Chapter Six

Wings of Thought

Charley was probably the poorest person I’ve ever known who wasn’t homeless.  We met shortly after he had just lost his pharmacy (along with everything else he owned), to IRS for back taxes.  It was a Sunday afternoon and I was sitting on my front porch singing and playing my guitar when Charley came running over with his guitar¾an old, cheap thing that probably cost every bit of $29.95 when it was new¾and it wasn’t new. 

“You pick a pretty mean gitar,” he said, stressing the “git” in “gitar.” “I always wanted to play one of these things.  “Here,” as he handed me his guitar, “How ‘bout tuning this thing for me?  By the way, I’m Charles; Charles H.  Smith, but you can call me Charley.  Mind if I try strumming along with you?  I’ll just sit quiet and watch what you do and see if I can figure out how to play this thing.”

Charley was a very dynamic person whose natural pace was a run, and who never figured out the meaning of the word ‘stranger.’

We’d only known each other a couple of months before going into business together as painting contractors.  What little money we made, we spent unwisely and in six months or so, we split up.  But not before we had some wonderful and unique experiences, coupled with a lot of fun.  We probably laughed more than any two paupers had the right to. 

When we closed out the business, he went on to become a general contractor and I continued painting.  We remained good friends through the years, even though we lost contact with each other. 

A few years later, burned out on painting, I went to work for the CIA as a Telecommunications Officer.  I did this for a couple of years, then resigned because I couldn’t reconcile my growing spirituality and espionage as viable bed partners.  I resigned in Washington, DC, moved to Oregon and stayed there until Donna’s illness (my previous wife) caused us to move back to Virginia to be near the rest of her family. 

At that time I hadn’t seen or heard from Charley in at least three years, but, as soon as I knew I was leaving Oregon, I tried calling him to let him know I was returning.  I first tried his old number, but it had been disconnected.  Then I tried information, to no avail.  As a last resort, I tried calling mutual friends who might know where he was.  They too, it seemed, had vanished.  After about thirty minutes of fruitless calls, I gave up.

Putting down the phone, I walked out the front door, relaxed my mind and pictured Charley in my mind, formed this thought, “Charley, give me a call,” then I went in and went to bed.

The next evening the phone rang.  “Boy, are you hard to get a hold of,” Charley said.

“You’re not so easy yourself,” I replied.  “I tried calling you last night.  Where are you?”

“Raleigh, North Carolina.”

“No wonder I couldn’t get you,” I said.  Then I told him I was returning to Virginia, that I had tried to call him, and what I’d done when I couldn’t reach him.

“It was odd,” he said.  “Last night I was sitting on the back porch talking when I said, ‘I need to call Buck.’ (My nickname since a baby.)  I couldn’t remember where you lived except that it was somewhere in Oregon.  Southern Oregon, I thought.  I seemed to recall that you lived in a small town, so I called information and told the operator my problem, and asked her to name some towns in southern Oregon, and when she said ‘Grants Pass,’ that sounded familiar, so I told her to try that.”

Charley is quite a talker and, when the operator couldn’t find my number in the Grants Pass directory, he managed to talk her into looking up ‘Tohill’ in all the small towns around Grants Pass.  Finally, when she read the Cave Junction listing, she found me.  Charley called and until he died, we’ve never lost contact.  Even though I have again moved back to Oregon, we usually talked every month or two.

What has this got to do with spirituality? 

It demonstrates that thoughts do, indeed, have wings.  Though you may never have realized it, you are a telepath.  Telephones may be more reliable and accurate, but only because we are untrained in mental communication.  Make no mistake about it, though, thought communication also works.  In fact, it is more responsible for your immediate position in life than any other single factor.

The entire universe communicates telepathically.  (Meaning God and angels, not Martians or Plutonians.  I don’t know if or how Martians or Plutonians communicate.)  Telepathic thought is instantaneous and more complete.  To receive a clear telepathic message is to have a total understanding of needs and situations that cannot be described with an amount of words.  Very often people in deep prayer get the sense, feeling and emotion of love being poured over and into them, but are never able to translate their feelings into words.  In fact, words seem to detract from their experience and make them feel silly when they try and explain it.  This feeling of euphoria comes only from God as a result of worshipful prayer.

We cannot describe worship or adoration with words and have it mean anything.  We can arrive at a definition, but we can’t mentally impart the feel of it, the experience of it, or share it.  Those who have been fortunate enough to have experienced this rapturous essence of being wrapped in the love of God, initiated that contact through their thoughts in a form of prayer that asks for nothing, but is emitting love.  Almost always (that I’m aware of) this is an unconscious and spontaneous effort.  It just seems to happen when the soul is ready.

We are continuously and unwittingly broadcasting who we are to the universe in a non-stop fashion.  It is our continuous transmitting and receiving of thoughts that causes the Kindred Spirit Connection to work.  Our thoughts are picked up by others and it is through our thoughts that we attract our kindred.  When we have needs, we broadcast them to the universe and they are picked up by any who are discerning enough to do so.

None of us are immune or exempt from this telepathic communication.  All of us respond to some personalities more than to others.  This is because each of us lives on different brain wave frequency levels according to our personalities.  Our personalities are the result of our thought processes.  All thought is from the mind and not the brain.  (The mind is separate and distinct from the brain, but rests lightly on it.)  The mind is our bridge between the physical and the spiritual realms and actually functions in both worlds. 

Because of this, every clear, terse and concise thought is broadcast to the universe and can be picked up (intercepted) by anyone on a similar personality brain wave frequency.  (In radio terminology this would be called a “wave-length.”)  It is this ability to transmit thoughts that explains why so many inventions, such as the automobile, were invented nearly simultaneously by different people living in different parts of the world at a time when rapid communication was unknown.  These were people who were working independently of one another.  Within a matter of months, the automobile was invented in America, Russia and Europe.  Many inventions have been documented as having occurred within a very short time period of one another, during eras when rapid communications did not exist.

This is because the inventors, who were deep in contemplative thought¾a state nearly identical to meditation¾were broadcasting clear and concise picture images that were picked up by the similar minds of the other inventors.  Unbeknownst to themselves, they were swapping information with each other.  This is why the “hundredth monkey” principle works.  (If you’re not familiar with this, read The Hundredth Monkey).

Every day examples of mental telepathy are often experienced between husbands and wives, as well as siblings and close friends.  How many times have you and a friend started to say exactly the same thing at the same time?  (Often after a long silence.)  Married couples can be sitting for hours in different rooms under completely different stimuli when both will start to say the exact same thing at exactly the same time.  Usually this brings a laugh and is forgotten.           

This type of occurrence is much deeper than a mere random chance happening, however, because for a short time minds were linked together in the same manner a CB transceiver links to another transceiver¾they are on the same frequency; the same wavelength.  One person was thinking the other person picked up on it.

If this link is close enough, then both people are thinking in harmony together—not one transmitting and one receiving, but in simultaneous harmony…two minds acting as one.

When this happens it’s impossible to know who originated the thought, because a received thought is perceived to be an original.  After all, the only ways we’re used to communicating is either with our voices, with pens, papers or in sign language.  We’re not used to hearing people in our minds.  Because we’re not used to it, we assume all our thoughts are our own.  Once two minds link, however, it doesn’t matter who originated the thought because the two minds begin feeding each other back and forth, acting as one.

Our minds are continuously sending thoughts that others react to.  They, in turn, are sending thoughts that we react to.  For this reason we immediately like, dislike or are ambivalent to people we first meet.  There is a kindred bond, a neutral response, or antipathy as we respond to their personalities, which are thoughts made manifest.

Every phase of our existence is in response to our thoughts as modified by the thoughts of others.  Additionally, the way we think and what we think either attracts good or bad, depending on our dispositions.  People who are accident prone, think they are, therefore bring about their own accidents.  Their friends reinforce this attitude through unconscious mental response.  One mind is shouting, “I am accident prone,” and the other responds, “You certainly are.” In the same manner, people who are lucky, believe they are, which becomes reinforced in the same way by the unconscious response of others.

What we have become in life is what our thoughts have molded us into. Scary, huh? Here’s why: all our thoughts move us to take action.  We must move in the direction of our thoughts since all our actions are nothing more nor less than our thoughts put into motion.

If it was only our own thoughts that shaped our lives, then life would be fairly simple to master.  Unfortunately this is not the case.  The world we live in is the sum result of everyone who has ever lived.  Their thoughts resulted in actions that have contributed to shaping the world we grew up in.  For example, have you ever wondered why nations war with one another?  It’s because warfare is rooted all the way back to the various primitive clans stealing and fighting with one another for territory, food and mates.  That early primitive warfare is traditional and has led to the circumstances in which we live. Realistically, there is absolutely no reason for one nation to pick up arms against another.

The most dominant factors molding us into our adult personalities, however, were not those shadowy personalities of the past, but the present time thoughts of our families, followed by our friends and closest associates.  Our personalities were formed and molded when we were children, and set up like concrete by the time we are very young adults, about thirteen or so.

There is nothing any of us can do about our childhood circumstances, but we can alter our future.  The process is actually fairly simple.  We make up our mind what we want out of life, then refuse to be influenced by any thoughts other than our own.  Nobody from the past, present or future can force their will on us if we refuse to allow it; remember always, you will is dominant in your life until you surrender it to another.  Yet everyone tries to, including parents, friends, advertisers, politicians, Wall Street admen, etc..

Some, like our parents, family and friends because they think they know what’s best.

They don’t.

Others, like advertiser, politicians, admen, do it for themselves…they want your money, your vote, or whatever.

But, neither do we know what’s best for others¾no matter how much we may think we do.

That the thoughts, actions and emotions of others are real and can affect us is easy to prove.  Have you ever visited a married couple who have just had a quarrel?  The tension existing in the atmosphere is so thick you can actually feel it.  Instinctively you know what has happened even though they are acting as if nothing were wrong.  Or, have you ever entered a room and felt your skin begin to tingle?  Something very negative and dangerous was there, whether you saw it or not, and your body responded because your mind was warning you to beware and be gone.  What you responded to were the ominous thoughts emanating from someone or something.

Thoughts are behind every invention and discovery.  Thoughts have made us what we are today.  Thoughts will mold us into what we become tomorrow.  And, thoughts have shaped our world into what it is.  By our individual thoughts we control our own destinies.  By our collective thoughts we control the destiny of our world.  Since such a large portion of the thoughts in the world are filled with the negative thoughts of hatred, jealousy, envy and bigotry, this is scary.  This is also the reason we need to discover the love of God penetrating every inch of our universe and world where it is allowed to.

Sadly, the most dangerous and active thought forces in our world today are those of hatred.  Hatred exists because of the emotion fear.  Fear/hatred expresses itself through the deadly emotion, anger.  Anger finds expression in violent action.

Thoughts that are filled with fear create bigotry.  Bigoted thoughts sow grains of hatred that becomes shared by everyone because of our telepathic links.  When the thoughts and actions of individuals become multiplied by the tens of millions of people in the world, the effect is multiplied by that factor.  Because thoughts of hatred, fear, envy, jealousy and anger are so strong, the effect is easily felt by all of us. 

Between the two emotions, love and hate, love is the more powerful, able to overcome anything, including hatred.  It is even able to work miracles. But because hatred is taught and passed on from generation to generation, whereas love isn’t, hate has been the dominant thought element shaping our planet for thousands of years.  Love is compelled to let others live as they desire.  Hate desires to make everyone as we are. Hate is compelled to take action, negative action. If a group has been in existence, it has been hated by some other group. A world without hatred would have no rape, murder, robbery, war, hunger, poverty, depression or despair.  A world lacking in love, but also lacking in hate would make our world like Eden—paradise.

Anything we experience in our own lives, we are usually able to understand in others.  What we haven’t experienced, we don’t fully understand.  What we don’t understand, we fear.  What we fear, we try and eliminate.  Hitler feared the Jews.  The KKK fears blacks, Catholics and Jews.  ISIS hates everybody, even other Moslems.

The first step in overcoming a fear is recognizing it for what it is.  The problem is that most bigots refuse to acknowledge any fear and really do not want to overcome anything except the object of their hatred so they won’t be afraid.

Since all thoughts and emotions are magnetic, they both attract and repel.  Our speech often unwittingly betrays this by expressions as, “He has a magnetic personality.” Rarely do we realize how accurate we are.  All thoughts are magnetic, attracting those of similar ideas, because they are not confined to just our own minds.  Instead, they are broadcast to the universe to be picked up by anyone who is responsive to our manner of thinking.  The strong hatred-thoughts of Hitler attracted an army of Nazis into existence almost overnight.  The reign of terror on the unprepared Jews—and the world—was of a scope and magnitude our world had never seen before.  But that was only just the beginning—unless our thought patterns change.  Sadly, it doesn’t look as though they are going to. 

One of the things not understood by the modern world is why so many Jews walked into the gas chambers without more of a fight.  I believe it was because they were overwhelmed by something they did not understand—an overpowering mental force.  It was unnatural that one of the fiercest, fighting-est and bravest people who have ever existed to have walked passively into the gas chambers.  I believe they had their will to fight neutralized by the covert, but overpowering forces of evil.  Hitler and his bunch knew how to force others—especially those who are unknowledgeable in mental defense—to simply walk into gas chambers without resistance.

Interestingly, the Jews have been the butt of racial hatred for thousands of years.  More than any other race I’m aware of.  I believe this hatred is the result of their own self elevation of depicting themselves as “the chosen people,” which (in a sense) they really were.  The universal law of attraction is founded on this principle: we sow what we reap.  Sow racial or religious arrogance, reap it back tenfold.  Sow love, get it back tenfold.  Positive begets positive, negative begets negative.

When our thought patterns are good, our actions are too.  When this is the case, everyone we come in contact with—and many whom we shall never see—become affected.  This gives our world the potential to be one of the most wonderful places in the universe to live—quite literally “heaven on earth.”  The opposite is equally true.  If our thoughts are evil, our acts will be too.  It’s just a matter of changing our ways of thinking about others and about our own place in the world.  We do this by trying to become more tolerant and loving of others, not by forcing our ways on them.  Tolerance of others is the measure of our love. 

Our love is the yard stick that measures our spiritual growth.  That’s another way of saying our nearness to God.

Mastery of life is accomplished through overcoming our thoughts of prejudice and replacing them with the spiritual thoughts of love and respect, including love of self.  This is not easy to do.  It can only be accomplished by individual effort and through the supernatural help received as a result of prayer.            

Through our thoughts we have not only chosen the life we live, but we have attracted it to us.  Our mates, friends, and even our social standing is the result of our thought processes.  Hence, where we are is where we think we should be, even though we are completely unaware of this process.  In other words, the life style of the carpenter is not the life style of the politician by choice.  Both have what they sought because they created their existence through their actions as a result of the decisions they have made due to their thinking.  Thoughts—the way we think— attract fortunes because they guide the individual efforts of the thinkers into circles of similar thought.  This is very similar to magnetic attraction with the major exception that like attracts like and opposites repel in the realm of the mind.

Every single phase of our existence hinges on this truth.  When we despise, we both attract and are attracted to, those who despise as we do.  On the other hand, when we are kind, generous and loving, we attract kind, generous and loving people.  In being loving to others, we attract goodness to ourselves.  We are the ones who decide what we will be and what we will attract, not God, not fate.

Today we see the army of bigots that surround President Trump and the damage he is doing to our country; but not just our country, but to the entire world.  No red letter Christian can follow Trump.[1]

When good, honest and moral decisions are made, the gigantic wheels of the universe begin turning in our behalf.  Once rolling, they continue to gain more and more momentum as we continue to become more and more alive in the spirit.

Because our thoughts attract, they are the basis of the Kindred Spirit Connection.  Good, kind and generous people have friends who are also good, kind and generous, while the friends of thieves will be thieves.[2] The gigantic difference between the two types of people, other than the obvious, is that those who are good, kind, loving and generous are counted as the children of the universe, in effect, cosmic citizens, so the universe responds to their needs.  The thief (and other lower forms of people) have no higher help to count on.  They are alone, unaided and without recourse.  This is assuming they continue as they are.  All who strive to overcome their errors are gladly accepted into the family of God.  Remember the criminal on the cross next to Jesus.  (See Luke 23:39-43.)

When we allow God to enter our lives, immediate changes begin to take place in our thinking.  Any person seeking to enter the Family of God (FoG), is not only allowed to do so, but grandly encouraged and aided.  No obstacle is allowed to get in the way of keeping them from becoming a Child of God (CoG). 

(I like acronyms…they have become CoGs in the Fog.)

It’s not easy to escape or overcome the thought patterns we have established throughout our lives, but it can be done through desire, prayer and meditation.  Both prayer and meditation are ways of expressing our thoughts to God.  God, who hears our thoughts, responds. 

The Kindred Spirit Connection works because we are linked to everyone else in the world through friends and acquaintances.  Our acquaintances have acquaintances, who have acquaintances, ad infinitum, until everyone in the world is joined to everyone else by this connection.  Through those we know we have an unbroken link to natives in Borneo, to people starving in South Africa, as well as to the queen of England.  In knowing just one person, we have connected ourselves to the entire population of the world.

When spiritual Kindred Spirits have needs, their needs are broadcast outward and upward by thought.  Through some sort of vast heavenly switch board, those with needs connect with those who can help.  By our “acquaintance link” one Kindred Spirit moves to help another.  (Don’t visualize some sort of angelic operator sitting at a giant console busily pulling wires and switches out of one hole and putting them in another.  {Though I find that picture amusing} This is instantaneous thought transference that results in action.)  In a way it’s analogous to the way an email gets to its destination and a response finds its way back.  Email is more primitive, however.

As our thoughts connect us to everyone in the world, it is equally true that we are connected to every being in the universe.  Through the indwelling Spirit of God, through the Holy Spirit and through Guardian Angels, we are joined in a non-ending link that reaches all the way to the center of the universe and beyond.  Through these links our thoughts attract our kindred. 

Whenever spirit led people have needs, those needs are immediately known by the indwelling spirit.  For these people, heaven does, indeed, spring into action on their behalves.  Help is on the way in the form of either man, angel or other beings, working through our mental, spiritual and physical links with one another.  Kindred Spirits are moved to help each other in a manner ordained by God, usually on the unconscious level, and according to the mental and spiritual levels of all the individuals involved.

What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?  And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors?  ‘Rejoice with me, he would say, ‘I have found my sheep that was lost’  In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance. Lk 15:4-7

When you see miracles working in your life, praise God, for you have received universal recognition and status.  You are a fledgling spirit being rising above the cares, lures and snares of the world.