by Alan Johnston, Pottsville NSW
Up until my engagement with Universal Medicine, I never actually considered that (my) soul could intervene in (my) life. However, I did occasionally have the intimation that something was looking out for me in some way, even if at times it felt like the rough end of the pineapple.
For example, I once spent several weeks in prison.
The equation went like this: it was the end of the 1960’s, add a large BSA motorbike plus very long hair and a ‘rebel without a pause’ attitude, a three-car police chase, a conservative magistrate (I wore a wig to court to conceal my hair)… but incarceration was, he said, ‘unavoidable’.
I spent my first few days sharing a cell with a seminary student who was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. No contest as to who had the moral high ground.
Now, with a bit more self-reflection than when I was twenty, I have no doubt that this episode was my soul intervening and breaking up a self-destructive spiral.
Things weren’t the same when I got out – I mean apart from the prison haircut. And perhaps you can get a whiff of how that inmate ‘barber’, with all his mates watching on, relished cutting the hippie’s hair.
Closely entwined then, there was the ‘biblical’ disempowerment of the haircutting but also, thanks to my soul, a much more dire imprisonment was revealed.
What I mean is, that through the sudden loss of a heavily-invested-in identity, I got the first glimpse that I was a prisoner of my need for acceptance and recognition – from without, from others. As far back as I could tell it had always been like that. A life sentence, in fact. I probably couldn’t have expressed it quite this way at the time, I just felt extremely vulnerable.
So, while the rebellion didn’t disappear and indeed led to further self-destructive behaviour, I also very gratefully feel that this soul-provided insight/vulnerability (and other such episodes), ultimately helped draw me back to myself – albeit via the scenic route.
And how beautiful it now feels to name and sense the sphere of the soul and its influence, and the joy of that which senses….
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Sometimes the imprisoning we inflict on ourselves may not be noticeable, but it may be greater and even more destructive than the one we can receive from the outside
Beautiful to appreciate that the Soul is Divine Love when we experience the ‘short, sharp shock’ that brings us to a stop and an opportunity to make a different choice in the way we live.
The best (or the worst) prison of all is the one that we don’t know we are in so that we would make it a home and never even think to try getting out of.
Life without the 60s would be so different as the rebel within us all got to be experienced and set a platform for the next generations to follow even be it at a different slant but still insidiously lost as the millennials are a testament to. Soul-full living, as you have shared Alan, is so extra-ordinarily different as it brings such a Joyous Harmony to life.
Appreciation of our Soul, has set a platform for us to be more intimate with everyone and thus we start to evolve and deepen in our Soul-full essences.
And rather than searching we simply live with appreciation of our Soul and feel the simplicity of what life is like without the usual drive and judge-mental attachments we can become addicted to.
It is so lovely to feel the presence of our Soul without it having to ‘come to our rescue’.
It is immensely beautiful and deeply settling to feel and know that the sense of the presence of our Soul, that which has never really left me alone throughout my life, is in fact real, and is an impulse that we can live guided by and is the true representation of who we are and our purpose for being here. Inspired by The Way of the Livingness, I have discovered that a Soulful way of being in life is truly possible.
Your stint in prison clearly put a stop to your ‘rebel without a pause’ trajectory Alan – but well done to you for listening and being honest about where you were going if you continued the direction and path you were on.
Yes until we start getting glimpses of what it is to sense and move with the light of the Soul, it is not so obvious that we are constricted and constrained in a world of illusion, a prison of our own making.
Human life is an enormous experience, and when we get a sense of the soul it’s truly a defining moment, we are already making the return to something much grander by the gentle waking up of our soul’s presence.
Many take the scenic route and get caught in the beauty on the way although for some it does seemingly end up at the wrong end of certain fruits instead of being focused on the movements in the journey that keep us connected to our Soul.
The beauty of ‘the scenic route’ is in fact an illusion as we are living in the House of Lies.
Or the house of cards, as one day the winds of change will make it simple for all that comes from a scenic route to be simply seen. So we can make the move with loving movements down the street to the vacant house that has been Loving left for us as the Love we are now living magnetically pulls us to that address!
Identification may be our greatest imprisonment, identification as an individual different to everyone else in some way or another that gives us justification to understand ourselves as a separate entity with all the rights we believe we have to be confirmed as such.
So true Alex, as a pasting phase of my life hippism was a way of checking out of life as it was for many baby boomers. Learning to get my hips moving in a way that reconfigures those old ways has been such a blessing as walking through life has been re-routed!
You make me wonder what truly is imprisonment? Is it… just simply being physically restrained – or – could it be that our thoughts and our choices and our actions can imprison us for decades, if not lifetimes, in a manner that is much more retarding than any 4 walls could be?
Yes Meg, we imprison ourselves in ways which are more condemning than any prison cell – our belief systems and stuck ways of thinking are just that – an imprisonment. An imprisonment away from our soul, and I believe there’s nothing worse than that.
They can never take away our Soul, it is up to us to choose the True energy of the Soul and then walk it everywhere we go so the reflection of Love is plain for all to feel, as we also can not stop feeling.
Wow Alan I feel so touched by the by your ability to be open and laugh at the misguided behaviours that imprison us further and further away from a settlement within ourself, as well as the way you observed and expressed your appreciation of the constant presence of the soul drawing you back to yourself. The scenery may vary, but I am sure the route you have written about is so very familiar to most of us.
Rebellion is an interesting stage. On the one hand it has great honesty and expression, on the other hand it is a rabbit hole that can swallow you up and become an identity in itself and no ‘better’ than that which the rebel is rebelling against.
Yes, we can often look back on things that happen to us in our lives and see how there is something looking out for us, something that has a bigger picture in mind. This sense is well worth remembering in the present when the things that ‘happen’ to us feel illogical and perhaps overwhelming.
Thank you Alan, that imprisonment I can definitely feel and also what it’s like to be in the presence of the soul.
Rebelling is still conforming, no matter how hard we try to ‘be different’.
When we are imprisoned by our own self accord, it is very difficult to get out of it because this is where we have opted in with all our might even if what we seel to ourselves is that we are freer than ever.
It’s amazing that you saw this moment in your life as an opportunity to see how you had imprisoned yourself in your own life. There is always more to the events in life than what we see on the surface. We may not like it, but it’s often needed, as until these moments bring us to a stop, we go on through our days blinded by our own needs.
Ah, the illusion of pseudo-freedom. We put so many conditions to qualify ourselves as being free, and there’s actually so much attachment.
Those big ‘stop’ moments or circumstances are always great opportunities to reflect. We then have a choice: to go even more ingrained into the same or to choose a wiser path.
We frequently choose just another version of the same mix and it can take a long while to realise that.
You could say that the stop moments offer us the potential to leave our imprisonment and discover a new way forward, these moments offer us a greater opportunity than we realise.
A very funny short story and it was so real when you read it, an obviously truly gifted writer. I have had the same experience where you have a sense of something grander, something bigger then big watching over you. I always had the sense it was in the sky somewhere looking down and that I was at the bottom of the ladder. This maybe partly to do with my catholic upbringing but there is still a true sense of the grandness but now it’s not seen in the sky with me at the bottom, it’s more all around with me at the centre. Life isn’t what I made it or nor was it what I saw it to be, life is a reflection of what is already within me and the more I allow movement from this true place, the more what is outside me is pulled back to the same grand quality.
Our Soul is great at waking us up, to make us realise that perhaps the life we pretend to seek comes from the outside and not truly from within.
Thank you Alan, you have inspired me to take a deeper look at my life to see where my soul has intervened. I enjoyed the term “scenic route” – very apt!
A connection with your soul is not some far off thing that takes decades of work. It can be a part of everyday life with the application of care of self, and use of the Gentle Breath Meditation.
Great blog Alan. Life is but a reflection and keeps reflecting back to us what we are in fact doing to ourselves . . . so we do give ourselves that life sentence when we are looking for acceptance and recognition from others. We sit in our self made prison cell with the get out of prison key in our back pocket.
We imprison ourselves with the burdens of ideals and beliefs until we discover the key to reconnecting to love and our innate inner wisdom then we step into the light and feel the freedom to be who we are.
We tend to equate being a prisoner with being locked in a physical jail. Yet, this is not the only possible jail, nor the worst one. The worst one is being a prisoner /e.g., of your ideals and beliefs, your visions of the world, etc) but not being aware of the fact.
I had to sit with what you have shared about “your soul intervening and breaking up a self-destructive spiral.” I have to admit that my soul did a similar job to me but until I have read your awakening blog I was not aware of it. Now I am even more humble how I was looked after. Thank you for sharing your souls connection!
What a total classic and a super visual picture that you painted. I was very wild before my introduction to Universal Medicine and after reading this blog about how your soul was always present it made me reflect on similar experiences I have had over my life. I remember making many bookings at the tattoo parlour to get my full sleeves of tatt’s over both arms, I wanted pirate ships and girl sailors, yep in all the bright colours that money could buy. At the time I thought my inability to get to the appointments was disorganisation and when I kept spending all my money I had for the tatts at the pub I took it as another reason to beat myself up. Now, I can see that something was looking after me, for if I had gotten those tattoos, they would have defined me for the rest of my life; they do not represent who I am as a woman today on any level. They would have trapped me into one kind of life. I am so grateful that my soul, although it left me alone to have free will about most things, was not going to let me stray too far; it had my back.
True freedom is lived when we move in connection to our Soul. For whenever we move in dis-connection to our Soul, we are incarcerated by the ideals and beliefs that serve only to keep us confined within the walls of illusion, exhaustingly seeking approval, recognition and identification at all costs.
The ‘pull-up’ – oftentimes feeling like the ‘rough end of the pineapple’, yet potentially holding the blessing of much learning and shedding of that which we’ve donned that’s not been truly ‘us’ in the first place.
As ever, love your honesty here Alan, and can’t but be intrigued as to the many stories you could tell…
Well said Victoria and a profound reminder that is a blessing itself, of the truth that we are eternally held, as our Soul is forever calling us to move in union with the quality that we already Divinely are and are here to live. A quality that reflects the vibration of true freedom is in being ourselves.
The rough end of the pineapple can often be where we get our most honest realisations that the fruits of the world around us sometimes are not all that they appear to be, and that in fact underneath the outside skin, some can even be quite rotten.
That is great and I would say true way at looking at imprisonment, it creates a stop moment to feel if what you were in was really what you would choose to be in if you have a moment outside of it.
We certainly don’t need to go to gaol to feel or be imprisoned.
Beautiful Alan, the soul has a hand in many things and from my experience it’s always there if I choose to work with it and it can also pull back if we are working against it for us to have the space to feel our choices.
As the saying goes ‘a blessing in disguise’, as often what seems a bad incidence in our lives will in truth be the turning point that taught us the lesson we had to learn and will bring us closer to our soul.
As I reflect on 50 or so years of life this time around there are definitely some experiences I would not have consciously chosen ‘from the comfort of my armchair’, but which without doubt spurred me into action that I would not otherwise have taken and now it is possible to see the blessings – with hindsight – recognising a much bigger ‘picture’ at play. The Soul is deeply wise and today I seek its guidance more willingly rather than stumbling across it – and am yet to regret choosing its lead.
I’m sure all of us if we took a few moments or more to pause and reflect on turning points or significant moments in our lives, we would be able to feel the intervention of our Soul whilst still feeling that we have always have free-will.
Beautifully expressed as always Alan, how life changes in amazing ways when we simply connect to the wisdom and deep love of our soul.
Thank you Alan for a simple sharing of your souls love coming through to curb the destructive course that you were on at the time, i am sure when we look back, from where we stand to day, on our life’s journey that all along the way the souls has been calling.
Love it Alan, the visuals of you as a young rebel with long hair! Yes when caught in identification a simple hair cut can really rock the boat as can being jailed with a conscientious objector! Great read and great insight.
I used to be very much identified with all the peripherals of my life – what I did for living, who I hang out with, what I was into, where I lived, the personality and attitude I have cultivated along the way etc. and thought these were what made me me, so my ‘being myself’ was more like enforcing those identification, thickening the prison wall. My first few dips in the nakedness of being myself in truth felt very vulnerable, but smelt very freeing.
The amazing thing is we hold the key to unlock this imprisonment because we locked ourselves in there in the first place, so we can get ourselves out of this imprisonment as quickly as we got ourselves in it. But if we are in denial that we are in a self-created imprisonment we could be locked in there for life times. It is when someone shows us the way, how to get out and how to use the key we hold from within to unlock ourselves out of this mess that we know and understand what is truly possible. The key to connecting to our soul resides within our inner heart.
Looking back over the many years of my life I too can see the times, rather too many, when I imprisoned myself into a way of living, that at the time I obviously thought was the only way to be. And looking around me so many others were doing the same, so I sadly accepted this as normal; how crazy is that? Thank goodness that my soul continued to shine a little light every now and then to remind me that there is so much more to life on the other side of the self imposed prison bars.
Looking back on my life there was one very strong moment where I was about to take a fork in the path that was to be quite harmful and what that would have led to I hate to think. I remember the distinct moment as I stepped over a hedge walking to the supermarket where my soul came in and made it clear that under no circumstances was I to take that path. It really was a beautiful moment. At the time I didn’t know it was my soul stepping in, but with the beauty of increased awareness and hindsight I now realise thats what it was.
Loved reading this Alan… It is gorgeous that you had your eyes opened to the life imprisonment of self identity you had invested in through a couple of weeks in the naughty corner… blessings certainly come in all different shapes and sizes to guide you back to you.
Looking back I can now see that throughout my life I received many messages from my soul at a time when I too felt I was imprisoned in a life, or more so an existence, that offered no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. To have been finally shown a way out of this prison, and to take that choice, was the most freeing and liberating feeling of my life; a divine prison break!
How we love the scenic route home Alan. The guiding light of the soul, the ever present guide, rarely acknowledged by the funny creatures we humans are. Only years later we look back, with the clarity that reveals the greater wisdom that was prevailing, and say thank you to it. And thank you to the teaching school that has helped us prepare the eyes that see. At long last.
“I got the first glimpse that I was a prisoner of my need for acceptance and recognition – from without, from others. As far back as I could tell it had always been like that.” Thus we imprison ourselves, but don’t perceive it as such until we are woken up by an ‘accident’ or similar. Soul is amazing……..
Your writing is always a joy to read Alan. I spent most of my life in a self-made prison feeling disconnected from my Soul, thank goodness for meeting Serge Benhayon and finally freeing myself from this incarceration that held me back from being who I truly was.
When we imprison ourselves within what our head makes us think we should be we cannot see the bars that keep us confined. This a great example of the Soul offering an opportunity to feel the self-imposed prison that we can put ourselves in and that we have the key to freedom from ideals and beliefs. Universal Medicine has shown me the key to the door of so many of my suffocating ideals and beliefs.
The soul is always there, often giving us insight-full moments, it is up to us whether we choose to listen and respond to those messages and although I had many many revelations, like you Alan, I took many detours before being willing to listen and accept what the soul was offering me. I went through thinking what a wasted life I had lived up until coming into contact with Universal Medicine, but now I can truly appreciate how far I have come since those days of disregard of self and irresponsibility. I have a deep appreciation for what has been presented to me through the teachings and workshops of Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine.
What a totally awesome way to use prison time, I love the slant you looked at it with, as in your soul gave you an opportunity to break an totally ingrained pattern of behaviour. It’s a much more refreshing and helpful way to look at it than taking becoming a victim, instead it’s a possibility for true change.
Guilty as charged, I left my soul and have spent many lives hiding my light and remaining disconnected to my true being, despite numerous incarcerations of my body that were self imposed and never in the house of striped sunlight, this life.
The Soul breaks the imprisonment and puts us in the most awkward situtations, lovingly so. Our whole life on Earth seems to be such an awkward situation that we can learn from!
It’s so true that when we subscribe to a look or a way of being that is a part of a scene, it can be very limiting as we will look at outsiders with scorn and comparison, and we are stuck in the identification of that group. Sometimes we need a jolt to get us out of it, to broaden our views and to bring us back to brotherhood, and sometimes our soul is the one that stages that intervention.
Very insight full story Alan.
Makes me stop and consider my life in how you have described yours.
It is true that we can imprison ourselves by simply not wanting to see the bigger picture that our bodies can offer us. Your experience of actually being in jail is fascinating, and I can see the resemblance to the real world, and how we can create our own prison. Like you share here, Universal Medicine has offered me a key to see a much bigger picture.
Wow Hannah, well presented. Life before Universal Medicine for me was definitely one of imprisoning myself. Now thanks to the presentations of Serge Benhayon I am breaking the shackles of the past.
Absolutely Greg – and in knowing you personally, I am constantly inspired by your openness to everyone you meet, the care you show to everyone equally, and your depth of expression that comes with such wisdom. You live in a way that has no restrictions or limits – it comes from your soul first.
The imprisonment is often not seen or felt which is the hardest nut to crack. The moment in which I start to become aware of an area in my life that is not really free, the Soul has communicated and delivered its service. I sense this same service in Universal Medicine’s services.
I can relate to your story Alan because jail had the same effect on me the only difference is that I was an officer.
So much of what people do is because of a need for some form of identity. Is it that we all crave fitting in, crave being a part of something big, perhaps bigger than ourselves? Is it our soul rooting for us all to figure out that: a) we even have a soul and: b) that all the souls want to play on the same team, they don’t actually have any need to be different to another?
“I also very gratefully feel that this soul-provided insight/vulnerability (and other such episodes), ultimately helped draw me back to myself – albeit via the scenic route.” I know this one Alan, the only hitch being it’s the long winding road, it’s quite rocky and the scenery isn’t very pretty. Major amount of wear and tear on your vehicle, with expensive repairs needed. The direct route is so much smoother and you get there so much quicker via the ‘Soul train’.
So few brushstrokes have rendered your portrait so poignantly…a “then and now” of the hippie, alchemically re-made into man you are today. Symbolically we have mistaken the loss of hair for a loss of power, but your tale shows the truth. It is the stripping away of identification with some notion of who we think we ought to be. Who was that young man? Was he Alan? Or a man attired in prison garb and rage…not even knowing he is imprisoned?
Alan – as always you bring such a light hearted wisdom to your writing. You use words to their true and full meaning, and I just love how you express. To be a prison of ourselves is not a foreign concept to me, and I very much relate to thinking I was OK and individual when in fact I was a sum of what other people wanted me to be.
Breaking away from our identity is huge and healing.
Alan I enjoyed your reflection of feeling your soul has been there for you. I can also now look back at my life and see that my soul has always been with me, guiding me although like you I did take a detour instead of completely following the wisdom I was been offered!
The more I listen the more aware I become of the perfect and magical ways that life and our Soul constantly communicate with us. It is beautifully empowering to realise that we are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens in our life and nothing is some sort of fate disconnected from our actions and intentions. Joy is certainly a quality of the Soul. The rest of the Soul family is well described here: http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-soul.html
This is very beautiful to read Alan, and with such humble wisdom you share your experiences and in this the beauty of the Soul too. I agree it is amazing the intervention that the Soul offers, and yet at the time we can remain so blind to the amazing grace and lessons being offered – to draw the insight you came to about the prison of acceptance being so highly relatable. If I think back 20 years ago, to when I was in my early 20’s I can see the very foundations of education, career, work, bosses, job, home, neighbourhood, friendships, relationships, were all rocked to their core to shake (up) one element – expression or expressing of myself – the lack of, that led to a further closing down of it, from an already suppressed expression from childhood. Those culmination of events that rocked ‘all life’ for me back then compounded throughout the years making ‘expression’ and speaking up, being the invaluable lesson that only years later I am began to see, and in this appreciate the complete beauty of that ‘shaking up’. This experience, as your post does too Alan, is there to be an inspiration for another, which is called upon in my job of Recruitment. In short, in spite of any ‘personal tragedy’, the healing of this through being open to the Soul’s ways/learning, far outweighs to touch and love so many.
I love what you share here Zofia and what Alan shares in this blog. Often the event which is a calamity at the time is an absolute blessing when seen later for what it broke or the new foundation it laid. Alan when you talk of imprisonment, the larger one of identification is huge and much greater than any physical prison, and it’s one all of us have to varying degrees. Those mishaps are often gold.
Powerful stuff Alan, our soul has an amazing capacity to shed light in the darkest of places – what a blessing.
Alan your articles and stories always make me smile yet at the same time bless me with the wisdom that you have clearly connected to via this scenic route back to yourself. In reflection one can’t but deeply appreciate the many stops in life provided by our soul… guiding us to free ourselves from the imprisonment in which we sometimes find ourselves and lovingly given to us when we step… or speed off-route.
Well said Alan. I know that self imposed imprisonment of being confined to living life according to how others will think of me and accept me. Serge Benhayon has shown me that the key to freedom is to just be myself and I don’t even have to live up to my own expectations but just return to the love that I naturally was born with.
Freeing ourselves from the ‘self imprisonment’ of the ideals and beliefs we hold onto is a challenge for many of us, but its by reconnecting to our true essence that we can escape.
What an empowering way to look at this situation, Alan. It helps me to feel the imprisonments I hold myself in. As in working hard or saying yes to too many projects and so on.
Interesting to hear how cutting of your hair revealed a truer sense of you and the imprisonment that you had created for yourself. Ironic that it took jail to reveal this.
Love it Alan, so playfully expressed but so beautiful to ponder on the times my Soul has nudged me when I was on a self-destructive path. Growing up I felt I was a rebel but can now appreciate that like you I was ‘a prisoner of my need for acceptance and recognition’ and how much this governed my behaviour. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Alan, I could read your musings all day long. Love sometimes comes down from heaven with a thud.
My soul has been with me watching, gazing, laughing no doubt at the many pickles I would get myself in and in to. Not much out in the crazy days. But to have the steadfast guidance of my soul even through the roughest of lives allows me to feel the game that is really being played – and until we call it out, everyone can be guided quite silently and lovingly by that which they truly know yet refuse to awaken to.
I agree with you, Alan – I also recall a few occasions in my life that I felt truly held and supported to end up in certain situations, and I feel our Soul intervenes in our life, constantly. In fact, never leaves us. At times, we are able to pick it up and appreciate, but it seems that most of the times we don’t.
Great blog Alan, our soul is indeed leading us the right path if we get largely of track, our soul can put things to a halt, and then we have the opportunity to connect with it. It is always a choice to do so.
I agree Benkt, it’s amazing to think that the soul can not only guide us back on track but provide a necessary stop if needed. It’s like our best friend ever!
Alan, I love how you share after your prison hair cut ‘that through the sudden loss of a heavily-invested-in identity, I got the first glimpse that I was a prisoner of my need for acceptance and recognition’. You have reminded me how all the roles we identify ourselves with are truly a hindrance to our living a life of simplicity, harmony and joy. Indeed as you share, the choice is our own to make the inevitable re-connection back to ourselves a struggle via the ‘scenic route’, or whether we make it just plain simple. When it is put this way, why resist any longer and make it harder than you have to??
Alan we are all born with the same recipe/compass inside. Great to hear you are reading yours too.
Beautiful reflection Alan. The power of Soul is an amazingly grace-full force that is always guiding us towards re-connection, whether we notice or not, and the joy of this union to be realised and celebrated.
I can really relate to this Alan, the intervention of Soul to help us stop and reflect on how we have been living and how it really felt, bringing then the opportunity to step forwards in a different way, being more of ourselves in truth.
I love this article Alan. You have written it so playfully yet hitting the bulls-eye! It reminded me of my soul helping me (although I did not know it at the time). I cannot imagine you with long hair and motorbike! Thank you very much for writing this Alan.
‘Closely entwined then, there was the ‘biblical’ disempowerment of the haircutting but also, thanks to my soul, a much more dire imprisonment was revealed.’
Being slave to the acceptance of others before connecting with my own essence is surely the prison door locked and the keys thrown away.
Alan thanks for sharing and like you I chose to listen to my soul. The keys have been returned and the door is now open wide.
Loved to have seen you as a long haired rebellious hippie, Alan…..I love your blog I have hit that self destruct button a few times in my life, and can relate to the wake up call my soul has given me
Investment in identity is the most powerful prison as it is self-imposed.
And the bars are invisible from inside their restrictive hold.
Beautiful Alan! Discovering that we are in fact imprisoned is great as we all are!
It is ironic that the imprisonment occurs in important ways through those areas of our lives that we will name as being very personal and where we would swear that represent who we are in truth. And, of course, it is sort of harsh to admit that it is through these things that bring us the pleasure of life that we are indeed jailed is not fun.
I too have chosen the scenic route rather than the direct route at different times, and I had never considered that it might be the soul’s intervention that supports us when we most need it. Thank you Alan for this humorous and thought-provoking blog.
Taking the scenic route or the direct route always directs us to the same destination. We may not see it at the time but afterwards we know which route it was. I feel that Universal Medicine help show us the direct route, and that we can choose to go down that way, but if we don’t choose to listen we always have the soul to show us the prickly pineapple route instead. Either way we are never lost.
Yes I am now appreciating Universal Medicine’s support in helping me to take the direct route rather than the prickly pineapple one which I have had a lot of experience of in the past.
Thank you Alan, I love how you express. I can only agree my soul has also been there with me guiding me along my way. In the human way it might not always be the way we image but our soul is very clever and definitely ‘handling’ us in the way we need it.
“So, while the rebellion didn’t disappear and indeed led to further self-destructive behaviour, I also very gratefully feel that this soul-provided insight/vulnerability (and other such episodes), ultimately helped draw me back to myself – albeit via the scenic route.” – I can relate to what you say here Alan, and was reflecting whilst reading your article on the times in my life when my soul was there.
Alan great blog! Without doubt I can feel my soul has intervened with me at times throughout my life to stop me hurting myself and others.
Felt that this article is very tender and gentle and I love how you brought in the vulnerability that the Soul can lead you to feel and so bring a change and awareness that can shift what requires shifting. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Alan Johnston for this real life story and how you got to sense that your soul had a major part to play in ending a self-destructive life.
I have always wondered if most of us are imprisoned inside our hearts. Yes, we are not locked behind bars but the way we treat ourselves and others by shutting people out and not staying open, feels to me like a form of imprisonment.
You would be a great mentor for the prison service as you have been there, done it and changed your life. What an inspiration for all those youngsters who are totally lost and see no way out.
Gosh, Alan, how gorgeously expressed. I, too, would not have believed my soul could intervene but like you, if I look back at my life there are many incidents where I now realise it was my soul stepping in, pulling me back from the abyss.
Ha Alan, I have definitely taken the scenic route but I am now learning to appreciate the awesome insights my soul has given me along the way.
Thank you for sharing Alan and for the reflection you have given me.
Love the wig in court to conceal the hair – nice touch. 🙂 Were you able to take a page out of Vogue (or similar) to show to the barber the new hair style you were after… 😉 Enjoyed your writing very much.
What an awesome reflection Alan. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Reading this I felt I would like to meet you. Thank you for sharing it Alan.
Wow, what an insight!
Alan, I really love how you end your post with the words –
“And how beautiful it now feels to name and sense the sphere of the soul and its influence, and the joy of that which senses…”
Gorgeous – thank you.
Alan, thank you for such a colourful description. I loved how you stated yourself back then as a ‘prisoner of your own need’. I can really relate with this and still at times find myself back in that prison. One thing to note for me is that this prison is quite different from the one you experienced back then, as ‘it is we who step into it locking the door behind us, and we who hold the key to step out of it at any time’. We are the magistrate and the prison guard.
I also love how you have seen this moment of vulnerability as a gift from your soul, a gentle nudge you could say… just beautiful!
Thank you Alan!
Wild! What a quirky sense of humour your Soul has (like you!) to put you in prison with that particular cell-mate – rebel bikie-hippy comes face to face to face with conscientious objector. What an interesting mirror-meeting for two sons of God! And how beautiful to feel the sphere of the Soul – no prisons, no borders, just joy. Thank you Alan for your tender, beautiful piece.
This has allowed a reflection into my life as to when the soul was there, influencing in some way. In hindsight there were times when it was actually speaking very loudly to me however I was not listening.
Thank you Sally, I agree, for me the “reflection” of the soul once understood has become a constant influence.
Awesome.
Gosh, how beautifully expressed Alan, thank you for sharing this. It made me laugh imagining you like that but it was also deeply felt!