Skáldskapr: Let’s have a conversation about the spiritual world.

In this episode I’d like to discuss the underpinnings of my doctoral thesis that I am to prove, the spiritual influence on our psychology. In the discussion of this theory there are tons of experiences that I have encountered, and thousands more from subjects I’ve interviewed throughout the years of spiritual counseling I’ve completed.

To begin our discussion, let’s clarify what spirits we talking about here. My theory proposes that there are three (3) major spiritual influences on human existence.

1. Are identified in all the fellow humans who inhabit the planet with us, and broadcast their spirits to the surrounding areas.
2. The deity area. The deity area is where there is a higher power than ourselves that may provide favor as information provided through this channel.
3. The spiritual conversation. This is the part that I find the most controversial, particularly amongst those devout monotheistic practitioners. This is where we recognize that all living things have a spirit that can and will interact with us.

Spiritual conversations are happening between all living things, all the time. Whether we want to believe it or not, is absolutely irrelevant. The communications occurs in such a way as to hijack other sensory input. This would explain “feeling” things, or seeing things, even a great idea that you would have thought of before. These would all be extra-sensory perception. However the idea that this is the spiritual channel that also informs us of our deity’s desire to educate us. There are some among us who are better at connecting to this world than others. Typically these are the ones who understand the power of listening. 

While I use the term “listening”, there is so much more than just using our ears. The idea I wish to convey is that we must pay attention to our surroundings, as the insight may be disguised anywhere. In addition, the spiritual channel that we all possess will more often than not produce a message that occurs to the other sensory paths to the brain. This is why many people report seeing things that others don’t, hearing or feeling things that others don’t. The channel that facilitates this communication is always open, so while the scientific community may speak about “random energy” in the brain that causes dreams, that random energy is anything but random. The spiritual channel quite often uses the dream state to communicate with us. While there seems to be a lot of chaos in dreams, there are message that we must pay attention to. That is another discussion we can have.

Many will seek to apply logic to this discussion, in the same manner as “the weather balloon story” pushes the buttons of UFOs there in Roswell, New Mexico. So, let’s apply logic to the idea of spirituality. Firstly, let’s cover the arrogance of humans to think they’re alone on this planet, and that we “know” everything this is to know about life. Here lies the first of many follies that the finite human mind has concocted in their feeble methods of self-comfort. With the obvious out of the way, let’s look at the empirical data. The idea of spiritual co-existence existed millennia before recognized religions came along. We find the development of spirituality throughout the world.

• The early tribes migrating west across the northern tip of Africa would adopt an understanding of the need for spiritual interactivity.
• The early tribes migrated south from the birthplace of the modern human arriving in the southern tip with their animistic beliefs in-tact. These beliefs would be transported to the new world with them.
• Early tribes would head due East following along the (what is today) Indian Ocean. As  the tribe traveled further east, their spiritual understanding became stronger and more connected to the environment.
• Early tribes would migrate north-east across the Mongolian steppes, and arrive, ultimately in the North American continent via the Beringia Land Bridge to form the indigenous peoples with their in-depth knowledge and understanding of the land spirits.
• Early tribes would migrate north following the recession of the ice sheet during the last ice age. They too would discover the power of the spirits that inhabited the lands, the skies, and the seas. They would also understand, much like the indigenous peoples of the Americas the necessity of keeping one’s intrinsic spirits in balance.

Now, if it was today with the proliferation of emails and text, no big deal right. But it wasn’t. These peoples were thousands of miles between them, and chances are very high that the language skills developed very differently between family groups. This means that these families would have developed their spiritual communications completely independently throughout the hundreds of thousands of years. As we can see, the recognition and understanding of the power within the spiritual world became clear. Whether discussing the benefits to the individual by fostering:

• Clarity of thought, allowing humans to expand their thought capabilities exponentially. With the addition of the proper proteins to the brain, and the rapid expansion of synapses connections, this allowed for a controlled mechanism for relating facts, as they were presented.
• Health and wellness is purely based on a spiritual balance. By tending the human spirits, we can ensure that our physical and mental health.

There are countless benefits to these spiritual connections.

To this point, lets look at the historical factors involved in the history of spiritual beliefs. Let’s look at the evolution of things that initiated the beliefs in spirits in the early part of human evolution. Back to the days of the Anatomical Modern human migrating out of Africa. Away from their ancestors and familiar grounds to travel great distances and inhabit the far corners of the earth. If we consider the distance traveled, and the extreme limitations of common language, we can quickly understand that these travelers were completely isolated from anything they knew. Yet, in almost every case, the travelers discovered a source of spirituality. They were able to tap into the energy sources that surrounded them at all times. Spirits of the animals, plants, even the sea, and most specifically the land and rocks they traveled upon. These travelers learned to negotiate with the spirits of the animals that would surrender their lives to feed those weary travelers. In every land there appeared a spiritual understanding that has transcended time, and continues to guide those willing to listen even today. However, we do know from the human evolution that the ability to communicate between humans and wolves began fairly early, to lead to their ultimate domestication.

Breaking down all of this independent discovery of spiritual interaction brings us to the point of understanding the root of where this came from. The idea that the animal kingdom communicates naturally with its surroundings, demonstrates the inclusion of spiritual communications in “instinct”. In other words, the evolutionary step above the Anatomical Modern human in the days before the migration out of Africa, communicated with the spiritual beings of their time. They did it naturally, as it was an integral part of the lit instinctual thinking. In much of the animal kingdom, this inclusion continues today.

Shall we look at spiritual influence? What about how the spirits interact with us, especially if we choose not to believe? This is the reality of the world we live in. Many have expressed their disbelief in a spiritual world existing at the same time, instead choosing to support their monotheistic narrative. However in a recent study I recently produced over the internet, 100% of the respondents have stated that they have either felt something they can’t see, or gotten a glimpse of something they never really saw. Which would indicate that while they not believe, they have experienced a spiritual contact. Many will try to explain these fleeting contacts away as just a misunderstanding, almost afraid of admitting to what it felt like. 

How does this influence our psychology you may ask? That’s easy. While you may not believe it, there is spiritual communications happening everywhere, all the time, and it is these unseen, unheard communications that enter into our psyche. Consider them subliminal transmissions directly into the midbrain of the human brain. These arriving data points challenge what is already in the human memory, thereby forcing our imagination to kick into higher gear in an attempt to try to build related  pathways to other data points already stored in memory. This onslaught of challenging our belief system gets easier as the mind, and thought process matures. Giving us the tools and training to tune out these transient thoughts, or messages. Now, there are some who have actually learned to filter these sounds out and can understand the value within the message being received. By teaching our mind to block out the incoming transmissions, we can begin to compartmentalize the influence. Many individuals choose not to believe, but the idea of receiving a benefit from this regardless.

Learning to manage this communication is a matter of keeping things in context to what your doing, or thinking and discarding the rest of the random thoughts. This becomes the challenge in the modern world of trying to understand, most ignore what it really is, and refer to terms like “a hunch”, or “a feeling”, but ultimately this is the spiritual world attempting to pass along information that it feels is important.

The ultimate question is “how does this affect my psychology, especially when I don’ believe it”? The fact is, that there is processing of this information that is constantly asking us to change our thought process. We know that bits of data are stored in the brain after a chemical bath provided by the genetic construct of the body. These bits of data are manipulated a little by these chemicals, however, the brain is able to “fix” the data if the pH balance of the brain fluid is within an acceptable limits. However, when that chemical balance is off, which can be caused by emotional disturbances, or outside intoxicants, then the pH balance is too far off for the brain to repair the data bits. When this happens, the brain has two options: 1) it can discard the data completely, or 2) it can store the data in its flawed condition, thereby making it something we “know”. The frightening part of this should be the idea, that once the data is stored in memory, there are “links” to other relevant data points constructed, and mapped within what I call the “relevancy layer” of the brain. Some refer to this as someone’s “wisdom”, however this really comes down to collection of a series of data points all “related” to this flawed data point. This same chemical imbalance can be created emotionally by spiritual contacts. So, my point here is that the spiritual contacts can alter our psychological data bits, or cause them to be discarded because of damage.

Herein lies the potential to damage what we think we know. By undermining our knowledge, these spiritual contacts need to be managed to ensure the data we have stored is the data we wanted. 

As proof positive of the authenticity for the Landvætti an example is that my ancestors believed that if a warrior were to go back on an oath, that his weapons would turn against in him in battle. This is a prime indicator of their belief in the Landvætti. They knew the power that the Landvætti wielded on the planet.