In what some would call his New Age book, The Narrow Gate: A Journey Through Identity, Belief, and Perception, JP Danna writes an account of his experiences with religion, drugs, alcohol, and his struggle with identity. JP Danna doesn’t use the term “new age” and says there is nothing new about universal law. Although the book is fiction, it is set against a backdrop of his life while growing up in Gloucester. Below is the back cover blurb of his story:
“An exceptionally thought provoking narrative about Universal Law.”
The life of protagonist, Salvatore DeSanti, in the seaside community of Gloucester, Massachusetts sets the scene for this journey into self.
In the dualities of life, the rustic beauty of his beloved city stands in contrast to outside forces after heroin invades its shores in the early 1970s.
Suffering from an anxiety disorder that leaves him vulnerable and beyond the help of his religion, Salvatore seeks help in the knowledge passed through the ages by ancient mystics.
But before he knows what hits him, a freak accident catapults Salvatore to a parallel reality where he meets the translucent entity he comes to know as Gloria. The mysterious gift she places in his hand comes to life in a divine scheme, setting him on the brink of drastic change.
Gloria sustains Salvatore as he faces his darkest moments through a window to the past. She aligns him with the light of sages, and while standing beside him at the crossroads of truth and illusion, Gloria shows him the power of belief and the dynamics at work on the flipside of the Law of Attraction—the reason for his guilt.
In an array of splendid metaphor, Salvatore emerges victorious when he realizes the missing ingredient in his life—his innocence.
What is your opinion on alcoholism? Do you think all alcoholics feel a pressing need to drink all the time, some of the time or none of the time? I believe all three to be correct. So many people have the wrong information about the different reactions people may have to alcohol. Not everyone processes it in the same way. Most people have no problem with metabolizing alcohol. But unfortunately, alcoholics have what I would call a physical malfunction. I know this from personal experience. In my younger days, drinking escalated from weekend warrior syndrome to a more frequent habit. At least that’s what I called it. I wasn’t in denial as so many concluded. The real missing link concerning what happened inside my body when I drank alcohol was that I was uneducated. I didn’t think of myself as alcoholic. I thought I was a problem drinker; even though small tremors in my life evolved to major earthquakes. Those earthquakes led to my decision to leave alcohol alone. I did so without any struggle. There was no white knuckling it or rehab. It wasn’t until years later during a momentary lapse of reason when I forgot how acutely sensitive I was to alcohol that I knew I was more than a so-called problem drinker. At a festive event where old friends converged, I decided to loosen up by having a few drinks. Heck, I hadn’t had any problems with alcohol in so long that any life altering catastrophes associated with it in my past were like a child’s long forgotten nightmares. To my surprise, I found I couldn’t be more mistaken. My physiology had not changed. When the alcohol entered my system my body wanted more. Needless to say I became intoxicated. I think I had so much sugar in me that I nearly blew out my pancreas. The shame I felt for weeks after was almost unbearable. I had thought of myself as totally clean and new before that night. Then that newness went away and I felt like I lost self-trust. Who was I? A drunk? During the following week I recalled a string of alcohol related events that turned my life upside down in years past. Those forgotten events now seemed as though they happened just yesterday. They surrounded and suffocated me. I was so angry and disillusioned with myself that I could not contain my grief. It took a while, but I had to realize it was set before me that I needed to forgive myself. After all I had learned spiritually, was this a test to see if I could walk my talk about forgiveness? Was the same type of self-separated ego I write about in my book asserting itself mercilessly by immobilizing me in guilt? Only if I allowed myself to stay suspended in its grip. I believe there are two kinds of guilt. There is the false guilt wielded by its twin—self-condemnation, and there is real guilt, which comes from harming yourself or others. I knew better than to condemn what God created, namely me, so I chose to use the guilt I felt. It led me to look closely at what I needed—information. My friend gave me a book titled “Under The Influence” by Dr. James R. Milam and Katherine Ketcham. The book is filled with statistical data on the reactions of alcohol on the physiology of the people who cannot tolerate it. Alcoholism is explained, and not as a psychological weakness. The word “alcoholic” is one of the most stigmatized words in the English language today because of ignorance. Maybe another word should be coined. But in any case it is the most used word to describe a physical disease that is often misunderstood—even by the people who suffer from it.
Tags: alcoholism, anxiety, forgiveness, guilt, physiology, self medicating, substance abuse
We hear about universal laws, such as the law of attraction, but do people take the subject seriously? I know I do because my life has changed. It’s becoming very evident that attitude determines so much of how my day will go. Universal Natural laws concerning energy do work. I found that when first consciously acting on these laws, it took a lot of effort to get out of the mess I had made before I learned the Law of Attraction. But then I gained “momentum,” and things that used to take much effort are a lot easier these days. I’m accomplishing more now than I ever imagined; naturally. ACIM is a great help in transforming ones life.
Tags: 12 step program, ACIM, consciousness, energy work, higher power, life renewal, mindfulness, natural law, new mind, personal change, recovery, spiritual growth, spiritual journey, substance abuse, The Law of Attraction, universal law
Many of us have had what we might consider unusual experiences in our lives. Be it prophetic dreams, ghosts, spontaneous healings or uncanny coincidences. I have provided this blogspot with the hope that people will feel free to share these kinds of experiences. I look forward to reading your stories of the unusual, including the light experiences mentioned in A Course in Miracles, ACIM! Otherwise known as Course of Miracles.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, apparitions, course of miracles, dreams, ghosts, healings, light experiences, metaphysical books, new age, premonitions, psychic, science of spirituality, spiritual journey
There have been times when I’ve felt threatened and defensive whenever someone directed his or her opposing thoughts toward me…especially when it had to do with spirituality. I humbled myself and took a good look at this. I noticed when folks around me were adamant that I should believe the way they do that I felt a need to “prove my point”. Rather than allowing people their beliefs, I felt like they wanted to control me; be it with fear or an “or else” attitude about God. I was not allowing. I was in a state of resistance. But as I looked closer still, I had to face the fact that although I believed these people resisted my way of thinking that it was really me who was caught in a form of resistance to them. I needed to stand in the light of my own truth and allow others to think what they wanted to. I am no longer affected. The resistance is gone and I’ve stepped into surrender. Not to anyone’s opposing beliefs, but to the peace of my own.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, attraction and resistance, consciousness, course of miracles, defensive behavior, forgiveness, metaphysical books, metaphysics, miracles, mysticism, new age, self help, spiritual journey, spirituality, The Kybalion, The Law of Attraction, universal law, what we resist persists
There were times I chain smoked — standing with my cig under the range vent. Everytime I tried to quit I failed, and it was because I still wanted to smoke. The trick I found, which was actually a happy accident I discovered as a way to leave cigarettes behind forever, was to prefer fresh air to smoke. I did that by going for walks and talking to myself about how much I loved fresh air. Without realizing it, I was using the Law of Attraction in a positive way. I became increasingly aware of breathing every day. Sure, there were times in the beginning when I feared failing. I didn’t want the despair of regarding myself as hopelessly addicted. But I found out later that my accidental technique was The Natural Law of Polarity in action.
In the duality of the situation…there was smoke at one pole and fresh air at the other. The more I thought about breathing beautiful fresh air, the further I climbed the degrees to the positive pole of health. I depolarized my unhealthy habit, and repolarized without white knuckling it because I didn’t think about quitting…I thought about fresh air. I was using universal law to my benefit.
The beauty of the situation is not only am I smoke free, but I am empowered to live a better life through the conscious use of natural law and my imagination. It’s the best thing we have going for us to stop the clanging symbols of repetition. The best thing I can do with the experience is to share it.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, breathing, cigarettes, course of miracles, lungs, natural law, polarity, pulmonary health, quit smoking, respiratory system, smoking cessation, spiritual journey, universal law
My mother had multiple sclerosis, MS, and the prayer concerning her distant healing was surely answered. Unbeknownst to mom, I sat on the edge of my bed and went into an unusually audient, visual, and emotionally charged meditation, which led me to recall many experiences with her back to early childhood. During that loving prayer meditation, which included smiles, laughter, and a tear or two—I felt a receptive presence sit next to me on the bed. After petitioning this entity to touch my mother with healing—I closed the prayer and went off to work. I forgot the prayer—not recalling it even when mother told me the following about what she experienced on that day:
While sitting in her recliner watching television, my mother was increasingly annoyed by a strange, oscillating hum in her ears. Upon standing, she became alarmed when she broke into a sweat and felt pins and needles running up and down her body. My Mother told me she feared she was having a stroke. Attempting to trace the origin of the sound, she removed her glasses thinking they were interfering with the volume control of her hearing aid. That being no help, she removed the hearing aid. Relieved when all the annoyances stopped—her voice rang with surprise when she told me her hearing was as clear as a bell. My Mother said she could read the small print on the television screen without her glasses—shouting, “I’ve never been able to do that!” Her voice boomed when she told me she planned to pick up a rowing machine and begin an exercise regimen to ward off the effects of multiple sclerosis. Her buoyancy lifted me, yet I failed to connect the dots all of this happened on the same day, at the same time I prayed for her healing while sitting on my bed.
It was the day after the prayer meditation I spoke to her. Then I went to work again as usual. When I walked into the empty building on my schedule that night—the memory of the prayer and my mother’s phone call hit me like a ton of bricks. In the abruptness of the moment, three entities stood before me. I associated them with the one sitting next to me on the bed during my prayer for my mother. They reminded me how I lacked any expectation of mother’s healing to the degree of total forgetfulness. But at the same time, these entities told me that my emotion, visualization, and the letting go of it was what sent it hurtling to my mother. Were they there to admonish me—to tell me that prayer and meditating were not just a feel good game and to pay attention? They acknowledged I had prayed right, but that in the end I didn’t notice the results. Spiritual entities don’t use words with me, but convey rapidly through pure thought and feeling, which I dilute in a struggle with words.
Leaving me shaken by their directness, and before departing like the wind after about two minutes, these spiritual entities assured me there was life after death, and yes—that they were really there. Not to be disrespectful, but it would be more accurate to say they shoved it in my face. I have no regrets about the experience, but I realized I had begged— please, just touch my mother with healing. On that day, I learned it is unnecessary to beg the universe for anything. I wish I had simply asked in faith for her complete healing, because the actual outcome was a duplication of my request.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, answered prayers, course of miracles, Distant healing, faith, ghosts, God, High power, Meditation, metaphysics, mothers, multiple sclerosis, new age books, prayer, religion, science of spirituality, spiritual entities, spiritual journey, spiritual law, universal law
I understand forgiveness as an awakening and something other than a nicety because some people say it’s the right thing to do. I have found forgiveness to be a knowing that came as I moved closer to realizing my identity as an eternal soul. There are no inherent shoulds placed on anyone for anything in a neutral universe. Neither can understanding be forced. No one has to forgive, but when I saw what it actually is and does—there simply was no doubt that I would forgive — even if necessarily from a silent distance. I think of forgiveness as the only belief that acts as a bridge with one foot in this world, the other in the next, and the all knowing eternal force of the universal soul rising within you as the thought to build a bridge at all.
Tags: ACIM, beliefs, course in miracles, course of miracles, eternal soul, forgiveness, law of attraction, spiritual awakening, spiritual growth, spiritual identity, spiritual journey, spiritual law, spiritual transformation, spirituality, universal law
Thought being vibration, there is an integrative period for new thought to equalize with ones overall vibration – or mindset. This is true with all learning and the reason for levels of study, but particularly so when we reach toward higher octaves of understanding. While interfacing with higher octaves, there is a time of vacillation before synchronization occurs. According to Universal Natural Law, a wavering of pitch leads us through a time of recurring obscurity, but only because we are crossing a larger span of integration than what we are accustomed to. Ride out this depolarization of thought vibration. Equalization will occur somewhere amid the poles of your changing beliefs according to your focus.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, course of miracles, higher learning, integrative learning, Law of Vibration, natural law, new thought, polarity therapy, psychology of learning, spiritual journey, The Law of Attraction, Thought, universal law
A basic of “A Course in Miracles” or ACIM, says the one sin is that we fell asleep and forgot who we are. The one solution is to wake up and remember the truth. Learning to adjust our lens on life brings clarity and dissolves erroneous mindsets and the guilt, or “sin” that binds. When I took “A Course in Miracles” and learned to view life from a point beyond the psychological complexities of a frozen mindset– I learned about sin, the solution and freedom. It is a sin to call yourself a sinner when you are created from infinite wisdom. Don’t react to lies about your identity because of a belief system someone else layed on you. Take the responsibility to look within and walk through the walls of any mindset that speaks ill of you. The truth is that you are light emanated by a greater light and above the belief systems of the world with their multiplicities of sin, guilt and shame. A Course in Miracles is a way to learn about what we are as universal beings. There is a solution to the one sin and it is found in the one law you need to understand. The law is called The Golden Rule.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, ACIM, course of miracles, psychology of learning, sin, spiritual journey, the golden rule, truth