This is part of your calendar year when some of your societies on earth plane set aside a time, a day, dedicated to giving thanks. “Thanksgiving,” you’ve named it in country you call United States.

This is a good thing. The idea to set aside a time of thanks-giving was indeed a divinely inspired one. And there is a firm spiritual foundation underlying, if you will, “giving of thanks.” It is what you might call a universal law. We shall call it, for today's discussion, Law of Gratitude.

Another law of Universe goes something like this: You get what you focus your time and energy on. It’s called Law of Attraction. If you focus mostly on lack and limitation, those are what you experience in your life. If you focus mostly on abundance and prosperity, you will, you must, experience those in your life. It's law! And it's your choice. You get to choose whether to use laws of Universe for or against yourself.

And so, giving of thanks, expression of gratitude, is a truly magical tool. A tool you have, literally, at tip of your tongue. You would be hard-pressed to say there is nothing in your life you can be thankful for.

Sit down and make a list, if that will help you remember all good things, all abundance, you have in your life right now. Think about clothes you wear, food you eat, roof you sleep under, money you have (even though you may want more), loving and supportive family and friends you are blessed with.

Give thanks for many blessings you already have in your life, and they will increase. They must increase. It's law of Universe.

Make every day of your life Thanksgiving, a day of giving thanks to Great Spirit, to Universe, to your guides, teachers, and angels. And also thank your higher self, one who, after all, helped you (the human “you”) create all abundance you already have in your lives.

And, by way, thank human you too. You are all beings of great wisdom and courage. And we applaud your brave willingness to incarnate at this time in your planet’s history. A tumultuous time in many ways, but also a grand and glorious time to remember who you truly are. Your courage uplifts all, in your physical world and in our non-physical world. Your energy extends to farthest reaches of Universe, and uplifts all that is. That is how powerful you are, individually and together.

Giving thanks, expressing heartfelt gratitude, every day of your lives (even if only for a few moments each day) will indeed bring you rich rewards beyond your highest and wildest expectations and dreams.

Copyright © 2004 by Great Western Publishing

Since 1992, John Cali has been communicating with a spirit called Joseph. In one of his many physical lifetimes, this spirit was incarnated as the legendary Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe in what is now Oregon.

There are serious students of occult who doubt entirely occult significance of dreams, and it must be granted that no good reason exists for classing them generally with vision, or a condition of 'second sight' or ecstasy." (11)

The amount of time we live in our dream state is substantial and there are many things we can work upon in our dreams. To regard it as occult is somewhat foolish. If one learns and achieves things that are of value, should be a higher concern. Truly some probably can gain tap-ins through dream state, especially if they become adept at conscious dreaming and astral travel. To say it is supernatural is an appeal to ignorance. There is no such thing as 'super'-natural - it is all a matter of what we can't explain. Dream work and Yoga's 'soft focus' have answered or made sense of many things that mental blocks due to over- intellectualization might create. There are ways to become conscious and effective in dreams and overall experiencing of life - that is how I prefer to think of it, rather than a psychic developmental thing. Psychic aspects of life usually have a more physical component. If our soul is what counts then what we interpret from physical during sorting out process of dream reality might be more important than what happens during waking state.

"Dreams and Psychical Phenomena

Dreams of a supernormal character fall within purview of psychical research. The dividing line between normal and supernormal dreams is not easy to draw. Subconscious elaboration often presents supernormal affects.

Goethe solved many definite scientific problems in his dreams and also composed poems. So did La Fontaine compose The Fable of Pleasures and Coleridge Kubla Khan. Bernhard Palissy made one of his most beautiful ceramic pieces on dream inspiration. Maury confessed: ‘I have had in dream ideas an inspiration that could never have entered my consciousness when awake.' Tartini heard his Sonate del Diavolo played by Beelzebub in a dream. Holde composed La Phantasie in his sleep, Nodier's 'Lydia' was similarly born. R. L. Stevenson's most ingenious plots were evolved in dream state. Kruder, Corda and Maignan solved mathematical problems in dream, Condillac finished an interrupted lecture.

A dream of Professor Agassiz is frequently quoted. He had been for two weeks striving to decipher somewhat obscure impressions of a fossil fish on stone slab in which it was preserved. It was found impossible. In his dream he saw fish with all missing features perfectly restored. The image escaped him on awakening. He went to Jardin des Plantes in hope that an association with fossil would recapture it. No such thing happened. Next night he again dreamed of fish and in morning features of fish were as elusive as ever. For third night he placed paper and pencil near his bed. Towards morning fish again appeared in his dream. Half dreaming, half awake he traced outlines in darkness as best he could. On full awakening he was surprised to see details in his nocturnal sketch, features which he thought impossible. He hastened to Jardins des Plantes, began to chisel on surface of stone, taking sketch as a guide and to his surprise he found hidden portions of fish as indicated in drawing." (12)

I am not convinced this is dream state work. The early and late REM sleep is more akin to Beta brainwave relaxation. With bio-feedback and its creative state some ad agents like those at McDonald's have used this state to make and test ads. Hank Wesselman has been studied by University of Illinois and he is even more able to reach 40 MGHZ brainwave state than psychic healers and yogis. He is a person who was part of anthropological or archaeological team that found Lucy and his gift was brought out by his wife who is a shamanic teacher. It is possible to generate this kind of state while taking exams (I've often done it.) and good marks often come. Those who stay in alpha state and experience tension and pressure or stress are less able to recall, create or integrate. Intuition is also often mistaken as psychic. There can be a component of it, and as Mr. Shepard notes it is often a fine line between some of these concepts. Thus you are able to see that I am not a believer in unexplainable phenomena, rather I think we are simply not able to explain it in every case because we are learning or are presently ignorant.