Big Idea Channel
Have you ever had a great idea for a story or novel… you jot down a few notes, you put it on one of your backburners — your To Do List, your One Day | Some Day List, your Once Something Else is Done or Completed or Perfect List — and then, some months later, around the time you originally imagined Some Day to be, you discover it faced-out on a New Releases shelf in hardcover glory, bearing another author’s name?
Or you’re flipping channels on TV and there it is — Your Story — in a “Coming Soon” trailer, or maybe even the scenes playing out before your eyes…
You’d swear to God someone has read your mind; someone has telepathically “stolen” your idea. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s SO close, so similar — enough that your own “original” idea would now — Some day, One day, if and when you get around to it — look like an obvious derivative.
Maybe you’ve had one of those inspired moments of conversation where you speak out loud to your witness (your friend, your partner, whoever’s with you at the time it comes through):
- “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…”
- “You know what Someone should make?…”
- “Somebody needs to invent…”
- “… Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
It seems absolutely surreal how soon after naming it that you run across your invention, already patented and for sale.
Maybe you are the one who’s telepathic, picking up on someone else’s Big Idea, like it’s being broadcast across some common airwaves.
Those of you who have researched potential business names and web domains know the frustration of just how many people have already beat you to that perfect name or concept. With some, you’re not surprised — they seem inevitably destined to exist; if not already, then soon. But with others you can hardly believe it.
“What are the chances?!” You wonder out loud.
It’s one thing for a dot-com to be registered; it’s even more disappointing when you travel to that page and find a fully developed site, business, or collection of content. Beyond new, beyond born — already breathing, alive and kicking, walking and talking, all grown up, fully mature.
Six months before I started Shift Your Spirits, I showed a few pieces to an editor friend over lunch. This was before I’d decided to do a blog; I wasn’t even sure at that time that it wasn’t a book outline… He said “It feels like some kind of column; what would you call it?”
My guides whispered, without hesitation “Shift Your Spirits.” It probably sounded like I’d given it some thought. I had not. I heard it. I brought it through, automatically, instantly, hearing it tumble out of my own mouth in the next breath.
Three people have contacted me to say that they felt compelled to Google the phrase “Shift Your Spirits” for no apparent reason; that’s how they discovered my site.
On the one hand, this can be such a disheartening experience. It pains me to even think about the projects I’ve “lost” to some other, faster, more productive creative channel. The Muses must be fickle — even promiscuous — shopping their seeds and sparks around the ether… (In publishing, this scattershot manifestation technique is called simultaneous submissions and it’s usually unacceptable when we want to do it.) You might begin to wonder just how special and creative you really are… were you chosen or polled? Do the Muses say it to all their prospective partners — “You’re the only one”?
After all, it’s Man who invented arranged marriage, reproductive science, and selective fertilization — Nature just likes to spray.
Has this always been the case, but the speed and spread of our communication technology only now makes it so apparent? For hundreds (thousands?) of years there were only a few Books and a handful of authors to physically bring them through. Now our Story doesn’t require oral history, it has millions of mobile mouths and feeds.
But then there is a Bright Side — there are other, more positive, potentially wondrous aspects to consider:
- The awareness that you DO receive great ideas. Good enough that someone else has been willing to invest creative blood, sweat, and tears, too. If nothing else, you should feel affirmed by that.
- The awareness that there is a Collective Psychic Wisdom, and you ARE connected to it. You DO have access.
- The awareness that there is a Creative Source, and that you ARE one of its potential vessels.
I feel that Ideas choose to incarnate, much as any form of Spirit. I feel that an Idea Whose Time has Come, will come. I may be called to be the channel through which it makes its way into the world; or you may be. Or that Ideas Whose Time Has Come may be beating down all the potential doorways at any given moment, and many of us may rise in the night to answer and let them in.
I feel Creativity ascends, and Consciousness evolves, beyond competition toward increasingly complex collaboration.
Who knows what combination of factors makes us, as individuals, the perfect vessels — maybe our intellectual frames of reference, our training, our preparation, our practice; maybe where we live, or when we occupy that space. Serendipity, synchronicity… Being in the Right Place, at the Right Time, you may be called.
Do you answer? And having answered, do you commit to nurture your inspiration? Do you commit to bring creation through? Or do you only half-rise to the brilliant idea that wakes you at the Monk’s Hour? Do you falter soon after your initial enthusiasm?
I do believe that an Idea Whose Time Has Come will find a way into the world. These ideas are not Mine or Yours; they are Ours. I don’t feel nearly so responsible for Making Anything as I feel responsible as a parent for the Thing That Will Be Made. (I can only imagine how those of you who have human children must feel in this regard… Interestingly, the facets of your chart that indicate your likelihood to reproduce human beings also govern your creativity in general; there is really no distinction.)
Make Me a Vessel
The one prayer I say before every reading I perform, or every message I voice, or every story that I tell is “Make me a vessel.”
In place of your aspirations “I want to…” reframe your intentions with this simple request of Spirit — “Make me a vessel.” The power and grace that can accompany this commitment replaces the most industrious To Do List. The wonder of it is quite humbling, really, even as it makes magic of your life.
Image by Curious Expeditions via Creative Commons on Flickr
Automatic Writing Lessons
Course #2 in the series of classes on Channeling, Divine Dialoguing & Communicating with Spirit is now available for instant download.
Contacting Your Spirit Guides - 101
Free resources for Shift Your Spirits readers:
- Read the ebook by Slade Roberson especially for beginners who want to know who/what spirit guides are and how to communicate with them
- Listen to the mp3 preview of the Spirit Guide Attunement portion of the Talking to Your Spirit Guides class by Slade Roberson
- Try the meditation to Meet a Guide contributed by Jeff Lilly of Druid Journal
Comments
10 Responses to “Big Idea Channel”
Leave a Reply
Most Recent Articles
Recommended Links
Slade –
Once again, you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head. Thank YOU for being such a clear vessel and allowing this message to come through. It feels like you are speaking directly to me.
A couple of years ago, I was working with a client and developed a process I came to call Re/Transformation. It’s a way of directly and easily connecting to your Higher Self that gives you easy access to anything stored in your unconscious mind: dreams, memories, limiting beliefs…
About the same time (summer of 2006) I became aware of Joe Vitale, who lives nearby, and kept imagining that I was seeing him everywhere. It was very weird, and felt a little stalker-like. I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong or odd and I just needed to let go of my obsession with him.
Time went by — I started doing Re/Transformation workshops, experiments really, to see if the process was viable. I saw that Joe and others from The Secret were on Oprah and Larry King. And I thought, “well, good for you.” And moved on.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was meeting with my MasterMind group. One of them had a Joe Vitale workbook. It had been published in the fall of 2006. And it was all about clearing limiting beliefs.
I was stunned. Suddenly I understood why I was obsessed with Joe. The work I had been doing was perfect for inclusion in his workbook (you may know that Joe was doing a lot of joint ventures at the time and this would have fit in perfectly). That’s why I felt the connection so strongly. That’s why I was being led to hunt him down, literally. And I was feeling that while he was writing the workbook!
After that realization, I sat down and composed an email to Joe about doing a joint venture. I got a response about a week later saying that he just didn’t have time to look at it, but thanks anyway.
I did miss this opportunity. However…
I can choose to frame this however I want. Did I miss something? Maybe. Did I learn about responding to the big ideas quickly? Definitely! Since that time, I’ve really been paying attention and now I put these things into motion when the idea comes and then let it play out the way that is perfect.
And that is why the timing of your post is so perfect. Just yesterday, I sent out a note to a small group that I was working on a programming project — it’s a scheduling tool for people who are coaches, psychics, counselors, anyone who needs to set up a schedule and wants their clients to book online and pay online.
I received one reply back — and as a result, I realized I need to get my behind in gear and get this done. And instead of a tool, I want to offer a service. In about 5 minutes, the whole concept got clear and I realized it would work better as a customizable online service.
Anyway, so I was about to get to work on it when I saw your post. The idea has further solidified and I’m all excited to get to get it up and running.
Many thanks, as always, to you Slade for being such a clear vessel!!!
Much love,
Frank
My guides are nudging me alot lately. As I look over at the inch thick file folder of papers on my chair, I feel (once again) my guides speaking to me through you.
Blessings,
Katherine
I’m getting my idea going right now. It’s been on the back burner… until about 10 minutes ago when I thought about my book idea again, looked up creative writing classes at the local community college, checked my e-mail, saw that you had written a new blog, read it and got a big “nudge” from my guides. Maybe more than a nudge… more like “SEE?! HOW MANY OTHER WAYS DO WE NEED TO TELL YOU!”
So, in agreement with Frank B., “Once again, you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head.”
I’m going to go be a vessel now.
Hi Slade,
I don’t always comment on your posts. However, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being the vessel through which so many words have inspired me and clarified for me the path that I should be taking. I also hope to be a vessel, so that my writings can touch and transform the lives of others, including my own.
Love & light,
Evelyn
Frank,
Thanks for sharing that excellent personal story. You did a fantastic job of illustrating my general message — much appreciated.
You know, just a thought — you may not have “missed” an opportunity at all. Maybe Joe was standing in as a symbol or validation for your own work…
Please let me know when you have your scheduling service online as I would be happy to help you promote that.
Katherine,
I’m happy to help with the nudges!
Kaysie,
That does sound like amazing timing. It’s very cool to hear how my post reiterated that message for you. I love a good creative writing class… Anybody who wants to know if they should take a creative writing class — I think the answer is always a Big Yes.
My own fiction is starting to burn and blare a bit lately, too. It’s my private offline passion.
Evelyn,
Thank you! What an incredibly sweet message. You made my day with that one. (Please, let’s not count the comments — I would owe you SO many. I’m reading so much more on your blog than I have commented on, too. Right back at ya!)
Slade,
I love this line -”I do believe that an Idea Whose Time Has Come will find a way into the world. These ideas are not Mine or Yours; they are Ours.”
It’s stunning.
There are many ideas I’m coming across at the moment from many different sources that all speak of the same truth. It’s an exciting time to be alive!!!
On an aside - I wish sometimes there was an Ideas Channel, or Ideas Bank, where people could “deposit” ideas that they have but have no inclination to follow through with, in the hope that someone else might be inspired by that idea, take the ball and run with it…
Or maybe this is what already happens when ideas float into our consciousness, and we don’t do anything with them. Maybe they float out again and until someone else tunes into their particular frequency…
K-L,
Thank you!
You know there used to be a web site called Halfbaked.com that is exactly what you describe.
I just looked it up to share with you — and it’s no longer on line!
I don’t know of any others, but I would not be at all surprised to find other similar.
Hi Slade!
Yes, this post sparked a ‘Big Idea’ in the form of a song. I wrote ‘Shift Your Spirit’ shortly after reading this post and mulling over, as I usually do, words or phrases that jump out at me. I immediately understood ‘Make Me A Vessel’ as that has been EXACTLY as I have felt this year. Music and words are how I best fulfill the Divine truths in me and outwardly.
If your readers would like to listen to ‘Shift Your Spirit’, it is posted om my music player at http://www.myspace.com/jlynettediaz
Also, it is so great to see Kara-Leah posting again. Hi K-L!! It was she who originally led me to your webspace.
xo
Lynette,
In less than five minutes you had me in tears for all kinds of reasons.
Certainly the three+ minutes of your song, which is lovely. Then the thoughts of how you have honored Slade. Lastly, K-L’s was the first blog post I ever read. I’ll never forget how she touched my life that day.
Slade:
How appropriate! I started Changing Planes in 2005, finished it over the next few years and published it last year in 2008. I’d been aware of nature’s spray for a while now, yet never experienced it so close to home until just last month.
I wrote up my fiction story and one day as I contemplated my need for a stronger conflict, the universe popped one in my lap. It was perfect. I added it to my story with a twist at the end, and voila, a gifted story was born.
You can imagine my surprise when I brought home a movie for my husband last month, an original and visually stunning Asian horror film (I didn’t watch - but the cover art was great as were some shots I caught in passing). When my husband called up to me that their movie had HUGE similarities to my book, I was surprised to find out from him that it had some of the very same elements of my story.
The beautiful thing of it was, they presented what I would call the “dark” side of the story to my “light” side. They were the YIN (negative) of the idea while I was the YANG (positive). At first I thought, someone’s going to think I stole this idea, but I realized that my original file had been begun before their film was completed and released. AND the stories are entirely different with some very unique similarities.
It was then that I thought of “nature’s spray,” as you so beautifully describe, and remembered how spiritos trickles inspiration down from the ethers: into all the open and ready vessels. I realized then that I was in very good company, though very dark, their tale carried some of the same spiritual overtones as my own. In felt like a full-on confirmation.
And now, to read it here in your article. Amazing. I am truly blessed to be a part of this incredible universe and am appreciative to find such resonance here.
I love everything that you share.
This year, I’ve found myself canceling so many of the innocuous internet-marketing buy my product, sell my product, check out his or her product email lists that I subscribed to when I first started using the internet and instead have replaced it with true substance, which by the way includes Shift Your Spirits.
I eagerly await your next post, but am soooo enjoying the deliciousness of uncovering your archives and previous posts. I intend to savor each one.
Thank you.
Laurie J.