Relection Points for Chapter Two

1. This personality-self is not who we really are. We are a holographic part of the Divine Oneness.
2. We are holographic in that every part contains the whole.
3. Each human being comes to Earth to learn certain lessons which will help align the ego or mind with the soul or heart.
4. A soul contract is written to facilitate this learning process.
5. The human being or personality-self has free will of choices within the soul contract.

The dictionary defines the word hologram as...........
appropriately enough, the word hologram comes from the Greek words holos, "whole," and gramma, "message." If a hologram is cut into pieces, each piece projects the entire image, but as if viewed from a smaller subset of angles.

Oneness is All That Is and it is contained within each one of us. Each of our cells has the holographic sense of our organism as a whole. As The Course in Miracles suggests......all we see is but an illusion. It is a projection of our consciousness. I am a droplet of the Oneness consciousness as is everyone and everything else. Therefore, I contain it all in me. That perfection is in me and you, and us. At our core we are pure awareness.

We, as a droplet of pure awareness, are covered with clouds of thinking we are imperfect. Our fragmentation includes thinking we are not good enough, we will be abandoned, we cannot really trust ourselves. The pain that this causes us in our hearts urges us to seek comfort in addictions. The soul wants to align with the ego.....the reservior of our fears.....by standing by our side while we encounter life's challenges. When we choose to rise above the fear and seek peace in our hearts, the soul expands. The ego is then the passenger in the soul's car. We accomplish things from a source of soul motivation rather than a separatist ego point of view.

Our own particular lives are perfect to enable that alignment of the ego and the soul to occur. We draw to us the appropriate relationships and events that give us the opportunity to choose healing. That would be a description of a soul contract. We came here in this lifetime to learn to love in all degrees......ourselves and others and our particular life themes reflect that if we look deeply enough. Free choice creates karma...what goes around, comes around.....and so we can take as long as we like to learn the lessons. Our soul is persistent in assisting us to open our hearts in the continual parade of life events that is called our life.

"This vast panoramic world view is a reflection of your consciousness." Nisargadatta Maharaj

Reflection Points 3, 4, 5

3. Our lifetimes on Earth are an illusion.
4. The Earth is a classroom in which we learn.
5. Your Life is Your Teacher

All three of these reflection points can be discussed as one. How do we know that our lifetimes on Earth are an illusion? When we remember to connect with our souls we are able to expand our consciousness and to resonate in our hearts with the truth of who we really are. The illusion is that state of forgetfulness of our Higher Self.

We see that if we live in our personality-selves, then we are experiencing our lives from our five senses. We see it, hear it, smell it, feel it, and taste it. We live in that space with a low ceiling. We operate as discrete individuals, lacking the perception of being connected to the whole.

When we begin to balance our lower chakras with the energy from the higher chakras, our ability to experience a transcendence into higher vibrations increases. We begin to appreciate the teachings of our soul in our everyday lives.

Our souls use the fodder of our daily events to expand our hearts into a more expansive and deeper love of ourselves and others. Our capacities for compassion, forgiveness, honesty, openness, and self-awareness become boundless as we live more and more of our days in soul alignment.

Our life is our meditation because everything we need is encapsulated in our stories. We are not our stories; our souls teach us by using our stories as we enter into relationships, whether in our families, at work, friends, etc. If we have codependency wounds than we will attract the perfect relationship that will provide us the opportunity to heal that wound. The same with any unbalanced emotion, any part of us that is needs healing. All that we need in order to self-realize is provided to us by the love that always surrounds us.

Reflection Point #2

The Earth Lifetime is a classroom of learning to love ourselves without conditions.

The Course in Miracles says that we have two choices in our thought processes: love or fear. The human condition presents us with continual opportunities to make our choices.

If we view life from the perspective that we are here to learn about the mystery of love, then every event and every person can be a teacher for us. Our souls beckon us to take responsibility for our lessons and to transform ourselves step by step into a greater love. Each belief of nonloving acts as an opague area of resistance or fear that blocks our ability to connect with Spirit. The soul keeps leading us back to those areas of separateness to integrate the experience and to open our hearts.

Living lightly with an open heart and curiosity to the process of the soul unfolding in our life experiences, provides us with an increasingly joyful heart. Gratitude for our lessons becomes our response rather than blaming and victimization. Learning to love ourselves increases our light and therefore, the light of the world. It is a gift both to ourselves and to the planet.

Reflection Point 1

Andrea Lee Avari

Each soul is a droplet of Universal Consciousness costumed as a human being.

The first reflection point in my book, A Hit of Heaven: a soul's journey through illusion, is a remembrance of who we really are. In the evolution of my growth I have come to see that the Universal Consciousness permeates everything. When souls incarnate upon the earth, they come to experience life as a healing classroom. Souls are attached to a unique human personality form. Whatever is not love in the human personality is grist for the soul-healing mill. Soul searches out the dark corners of the personality-self for fear based thoughts and emotions much like cleaning out our clothes closet. And it can be a smooth cleaning or not depending upon our resistance to the process.

If we forget and fall asleep in our personality-self, then the ride is less smooth. If we remember who we truly are, then the journey is an adventure towards greater peace and joy in our hearts.

Andrea's Interview with Personal Development Forum

1) Can you tell us a little about your background and how you came to write
“A Hit of Heaven”?

I ascribe to the quote that says….all those who wander are not lost. My life has been a series of adventures that have taught me many things. I have been a teacher and a counselor, a coach, a mother, a daughter, a wife and many variations on those themes. I wrote “A Hit of Heaven” because I felt a need to share with people a particular path of spiritual recovery from pain to joy.

That path is using your own life as a meditation. All the events in our lives are teachers for us. Doing the heart work of healing the wounds is our own personal life guides us to wholeness, an alignment of the outer and the inner selves, the ego and the soul. The book was the basis of my doctoral dissertation for spiritual coaching and I was encouraged to publish it.


2) Briefly, what is A Hit of Heaven about? What message were you trying to
communicate?

The main message of this book is about taking responsibility for our lives. If we can see how we learn from every circumstance in our lives and from every relationship, then we can see that our lives bring us everything that we need to grow out of fear and into love for ourselves and others.

When we move out of a victim-mode and take responsibility for ourselves then we realize that our thoughts and perceptions have the ability to create our reality. We are not our stories; we are connected to something much greater than a 3-Dimensional personality-self. When we focus our thoughts on the idea of well-being and love, then that is what we create. If we focus our thoughts on fear and struggle, then that is what we create. By learning to love and accept those parts of us that fear, we bring more light and joy into our hearts.

I wanted to write for the people who have chosen challenging lives and honor them for having the courage to work towards healing themselves and to find love and joy in the present moment. We all have challenges on one level or another and I wanted to honor all of us who are choosing to walk their talk with a deep passion to awaken.



3) You paint a beautiful image of heaven in your book. Where did the
inspiration for such imagery come from?

My meditations are very colorful and give me the feelings of the beauty of love and joy. I see everything as a vibration of light manifested in all things. The descriptions of heaven are a metaphor for those beautiful vibrations of higher consciousness.

Michael Newton’s books….Journey of the Soul and Destiny of the Soul and the Education of Oversoul Seven by Jane Roberts were also influential in my visual thinking.

I like to think that every night when we sleep that our souls leave our resting bodies and move into the higher dimensions where we do service work as well as to learn from the angels and masters. We are in school at night learning about love and fear. When we wake up we bring that wisdom back with us but it may not be readily accessible. In our meditations we are able to connect with that learning more easily and remember who we really are.



4) You note that some souls choose to study in the 'Earth school'. Are there
other schools? What are they and do they have the same purpose?

The Course in Miracles says….the Holy Spirit…sees the world as a teaching device for bringing you home. This statement resonates with me. I don’t really know about other schools. I just know in my heart that the earth experience is about loving and allowing love to be our source of motivation in our lives. Learning to love ourselves is a life or lives-long experience. It takes courage and work. The parts of ourselves that we do not love fully remain separated and cause us to feel isolated and not good enough at times. Those are the times of our greatest learning.




5) A central premise of your book is that a soul chooses his or her life
before birth and then lives out that predetermined reality, exercising free
will while coming into contact with benevolent teachers that take on
different roles in order to mentor the soul. This is a point that fascinates
me about the Law of Attraction in general. In your opinion, do others - that
is, the teachers - have free will while on earth?

An intuitive said to a friend once that she must be very loved in the Universe because so many people had contracted to play challenging parts in this person’s life. That concept stuck with me as a loving assessment of what some might describe as a difficult life. That you must be so loved to have so many souls willing to be teachers for you lights my heart.

The idea of a soul contract has always interested me. If we look carefully at our lives, we can see how certain players, whether it be a mother, father, sibling, wife, husband, child, friend, boss, etc. are perfect for our learning. They have a part of our puzzle that we can heal to bring ourselves to wholeness. The parts that we play for others in these relationships are a source of teachings for them as well. We are the students and the teachers for each other.

For example, in the book, a mother who was not loved for who she was becomes a mother who cannot love her daughter. The reason is not because she doesn’t want to but because she doesn’t have the love in her heart for herself. The mother’s parents had not learned how to love either and they passed it on to the mother of this young woman. You can’t love another truly without loving yourself first. So the daughter carries that lack of self-love until she decides to learn to love herself.

She could have not chosen to experience that learning and passed it unhealed onto her children. It is always a choice. Everyone has a choice. The soul creates a life for the human personality that gives the opportunity for the personality to heal and the soul to evolve. The soul knows exactly what part of the personality needs to heal and a teacher is attracted to the situation in order to teach the student. The teaching experience extends to the teacher as a learning experience for that soul as well.



6) You borrow the term karma. What does this term mean to you and how does
it relate to a Christian-inspired view of heaven and a soul?

To me karma means the simple act of experiencing what it is that you create. Karma is not a good thing or a bad thing; it just is. You could say that you reap what you sow. If you make a choice you will experience the consequence of that choice. So if you create with a sense of love, the effects of your choice will reflect that love.

If you choose to create from a place of fear, the effects of your choice will reflect that fear. The idea of karma transcends religions….it reflects the consequences of your choices. It has a boomerang effect that you receive and helps you to learn what consequences you would like to create. That is how we change, by taking responsibility for our choices without attaching judgment to the process. It just is.



7) One of the insights you provide is to separate the 'thinking self' from
the 'inner self'. What are the key differences between the two?

Another term for thinking self might be the “ego.” The ego gets a lot of bad press but it is just that personality part of ourselves that is attempting to protect us. If the ego is not in alignment with the soul or higher self, that part of us that is eternal, then the human personality will react from a basis of fear. The basis of fear comes from the feeling of being separate from the “inner self” or higher self, the vibration of higher consciousness that is love.

For me the ego is not something to suppress or resist. It is not bad; it just is. If we attempt to create situations and relationships in our lives from a point of fear or the thinking self, then that is what we will create. The universe vibrates with love and responds to us as we vibrate. If we vibrate fear, then fear is attracted to us. If we vibrate from trust and love, then that is what we create.

So to answer your question…….the ‘thinking self’ is differentiated from the ‘inner self’ by raising the fear-based vibration of the ego up into alignment with the soul by consciously creating your thoughts motivated by the higher energy of love.



8) Why do you believe trusting our intuition is so important?

The Course in Miracles says….if you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. We all have access to hearing our inner voice of intuition. Sometimes we just don’t believe that we are good enough to hear it. Our “thinking mind” takes over and we say we can’t and that mindset reinforces that we can’t. When we come from a place of trust and allowing, then we begin to recognize the flow because it resonates with our hearts. If it does not, then we drop it and move on.

I began by writing as in journaling….asking questions and listening for the resonance in my heart. As I learned to trust the process over time, I was able to strengthen my connection. Learning to trust and to allow the process (rather than control) were my lessons in learning how to connect with my intuition. The beautiful energy that comes through fills up my heart and continually reminds me that we are all always connected to the highest vibrations of love. We are always supported and loved.



9) Why should someone read A Hit of Heaven? What relevance does it have to
life?

A Hit of Heaven was written as a gift to anyone who responds to its vibration. I choose to write it for the people in this world who have the courage to live their lives deeply. We are all making progress in the direction of higher consciousness in every moment of our lives. The relevance comes forth to the reader because all of us live our lives in some degree of struggle….whether it be relationships with ourselves or others, etc.

A Hit of Heaven can assist those who choose the path of taking responsibility to learn our lessons, to look at and heal our addictions….large and small…..that keep us estranged from our true nature. By following the main character’s struggle with her childhood and the perceptions that she develops about herself from those early relationships, we can see how the tendency to make unhealthy decisions is a natural consequence of our beliefs about ourselves. And we can also follow along with her process as she learns to heal those beliefs to create a more peaceful heart.

As we ask for our lessons to come in more gentle ways, and when we live from a greater place of responsibility, acknowledging our inner wisdom in alignment with our soul, lessons come and go with less and less struggle. Peace in our heart comes from knowing that we are truly loved and supported in the universe; that we are that universal loving energy; that we deserve such joy in our beings; that loving ourselves no matter what and sharing that gift with others is our purpose here on earth.



10) You are currently working on a second book. Can you tell us about it?

The second book deals with a spiritual path through relationships. It is entitled: “How I Love You is How I Love God.” It continues the story of Anisea from “A Hit of Heaven” as she learns to manifest a soulful relationship into her life. Through the ups and downs of the dynamics of the partnership, the parts of herself that contain fear in the midst of such a deep love come forward to be healed. The premise is that how we love in our most intimate relationships is how we love spirit. Whatever keeps us from unity in Oneness is clearly shown to us in partnership. And so, the main character takes us through the obstacle course of love on an adventure to which most of us can relate. Hopefully, it will be published early 2009.

The Introduction of a Hit of Heaven

Welcome to A Hit of Heaven

I have posted the introduction to the book for those of you who have not had an opportunity to read the book as yet. I begin with a quotation from the Course in Miracles that beautifully describes the meaning of this book: that everything in this lifetime, all experiences, all relationships are for our highest learning. When we take responsibility for our lessons, they flow through us in a much more gentle way, dissolving with non-attachment, providing a clearer path for us than a moment before. We realize that there is no need to struggle anymore.

What could you not accept
If you but knew that everything that happens,
All events, past, present and to come,
Are gently planned by One
Whose only purpose is your good?
—A Course in Miracles

In Heaven, a young woman prepares for her next life
on planet Earth, that most challenging arena of spiritual
growth in the entire Universe. Her soul contract has been
designed to introduce events and relationships, all opportunities
for growth or Hits of Heaven, which will tear at the
very fabric of her being.

Why would the soul create a mother who cannot love
this young woman called Anisea? A father that looks upon
her with disapproval? A family that does not recognize the
beauty of her uniqueness? The lessons will be many and
arduous, the choice to learn is hers alone. Her thoughts will
create the possibility of moving from the darkness into the
light of love and acceptance.

“Why do I have a mother who can’t love me? Why am
I here? Why can’t I find love?” The soul smiles with loving
patience. Spiritual guides whisper supportive words, flowing
with illumined wisdom all around her.

“How well did you learn to love yourself and others in
your lifetime on Earth?” This is a question that we may all
be asked as we cross over into Heaven. The teachings in this
story will assist you in answering that question for yourself.
But how does she deal with losing the one she loved the
most, who was just beginning to teach her to love herself?

How do you find grace and an awakening in your heart that
you were certain was smashed beyond repair?
Anisea falls in the mud, looking up to the God of her
parents and childhood through accusing, victim eyes.

This young woman stubbornly resists, going it on her own using
whatever will get her through the night.
The soul must assume the passenger seat while the ego
drives wildly into the darkness trying to find comfort in those
things that give a numbing of the spirit in any way.

Careening through space and slowly dropping to her knees in surrender,
Anisea gradually finds her mind expanding to love.
Her heart opens to allow the space and the vibrations
of higher consciousness to flow within and the healings to
begin.

Anisea finds that her self-worth is not dictated by the
approval of others but from the love she discovers within
herself. It is a love and a joyful peacefulness that has always
been present. Anisea’s spiritual rebirth can be an experience
not only for her but a healing for us all.

It is the whispers of the soul that we hear as we follow
our individual journeys inward…urging us onward toward
the self-realization of the unique and beautiful spark of All
That Is that we truly are.

A Hit of Heaven: a soul's journey through illusion

Andrea Lee Avari, Ph.D.

Reflection Points from a Hit of Heaven

Welcome to a discussion of the reflection points discussed in a Hit of Heaven. This site is dedicated to those of you who have read the book and are working with the points listed at the end of each chapter. I will begin next week with Chapter One.

I will also post an interview that is being prepared by personaldevelopmentforum.com regarding the writing and content of the book.

See you next week.
Andrea