Category Archives: Meditation

Failing Your Spiritual Tests – 5 Examples

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“Without fail, you will be tested,” said the wise man. We believe that how you respond to your spiritual tests in life determines how you progress spiritually, and it impacts your future personal fate.

Whether or not you’re successful with these tests depends on if you do the right thing and respond with unconditional love, tolerance, and honesty.

But let’s face it, you have most likely experienced a situation where you’ve been tested spiritually and failed miserably. Relax, you’re not alone, but the sooner you begin to deal constructively with your tests, the sooner you’ll balance your karma.

Below we list five common circumstances that may not always seem like a spiritual test failure, but we believe are.

1. After having your car serviced you realize that you’ve been ripped off; they didn’t fix the problem. In order for you to remedy the problem, you have to deal with the manager of the dealership, and you already know it will be difficult to deal with that person based on prior experience. Though you may not realize it at the time, this is a test for you to harden your resolve and stand up for what you believe in. Instead, you opt for conflict avoidance and take your car elsewhere to be serviced.

2. Both of you cheat in your relationship and are fully aware of it, yet pretend it doesn’t happen, while simultaneously promoting your new book on the importance of life-long monogamy. Instead of conceding that your relationship is finished on a sexual level, you lie and carry on like it isn’t. While you could do a lot of good for future generations, empowering them to realize that strict monogamy isn’t realistic for everyone or in all situations and that it’s acceptable to have alternative arrangements if everyone agrees to them, you take the easy way out.

3. Two individuals on the fringe of your social circle are burdened with nasty rumors about their integrity. You happen to find out the truth, that indeed those two people are innocent. Suddenly, an opportunity is thrust upon you to clarify the situation at a party one night, but you simply keep your mouth shut while they suffer.

4. You still can’t believe how your ex treated you, and you’ve vowed to never forgive that person, ever. The problem is that you’re only hurting yourself and that by holding a grudge, you’re inviting future scenarios where you’ll be forced to learn about forgiveness in love relationships, time and time again, until you finally get it right.

5. It’s like the universe is conspiring to push you into solitude, but you refuse to go along with it because you can’t stand to be alone for even 30 minutes. You do everything you can to surround yourself with warm bodies, including taking yoga and dance classes, joining clubs, and living with multiple roommates in a large house. Though you succeed in almost never being alone, you fail to do the inner work that comes naturally in solitude, thus continue to delay your spiritual progress.

In what way are you taking the easy way out and avoiding real, spiritual progress? Meditate on that. Also, go easy on yourself, but strive to constructively and honestly deal with life tests as they appear at your doorstep so you can avoid a dreaded do-over in the future.

Copyright © 2012 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo

Finding Your Perfect Career


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One of the most common questions we receive is “What should I do for my career?”

Some are studying toward a degree and questioning if it’s right for them.

Some didn’t have parents or mentors who helped them develop interests other than TV, sports, or video games, or they were urged into unwanted careers.

Others want us to tell them what to do. They are so used to following directions and pleasing everyone that they have forgotten about their own inner needs and interests. This is an area where you need to be a bit selfish.

New Age “life purpose” marketing is popular today. For example, one “guru” says, “Knowing your life purpose is the first step to attracting great wealth and changing the world!”

Mythical assertions like this lead people to believe that their most fitting life purpose automatically leads to a high paying career. Unfortunately, we’ve found that not everyone is destined to have “the ideal job” and, or be rich. However, everyone has free will and can make the most of their circumstances, talents, and interests.

Many people are unhappily employed and have no idea what to do. Perhaps life has overwhelmed them, they are stuck in survival mode, and forgot about their passions and dreams.

Here are four tips if you don’t know what to do for a career:

1. As many successful people have said, follow your passions. What you “should” do, your highest path, will likely make your heart sing. Think deeply about what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, and what you love to do. Somewhere in there lies what you “should” do with your life. Then your task is to figure out a way to make money with those things.

2. Learn to meditate. Then, ask these two questions every day in meditation: “What are my passions and talents and how can I use them to best serve myself and others?” “What is the next step for me in my quest for a fulfilling and successful career?”

3. Once you define a definite career direction, seek out a mentor who has been successful in a similar career.

Note: despite claims to the contrary by New Age marketers, not everyone is meant to be a self-employed entrepreneur. The rate of failure for American businesses, for example, is 90%. For on-line marketing, it’s 95%. It may be that you are best suited to be in a partnership, or even part of a large organization.

Keep in mind that your passion may need to remain a hobby while you pay your bills working a tolerable job. On the other hand, if you’re creative and it’s part of your path, you may be able to find a way to make money doing what you love. Also, sometimes you need to go through a longer process of trying different options, some of which may be needed to develop skills for a later career.

4. Comprehensive astrology and numerology, handwriting analysis, tarot and intuitive, and other types of readings can tell you a great deal about the career that is most suitable for you, and even give you significant clues about how or where to find it.

By the way, some people actually believe that to be truly spiritual you must provide “selfless service” and not put your interests ahead of others. If you want to be a martyr, fine, but we strongly discourage this because you can’t serve others in the best way you can unless you’re also serving yourself in some way.

Copyright © 2011 Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo

5 Major New Age, Spiritual Mistakes


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Virtually everybody ends up wasting time somewhere along the line in their pursuit of spiritual awareness because the path is replete with pitfalls.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve taken a time consuming detour down a spiritual dead-end street. You’re not alone.

Below we list some of the most common New Age blunders.

1. Buying into the myth that personal adversity doesn’t have to exist, that it’s not necessary for spiritual growth. You’ve likely been exposed to New Age offerings telling you that “You were born only to enjoy life and to end suffering.” As nice as it sounds, don’t buy it. Life is full of important lessons and some of the most important spiritual breakthroughs come through personal adversity. Besides, if life was constantly and forever rainbows and sunshine, you would quickly become so bored that your subconscious would generate some sort of drama and conflict to make you feel alive. The good news is that you have free will within the confines of your fate and you can diminish the effects of suffering through acceptance, gratitude, and awareness.

2. Embracing the feel-good, yet bogus New Age claims, such as “I’ve found my soul mate and you can too in 90 days or less.” Authentic love–unconditional love-has nothing to do with deadlines and legal contracts. Real love happens when it’s supposed to happen, not in accordance with ego-self ideals, and everyone has different love life timing. Also, you have many soul mates and our findings clearly show that most are not meant to be life-long or the most desirable type, but the sort that help the most in your spiritual growth (read: challenging relationships).

3. Avoiding meditation or time alone spent in reflection. Isn’t it funny that in Western society today it’s so common for people to express disbelief at the idea of enjoying spending extended periods of time in solitude? “Like, OMG, what would you do?!” Spending regular periods alone is important to your spiritual growth, as is regular meditation. The inner landscape can be infinitely more compelling than the outer world.

4. Mistaking New Age inspiration, such as “you can delete all of your karma in a blink of an eye, all you have to do is believe that you can” for spiritual truth. Look, we’re all for inspiration and getting inspired (did you know that initiates in select ancient mystery schools would shout “I am inspired!” on cue?), but it better be rooted in truth or you’re just wasting your time and money with New Age escapism.

5. Ignoring the other spiritual laws besides the law of attraction. Although we acknowledge that it can be tempting to focus exclusively on the law of attraction and to ignore any other (prevailing) spiritual laws, doing so will only set you up for major disappointment.

For example, the law of predestination/fate/destiny (all these words have the same meaning) dictates that, on a soul level (not your personality, which you shed at death), you select your major predestined life circumstances of each lifetime, before incarnating. Our findings show this to be valid, even if your personality in this life is not aware of it and even if you don’t believe in predestination/fate/destiny. Nobody cheats their fate, no matter how much they practice the law of attraction. You’re in luck, however, if your personal destiny matches your desires and the better you know yourself, the more likely it will.

Although it’s almost impossible to avoid all New Age, spiritual traps, if you watch out for the ones outlined above you will save an enormous amount of time and money.

Copyright © 2011 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo

What Would Life Be Like if Everyone Had Lie Detectors? 


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A 2002 University of Massachusetts study about lying found that 60% of people lied during a 10 minute conversation. The average person told two to three lies in that 10 minutes, most didn’t even realize they were doing so, and men and women lied about the same amount.

Psychologist Robert S. Feldman says. “It’s so easy to lie. We teach our children that honesty is the best policy, but we also tell them it’s polite to pretend they like a birthday gift they’ve been given. Kids get a very mixed message regarding the practical aspects of lying, and it has an impact on how they behave as adults.”

You can’t force someone to tell the truth, but Imagine what life would be like with personal lie detectors (perhaps a smart phone application of the future?). With such technology, everyone would be forced to tell the truth at all times, which wouldn’t be very pleasant for some people.The Lies People Tell

Politicians would find it more challenging to win over voters with stirring speeches. They would instead be judged on their true intent and actions. When a politician says one thing, but means another, your lie detector would go off and you’d hear a “beep!” Personal agendas would become obvious and Washington might actually enact useful legislation.

Husbands, wives, boyfriends, and girlfriends would no longer be able to stretch the truth in order to keep the peace, or hide their behavior. “That other woman doesn’t mean anything to me.” Beep! “I got pregnant by accident.” Beeeeeep!

People would be forced to practice absolute sincerity in the workplace–no more corporate treachery and duplicity. “I love my boss and I’ve never back-stabbed any of my coworkers.” Beep! “Our corporate mission is not mainly about profit” Beeeeeeeep!

Children wouldn’t be able to get away with anything, and parents would be held accountable for everything.

What about the little lies you tell yourself? Even though they can make life easier to deal with at times, your personal lie detector would help you be brutally honest with yourself, helping you to become self-actualized more quickly (and possibly go crazy from always having to squarely face reality).

Delusion

Delusion can be harmless, such as with children fantasizing, or dangerous, as with conniving, powerful dictators. Someone who is truly delusional can fool a lie detector if they really believe they’re telling the truth, so make sure to buy the Delusion Detector add-on application to cover all your bases. Just be aware that it won’t allow you to wear rose-colored glasses when perceiving the veracity of your love relationships, and will deal a serious blow to excessive romantic fantasy. At least it could potentially save you a lot of heartache.

What is Truth?

There can be different versions of the truth, depending upon one’s perspective, but the truth is usually very simple.

Seasoned liars and sociopaths can be very creative with their version of the truth, giving new meaning to the art of rationalization and deceit, twisting reality to conform to their agenda.

Try to be Understanding

Find it in your heart to feel compassion for those who live a life of denial and delusion. After all, the majority of dishonesty, we believe, is the subconscious defense type used to protect the self from the pain of truth, not the malicious type.

Beneath the self-deception, which most people exhibit in various degrees, there’s a vulnerability and a lack of courage to live life more honestly; it is often learned early in childhood as a coping mechanism. Very few people are capable of living their lives in complete honesty.

After all is said and done, the truth tends to bubble up to the surface. People on their deathbeds realize things that weren’t as obvious before. After they cross over, we believe, based on life between life and past life research, there is no denial, dishonesty, or delusion on the other side. Everyone, regardless of what their faith was (or lack of it) while incarnated, reviews their lifetime and becomes aware of everything they did, to themselves and others, the “good” and the “bad,” not in judgment but for awareness and understanding. Imagine what life would be like if everyone was taught from a young age that everything you say, do, and intend is recorded in an invisible spiritual ledger. If this were true, and we believe it is, no one gets away with anything by pretending their negative actions are justified, trying to evade detection, or confessing their sins.

Dishonesty is one of the more easily discerned personality facets through handwriting analysis, and you have a built-in lie and delusion detector. It’s called your intuition. You can develop it through regular meditation. The more you meditate, the more you will be able to perceive the simple truth about yourself, situations, and others.

Copyright © 2010 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo

Remember to Ask For Help

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In a previous article we offered a few aspects of the Mystic’s Magic Formula and promised more information in the future. The Mystic’s Magic Formula is a mix of practical and spiritual techniques to help you deal with what you can’t change in your life and manifest your desires.

We won’t cover all steps of the Mystic’s Magic Formula here, but two very important elements involve meditation and inviting help from your higher-self, guides of the Light and, or God.

How do you get help from God, spirit guides, and your higher-self?

Those of the light on the other side want to help you, but you have to ask. Getting in the healthy habit of regularly saying out loud, perhaps before or even during your regular meditation, “Spirit guides, masters, teachers, and helpers of the Light, God, please guide me to the answers I seek about…,” for example, will open the door, usher in help from the other side and, at the same time, remind you that help is available. We offer additional information about the art of asking for spiritual help, meditation, and a whole lot more in the Mystic’s Magic Formula and elsewhere in Direct Your Destiny ™ e-package.

Asking for help from the other side or your higher-self is one thing, but you’ve got to be in the right state of mind to receive the assistance. The more centered and grounded you are, the more likely you will hear those faint whisperings in your ear, see the signs as they subtly appear visually, or receive helpful insight through other means.

Yes, we know, it’s not easy to get into the practice of meditation, but like many things worthwhile, it demands discipline and practice. It’s a long-term discipline and the more you work at it, the more benefits you’ll receive. Even if it’s only for 10 minutes a day, some form of meditation is necessary to magnify your awareness and deepen your perspective.

Meditation is ultimately a process of detaching from the over-active conscious mind to a place of stillness and peace. You know when your mind is mentally multi-tasking, perhaps going in 10 directions at once? That’s the opposite of a good meditative state.

A good meditative state for receiving insight and answers to your questions is like your mind is on pause while you listen for the sound of a train in the distance. As an added bonus, proper meditation releases feel-good, natural opiates from your brain.

We offer many tips, tricks, and unique methods for achieving a great meditative state in the Direct Your Destiny (tm) e-package and we’ll offer some simple advice here.

If you’re having trouble getting into a good meditative state, close your eyes and focus on the middle of your chest. If you find your mind drifting away from this point of focus, slowly start counting and imagine drawing the numbers on your chest plate.

Alternatively, close your eyes and direct them up to your third eye area between your eyebrows. Without straining your eyes, keep them focused there, as it will help to induce an altered state.

If you tend to fall asleep during meditation, keep your eyes open and focus on the flame of a candle while counting from 1 to 100. Once you reach 100, begin again. Do this until you feel peace and calmness washing over you.

Remember, it takes practice. The old joke “I tried meditating, but nothing happened,” might seem applicable, but know that you will reach an altered state in time. By the way, “nothing happened” is the objective in good meditation; you are so blissfully centered and detached from mind chatter, and enjoying a feel-good state, that there is room for divine guidance to appear at the doorstep of your mind.

Copyright © 2008 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo

15 Meditation Tips to Get More From Your Spiritual Discipline

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Meditation is one of the most important spiritual disciplines. The benefits of regular meditation are numerous, too many to list, yet peace of mind is one of the greatest.

Here are some of the meditation tips we recommend in our Psychic/Meditative State Script.

*Try meditating on an empty stomach or at a different time of day.

*Try it after a hot bath or shower.

*Try it after exercise.

*Try it after sex or instead of sex when in the mood.

*Try relaxing music. Experiment with different kinds to test which works best for you.

*Try no music.

*Try listening to our Let Go recording which utilizes brain-mind technology to effortlessly guide you into a meditative state.

*Try aromatherapy. Open a window when burning incense or candles indoors to vent any toxic fumes. Try rubbing a dab of pure scented oil on the back of your hands or on your neck. The scent will relax you and help you focus.

*Avoid all drugs. Even “just” marijuana “only once in a while” hinders intuition and clouds your mind for weeks afterwards.

*Try meditating with someone you love or with a group of friends. The combined energy will help you go deeper.

*You may be sensitive to something you’re eating or drinking. Pick a day and eat lightly, perhaps about half of what you usually do. Consume what you know will be easy to digest, such as lightly steamed vegetables. You should be able to focus more easily provided you feel lighter and more alert.

*Avoid sugar, including fruit sugar if you have sugar sensitivities.

*Watch the caffeine. Don’t go without it if you know you’ll have withdrawal symptoms, but don’t overdo it either.

*Certain supplements, herbs, and medications, especially if they affect your mood, may be disagreeing with your system and causing you to be scattered. Ask your doctor or health professional for alternative recommendations or if you can do without them for a while.

*Try deep breathing rapidly in and out through your mouth or nose for at least five minutes. Ten is better.

*Roll your closed eyes up to your third eye area, between and just above your eyes. Keep them focused there at a comfortable position without straining them. This position can automatically induce an altered state.

*Alternatively, with your eyes closed, try focusing your attention on your chest plate. If your attention starts to wander, begin counting at 1 and imagine each number appearing on your chest plate, as if you are painting them with an invisible paint brush.

*Close your eyes, breathe gently, and fantasize about your dreams and goals. What would your life be like if your dreams came true? These fantasies will help you become relaxed and may allow you to focus more. Patience and practice are important. Sooner or later something will click.

*Ask for help. If you keep asking God or your guides or angels of the Light how you can be more successful with meditation, you’ll eventually become aware of effective ways to go deeper and focus better. You’ll be a pro in no time.

*If you’re still having trouble perceiving anything, jump start the process by using your imagination. Tell yourself you’ll perceive the first image, thought, or feeling, in response to any of the questions or instructions in the script, on the count of three. Then count one, two, three and provide a picture or thought from your imagination or memory. Continue this process until other images that feel more related to the issue you are exploring start filtering into your mind.

*If you have tried everything and you still can’t seem gain any insight, there may be two other reasons: First, your expectations may be interfering. You may be expecting to see something when you might be more successful perceiving in a different way, such as sound or feeling. Try not to think during the process. Stay open and try visualizing white Light around you. Second, you may be blocked emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. Keep asking for help, continue practicing while utilizing the white light, and stay open for clues.

*It will also help you to realize that meditation is best approached as a long-term discipline, one that offers invaluable benefits for those willing to commit to it.

Copyright © 2005 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo