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Adventures in Rejuvenation I by Joanna Cherry
The young woman I had just lead in a spiritual counseling session, now getting ready to go, was looking at me a with a puzzled expression. "You know, Joanna, you're--you're--youthing, she said. "What are you doing?" It was true. My body was feeling younger by the day--truly vibrant. I kept getting flashes of junior high school, and realized my body was feeling more and more the way it had then, nearly three decades earlier. What I was doing was putting to the test my newly formed belief that rejuvenation of the body is actually possible, not through diet, supplements or an exercise regime, but instead through consciousness. I had realized that we are created without limitation, in the divine image, and that we are the only ones who have placed any ceiling upon our consciousness whatsoever. This includes the belief that we must age and die. Even more exciting was the understanding that we have a divine blueprint body of total, eternal beauty and aliveness right here in the same space as our physical body, just waiting for us to recognize it and invite it to manifest outwardly. I had begun this youthing project with great hope, excitement and enthusiasm, and it was obviously paying off! Although I had told no one, people were telling me I was getting younger! Youthing continued with good success for a number of weeks. But suddenly, it ground to a halt. I didn't know why, but I had to stop. My efforts to keep going simply fizzled. After waiting for a time, I began afresh, my enthusiasm only slightly dampened by my first failure. After all, what's true is true, I told myself. If I am the image of the divine, I can do anything I desire to do if I place my intention and energy upon it. But this time, instead of youthing for a few weeks, it was a matter of only days before I hit this same barricade. When I looked deeply into myself to discover the cause, I could not see anything with clarity, just a vague fog. I could only feel that the barricade said to me, in absolute terms, "You must stop. You cannot go on. This is the way it is." In the following years, I tried many times to have a rejuvenation project continue through time, but always without success. Finally I gave up. I thought, "I cannot do this. I don't know how. Maybe it is possible, but it doesn't seem possible for me." And so, a number of years went by with my doing nothing regarding rejuvenation--even though my belief that it was possible was as strong as when I first began. Facing the Fears
In September of 1989, I was invited to speak at the World Congress on Illumination to be held at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was my first invitation to speak at a conference of that size and quality, and I felt terrified about putting my work "out there" to that degree. I had remembered a number of past lives as a spiritual teacher being burned at the stake, or otherwise done away with. Nevertheless, I accepted. There was something about this courage, plus our beautiful group intention and energy, that caused a permanent change in consciousness for me. One day shortly after speaking, I was guided to look again at rejuvenation. When I did, the fog that hid the source of difficulty cleared, and I saw--a wall. Not much better than fog, one might say! But I knew that if I could just go behind that wall, my rejuvenation could move forward. In meditation I was guided to fly toward this wall, which appeared low and black at the end of a rolling green lawn. The first time I did this, I found to my astonishment that it wasn't solid; I flew right into it. There I saw round forms, black-rimmed with grey centers. With all my gathered courage I dived directly into one of these, and felt what is was: an unconscious fear of death. I knew of no such fear in me, because I was so clear that life continues on, usually in a more free and joyous way. As I looked more deeply, I discovered a lifetime as a pirate in which I killed quite a few people. When I died, a number of them were waiting for me with black revenge in mind! Unable to join with my higher self as is normal after death, I spent the next 50 or so years in terror, being chased around the astral realm. This experience had never been resolved for me, causing a deep dread of death to lurk in my subconscious mind. Why would such a fear of death stop a rejuvenation project the way it had done for me? I realized that my charge on death was the strongest feeling I had, which was therefore attracting death to me, unknown to my conscious mind. I was reminded of a remark by Freud: what we fear the most, we attract. I also remembered that whatever is buried in our subconscious, unrecognized by the conscious mind, runs things. So when I was trying to rejuvenate, this unconscious belief in death, and charge on death, stepped in and said No way, this is not the program. Over the next few weeks, I fully faced my fear of death. I flew again and again into the black wall, and into the grey and black forms inside. As I did, each of the forms went poof! and disappeared. By the end of those weeks, my fear of death--or what I have seen of it up to that moment--had vanished. A new era was beginning for me. Going Deeper
Discovering the very deep issue of fear of death opened a floodgate of understanding for me regarding the thought processes, beliefs and emotions by which we can stop our efforts to rejuvenate the body. Though it is true that energies of love and light are intensifying on our planet, and clearing our past beliefs is becoming easier, we remain in an environment where 99+% of our fellow gods and goddesses believe absolutely in aging and death. This affects us. Also, these old beliefs and their accompanying emotions have been with us for a long time. They are not only deep but seductive; we do not easily yield them up. We've done our best in believing them, and they have served us perfectly by helping us learn from creating what we don't want, and to realize we can turn back toward our oneness with God. I discovered over twenty stopping beliefs, most of which applied to me; and I have realized from my work with others that they are practically universal. (There is actually only one "stopper", which is the belief that we are not one with God; all the others are sub-categories of this.) Here, I will include only a few of them, along with their "Antidotes". (The rest are available in The Rejuvenation Set, found on the Tapes page of this site.) Work on rejuvenation isn't for everyone; your spirit may be guiding you into different and higher priorities. To work with an Antidote, tune in to your inner self, God, a favorite master, however you term your relationship/oneness with spirit. Say the truths to yourself aloud or silently, adding whatever you choose, and feel them to the depths of your bones. Do this as much or as often as you feel to. In working with the Antidotes, it's good to be aware that deeply feeling and affirming truth will bring up, strongly, all the "knowing" that truth is wrong. You may hear vicious voices inside, from the ego, that you know very well you must age and die, what do you think you're doing, etc. Don't judge or resist these voices or thoughts, this only gives them power. Simply acknowledge them, or write them down, whatever works best. If there is a strong feeling that you deserve punishment for affirming these truths (this is not uncommon!), you will want to affirm and strongly feel and call for your safety and well-being in every way. It's possible that you may need to back off for a bit, here and there. The only important thing is that, overall, you give more energy to the truths than to the limiting beliefs. Rejuvenation Stoppers
and Antidotes
1. The first belief is general to the receiving of any desired good: I am not worthy of having this. We have a deep undercurrent of guilt, beginning when we fell away from our experience of oneness with God, the divine essence of our being, eons ago. It has continued through many lifetimes as we have played out the roles of persecutor, victim, and all the ways we have tried to learn wisdom. We have believed we could truly harm another, when in truth we are each an eternal, unharmable God-being whose feelings may get hurt, whose body may be killed, but whose essence continues in perfect peace and well-being forever. We have thought that we could have done better in a myriad of instances than we did, when in truth we have done our very best with what we have known in every moment of our lives. Everything that was "done to" us, everything we "did to" another, was mutually planned or allowed from a deep level of love to bring to each of us exactly what we wanted or needed to learn at the time, no matter how it may have looked or felt in the outer activities of life. All our relationships are chosen before we get into them. Taking all this together, there is not a single reason for either guilt or blame. But we have blamed ourselves and others, we have felt guilty, and there is a great, all-encompassing need for forgiveness of everything. Only by traveling a path of ever-deeper forgiveness can we begin to feel ourselves worthy to receive what is most desired. Antidote: I am created innocent forever by an all-loving God. Nothing I have ever done, said, thought, felt, or seemingly failed to do has ever changed my innocence. Nothing can ever change it. I humbly accept that I am as God created me to be, forever. I have always done my best, and always do my best, adhering to love as best I can with whatever I have truly learned in the moment. I have never harmed anyone and have never been harmed, as we are each in truth a whole and eternal God-being. I have co-created or accepted in equal love and power everything that has ever happened with me. I choose to forgive myself completely for anything I have held against myself. I choose to forgive all others, all events and all circumstances I have considered difficult. I forgive as deeply as I can now, and continually as I am guided until all is forgiven, and I live in a forgiven world. I am worthy of all good, because I am the image of God and the worth of God. I accept no other truth about myself. I love and honor myself. I am my own best friend. I accept all God's goodness for me in my life! 2. Next is another general belief: life just isn't this good, and can't be this good! We have been accepting far less than we've been given, which is everything we could want. Antidote: God, the principle of life, is an outrageous giver, totally loving, who wants me to receive the infinite abundance natural to my being. My true nature is so vast, it encompasses all universes and all dimensions. I already include everything I could possibly want. I only need to know this, and to claim and accept my desired good. I choose to understand this truth in the depths of my being, and thus to live a transformed life. 3. We have had absolute certainty that aging and death are real; that they are simple facts of life. This belief is the most crucial one to overcome if we are to succeed in rejuvenation. Our body has no will of its own; it takes our belief in aging and death as commands, and acts to carry them out. I've even seen a vision, in meditation, of the body turning away fresh new cells because of our command that it must age! Our body longs to fulfill itself as an expression of the ever-expanding life of the universe. Step by step, we are learning that we are unlimited in form, as well as in all areas of life. This stopper is one that always, in my experience, needs some very deep work to clear. Antidote: I Am the image of my divine, beloved Mother/Father God. I Am everlasting, expanding life. Aging and death are illusions that hold no reality for me. My body is God's body, a body of light and increasing beauty eternally. I place God-thought of perfection for this body uppermost in my thought. As I recognize the truth of myself evermore deeply, I begin to express it more and more in my life on earth. I am free to create my experience of my body, to rejuvenate it, regenerate and beautify it through my consciousness, through my oneness with my divine self. I will live as long as I desire on the earth plane, and when I am ready for a lighter plane of life, I will take my body up into light, leaving no form behind. 4. The next stopper is fear, judgment, and resistance of death. The death of the body is perfectly okay. We've been dying and reincarnating for a long time. Our experience beyond death is often so similar to this one that many times a person doesn't know his physical body has died. The new body looks and feels like the old one, at least in the beginning, and then usually becomes more whole, strong and beautiful. If your body died, you would be greeted by your divine self, radiating a beautiful light, in total love and welcome, and probably also by loved ones who passed over before you. You would go into a place of rest, healing, learning and an overview of your life, to see what you would like to change next time around. It is true that some of our after-death experiences may have been very frightening, especially if there was a consciousness of violence. Then--in spite of being offered the same loving welcome by our totally non-judging divine Presence--we may have felt unable to accept this love (as I did in my death as a pirate). We weren't able to make the connection with our Spirit, and so may have gotten lost for a time. I include this here because you may have fears of death to overcome because of such experiences from past lives. Anything we fear, resist, or judge, we attract into our experience. That is why it is important to release these attitudes toward death. Antidote: I am becoming totally free and clear of all fears I have had of death, with the assistance of my divine self. This includes fear around any difficult deaths of my body or that of anyone I knew in the present life and all past lives. If I need to see any of these in order to heal them, I ask my spirit to show them to me and help me heal. I Am a fearless, all-loving being. I release judgment of death; it has served in the past to show me I had stopped experiencing the truth of my form as the eternally increasing life of God. I recognize death as simply a new beginning. 5. Fear, resistance, and judgment about aging. It's true that aging is a sad process, intensified by our society's worship of youth. Aging is unnatural for our body and is a betrayal of self. But until we have moved into our unlimited consciousness enough to turn the aging process around, it is beneficial to accept whatever has taken place, and to accept aging if it continues to happen for awhile. To fear it, judge it, or resist it invites it to continue. Antidote: I let go of all fear, resistance or judgment of aging. I choose to become emotionally involved--believing, excited, grateful--in the process of my divine blueprint body, my real body, beginning to shine through. I picture that and feel it, without giving power to my image in the mirror, but also without denial or judgment of that image. This is a most powerful way for me to proceed. Working with these Antidotes is very powerful, but that alone is not likely to clear you of all old programming and replace it with new. Deep work with the inner self, support from friends, patience and perseverance over years will likely be needed in your process. We have taken eons to instill these beliefs, and they have become absolute for nearly all of us. Allow your process the time and energy it takes to really do this, and allow it to be as easy and fast as you are possibly able to accept! For myself regarding these stoppers, I have found it very helpful to address specific beliefs and emotions, and thus bring them into the clear. But we each have our best ways of working; you will do what works best for you. To read the continuing saga of my own rejuvenation experience, including exciting discoveries and progress, see the article Adventures in Rejuvenation II. Blessings to you upon your path! Copyright Joanna Cherry, 1990
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Joanna Cherry • Ascension Mastery
International • P.O. Box 1018 • Mount Shasta, California 96067 USA
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©2002, Joanna Cherry. Please do copy and distribute this vision of Joanna’s,
acknowledging its source. Thank you.