Excerpt

This is a book for anybody seeking wholeness, peace and the will to become the person they were created to become. Presenting new concepts, it is simply written, defining practical spirituality for all. Its purpose is to provide a guide for journeying via body and soul to the True Self. Within each human being there is a restless uneasiness that can only be healed when the individual’s way to the True Self is discerned.

A malady of dis-ease prevails throughout the peoples of our planet and it is accompanied by bewilderment. If we knew how to live compassionately, peacefully and joyously, we would do it. So ensnared are we in a maze of value systems that it seems impossible to find a way toward inner peace leading to harmony among all. However, a timely paradigm toward the common good is struggling to emerge. Its purpose is for development of wholeness of all peoples and the planet according to the Creator’s will. Those who are willing to be frontrunners of this healing way will find guidance for their unique pathways to Christ consciousness in this small guide to peace.

While using the practice of praying the scriptures, McGinnis became aware that we dwell in auras of consciousness. Ironically, consciousness is that of which we generally are oblivious. We are usually unconscious that our thoughts and emotions influence our conversations and behaviors. The apostle Paul expressed this paradox (Romans 7:15): “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very things I hate.”

What is this consciousness through which we trek? Consciousness is the matrix of human life, the wellspring of thoughts, emotions and actions. The development of the life form is designated by the sphere of consciousness it attains. All life is crated through consciousness. It was out of chaos that the universe was created. Spirit as creator is consciousness which, when energized by light and love, brings into manifestation the vast varieties of life. All living things are conscious. Earth is a sphere of consciousness. Physically energized by the light and heat of the sun, the consciousness of plant life brings forth blossoms, new shoots, fruits and leaves that respond to climatic changes of the seasons. Animals likewise are sensitive to light and temperature levels. When the days grow shorter, although not immediately much cooler, an animal’s coat thickens. This is an instinctive response to inner consciousness. And could it be stirrings of the magnetic forces of the earth that cause those erratic animal behaviors that have proven to be predictions of earthquakes and other violent weather changes? Plants and animal creatures behave according to their level of instinctual consciousness. Humans were given consciousness beyond (and at the loss of) the instincts of plants and animals. The seed of divinity blesses us with plant consciousness that leads to awareness of the Christ within each of us. When anguish, anxiety and turmoil characterize our lives, we are not living in the consciousness to which Jesus pointed the way. We have returned to chaos.

Consciousness is either nurtured or polluted by our perceptions of our personal relationships, the environment in which we live and the quality of what enters through the mind’s observation and the processing of those influences as good, bad or indifferent. Therefore, it behooves the traveler to restrict what is taken into the mind through conversation, reading and the media. Truth begets truth, love begets love and violence begets violence.

This book guides the reader through spheres of consciousness. The Seedbed of Consciousness consists of Sensation, Security and Power. Awareness, Forgiveness, Gratitude and Love develop in the Green Garden of Consciousness. The ultimate sphere, the Infinite Expanse of Consciousness, is attained when we have surrendered our will to Christ Consciousness and, by grace, have been blessed with a rare glimpse of Cosmic Consciousness. As we become aware of these spheres, we can use them to provide stepping stones to reach recognition of the auras of motivation and action.

Body and soul affect each other. As beings of spirit incarnated in physical bodies, it is essential that we pray in ways that have potential to heal the body and stimulate our internal energy system. Each energy center is the hub of a vortex that can activated to facilitate healing and growth. We must adopt the innocence of an infant and open ourselves to willingness, discipline and awareness.

The sojourner must be willing to take necessary steps over rocky terrain and arid voids, stripped of old tactics of dealing with risky and unexplored situations. Each seeker will develop a discipline of quiet prayer, which may open the mind to God’s will in each given day, challenging familiar beliefs – a risk necessary to progressing through the spheres of consciousness. McGinnis laces the premises of the journey with scriptural references.

Each step toward the True Self is virgin territory. What is the right track? How do I recognize it when I see it? Being aware of each little step, along with trust in God’s plan, gives us the confidence to keep plodding along. Let me say that God is not a puppeteer jerking everybody’s strings. We have been given free will. God’s plan is for universal good and a discipline of quiet awareness makes us a partner in that plan. Being liberated from self-seeking and from our attachments, our eyes are opened to new vistas.

“The Way to Your True Self” is an inspiring nightstand book as well as for stimulating group discussions.