*Smoking*


Q:  I've been kind of struggling with the idea of smoking, and...

B:  Struggling with smoking.  All right.

Q:  ...and what you said earlier about the drugs to somebody else, and also
about dreams, seems to somehow help me.

 B:  All right.

Q:  How to apply... I dreamt last night that I kept putting out my
cigarette, and then I'd look in the ashtray and there'd be another lit
cigarette waiting for me.  So I'd pick it up, put that one out, and again,
there would be a lit cigarette.

So when you mentioned that the dream seems to resolve a particular problem,
how would I apply to that... and also you mentioned the thing about the
drugs, that it's not the drug that you're seeking; it's something else.

B:  Oh, thank you.  It is the recalling back to yourself of your own self-
empowerment.

Q:  Oh, how can I apply that, and how can I understand...

B:  Oh, thank you.  First of all, you can allow the symbology, perhaps, to
be indicative that it may reflect a way that you generally perceive the
events in your life to unfold as well.  Do you feel that you are victimized
by circumstances?

Q:  Sometimes.

B:  All right.  Is there any reason for you to continue to feel that you
are victimized by circumstances?

Q:  Not really, not if I take the perspective that I create everything.

B:  All right, very good.  Then you can begin by not invalidating your
invalidations.

So if you find that you tire of creating something you deem to be negative,
do not judge it any further than you already have, to create it.   Go easy
on yourself first of all; do not chastise yourself for the creation, to
begin with, of what you perceive to be a negative chain or sequence of
events.  Then you will at least remove the first layer of pressure upon
yourself.

Now, as you have experiences in your dream reality, you can, first of all,
recognize that it is just as real as any reality you will ever experience.
And you can allow yourself to know that you are showing yourself something
in plain terms, symbolic terms -- plain symbolic terms -- that will allow
you to simply recognize the idea as it fits into your life, the idea of
what you feel to be repetitiveness, lack of ability to have control over a
situation that seems -- seems, seems -- to be repeating.

Now, one aspect we can explore right now is that nothing really repeats --
nothing.  Everything, no matter what it appears to be, is always a new
thing -- if only that you recognize it as not exactly the same thing
happening exactly the way it did the first time, because you are making the
comparison that it is happening again.

So, in this way, you can treat every apparent reoccurrence as something
new; do not assume it is the same old thing.  Assume it is a different new
thing.  It may come in the same guise.  But that is because you are using
symbols you are familiar with -- the cigarette, perhaps.  You do not have
to attribute to the apparent reappearance of the cigarette the same meaning
you usually attribute to it.  Give it a new meaning.  Every time it seems
to reoccur, give it a new meaning, not the same meaning.  It is only by
bequeathing the same meaning on an apparently similar symbol that you
create the effect that the symbol seems to carry only the same meaning over
and over again.

All symbols are blank, neutral, no symbol and no situation comes with a
built-in meaning.  You supply the meaning; the meaning you supply is the
effect you get.  You follow me?  Therefore, whatever symbology is reflected
to you in the idea of the cigarette, start to give it new meaning.  And as
soon as you start to give the cigarette new meaning, you will then allow
the cigarette to transform from the symbol that it is, into another type of
symbol that will then be reflective of the new meaning you have instilled
within it.

Instilling a new meaning in an old symbol is what changes the old symbol
into a new one, because the meaning of a symbol is the soul of the symbol.
The symbol -- the outward symbol -- is only an illusion, a cloak, a guise,
when you change its meaning, then the symbol will transform to accommodate
the new meaning.  You follow me?

Q:  Yes.

B:  So, first and foremost, you can remove the idea that you are only doing
something repetitively.  You are not; everything is new. Sometimes you may
use what appears to be the same symbol to represent that you are dealing
with a momentum, a continuing momentum along similar lines, but every re-
appearance of an apparently same symbol is actually a new opportunity to
look at a similar idea from a different point of view -- giving it the new
meanings at every turn.

Now, you can also understand that you do not have to force yourself to
become more spiritual.  You can recognize that you do not need to demand
that you change.  And that when you cease making a demand upon yourself
that you change from what you perceive to be old habits, then that will be
one less habit right there: ceasing to demand that you change.

Q:  Well, it seems that it's desirable and...

B:  Let me finish.  The idea of what you desire can come most easily when
you do not demand it as a prerequisite for the change within you.  When you
simply know that you /are/ different, when you allow yourself and take it for
granted that you /are/ different, then you will change.  And it is not that
you have to force yourself to stop smoking.  By being a different being,
you will simply not have the urge.  It will not be in the definition of the
being you will now be.  Now... may I ask /you/ a question?

Q:  Sure.

B:  Are you sure I may ask you a question?

Q:  Of course.

B:  Oh, thank you very much.  Using your imagination right now: can you, in
any way, ever imagine yourself not smoking?

Q:  Yes.

B:  You can?  Are you sure you can?

Q:  Yes.

B:  All right, very good.  Then in your willingness to have the vision of
yourself as someone who simply does not smoke... now wait... before we go
on, let me clarify your definition.  Are you actually saying you can
envision yourself as someone who does not smoke, or are you envisioning
yourself as someone who has to fight the urge to smoke?

Q:  No, I visualize myself as being very energetic.

B:  All right, and simply someone who does not feel the urge to smoke.

Q:  Right.

B:  You can envision this?

Q:  Yes, sometimes it feels like when I do smoke, I'm cutting down my
energy.

B:  All right.  All right.  We understand, but for now, never that.
Dream... (tape change)

Q:   ... yes.

B:  Then let me remind you of something right now.  As we have said, dream
reality -- and here's the connection -- dream reality, your imagination,
physical reality, it's all the same reality.  Only you make the distinction
that it is not.

Q: Mmhmm.

B:  When you allow yourself to know that what you imagine, what you
envision you /can/ be, is just as real as anything that you are in your
physical reality, then when you have the vision of yourself as a non-
smoker, you will not continue to assume that there must be some processes
necessary in order for you to become the non-smoker.  You will simply
recognize that if you can envision it, you must -- at that moment --
actually /be/ that person.  Because you can only conceive of what you
contain.  You can only imagine what the vibratory level /is/ that you are
already on.

But when you imagine yourself as a non-smoker, in that second, in that
moment -- for however long you are willing to sustain that reality, that
imagination -- you are in that moment, a non-smoker.  But you make the
assumption that the imagination is not as real as the physical reality.
And so you think there must be something that you need to do in order to
realize your imagination -- not believing it is real in the moment you have
imagined yourself to be a non-smoker.

If you recognize that your ability -- your very ability -- to be able to
even envision yourself as a non-smoker means that that is the end of the
process, and not the /beginning/ of a process, then all you need to do is
trust that your ability to imagine yourself as a non-smoker is the same
thing as /being/ a non-smoker.  And all you have to do is /act like/ your
imagination and what you have envisioned yourself to be is actually
/real/ right now.  Then your body will automatically act like a non-smoker's
body and it won't have the urge.  You follow me?

Q: Yes, I'll try it next time I have an urge.

B:  You'll what?

Q:  I'll /do it/ next time I have an urge.

B:  All right.  Now, again, do it now.  If you are saying, "Well, I'll wait
'til I have an urge," you are implying that there will be a time when you
will no longer be a non-smoker.  And then you have to fight it.  If you /are/
a non-smoker, you will never have the urge.  Period.

Now, if you find that you do have the urge, do not chastise yourself.   And
do not struggle.  Simply /re-imagine/ yourself as the non-smoker.  You may
want -- because of the society you are in -- to give yourself an
opportunity to reassure yourself that you are in control and you have the
power.  It does not have to be a struggle.

If you find yourself creating the urge... first of all, do recognize that
if you do find yourself creating the urge, then the one, the /you/ that
creates the urge is not the you that you are, when you are the non-smoker
doesn't have the urge to smoke, by definition.

So if you find yourself creating the urge, you are smoker.  All you need to
do is become the non-smoker once again, and there won't be an urge.  It is
not a matter of having to fight the urge; it is becoming the individual,
once again, who doesn't /have/ the urge to smoke.  You follow me?

Q:  Yes.

B:  That is all.

You are either the smoker or you are not.  It is not a matter of "fighting
to become."  You either are or you are not... or you are separately an
individual who is fighting to become.  But those are three separate
individuals.  One does not necessarily lead to the other.  You follow me?

Q:  Mmhmm.

B:  Thank you.  Breathe deep.

Q:  I'm really not really fighting it, because I quite enjoy smoking.

B:  All right.

Q:  I cough a lot...

B:  Yes.

Q:   ... and I feel not so energetic.

B:  All right, but you are saying that there are beliefs within you, on
some level of your consciousness, that do believe it is fighting some
aspect of the idea.

Now we understand that you enjoy it, and that is why we say do not chastise
yourself for doing it.  For when you no longer need to, you will simply
lose the urge.  You follow me?

Q:  Yes.

B:  That is all there is to it.

Q:  I think that there may be a message for me, something to learn from
that.

B:  There can be.

Q:  Perhaps, about my breathing.

B:  It can be that you simply do not need it.

Q:  It is related sometimes to what happens in birth trauma, to the first
breath?

B:  It may be very specific with regard to the individuals that are being
born, and the relationship that they actually have with the individual that
is bearing them.




Q:  And I thought, perhaps, this was giving me an opportunity to look at
that and how I feel about my breathing.

B:  Trust your own instincts in this matter.  Your imagination always
provides you with the proper understanding of yourself.  That is what it is
for.  It cannot provide you with an understanding on the same level of
someone else, because it is you; it is your imagination.
If it could give you more understanding of someone else, it would be
someone else's imagination and not yours.  You follow me?

Q:  Yes.

B:  Your sharing?

Q:  I just wanted to share one of the newly created meanings for smoking.

B:  All right.

Q:  Which is that the physical is being translated into the smoke of the
spiritual that is expanding out into the greater fourth density...

B:  This is one of the ways your American Indian culture did look at
smoking.

Q:  Yes, that's very true.  One of the new meanings.  Thank you.

B:  'Tis also one of the older ones.

Q:  Yes, thank you.