There, By the Grace of Cheese, Go I
By Summer Bacon
I had to laugh. I truly mean no disrespect to anyone, but I really had to laugh.
A man came up to me after one of my open sessions in Sedona. Now, mind you, I'm pretty spacey after I channel, and I do my best to be alert and gracious when people come up to introduce themselves to me and kindly thank me for the opportunity to speak with Dr. Peebles. It's all very heartwarming, and one of the great rewards for doing this work. Anyway, this particular man lingered for quite awhile after the session, waiting for the crowd to dissipate. As I collected my things and made a move to leave, he shyly edged closer to me as if he had something to say.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hello,” he replied as we shook hands, “If you would stop eating cheese, you would be a clearer channel.”
My recollection is that I almost burst out laughing, thinking I hadn't heard him correctly.
“I'm sorry…what did you say?” I asked.
“Stop eating cheese, and you'll be a clearer channel.”
Not certain how I should respond as my life of clear channeling flashed before my eyes, I nodded, smiled and said, “Thank you for the advice.” Then I asked his name and thanked him for coming to the session.
Since then I haven't stopped laughing. In the middle of the night, I laugh. As I tell the story on the phone, I laugh. I thank this gentle, well-intentioned man for giving me much cause to think. My mind is having a field day with this tidbit of information. Thoughts such as, “I'd rather give up channeling than give up cheese!” run through it.
Ohmygosh, how I love cheese. And my own homemade chicken fried steak. And shish kabob. And coffee. And champagne. I'm addicted to veggies, and eat my fair share of fruit too. And plenty of whole grains. And white rice. And white flour. And potato chips. But, oh God, how I love cheese.
In fact, a slice of cheese is often the one thing that I eat before I do my private sessions. I have learned the hard way that if I don't get enough protein, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, my body gets hammered pretty hard by the channeling, and the recovery is more difficult. My body is like a low voltage wire, and the frequency of spirit is like high voltage running through it. I tend to physically burn out.
So, between sessions I eat cheese. A glorious slice of swiss…a mountain of muenster…a chunk of sweet nutty goat's cheese…a slab of brie…a mouth watering, tastebud tingling slice of pepper jack…sometimes sandwiched between two thick slices of crusty sourdough bread…or a thick spread of cream cheese dotted with some zippy green olives. Oh yes! Glory be to God for the milk cow!
I am, without shame, an admitted cheeseaholic.
And, I have to wonder…if I were to give up cheese and become an even clearer channel, what would that mean? I'm already in such a deep trance, I have to wonder if I might catapult right out of the body and never return!
Okay…I'm teasing just a little bit here. But, on a more serious note, why in the world would I ever want to give my power to a little hunk of cheese? My journey as a trance medium started as a quest to know God and to feel His grace in my life. I wanted to truly know Him. Cheese shmeese. God's love is what influences my life and my work. It is to Him that I surrender my mind, body and spirit, and ask for His blessings to flow through me in the form of words of encouragement, and offerings of suggestions, and refreshing perspectives from Dr. Peebles and the band of angels. Is a hunk of cheese going to spoil this journey for me? I think not!
I remember a woman who was aghast at the fact that I drank coffee before channeling. “You need to stop!” she rebuked me in horror. I thought, “Gee, you really ought to try it. It's really a good cup…extra cream…just takes the edge off my sleepiness, and revs up my body quite nicely for the high charge of spirit to come through.” But, I didn't say anything. I just said, “Thank you for the advice.”
Life is far too short to worry about such things. I agree with Aristotle and Ben Franklin. Moderation in all things is probably best. I didn't always believe this. I bought into the lie of self-deprivation. There was a time where I got caught in the dieting trap and measured my life by a bathroom scale. I became bulimic (a fancy word for the sad, pathetic and degrading practice of scarfing out on a bunch of food and then forcing yourself to puke it up, over and over again). Unbeknownst to me, my metabolism slowed down because I was severely malnourished, and I packed on the pounds…lots of them. I couldn't see my feet over my stomach no matter how hard I sucked it in.
One day I looked in the mirror and said, “Well, Summer. I didn't know you'd become a fat person. But,” I said in revelation, “if you are going to be fat, you may as well enjoy it!” I'd gotten sick and tired of bulimia, counting calories, feeling badly about myself. So, I started to eat. Really eat. I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner AND dessert. And, guess what? I started to lose weight. In fact, when all was said and done, I lost nearly 40 pounds! I felt better, began to work out to tone up, and discovered that I never had to worry about my diet again.
Even today, at 44 years old, I have surrendered to the extra pounds I carry. I've been on both sides of the weight problem issue. At times my weight dropped so low I couldn't eat enough to get the pounds back on, and I looked downright anorexic (and was accused of being so). That was when my second daughter was nursing and growing like a weed and refused to be weaned from the breast. My body was literally sucked dry. These days I prefer the ten extra pounds that I carry. I feel healthier. And, frankly, I really like to eat cheese.
From a different perspective, if you throw all the dieting magazines aside, I truly believe that weight is attributed to how much we choose to pad and cushion ourselves against the world. Kind of like the use of cigarettes as a smoke screen. Same concept. When I trace my weight patterns, I can mark the times when I entered into extreme periods of self loathing, shyness, or fear with the times when I ballooned out. When I left my fourth husband after suffering nine years of extreme spousal abuse, however, I suddenly lost thirty pounds in three days! The emotional weight was off, and my real body was exposed. I was a thin, depleted, exhausted and frail young woman, and it was time to build myself anew.
These are just some of the reasons that I can't give my power to the cheese. I know in my heart of hearts that this is a spiritual journey that all of us are on. I don't want to spend my life pointing fingers and saying, “The cheese did it!” I want to look inside of my own heart and discover the many ways in which I can become more vulnerable and surrender into even deeper trance, to always work to improve myself as a spiritual worker in a way that will stick with me for life. I want to transform myself by finding and touching the face of God within me, and abiding by the only truth that matters: that God's love is the constant. If the work that I do in my own heart can touch the lives of the many rather than the few, then hallelujah.
There are no quick fixes and no free rides. I might choose to stop eating cheese one day, but I highly doubt that this would make me a better channel. Even if it did, I'm pretty sure I would end up suffering from brittle bones or a heart murmur. Again, I'd rather do the inner work to improve my channeling. Joyful introspection along with a creamy and hefty chunk of Saga blue cheese sittin' on a Ritz. Sigh. Now that's what I call dinner!
Sure, you can induce all kinds of altered states through self-deprivation such as fasting, or even by taking drugs. In fact, my mystical experiences are eerily parallel to the experiences I've heard from drug addicts. A hit of LSD can send you on an astral trip from which you may never return. A puff of marijuana can bring “such peace that you can literally hear the grass growing on the other side of the world,” as someone once described it.
I personally chose not to do drugs, and I'm glad about it. My Daddy jokingly told me that I should never do drugs, “because you ARE drugs, Summer.” I made the mistake of trying marijuana once when I was 21 years old (because someone said it had no calories and had the same effect as a glass of wine). I immediately found myself floating out of body, heading home to God. I clawed and grabbed the couch, and cried and begged my boyfriend to take me to the hospital. He was so high he just sat there and laughed at me while watching the movie High Anxiety. Fortunately the effects of the marijuana eventually wore off. Then I ate a half gallon of neopolitan ice cream. So much for marijuana becoming my diet drug of choice. (Just a sidebar here: in people who are allergic to it, marijuana can induce symptoms similar to that of paranoid schitzophrenia. Hence the reason for my extremely “high anxiety,” something I choose never to experience again.)
I figure that if there's free ride, I'm not so sure I want to take it. At what cost is it “free?” For example, my fiancé was grumbling about his Yahoo email account and all of the spam he receives on a daily basis. I said, “As my Daddy used to say, ‘there are no free rides.' It's a free account. What do you expect?” It seems to be the way of the world that we want to eat our cake and have it too. But, what fun would it be if you ate your cake and another piece automatically appeared? What if the apple trees always bore apples? We would never have the joy of baking the cake, or of waiting for the spring buds on the tree to appear and smelling the delicate scent of the flowers. What's the big rush? (Funny thing that drug addicts often call the initial sensation from the drugs they take a “rush.” Seems to me they are in a hurry to have peace and happiness…”NOW, damn it!”) In Gulliver's Travels there's a fantastic illustration of how human beings would respond if we had the chance to be immortal. The immortal beings in this particular tale are totally bored with their existence. They've explored every region, played every game, had every conversation, eaten every kind of food you can imagine. They have no risk or challenge to their life because they are immortal. They can't die, so they don't need to eat, make money, or worry about smoking, high cholesterol or driving too fast. Ahhhh! Think about it for a minute. Isn't that scary? Maybe there's a reason God made us to be temporary inhabitants of the earth.
The point of being here is to learn how to BE here. As Dr. Peebles often says, “You are not a human doing, you are a human Being.” And another gem is, “When you get ‘there,' where are you going to get to next?” And how about, “Once you are enlightened, what are you going to do then?”
Ours is a journey that never ends. It is a quest for love that we have embarked upon. Stop looking to the external world for your pleasure. No matter what you are DO-ing, it is how you experience it internally that counts. Joy is joy whether it comes from a hug, a car, or a trip to Machu Pichu. (I used to mercilessly tease my friend about her upcoming trip to “Macho Peaches.”) You don't grow into greater spiritual awareness by taking a trip to India to see a guru, by climbing a mountain, driving a fast car, sitting in quiet contemplation, or not eating cheese. All the crystals, pendulums, tarot cards, psychic readings, and open sessions with trance mediums are meaningless in your journey, unless you choose to give them meaning in your life. They can't/won't/never will FIX you. It all happens on the inside and by your choice.
It is self responsibility for your life as a creative adventure of which I speak. It is through your choices and perceptions you do indeed create your own reality. These are the truths to which I adhere, not dietary illusions. When a dear friend came up to me in a panic because a woman came into his work wearing a gas mask and speaking about the dangers of the “chem trails that the government makes in our skies,” I told him, “Matthew, you need to be more concerned about a woman who dares to leave such chem trails of fear in your consciousness. How dare she!”
We can only accomplish so much in one lifetime. It's such a waste of precious life to be focusing on the size and shape of your upper lip, or worrying about another terrorist attack. I can't say that I am perfect in living in this awareness 24/7, but at least I try. I pinch myself when I stray from truth, and remind myself that it is what I am creating on the inside that I will be taking with me. I don't want to miss the journey to riches by praying to win the lottery. I don't want to spoil my chance to grow into greater love by blaming the cheese.
No matter how many things you “fix” in your life, you will never find the cure for unhappiness by looking to your external world. You will never find the cure for your dis-ease, until you find the comfort within. Take a chance to change your mind today. I did when I looked in the mirror and decided that if I was going to be fat, then I was going to enjoy it! I did it when I chose to forgive my ex-husbands.
You have free will that can guide you closer to God, or it can tell you to look away. Don't feed the monster of fear. Choose to live your life with a smile, and remember to say “cheese.”
There, by the grace of God and cheese, go I.