It shouldn’t surprise me, I guess, but it does, that publishing my memoir, Leaning into Curves: Trusting the Wild Intuitive Way of Love has prompted a flow of clients who are navigating beyond their religious starter kits, different spiritual lineages, and looking for strength and support.
In the book, in a chapter called, “The Big Ask” I write:
“Some of us are born Protestant, Jewish, Hindu or Muslim. I call this religion “by accident.” I was born Catholic by accident. I am a “cradle” Catholic—my religion was adopted for me by my family. Until I was in my late forties, I also chose it, and I still identify with it. Catholicism had shaped me in immeasurable ways.”
Be clear that I am not anti-Catholic, nor do I think of myself as a “recovered Catholic.”
I am a Catholic who has seen deep into the heart of the Truth in her religious upbringing, but who has also seen the distortions in the dogma, the historical violence supported in the name of Catholicism, and the unjust acts still perpetrated in the name of the religion [i.e., the Church’s refusal to ordain women and the indefensible allowance and cover-up of sexual abuse by priests.] I am forever grateful that I was raised within a spiritual tradition that gave me a context for exploring God and the spiritual. I can feel sorrow for the imperfect form, challenge its injustices, and know that within it and beyond it there is TRUTH, which is formless.
Most of my new clients who are searching beyond religion have stumbled across an understanding of spiritual consciousness known worldwide as the 3 Principles.
The 3 Principles, which came as an insight to Sydney Banks, a quiet, humble Scottish welder who lived on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, are Mind, Consciousness and Thought.
Mind, is the intelligent formless energy, the source of all things, Consciousness, is the capacity to be aware, and Thought, is the extraordinary spiritual gift we use to create always and everything that we experience. The 3 Principles are the logic behind spiritual consciousness, the knowing that our BEING cannot help but create.
It is a joy to work with people who have begun to taste the freedom in accepting that they are responsible for what they create, what they experience. Doing so takes humility and courage.
I recall a client, a young man I encountered as a psychologist many moons ago. He was crippled with social anxiety and couldn’t leave his college dormitory without considerable anguish, bootstrapping and terror. He described himself as an atheist, a nonbeliever in a God of any kind, who had grown up in a religious family. In our first conversation, I shared the 3 Principles and asked him to read a book by Sydney Banks, The Enlightened Gardener.
Several weeks later, he returned for a second visit. His unwashed greasy hair was now combed, neat and clean. His once despondent body now radiated energy. His dejected face now wore a hopeful smile. He described a week of going to classes, feeling freed from the worst of his anxiety, and having an awareness that he could choose not to take thinking that limited his bravery as anything more than an ephemeral passing phenomenon, a belief out-of-kilter with his very nature.
“Dr. Pettit, if I had come across the 3 Principles understanding years ago,” he said. “I would never have called myself an atheist. I am the energy of God. With that energy I created anxiety and, now I choose to deconstruct it, and BE the power and freedom that I am.”
Spiritual consciousness is the TRUTH of religious and spiritual lineages and a healer.
************
Copyright 2024, Linda Sandel Pettit, Ed.D.
Photo by Davizro courtesy of istockphoto.com
Dr. Linda Sandel Pettit is a visionary guide and communications creative who assists people to have transformative insights for effective living, creating and leading. She offers individual consulting, intimate group programs and has a special fondness for supporting writers of creative nonfiction. She hosts the Intuitive Way of Love Podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform and at https://drlindapettit.com/podcast/. Find her blog on her website https://drlindapettit.com/blog/. Her award winning, best-selling inspirational self-help memoir, Leaning into Curves: Trusting the Wild Intuitive Way of Love premiered in April, 2024. Her next book, MAGIC: Releasing the Power of Spiritual Consciousness is planned for 2025.
Check out another blog post: https://drlindapettit.com/nightengale/
A Free Mini Master Class
The 3 Principles: Simple Truth
Sign up for my free master class on the 3 Principles. Hear about a simple understanding that can change lives.
You may also enjoy these...
Everything is Spiritual
My husband, Bill, and I, are dedicated to sharing an understanding of mental health, known as the Three Principles, which explains the relationship between the psychological and the spiritual.
Meeting Sydney Banks
There was a time when I was far less peaceful. My inner sweetness grew as I understood a little bit about the power of Thought. I’m not talking just about the thinking we do. I’m talking about Thought itself, the manifestation and gift of a formless God.
The man whose writings introduced me to Thought was Syd Banks
Love Behind Identity
Our friendship was forged in parenting daughters who became best friends in first grade and remain so, thirty years later. We were a study in cultural contrasts.
