 5, 2023 · 5:05 pm

Easter and The Shroud of Turin

A few days ago I was fortunate enough to visit a unique exhibition in Wells Cathedral in the United Kingdom on the brutal crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. It features a full 15-foot (4.57 meter) replica of the shroud of Turin, revealing the image of a man, thought to be Jesus.

It is a mystery how the image appeared on the Shroud. It is neither a painting nor a photograph. Italian scientists have attempted to identify the physical and chemical processes capable of generating a color similar to that of the image by using short bursts of ultraviolet light, using lasers. 

The impossibility of recreating a forgery

The scientists managed to re-create a small section of the cloth with some of the properties at a microscopic level, concluding that “some form of electromagnetic energy” such as a flash of light created the image.   Ultraviolet lasers were not available to medieval forgers thus opening the possibility that the Shroud is actually Jesus’ burial cloth, with the image created at the point of resurrection.

Some ancient paintings depict the Roman soldiers guarding the grave of Jesus being blinded by a flash of lightning as he rises from the grave but there is no mention of this in the biblical scriptures. The story of the crucifixion and the resurrection is the reason why we celebrate Easter in the Christian tradition.

Why we celebrate Easter

The exact details of the events after Jesus’ crucifixion vary slightly. After dying on the cross his followers wrapped him in a cloth and buried him in a tomb. A group of women went to the tomb on the third day to anoint his body with spices. When they arrived, they found the stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. An angel appeared to them and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Later that same day, Jesus appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus, and then to the rest of his disciples, who were gathered in a locked room. He showed them his wounds and ate with them to prove that he was not a ghost, but had risen bodily from the dead.

One of the Italian scientists who examined the shroud, Professor Paolo Di Lazzaro, said:

“When one talks about a flash of light being able to color a piece of linen in the same way as the shroud, discussion inevitably touches on things like miracles and resurrection. But as scientists, we were concerned only with verifiable scientific processes. We hope our results can open up a philosophical and theological debate but we will leave the conclusions to the experts, and ultimately to the conscience of individuals.”

Carbon dating tests conducted in 1988 indicated that the shroud was created between 1260 and 1390 AD, leading many to conclude that it was a medieval forgery. However, these results have been disputed by other researchers who argue that if it was a forgery it would have to be possible to replicate it easily with modern methods.

Fake or forgery?

During the Middle Ages, the trade in Christian relics was a thriving industry that involved the buying, selling, and exchanging of objects that were believed to have belonged to saints, martyrs, or other holy figures. These objects included fragments of bone, pieces of clothing, and other personal items, which were often housed in ornate reliquaries and venerated by believers as objects of spiritual power. The Crown of Thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head as a means of torture was housed in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, where it has been on public display since the 19th century and dramatically rescued during the fire of April 2019.

The bones that are believed to be those of St. James the Apostle, also known as Santiago, are kept in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. According to tradition, the remains of St. James were discovered in the 9th century by a hermit named Pelagius, who saw a bright light shining over a field near the town of Iria Flavia. The discovery of the bones led to the establishment of the shrine in the Cathedral of Santiago which has become one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe.

Trade in religious relics goes back to the earliest times. Relics were considered sacred objects imbued with spiritual powers, possessing a direct connection to the divine and serving as a conduit for blessings, healing protection, and power.

Is it important whether the bones of St. James are real or whether the Shroud of Turin is an authentic image of Jesus? What we do know is that some of the world’s most beautiful architectural creations have been built to house relics. As long as there is a mysterious aura about them we will continue to be stimulated by them on a deep spiritual level.

For most of the tens of thousands of pilgrims who have rediscovered the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago, it is unimportant whether the apostle ever lived or was buried in Spain. The shared experience of veneration, the common search for meaning, the individual spiritual experience while walking on an ancient path is far more important.

Likewise, the Shroud of Turin with the life-size image of the man with stains of blood on the cloth, appearing to be consistent with the wounds that Jesus suffered on the cross, will continue to fascinate. Believers feel a deep sense of awe and reverence, leading to peace, comfort, and inspiration during difficult times. More than ever we need those quiet places of power to explore the inner world of who we really are.

Reino Gevers – Author – Mentor – Speaker

One more thing...If you have found this article interesting you might want to subscribe with the “follow” button above or recommend my FREE weekly Blog to friends and family. My books can be ordered at all places that sell good books in both paperback and kindle.

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