Soul SiStories
Soul SiStories was born out of a mutual desire to bring forward hope and healing through sharing our lived experiences. Hope is embracing life despite adversity. Hope is our reason.
Soul SiStories
Rising Above Challenges: Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen on Hope and Perspective
Experience an enlightening conversation with Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen, as he shares his profound journey in religious science and metaphysics. With a rich tapestry of experiences, including a rare triple family ordination and the founding of multiple churches, Dr. Sorensen's story inspires us to continually lift our heads and see the vast possibilities that lie beyond immediate challenges. This episode promises not just stories, but actionable insights into facing life's struggles with renewed hope and a higher perspective.
Transport yourself to the scenic landscapes of Connecticut and Montana, where the beauty of fall becomes a powerful metaphor for hope and clarity. We explore how embracing a higher perspective, akin to rising above the turmoil in an airplane, can illuminate our path through the darkest of times. By valuing courage over fear and trusting the journey over the destination, we find the keys to navigating life's complexities with grace. Discover how small shifts in perspective can lead to profound changes, allowing us to see beyond the immediate and embrace broader possibilities.
Join us as we uncover the transformative power of reconnecting with our divine nature, guided by the wisdom of spiritual avatars like Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna. Reverend Sorensen emphasizes the importance of moving beyond pain and darkness to manifest extraordinary changes in life, fostering hope, creativity, and connection even during challenging times. With insights into maintaining community spirit during the pandemic and a lighthearted rapid-fire session, we end by announcing our upcoming book, "Wholehearted Living: An Enchanted Journey of the Soul," promising daily inspiration and soulful living.
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Welcome to Soul Sisteries.
Speaker 2:I absolutely loved just to hear everything that he's doing. My perspective was smaller because I don't know Dr Sorenson as well as you and others in my family know him, so I think it was just really great for me to hear what he had to share. And of course, now I have more books on my Amazon list that I need to order, but I love just that vision. I just keep seeing beyond this mountaintop. Now let's look down at the world below and see what is out there totally within my grasp, you know, but that I don't necessarily see on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everyone, thank you so much for being here with us. What we're talking about is talking with Reverend Dr Christian Sorensen, the lead minister at Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas, california, and just such an inspiring speaker, so motivational and very real and authentic, and that, for sure, is my takeaway from this talk. And also you know the number of times I've listened to him in the past. Boy, he gets going and you are just going with him Like, oh my God, I feel it and you want to shout whatever it is that you shout Amen, ole, whatever it is whatever you're feeling he want to get up and sing it out for sure, and it just is the real deal.
Speaker 2:He lives this and you can feel the hope and the inspiration and it makes me want to jump up and go, and you know it, it like makes me want to like jump up and go. Okay, let's go, do it now. There's no, there's no time for sitting here. There's things to do, there's things to to be, and it's all okay, All okay.
Speaker 1:I feel that like in my soul, in my core, it's all okay, Without any pretense around, like we don't pretend that the crap exists the hardcore, the challenges, the struggles we don't just as we hear in some philosophies, right, that we don't even allow that that's so. No, that's real, that is very real lived experience and there's through and beyond and taking something from it which is also beautiful and rich.
Speaker 2:I had the little image as he was saying like you know, pop your head up. You know, through all the muck, pop your head up. And I see like the whack-a-mole, you know, pop your head up and then duck. When you need to duck, you know, but pop your head up and and keep coming back. And I think that is it not to keep coming back for more muck or to get beat up, but keep coming back because you're going to see what else is out there. You're going to see that higher perspective, you're going to see the sunshine, whatever it is, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I needed this today. Beautiful Jen. Everybody enjoy listening, like I've just been to church perfect.
Speaker 2:So hello, here we are with the wonderful Reverend.
Speaker 1:Christian Sorensen. Let me tell you just a little bit about him. We're so delighted to have him here with us. Wonderful Reverend Christian Sorensen, let me tell you just a little bit about him. We're so delighted to have him here with us today. Reverend Christian Sorensen DD is the eminent spiritual leader of the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living and a past president and community spiritual leader of the United Church of Religious Science, ucrs worldwide, now United Centers for Spiritual Living.
Speaker 1:Dr Sorensen was born into religious science and has been a lifelong student of metaphysics. Both his father and mother were ordained into the ministry on the same day as Dr Sorensen in 1985, the only triple family ordination in the history of the movement. His credentials include a doctorate of religious studies earned from Emerson Theological Institute, a doctor of divinity and a doctor of religious science received from UCRS. He served as senior minister of the Ventura County Church in California from 83 to 88, co-founder of the Costa Mesa Church in California in 82, and co-creator of the Oahu Church in Hawaii in 1988. Dr Sorensen is also a prolific author, certainly a speaker, a world traveler and an avid sportsman, and we are so eager and excited to speak now with Dr Reverend Christian Sorensen and to hear about his hope through which he shared with us, but we're going to let him share with all of you his hope through journey, and then we'll get rocking and rolling. So welcome, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3:Thank you to both of you. And what a full bio you got. So thank you for that generosity and I trust, just all as well. I guess you're in Connecticut today, and so what is it Fall? Are the leaves beautiful, are they?
Speaker 2:over. Absolutely beautiful here, yes, chilly and fall, and orange and red and beautiful colors out the window.
Speaker 1:It's really, it's like out of a movie set. You're like wait, this is actually real how people live in this gorgeousness and the sweet little town with the gazebo in the center and the old stone church with the steeple and the pumpkins everywhere. It's just delightful.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 3:Well, I just recently got back from Montana so I got a little bit of that fall color going on there, got a ranch there and I wrote a book called Living from the Mountaintop, which was inspired from that area.
Speaker 3:So when I was writing this book, in my mind or my consciousness I would always go to this mountaintop, overlooking one of our lakes, and just sit there and imagine.
Speaker 3:And so when you asked me to come on your show, I thought, hey, well, it'd be great to talk about hope from a higher perspective, you know, from that mountaintop view, from looking like kind of down at our life, when we find ourselves in those precarious situations and we feel ourselves being constricted or tied down or just stuck in life, if we could just remember to rise our awareness above it, like an airplane taking off and the ground gets further away and you begin to see so many roads and ways out and ways through that, I think that hope is really begins to become more plausible in those challenging times if we can just rise to a higher perspective and recognize that there's so many more options than what we're caught up in our myopic view of a situation, and so we can be caught in the pain, the difficulty, the scarcity, the heartbreak, the agony, and it can be just debilitating.
Speaker 3:And so to step out of a dark night of the soul, sometimes just to be able to catch a higher glimpse, is able to shine a light that allows us to maneuver a way in which we hadn't known and, in retrospect, we're able to receive the gifts of the pain and the sorrow and the sadness when we trust that there is more, you know, to what we're in.
Speaker 1:That makes such perfect sense. But let me just ask you, right there in that spot of, yes, a higher perspective, for sure, but the how, the how of pulling yourself out of I'm down at this land's view and I'm in the mire and the muck the how to lift up to that higher perspective?
Speaker 3:One of the valuable things when your guests are listening or watching the podcast is they begin to expand their awareness of possibilities and so to have inside of our spirit and our soul a bit of remembrance of those good times and those greater possibilities that we don't have to be stuck. That when we do become stuck because we're doing this human experience, we can remember. You know what? Somehow this is going to play into my soul's evolution. I'm caught up here in a soul lesson and I'm being stretched and put through a washing machine and who knows where I'm going to come up once I've gone down. But if I can remember that this is part of the journey and that this too shall pass. I mean, in Montana Glacier Park they have a road called Going to the Sun Road. It's one of America's iconic must drives and it's got an incredible amount of hairpin turns looking down in these endless valleys with spectacular views and mountains and glaciers, and that it's a you're going very slow and you're making a turn and you say, when am I going to get to the top of the mountain? When I'm going to get up there? And you know, you finally get up there and it's like you know, this is it. There's just. But see that you missed the whole point, because the whole point is the journey, the whole point is the drive, the whole point is each one of those turns, or the fears and the concerns. And when the fear comes in, you get to choose whether you're going to be courageous in this moment. And being courageous is believing that something is more important than your fear, something is more important than the sadness, something is more valuable in that moment that will pull you from being stuck in the mire. And so sometimes, when you're in the depths of despair and it is a dark night and it seems like it's never going to end and you're like you're underwater and it's like your voice is just muffled and you know they can't hear you and you get your body out and you go out with your friends, but you're not really there. You're still in your pain or the difficulty and you're making a good showing, but they're still not that connect.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's important to be in the sorrow and when you choose to get out of the tough times, to go through the motions, because eventually something will click, and a lot of times it isn't ta-da, everything's better, it's just. Things begin to be a little bit lighter, it begins to be a little easier. You've come up in a different place, you're different now and it's still a little precarious getting back into life and being who you are. And now, after this moment, it can happen with a mystical experience too, where all of a sudden you've changed and you can't really pinpoint it. But you're different now and you're in the world in a different kind of way and the vibration that you are emanating from your soul essence isn't quite matching where you once were, and you've got to be okay with that. You've got to trust that, which is why it's valuable to listen to alternative perspectives from where you know that stretch your thinking, that lift you to a higher perspective so you're not caught up. Because when you're caught up in your pain, when you're caught up in your difficulty, that fear and that concern can run rampant and take you down.
Speaker 3:I mean one time, trevor, my son and I or not one time, but we used to spend the night in the summertime in the tent on our front lawn on this mountaintop, but we got a lot of things that run around out there. You know turkeys, no big problem. You know occasional deer, but we got bears too In Montana. You know we got not only black bears, we got grizzly bears, you know not just deer, we got elk running around, we got moose running around as well. So one night, trevor and I are out there in the tent and you know, the head sometimes starts stirring about those bears, because there's not a lot between you and a bear, there's a little piece of canvas, and just imagine his snout checking it out, you know. And we're lying out there and so you know, trevor's asleep and I hear this, I growl and it's like oh no, about to get eaten. You know there's a bear, it's going to devour me and my head starts spinning. So I get really quiet and I listen, and I listen and all of a sudden I realize it's my stomach growling, and not a bear at all. You know, it was the beans I had earlier in the evening that were, you know, dancing through my stomach. But I, you know I went on this far out trip that you know it was the end of the world.
Speaker 3:And what happens in our life when we get caught up in one of those down, sad, hard times in our life, you know we start allowing our mind to run its tape and its story and get us all wigged out and it's real and it's dramatic, and it goes on for days or weeks. So people live in their dramatic vision of their life, rather than you know getting still vision of their life, rather than you know getting still trying to find that higher perspective, what really is going on here. You know something happened. It's human. You know, and now what you know, I'm willing to give some time of my life to this. But if I'm going to be in this world still, then I got to move forward and I know that. You know I have got all the support you know from this dimension or the next that is there to assist me, just as long as I have something to remember that's calling me to go forward.
Speaker 3:And that's the beauty of the higher perspective it allows you to see something greater than the pain that you have been in, and so it's valuable to be in it for a while. But you're going to be in this world. You can't stay there the rest of your journey in this life. And we're dealing with time in this time-space continuum, in this plane, but the truth is we're dealing with that which is timeless. So if you're in your muck for a few days or a year? Is it time to wake up from that dream, that experience, that nightmare, that challenge? I mean? You know, and once you wake up it's behind you, you know. It lingers, it, teaches, it empowers you, but it doesn't need to be the dominating force in your life. Once you take a higher perspective and realize it plays into my being, my character, my totality of who I am, but it's not all of who I am.
Speaker 2:I love that image you created of being on the mountain. And everybody can't go to the top of the mountain, you know, in the middle of the pain, in the middle of the muck, right. But we can envision that mountain and so even just kind of having that idea in my mind of you know. Okay, let's close the eyes and picture myself on top of the mountain and now I can really see everything instead of just what is right. You know, within my peripheral vision right now, I like that idea of being able to see all the options in front of me instead of just this one isolated view that I have right now. So I haven't read the book, unlike Donna. So that's something I'm going to have to read.
Speaker 3:Oh, there you go, I'll get you a copy. And that's beautiful what you're saying, because you know I love trees, but I also love the beach and you know I got palm trees. But it's not quite the same, as you know, being lost next to your lake in a mountain and just sitting there and watching nature unfold and the animals come up to the lake and have a drink and the fall colors. But what you two are well aware of is the multidimensional aspect of our being and that's the beauty of being not locked to a body. This body of ours is this great vehicle we've been given to tool around this planet and this vibrational plane in, and it's wonderful and it's magical, but we got to remember this is not who we are. It's, you know, we got this model and this is what we got, this go around and it's great, but it's not who we are.
Speaker 3:And who we are is able to go to those spots in nature and so often I try to go there, or I used to try to go there and pull the image and picture. I take myself to that place. But what I learned is I can only bring a little pieces in that way. But, if I allow myself. Rather than try to bring it into me, I allow myself to go there. If I actually allow myself to step into that space, I then recognize that I'm actually part of nature, that you know you got the trees and the water and the wind and Christian who's part of this, and there's so much more than what my mind can conjure up I can begin to see the infinite aspects of where I'm sitting and looking out from there. As opposed to trying to bring it to me, I enter into that space and you can do this beyond just a location. You can do this through time.
Speaker 3:I mean, I can remember, you know, I got once locked in, not locked, but I went to Egypt and I got to the Pyramid of Giza and it's this little tunnel you got to walk up to get into the king's chamber and the lights went out in the king's chamber and the guard up there brought down the person with their candle, let him down, and so I had a flashlight. So I scurried up that little passageway into the king's chamber and no one was in this dark room. So I climbed into the sarcophagus of the king's chamber and I'm in this dark room, just my buddy and I, and just meditated and it was just amazing being able to transcend into that time and that space of being in there in the days of the kings and the sun gods and being able to experience the vibration that is always available, that is there for someone who wants to just tune into it. And so in our life we can always tune into a higher realization. You know you're stuck. You're calling forth hope. You choose to dial into the other things that are available to us. We're not bound by the body of this time-space vibration, but you can converse with those that have left this world recently or a long time ago. It is all ever available in the multidimensional totality of the subjective field. And so, as you choose to recognize that my hope will bring me beyond the constraints of this environment, this body, this time, this pain, you are able to become available to so much more that is seeking expression through you.
Speaker 3:You know Ernest Holmes. He founded this philosophy called religious science, which has become the center for spiritual living. He said there's infinite opportunities that are forever seeking expression through you. You know it's there. You know you're not stuck. But if you get caught up and running in the game of your mind, you'll feel you're stuck. But you're not stuck, it's just. That is the belief that you're running right now, and so you've got to begin to look within your heart and soul and recognize that, if I want out, I have at my disposal infinite possibilities, and it's not bound by the physical, but rather it is allowing myself to enter into this space. That is other than what I am conscious of in this moment, and we do that by tuning that dial to a different frequency and all of a sudden, we are able to enter into that.
Speaker 2:So I don't imagine, Dr Sorensen, that you always had this perspective. I know Donna mentioned that you were ordained in 85. What got you to this perspective? What got you here? Can you share a little bit about the story that got you here?
Speaker 3:Sure, both my parents were ministers in this New Thought philosophy, ministers in this New Thought philosophy. And just, you know New Thought is, it is America's unique contribution to the world body of theology. You know, you got your Judeo-Christian, the Abrahamic religions, muslim in there, you've got the Eastern philosophies, you know. But America's contribution is the New thought to the world body of theology. And what differentiates it is that we deal in the realm of thought, we deal in the realm of consciousness. It came from the transcendentalists, emerson and Thoreau and all those guys and women back in, really, the Athens of the 1850s in the Boston area, not far from where you guys are hanging out, but anyway. So I was blessed, I was brought up into the New Thought philosophy, where you take responsibility for your life. You believe that what all religions say, you believe that we're dealing with that which is infinite, and the religions say this spirit, this life force is infinite. So here's the math here Infinite one plus nothing leaves only one right, say we. You know this spirit, this life force is infinite. So here's the math here infinite one plus nothing leaves only one right infinite. That can't be infinite plus christian right, it's just that includes who I am. But see, that's where a lot of the, the religions begin to break off. They put something outside of themselves, and so what our philosophy is that there is, you know anything? I would call that as part of this divine nature the love, the beauty, the, the abundance, the wealth, the ease, the hell, whatever it is, that's part of my nature, that's part of your nature. I mean, it may not be all of who you are, it may not be what you're experiencing right now, but just like I was part of nature, I'm also part of this divine nature, and so our philosophy and the new thought of philosophy is that we are able to direct this kind of thinking. So I was blessed in a home where both my parents were ministers in what was called religious science or science of the mind Back then. It's now identified as centers for spiritual living. I'd done preliminary classes to Centers for Spiritual Living. I'd done preliminary classes and when I was 19, I was going to Cal State. Northridge Major was drama and business kind of dichotomy of each other, but actually it works really well for ministry. I'm on the stage and we got budgets to deal with, so it works out well. But anyway, at 19, I just didn't want to go back to the college. It wasn't. There's just too many, I don't know, it wasn't, there's just too many, I don't know. It wasn't quite right. So I ran off to New Zealand, never to return, and a 19-year-old guy you know mom and dad, or mom and dad, you knew I'd be back. Mom devastated her Son's never coming back and it lasted all of two months, but you know. So, yeah, moms don't worry, they're coming back. Anyway.
Speaker 3:So I'm down there at 19. I'm down at the South Island in New Zealand, then surfing up north and waiting for the storms to clear off the Tasman Glacier. I'm staying at a youth hostel, all by myself. The only book I'm reading is Ernest Holmes' book this Thing Called you, and I can remember being out, you know, waiting for the storms to clear off Jasmine Glacier under this rock. You know, in the storm, and I'm sitting there and I'm just meditating, because I brought up with this. I'm doing this, I've taken preliminary classes and all of a sudden it's like the light at the end of the tunnel. It's like the light gets brighter and I begin to like a train or something. But it's like all of a sudden, I'm sitting there and I'm looking into these lights and all of a sudden I'm sitting up on the stage like Christian, you know, 20 years later, man like this, 40 year old and standing up there on a stage underneath these lights that are shining, being the speaker and the leader of a spiritual community. And I was like, wow, that's, I can see it and it's like, and I asked my you know, my four-year-old guy. I said, hey, how do I get there? And he says, you know, follow your joy. You know, follow your passion. And so it was in that moment that I knew I was to get on this path. And so I came back at 19, enrolled as late 70s, enrolled in the School of Ministry, and I graduated in 82. And it was an amazing journey.
Speaker 3:But this is the second part of the story that I found fun is and, donna, you've been to our place here. You know we bought it in 98. It took us four years to get permits and building and money. We moved in in the fall here of 01. I can remember the first Sunday, stepping out onto the stage underneath the lights, looking at all the people, just feeling the magic of a community that came together. You talk about hope. We had no money, we had no possibility of buying this place, getting this place, we got in a bankruptcy court. The city didn't want to give us permits. It took a while, but we did it.
Speaker 3:It was just truly, from a higher perspective, a vision that called us and I stepped out on that stage. That's why the lights are in my eyes, they're kind of bright and I'm kind of focusing in. As I'm focusing in, I'm looking out and all of a sudden I see the young, 19-year-old Christian sitting under the rock in New Zealand, smiling at me and saying you know, how did you get here? And he said I followed my passion, you know, I followed my joy. And he said back to me don't ever lose that, keep following it. And it's like, wow, time just blended into one. It was just a crazy trans-dimensional time lapse moment, so kind of there's something launched me back then. But as I got here, I was able to thank him back. There it was. It was um, it's hard to explain, you know that kind of stuff. So that's how I kind of ended up in the ministry, um, you know, and I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:You know, getting to this point, I've had nothing but joy.
Speaker 3:I've've appreciated every day.
Speaker 3:I love what it is I do. I love to wake up in the morning. It doesn't mean there aren't tough kind of dynamics in running the place, or financial things, or personality things, or Saturday you know, things that break my heart. But the hope that has a higher perspective knows that this too shall pass. This is one of the twists on the sun road that, oh my goodness, I am not going to go over the edge, I'm not going to finally get to wherever the destination says that. But I'm going to remember that every twist and turn on the road is part of the experience and for me, my ministry and my life has always been about joy.
Speaker 3:I started every one of my Sunday mornings. What a joy it is to be here with the two of you today and to share with those you know, and you know I at 19, you know I didn't really fit the common look of a minister. You know I wasn't really that father figure looking guy at 20. I was a surfer dude. You know paddle out in the waves. You know go skiing whenever I could, and. But what I learned is what was important was to be authentic, was to be who I am and to be as transparent and share my pains and difficulties and things like that.
Speaker 1:So that's what I wanted to ask you, and I think you've already answered that, actually answered beautifully. The you know what you do in front of so many reaching out in limitless ways to the world requires a tremendous amount of confidence to do that. But it sounds like what you're saying is it's not really about the confidence, it's about that authenticity and it's about leading with joy. And you do that and the rest follows. Am I putting words in your mouth or you speak to me a little bit about?
Speaker 3:it. Yeah, you can just do the rest for me, That'd be fine. So, yeah, no, it's the energy about. You know life can be tough enough. You know we have enough painful moments in our world, and so I like to bring joy into it and the laughter and the, you know, and the lightness. My higher power is joy. I think Théodore Desjardins said that joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God, and so that's the way I choose to play.
Speaker 3:You know some people prefer to go with solemn. You know you come to a seaside celebration on Sunday. It's a celebration. You know some people want to go to devotional service, Some want to go to contemplative service. When you come to seaside, you're going to get celebration, You're going to get joy, You're going to get jazz music.
Speaker 3:We've got San Diego's voted best live performer here. You know Rebecca Jade. She just sings incredibly, yeah, yeah. And so we've got great music. We laugh, we cry, we love one another and we have community.
Speaker 3:You know it's not about one person who is the leader, it is about we are a community that does this thing together and we call it community.
Speaker 3:You know it's our sangha, it's our place and it's open, it's welcoming, and we confirm people. We confirm you know, wherever you may be on your path, you're welcome here. It's a place without judgment. It's a place without judgment, it's a place of kindness and what we have found is that, in a world where there's so much toughness out there, the hope is that there are these pockets of light that are open and welcoming and it's about healing. People come in, you know, brokenhearted, downtrodden, you know defeated, and what our message is is about hope. And you get to that place because you take a higher perspective. You know, we've all had our times when we have been down, but when you're doing your spiritual work, you begin to build just a wonderful resource of knowing that I have something to draw upon. When I have eked out, you know all I can from this dark time, you know, and the hope it gives us the courage to keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you've used our word hope several times and some people kind of look at this idea of hope or they have no hope and they think, oh, people who are hopeful are handed things. You're handed things and that's why you're hopeful. So you know, you said building. I think you're building hope. Is it that you just find hope on the mountain? Do you create your own hope? Where does the hope come from?
Speaker 3:Well, I believe the hope brings with it the possibilities. And as you can lift yourself above the meme of darkness, you know that vibration of the heaviness. If you can poke your head out of it, you begin to see. You don't? I don't approach things by conjuring it up. I try to approach things by making myself available to that which is greater than I like to step into that realm of infinite possibilities and begin to look around and see what I resonate with.
Speaker 3:I think that we struggle so hard, attempting to make something work, to make the hope. It doesn't have to be a struggle. I mean that's the value of finding the quiet time to sit and to listen. As we listen to, as we talked about the lowly voice, you know it could be your imagination. You begin to develop your ability to become familiar with what your inner voice sounds like. I would like to say it's a big, booming voice. Hey, christian, do this.
Speaker 3:You know, for some it may be, but the key is everybody has to take the time to become familiar with how the inner communicates with them. Some it's images, some it's hunches, some it's chills up the spine, some it's very clear words, some it's pictures. Some you feel like you're being communicated with and talked to from the other side. You know, there's not a right or wrong. There is developing your skill set to become. I don't know. You call it intuitive, you can call it what you want, but you know, really one of my goals in life is to assist people to become familiar with their inner voice and to be led by that in life.
Speaker 3:And so do I, you know, make hope happen, do I conjure it up? What I do is, you know, in the midst of my pain or difficulty or sorrow or challenge I have, because of practice, over and over, in good times, light times, happy times, whatever times, daily, whether it's a time or not, I stop and I listen to that something inside of myself, without expectation. I'm supposed to get this, I'm supposed to get that, I'm supposed to be helpful. I just allow myself to be available to a higher wisdom that is forever looking to be seen, to be heard, to bring a greater expression into this world. And so, as I allow myself to become more available, the hope is a natural thing and it actually moves beyond hope.
Speaker 3:You know, ernest Holmes, in one of his spots, says hope's a subtle illusion, because it says that you know, hope can say, maybe it might not work, but what we want to do is go to the place where it's, absolutely knowing that this hope is unfolding in a way. That is my doorway, it's the threshold, it is the revelation that has come with a jubilation of the joy that is ever seeking to be known. In this vibration and as I become that in my life, I add to the collective consciousness of humanity and the gift that I get to bring, the gift that you get to bring, is the hope, is the light, is the joy to help offset the bombardment that news and media and network and the social media is just filling people's minds with this incredible fear and is taking this, uh, grabbing hold and creating an addiction that people need to check their phone. I mean people, you know. Will, you know, have dinner with somebody? They'll check their phone. Why are you doing that? You know it's like you're with people. Why would you have to see what is hip and what is what is happening? And so what we get to do with our authentic expression of joy and love and compassion, caring and kindness is begin to help shift it. But there's always going to be a higher possibility and as high as you get, there's always going to be a higher one.
Speaker 3:You know the great avatars, or the Jesus, or the Buddhas, or the Krishna, you know you don't think they stopped when they checked out of this place and their soul's evolution man. They had this plane down. They knew that they were the masters, they knew that they were in charge of their body and their environment and their world, but they didn't stop. I'm sure you know it is about continual evolution, but we've been left with a legacy from the avatars that says we are not our body and that any moment we can move to a higher perspective, a higher meme. If you would, and not be victim, but rather the architect of our reality, of our world.
Speaker 3:And if you don't like what you're living in, then you get to change it. I don't mean to blow it up if you want to and if things are stirring. Sometimes your world will implode or blow up on its own, and sometimes things have to fall apart for them to be rebuilt and to come together, for that which is next in your world and those that you have traveled with thus far on this dimension may no longer be part of the next iteration of your soul's gift to humanity, and nobody wants to hold you back. What they want you to do is what they want to do is to be able to launch you into what you've come here to do. So we have to move beyond the pain of where we were in order to be used by all that have come together to support you to get to this point, so you can be the magnificent expression that our world hungers you to be.
Speaker 3:And you're the only one who can deny that by buying in and being remained stuck to the pain and the darkness. But you've got a light that is stirring, and when you can take the time and the stillness to feel it, to see it, to hear it, to experience it, you become that transparency for the higher expression of spirit to have its way in this world, and it needs us all. You have come to this world for a time such as this, to be that for which you have been called to be. Don't deny that. Be bold, be great in who you are and step into a place you haven't stepped before, with the courage of not knowing but trusting, with that greater hope. That Spirit will provide all that is necessary for you to know, to do and to source you in the vision that you have said yes to.
Speaker 1:That is so just incredibly inspiring. But you're always inspiring. I love, love, love. Listening to you, christian and God, the passion, the joy that comes through what you share. I know the authenticity of that and I can feel it and receive it, and I'm sure you hear that all the time that you're inspiring. You're inspiring, your talks are inspiring. I know that's what I hear people say about you always. But so what? What inspires you? What gives you this feeling that I now have listening to you going yes, what is it? What is it that inspires you and drives you?
Speaker 3:That right there. That's it. It's just you, you getting turned on. I'd love to turn you on you know, it's like you know.
Speaker 3:That's why I love doing Sundays. I mean, you guys, you know you're welcome. We, you know you can watch us live, you know 11 o'clock, west coast time right here on. That's my joy. I watch healings all the time. It's a healing philosophy and I give you the secret to healing if you want it.
Speaker 3:It's very simple and it doesn't matter what is going on, what the pain, what the condition, no matter what is going on. There's only one cause. That's it. It's just one, and it's a sense of separation from the source. That's it. If it's infinite, you are that, and if you've got anything, that is not it, it's because you are creating that in your reality. If you can get that out of your thinking, you heal that sense of separation.
Speaker 3:I have seen broken bones go back together. I've seen diabetics no longer need insulin. I've seen brain tumors dissolve. I have seen just amazing testimonials relationships come back together, finances just explode into wonderful realms of possibility. Podcasts go just viral. You know, you just get rid of this sense that separates you from the infinite. See, you are the infinite expressing Now.
Speaker 3:Is this life force having a good time with you as you, or is it like just being restricted. Are you going bold? Are you going courageous? Are you doing what needs to be? So what keeps me going is, you know, inspiring. You say well, that means in spirit.
Speaker 3:You know, enthusiasm in Dios, in God. You know that's what I do. I get, you know, I get to pray every day. I get to read, write research, share it. I mean, I love what I do. I wake up in the morning excited. I seem to be waking up early and earlier all the time because I get excited, getting going with my day. And it doesn't mean some of the things I've got to do are not as fun, but you know what it's, you know that's why I woke up and prayed, you know, with people before I even left the house, because somehow people just feel good when I do that. So I try not to think about it or my talks. I just trust stepping into that space and allow that spirit to flow. And what happens is I'm sourced man, I'm turned on, I get jazzed, I get excited. It's like you know, if you guys can even see how fast it's moving through my awareness, only a little bit's coming out. But you know there's so much more and it's the life force that heals, because I have seen these healings going on. It is that which transforms and I want you to have that. That's what gets me excited is as people begin to experience it in their life, they begin to have greater hope that they are not victims of circumstances or the headlines or the fears that we are getting pumped, because we're being pumped more fear all the time.
Speaker 3:We're in a country that seems to be wanting to divide itself and once again, you want to heal that, heal that sense of separation. There is no large or small, that's only in our mind. We're dealing with that which is infinite. So there is no large or small, that's only in our mind. We're dealing with that which is infinite. So there's not a large or small, it's just infinite.
Speaker 3:So, whether you're trying to heal a schism in a relationship or in a country, it is about saying what is that common denominator that we have?
Speaker 3:What is that common vision that could unite our country? You know our relationship, and so that's what happens when you have a higher perspective is you begin not to fester in the minutia of the littleness, you begin to think in an ever-expanding kind of way, and it's in this expansive way you can see how all of us connected make this world. You fly on the plane. All these houses make up our town. This town makes up our county. This county make up our state, the further away you begin to do it. And so, when people are in pain, what I like to do is sometimes try to get them to lift a little bit higher so you can see how this experience, and sometimes as horrendous as that experience is somehow I mean, when you're in the midst of it it's hard to get that but somehow it's playing into something that is supporting your life in a greater way. Once you can get out of that the pain of the dynamics of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm picturing you on the stage and I know you mentioned Rebecca and I love her music. So I think you know, during the pandemic, when everything was online, it was amazing getting to hear her, but what would be other than the music you hear every Sunday at church. What would be your walk-in song? Here you are coming up to the stage, coming up to present in front of everybody. What is your walk-in song?
Speaker 3:Well, the walk-in song is whatever everyone is singing together. That's the joy for me, I mean. I mean I prefer the good beat. I like the bass, I like the high energy and we got a jazz band going on and the horns blowing and the bass is playing and the pianist is going. It's. You know, I love all that. But the magic in the music for me is when everybody is singing together and they're, and I walk in and they're hugging and shaking hands and it's just the joy is starting when it's going.
Speaker 3:And then you know, when I actually go to speak, I like a high energy song to step into the high vibe, because you know it's like down or out of tune, somebody's missing notes. I cringe, but I get into the passion and the love and their beauty. So I definitely like high energy. But when I'm done talking, I like the ones that will touch your heart and make you cry and just go, wow, my heart can break open even more. So there's more space to receive the gifts of this moment. You know there's a magic of community. I mean we do online and there's great things and just wonderful stories, but there's magic of being physically in community, together with hundreds of people who are singing and clapping and laughing and hugging and loving, and it takes all of us to do that together, and so it goes on online but also goes on in person, and that's the beauty with Seaside.
Speaker 3:During the pandemic you mentioned, we didn't um, you know what happened is we have a garden outside, so we we met outside, you know the, you know the state, you know locked down the place. But as soon as, um, we were able to get back inside, before people were allowed inside, you know, we brought in the band and they and uh brought in our uh sound team and stream team and Rebecca and I and the crew, we continued to deliver. We said people, you know what, you want it live, you can sit outside. And you want it at home with a mimosa, you can have that too.
Speaker 1:So much great messaging, christian. I'm so glad to be able to talk with you about all of this. So so much great messaging, Christian. I'm so glad to be able to talk with you about all of this so clearly. You've done so much beautiful work here in this life that you have to live. You are doing the beautiful work. You're constantly. You are an idea guy, for sure, but you're also a guy who makes it happen. It's not just about the idea. You execute, execute, execute. You get out there, you write the book, you speak the speech, you get the place in Montana, you do the stuff you realize. I know that on the other side of this life because this life does have this life in this body has its time frame and you go wherever you go. How do you hope? And you go wherever you go, how do you hope? Or do you even think about how you hope to be remembered or what that legacy of this life you have is as you move forward?
Speaker 3:I don't really care about legacy, it's. You know, my joy is, you know it's just like, right here, this is so good. You know, it's just being able to talk to the two of you on the other side of our continent. You know, that's so, so incredible. I, you know, I just I just so, hopefully, the place a little brighter. You know, touch some people that continue.
Speaker 3:I, I'm about now and you know when I'm done I'm done. You know where I'm going is probably where I came from. You know, when I came into this world I came from somewhere I'm going back into that place that I think the energy is a little finer and faster. I think this world, things are slowed down. You know the vibrational level here is slower, which is why, you know, we have this density in these bodies that are pretty much made up of just energy. You know, in 99.9% it's all space in those atoms or something. You know that's what I am. I will continue to be and I trust that there'll be the continuity of my awareness.
Speaker 3:But you know what's also different I think about, you know, with those on the other side, is, you know, when we're with somebody here, it's like I'm with you and I can't be somewhere else. But I think when we're on the other side and when we're consciousness, we're like able to be more spread out in our awareness. So when I'm talking to my dad on the other side, it's not like I'm pulling him out of a classroom somewhere. You know he's doing his shtick over there, but he's also available to communicate, you know, with me and say hey, son man, nice job, man, I'm proud of you. You know way to go.
Speaker 3:So I think, with that omnidimensional expression of possibilities, the consciousness is able to be present in a wider place. So, like on that plane, you're looking down at the house in this city and the house over there. You know you're able to see both and be available. You know in both awarenesses, without taking away from who you are. I think, when we are not operating just conscious of the physical body, that what we have is a broader realm of awareness and not bound to a particular delineation of that. And so at nights we probably go there, and I know you two travel there all the time. You know you don't have to give up awareness, you just have to. You know, let go of the framework of belief that has you bound to a linear location, and then you can, you know, know commune with whoever you want absolutely, shall we jump into?
Speaker 2:our rapid fire sis. What do you think?
Speaker 3:oh, yep, so this isn't hasn't been rapid fire, huh this is gonna be here. Some quick questions okay, I get ready we'll just throw them at you.
Speaker 2:So what color is hope?
Speaker 3:It is my goodness, I would say it is. I like my shirt color. Maybe about this color here? Yeah, what kind of color.
Speaker 2:Is it periwinkle? I'm like, what color is that? Is it more gray? Is it periwinkle? Is it blue? Oh, you gotta come hug it for yourself sometime, there for yourself sometime. You're gonna have to see the visual to know.
Speaker 1:Very good, like ocean color, which is uh changing and very fitting for you, and I know your passion and love for the ocean. All right, so what does hope sound like? That's gorgeous go, sis.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting there in that big sigh um. The meaning of life is joy uh hope is love made manifest
Speaker 3:and higher perspective is a mountaintop view beautiful there we go oh man, those are easy yeah, that was it. That's our rapid fire we're not a bird cell at all.
Speaker 1:This is a soft and easy place to be Okay.
Speaker 3:Hey, I got a new book coming out tomorrow, actually November 1st. It's a 365-day book. You may remember Catherine Economo, who's Assistant Minister here at Seaside recently made a transition, but before she left, she and I wrote a book called Wholehearted Living An Enchanted Journey of the Soul. It's a 365-day book of inspiration. It's a great way to start a new year is to grab that. So be on Amazon. Love for anybody, any of your viewers. Pick it up and once again, you know we're able to, you know, make a difference. So Catherine, yeah, like I said, left the world too soon early 50s, left a 16-year-old daughter behind and so just made arrangements that all those sales go to her college fund, and mom didn't get to know that but decided that that would be a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, mama knows it now for sure. That's gorgeous, wholehearted. It's interesting. I have a book that I've been working on called Wholehearted also, I love that title.
Speaker 3:I think it's kind of I don't know. You know, brene Brown really made the concept of wholehearted living current, I think.
Speaker 1:I love Brene Brown, so tell us more. Tell us about more where people can find you.
Speaker 3:Well, go to the Seaside Center for Spirits of Living. It's called seasidecenterorg and you can watch Sunday morning live. I shared with you guys at 11 o'clock, west Coast time on Sundays, but you can watch it anytime. You know there's a Patreon group. I continue to give you know fresh content too. And yeah, you know, I got you know 11 books, you know. So you go on Amazon and pick up anyone. That's still. You know.
Speaker 3:My favorite one really is Living from the Mountaintop, which I was speaking from today. It's definitely about being the mystic you were born to be and it's a self-directed journey from your lower vibrational chakra energy of the earth being trapped in prison. And by the time you get to the last chapter you're just merging with the light. You just blow out through the top. At the last chapter, you're just merging with the light. You just blow out through the top and you're living with the ease and the grace, the sense of bliss and ecstasy and all those fun kind of things.
Speaker 3:But at the end of each chapter there's self-directed questions. So it's a real fun book study. So, if you have a few friends to get together, at the end of each chapter there's a guided meditation followed by questions that you can work, and so a lot of different communities have used this book. It's 10 chapters, 10 weeks, and it's just fun to do with people. One person can read the guided meditation. You can put it on a recording if you want to do it yourself, and then you do the questions at the end, and each chapter has quotes from mystics and it just utilizes the different directions of the indigenous people, things like that.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Go ahead, sis. I imagine if people are local to Seaside they can probably even stop in there at the bookstore and pick up your books.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do have mine. We don't have many books anymore because people mostly get their books online cheaper than bookstores can sell them. So but don't tell our bookstore. I told you that.
Speaker 1:Well, I know and having read the book and knowing it well, it is very much infused with this hope that we're talking about. That is replete throughout it and it is a-.
Speaker 3:It's such a great way to live and, as we said, it's you know. It opens the door, it lets the light in, it shows the possibility, it allows you to step into a place that is higher than despair, for sure, and it begins to lead you down a path that allows you to enter a kingdom where all possibilities for your world begin to take form, and you know the ways and the means and the how-tos for it. So christian.
Speaker 1:we are so grateful that you came to share this time with us right now. It really was beautifully inspiring. We're so glad to have captured it on tape, but also we know that it's all you know, spoken it. It's out there in the world, it's out in the ethers, right and living and breathing and taking form and shape, and so, thank you, thank you. Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, hey, thanks for including me. That was a lot of fun. You too, be well, love you both.
Speaker 1:You too, you too Hugs and love to Callie and your boy.
Speaker 3:I'll do it All right, see you guys.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye to Callie and your boy. I'll do it All right. See you guys, bye-bye. Thanks for joining us today on Soul.
Speaker 1:Sisteries, and thanks for sharing stories with us. We'd love to hear your stories as well and keep the conversation going, absolutely keeping the hope going. So we're really hopeful that you'll connect with our guests as well, who have great stories to share. Go ahead and follow them in various social media platforms or live venues, wherever it is that they're performing and sharing what they do.
Speaker 2:We would love to have you follow us on all of our social media platforms, subscribe and rate, as that will help us get our message of hope out to others. Thanks for listening to Soul Sisteries.
