Fearlessly Feral Living!
Fearlessly Feral Living!
The Treatment Series: 1st Step: What is God?
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For the month of July I will be doing a series of 4 episodes on a spiritual practice called treatment. You might know it as Affirmative Prayer. This first episode is on the first step of treatment, called Recognition. The other steps are Unification, Realization, Thanksgiving and Release.
Listen to the entire month's worth of episodes to discover the power in this wonderful form of prayer, and how to use Treatment to successfully transition through change in your life.
Your support is very much appreciated!
Well, hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome to Fearlessly Fair a Living. This is Reverend Karen. And uh before I get started on today's topic, I just wanted to chat with you a little bit. So you might, if you're watching this on YouTube, you might notice that the background looks different since I have posted my last podcast, which has only been a little over a week. Totally remodeled my office. I got a new computer. I got a new to me desk. Things are much more productive in here instead of facing a wall and a very, very, very messy desk. I had one of those old antique roll top desks. It's quite beautiful. I love it. It's sitting in my garage because I can't bear to part with it. But it was not very practical. And I would I couldn't keep it clean. I couldn't keep it organized. And I it was difficult to work not facing the windows. So I changed everything around. So now I'm facing the windows, and I have a window on each side of me. And so I have delightful, available light here rather than using artificial light, which is vastly superior to the artificial light. So I'm pretty excited about that. And there's some other changes going on in my world. I'm making great progress on my third book. I'm going out on a limb here. It's going to be out in October. It's called How to Live Fearlessly, Fair a Living. And I'm pretty excited about it. Stay tuned for more on that. There's going to be launch, there's going to be a tour, there's going to be podcast episodes. There might even be a discussion group, all kinds of things about the book. And I'm pretty excited about that. Some of you know I've been serving as interminister with Center for Spiritual Living Bakersfield for about a year. My time with them is coming to an end at the end of July, the end of this month. So once my time with Bakersfield comes to an end, I'll be able to get started on some of these other projects that I've been wanting to work on. And uh now I got a nice shiny new office to do that in. So I'm pretty excited about that. So it is July, mid-year, mid-summer, hot outside. Maybe you're exploring things a little bit. Maybe you're looking back on the first half of 2025 and going, oh, what just happened there? Maybe you're looking around and going, how do I cope with this? Maybe you're thinking, I just don't know what to do with all this stuff that's going on in the world. And yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on. There is a lot of transition going on. So what I just talked to you about was transition. I outwardly made some transitions, some changes, and uh, you know, remodeled the office, moved everything around, brought in a new desk, got a brand new computer. This computer rocks, by the way. It's custom built just for my specifications. Uh, did a whole bunch of new stuff in here. Those are all changes. Those are all outer changes. There's also outer changes going on in the world, and uh lots of that stuff going on. You know, my time ending at Bakersfield is an outer change. Now, change, it's been said that change is loss, all change is a type of loss. And transition is a little bit different than change. Transition is how we cope with change, and so we can have a successful transition or an unsuccessful transition. And what I want to talk to you about today is how to have a successful transition. You know, I'm all about the spiritual tools and spiritual principles and practices and all that stuff. So today is the first in a four-week-long series of talking about a spiritual practice called treatment. Now, if you've hung out in science of mind for any length of time, you know what a treatment is. If you've gone to Center for Spiritual Living for any length of time, you know what a treatment is. If you've taken a class at a Center for Spiritual Living, you know what a treatment is. If you don't know what a treatment is, it's also known as affirmative prayer. And we teach it at Centers for Spiritual Living in almost every class we teach. There's always some sort of portion of the class devoted to treatment. It's a pretty big deal. Treatment is one of our major spiritual practices. In fact, back in the good old days, it cracks me up to say that, back in the good old days. There were only two types of spiritual practices taught around here: meditation and treatment. Was it? Now, there's a lot more, and you're gonna learn about that in my new book. I just had to put that in there. You're gonna learn about that in my new book called How to Live Fearlessly Feral. But today I'm gonna talk to you about treatment, and this is gonna be the first of a series of four weeks. Now, treatment has five steps, it's a very formal way to pray. Now, there's an intellectual formula to learn when you do treatment, but I'm telling you, once you get this down, once you get this thing called treatment down, then you start moving into this heart space. You start moving into this feeling place, and that's where the power is behind treatment. Thought plus feeling equals power. Remember that thought plus feeling, and I'm putting my hand on my chest here. Thought plus feeling equals power. Now remember in the Bible in Genesis where it said God spoke and then got stuff got created. Well, around here we teach that God is everywhere present, all good all the time. And if it's everywhere present, then it's a part of us and we are a part of it. So if God speaks and stuff gets created, then we speak and stuff gets created. This is the foundation upon which treatment is based. And so the five-step formula goes like this God is, I am, it's done, thanks by. God is, I am, it's done, thanks by. Now, that's a really short and kind of fun and humorous version of it. Uh, when I was learning treatment, they taught us via acronym. And the acronym was Are You Ready to Receive? And the R stood for the first step, which was recognition. U stood for the second step, unification. R stood for the third step, realization. T stood for the fourth step Thanksgiving, and receive stood for the last step release. Are you ready to release? I mean, are you ready to receive recognition, unification, realization, thanksgiving release? And so this whole month I'm going to be talking about successful transition via the use of treatment. So it's going to be a pretty practical journey through treatment. And I wanted to take a deep dive into each step so that you could really get a feel for what each step is about. So let's go back to transition a little bit and change. There's a book that I love by a guy named William Bridges. His book is called Transitions, Making Sense of Life's Changes. And in this book, he explains that there's a difference between change and transition. What he basically says is that change is loss and it's outer. So anything that happens outside of ourselves, it can be something as simple as walking into your favorite grocery store and noticing that they've remodeled the whole thing and none of your favorite items is where they used to be. They're all they're all scattered all over everywhere. That's a change. That's a loss. It might be a minor loss, might be a big loss, might be of the broken chili variety that just sends you totally over the edge, depending on what's going on in your world and depending on how well you've weathered the other changes that you've gone through. So, anyway, a change can be something a whole hell of a lot bigger, like switching seats on the Titanic. So it doesn't really matter the magnitude of the change, it happens. That's part of life. Change happens to us. We have losses every single day in life. Now, here's the deal: we can successfully deal with those losses or not. We are at choice. If we successfully deal with them, then we live more successfully. We live fearlessly, feral. We live more successfully than if we had not successfully dealt with them. And treatment is a way to successfully deal with change. Treatment is a way to have successful transitions in our life. If you have losses and changes in your life and you don't successfully deal with them, well, it gets a little gnarly in life sometimes. It gets a little gnarly. Things like anxiety and depression and addiction and um isolation and numbing, all that good, wonderful, gummy stuff. Now, can we experience this stuff having still successfully dealed with dealt with transition? You betcha. It comes sometimes. But it definitely comes and it's very, very stubborn if we don't successfully deal with the stuff that comes our way. And treatment is one way to do that. So you're moving through life, something happens, there's a loss, and you're disturbed. Now, if you're like me and you wake up every morning determined to be optimistic and positive about life and the state of the universe and what's going on in the world, and then you read the news, and that determination flies right out the window. Well, yeah, it's been happening a lot these days. It's been happening a lot. So, what's been happening out there in the world, all that change that's been happening out there, guess what? It's been a gift. Because it has forced me to move even deeper into spiritual practice than I ever have before. It has forced me to do this, and yeah, it was forcing for a while. I was kicking and screaming. Um, I was fighting it. I was like, yeah, but they don't understand. And oh, I was just having a really tough time. And guess what? I was getting depressed. I was feeling anxious. I was tired all the time. And I wanted to isolate. And I'm a minister, guys. I'm out there working in the world, I'm working with people almost every single day. I can't live like that and function effectively in the world. So not only was I feeling ineffective and unhappy personally, but I knew I wasn't being effective out there in the world in my chosen profession. So incomes treatment. Incomes treatment, and we can use this any time we want. So today I'm gonna focus on the first step of treatment, and I just realized I don't know how long I'm into this recording right now, but I didn't even do my introduction, but you guys all know it anyway. So we're just gonna keep on going. First step of treatment, God is. This is where we recognize God. This is where we recognize God. Now, turns out that might open up a whole can of worms for you. Because what is God really, when you think about it, what is God? Now I can tell you what my concept of God is, and I may by the end of this podcast episode. I might share it with you, not because I think you should adopt it, but as an example. But God, it's something that's personal to each and every one of us, and God needs to be big enough to allow you to move through these steps of treatment from a feeling place and not an intellectual place. God needs to be big enough to allow you to move into a place of trust and optimism and have faith and have hope. And you know, it's a big fat hairy deal. There's God stuff. And so I realize that when we ask ourselves a question like, What is God? we're trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. But here's the deal about God, even though we're human beings, we're also spiritual beings, and we can sense that thing called God, we can sense it. In this first step to get here, I'd like to ask you to do a little bit of exploration about what is God to you, and consider what you've been taught about God. Now, you may have been taught certain things when you were a kid about God, and you may or may not still believe in that, or you may or may not know what you believe in. You might know that you know they taught you about a God in the sky that was up there making lists and being judgmental and deciding whether or not you were gonna go to hell or to heaven when you'd passed on. That's the stuff they taught when we when we were kids. I was lucky, I didn't get taught that. I consider myself lucky not to be taught that. And well, you may have been taught something else, you may have been like me, and I never really questioned what God was. I questioned other things, but when I questioned what God was, the answer I got from my father, and I don't remember asking this question of anybody else, just my father. He said, Karen, I want you to read a book called The Three Magic Words by U.S. Anderson. This was back in the early 70s, I guess. I remember it vividly. We were in Las Vegas, we were in a car wash, and I was asking him these questions. And I think, and we had just signed, we had just seen. Remember the comedian Red Skelton? We had just seen him in the car wash. He was getting his car wash either before us or after us. I don't remember. Anyway, that's Vegas for you. Um, my dad had just gotten fired from a job. Now I don't remember why he got fired. He was a professional jazz trumpet player. Maybe he I don't know why he got fired. Um, not gonna speculate, but I asked him, Did it hurt? And he said, What do you mean? And I said, Did it burn you? And he's like, What do you mean? And I said, Daddy, you said you got fired. Didn't it burn? And he thought, you know, so there's me taking things literally, which I still do today, by the way, and it gets me into a lot of trouble. He explained that no, being fired wasn't like that as an adult, you know, he just lost his job. And somehow or another, in my distorted memory from that point on, we got into a conversation, and I re and I must have asked him a question. He must have been talking about how everything would be okay, even if he had lost his job, that he had faith in God or something like that, because we got into that conversation, and I remember his answer to my questions was to read a book called The Three Magic Words by U.S. Anderson. So I went and got the book, and my father had cautioned me you cannot go to the end of the book and cheat and read what the three magic words are. You have to read the whole book. Well, I was like maybe 16 then. Like, really? Come on. Of course I cheated. Of course I cheated. I went to the end of the book. Guess what the three magic words were? I am God. Yeah. So here I was being introduced to God as something that I am at a very, very, very young age. And uh today, if you walk around saying I am God, people are likely to not lock you up in the nuthouse, particularly with what's going on out there in the world, with with okay, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna go there. I'm not gonna go there. So my point with all this is that I have a concept of God that I have explored and developed and asked about and gotten in touch with my true inner self. You know, that phrase to thine own self be true. This is where it's important. This is where this is where the the rubber meets the road. This is what separates the big boys and girls from the from the adults. This is this is where it it really is important that you have to truly know yourself in order to know God. So ask yourself some pointed questions. What do you know to be true about God? What is true for you? And if you if what do you know about God is what you were taught when you were a kid, is that still true for you? Or does it need to be changed? And here's some hints for you. Is your God big enough to give you comfort and peace no matter what happens in your life? Is your God big enough to provide you with the power to do the things that ought to be done by you? Is your God big enough to give you the clarity and the wisdom to know how to live your life? Is your God big enough to allow you to trust the decisions that you make for yourself? This is what God does for us, guys. So if your God doesn't do that for you, then explore it. Explore it. This is all first step of treatment stuff, so we can go really, really deep with this. So I was in a meeting the other night. Nice good old-fashioned 12-step meeting, but guess what the topic was? And I was preparing this podcast, and the topic was I kid you not, what is God? And I looked around at the room and I smiled, and I knew I was gonna get a lot of different answers, and I settled in to just listen and enjoy. And so, you know, I shared what my God is. I shared that God was a part of me and I was a part of it, and uh, and that gave me a lot of comfort and it was big enough to handle it all. And I quoted a part in the um AA textbook that says, We found the great reality capitalized deep within us, and it was only there that it can be found. And that gave me permission to know that my God was a part of me. The great reality is God, and I found it deep within me. So other people shared about their, you know, male pronoun. Outer God, the guy in the sky. Other people shared about their God. One guy in the meeting, I happen to know him a little bit. This guy studies Richard Rohr. Now, Richard Rohr is kind of he's he's Catholic, but he's leaning towards mysticism a little bit, but he's still got the guy in the sky stuff going on. And this guy shared about that. He shared about that. Another guy in the meeting shared about how his uh belief was more Native American spirituality, and that he didn't mean to offend anybody, but he found God in dirt because that's Native American, at least it is to him. And other folks shared about their concept of God. And uh I loved the meeting because I'm sitting there thinking God is big enough to handle it all. And I'm sitting there in the meeting thinking about this podcast episode and the first step of treatment, and really doing my own inner exploration of what is God. And I left that meeting feeling uplifted and inspired, and this is what explore exploring what is God can do for us. It can allow us to feel uplifted and inspired. So, in this first step of treatment, just play, just explore with what is God. Okay, so I will share with you what my concept of God is. It's kind of playful, it's kind of fun, and it's not all of it. It's not my entire concept, it's just one piece of it, but it's an easy way for me to explain it, and it's also an easy way for me to dive into treatment because when I think of this concept, I'm like, oh yeah, okay, I'm there. I can move on to the second step now. Okay, so do you ever watch Star Wars? The first episode, which was like episode seven or something. I don't know why they numbered them that way, but they did. Anyway, it's the force. That's my God. It's the force. And I have a quote for you, Obi-Wan Kenobi. And yes, I realize I'm speaking about a fictional character character in a fictional movie. I don't care. This is it. By the way, um, the guy that wrote, you know, Star Wars series, I can't remember his name, I'm having a senior moment. Science of Mind textbook, plainly visible in some of his promo videos. So this guy studied Science of Mind. Anyway, here's what Obi-Wan Kenobi said about what God is. He said, the force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together. So when I think of God, I think of an energy field. When I look around out there in the world and I look out my windows that I can look out now because they're here, and I see a little family quail going across, little itty bitty baby quail walking across my yard with a mama and a dad. It's all an energy field. It's everywhere. God is everywhere present. It's in this blue sky, it's in the little wispy clouds I can see, it's in the wind making the leaves on my trees dance. It's in the quail walking across my yard. It's in the little mouse or squirrel or something I just saw run across my yard. It's in all of it. In fact, all of it is it. It's all God. That's what my God is to me. And every time I look outside, that's my that's my precursor to my first step of treatment because I look out there and I see evidence of God everywhere. I see an abundance of God, I see it everywhere. And then I can move on into the next step of treatment, which is unification, which is a perfect way to wrap up this episode. See how I did that there? I'm so proud of myself. It's a perfect way to wrap up this episode and say that in the next episode, I'm gonna be talking about um unification. Uh, who am I in relationship to my connection with God? And then we're gonna move on from there. So, once again, the five steps of treatment are recognition, that's where we're at now, unification, that's where we'll be next time, realization, speaking our word, thanksgiving and release. And I'm gonna give us a treatment in closing today, and I'm gonna treat for peace. I've been treating a lot for peace these days, and so what I'm gonna do is very specific very specifically and clearly go through the five steps of treatment for you. And so I encourage you to take a deep breath. And if you're not driving while you're listening to this, allow your eyes to close. Otherwise, just listen. If you're doing the dishes or cooking dinner or whatever, which is what I'm always doing when I'm listening to a podcast, driving or doing dishes or cooking dinner, whatever it is, cleaning horse stalls, whatever it is you're doing. If you can close your eyes, do so. If not, just take a breath and relax and sink into this. And so stepping into this place of acknowledgement that God is, of knowing that everywhere I look, I see God, of knowing that God is indeed present, it's present in the wind dancing in my trees, it's present in the far-off mountains in the distance that still have snow on them, it's present in the blue sky. God is, it simply is. It is this absolutely beautiful thing that is everywhere present. And God is all good all the time. And because God is indeed everywhere present, I move on in this thing called treatment, into that place where I know that because God is everywhere present, I know that it is a part of me and I am a part of it. But there is no co-piloting here, there's no partnership here, there is only oneness here. God and I, we are one. We are inseparable, we are part and partial of the same being. I am a unique and individualized manifestation of spirit. And with that knowledge and with that acknowledgement, and with that absolutely beautiful and joyous feeling of power that I get from knowing that I am one with that all-powerful force. I speak my word now for peace. I feel peace as a part of me. I feel it in me, allowing me to relax. I'm feeling my shoulder muscles relax. I'm feeling all the rest of my muscles relax. I'm feeling my breath deepen and slow as I'm speaking these words. And as I'm feeling this peace because of oneness, because we are all unified, we are all connected. I am speaking my word for peace for everyone listening to this podcast right here and right now. And I am speaking my word for peace for all of the entire country, the United States, and beyond. Because there is no place where God is not. And so I know that when I speak my words for peace, peace it is. Peace is done, peace is there, peace is part and parcel of who and what we are, it is part and parcel of who and what I am. And so I release my words for peace into that law that grabs hold of those words and says, I yes, I am definitely on it. I have done it, it is done, I am working on it, and so peace is manifesting throughout the entire world, right here and right now. And with great gratitude, I anchor, and so it is. I thank you very much for listening. I hope you will join me for the rest of this series. This one is called What is God? The next one will be called What Who Am I? And onward. And Fearlessly Feral Living is a focused ministry of Centers for Spiritual Living. And I am knowing Fearlessly Feral Living for you and for me. And you can support our podcast in a number of ways, all of which are listed on our website at fearlesslyferal.org. And I thank you very much again. Peace out.