By Roger A. “Pete” Peterson
The secrets of the universe lie hidden in the shadows of our experience. Look for them! – Pete
It may seem funny to see the words: “Heart Talk”. What does it mean? Well, it means exactly what it says; I had a talk with my heart this morning, 1/31/2011.
If you knew me, you’d know that talking to things, including my body and its parts, is normal (see: Inside Ivy). Many of us talk to things as if they could understand us. We talk to plants and animals, and even ourselves. We give affectionate names to inanimate objects like cars and boats. While we do this playfully, we must believe, at some level of consciousness, that this behavior has meaning. The difference between common wisdom and mine is that I know we can communicate directly with other beings, inanimate or not, through telepathy or direct communication, subtle though it might be.
My passion is exploring and writing about the nature of the soul, the inner self versus the outer self and inner reality versus outer reality. When you read “Inside Ivy”, you’ll see that just because something has no mouth, tongue, vocal cords and a set of lungs, doesn’t mean it can’t communicate with you, and you to it, through other means. Because Consciousness or Energetic Awareness is the source and substance of All That Is, direct or telepathic communication is natural though subtle (see: A New Story of Origin). We use this form of communication in dreams, meditation and imagination all the time! Why not use it when we’re awake?
When I was four, my biological father died from heart failure. He was forty-nine years old. I’m sixty eight and since the age of eleven, I’ve known my heart has a murmur. Its source is Mitral Valve Prolapse.
The mitral valve is located between the upper, left chamber of the heart or atrium and the lower, left ventricle. Newly oxygenated blood returning from the lungs enters the left atrium, which pushes it through the mitral valve into the left ventricle, the most powerful chamber of the heart. Once in the left ventricle, the mitral valve closes to prevent backflow into the atrium when the left ventricle contracts to force blood through the aortic valve and out into the arterial system for distribution to the body. When the mitral valve fails to close tightly, a condition known as Mitral Valve Prolapse, it allows blood to seep back into the left atrium every time the left ventricle contracts. When this happens, there is a loss of efficiency and the heart must work harder.
(When blood returns from the body through the venous system, it enters the right atrium, which pumps it into the right ventricle. From here, it goes to the lungs for carbon dioxide removal and re-oxygenation. From the lungs, freshly oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium to begin the cycle over again.)
In my case, Mitral Valve Prolapse triggers episodes of rapid heartbeat, or tachycardia, and, sometimes, atrial fibrillation (chaotic vibration of both upper chambers of the heart). The cause of atrial fibrillation is the uncoordinated electrical firing of nervous tissue meant to control and coordinate pumping activity in all four chambers of the heart. Bending forward, breathing deeply, burping or wondering about my heart’s intentions can trigger episodes of rapid heartbeat and atrial fibrillation. Most often, it happens when I exert myself through work or exercise.
Sometimes I can stop an episode as soon as it starts by contracting my chest for a few seconds. This action squeezes my heart between my diaphragm and upper chest wall, putting steady pressure on it. If chest compression doesn’t work, it goes into overdrive or fibrillation. When it does, I lie down and raise my knees immediately. At home, I rest my legs on a chair seat while lying on the floor. This is the quickest way to return my heart function to normal and prevent damage.
It gets a little sticky, however, when my heart acts up in public. We get uncomfortable when we see things out of the ordinary, and seeing someone laying down on a path or busy sidewalk with their knees raised for no discernable reason, qualifies as “out of the ordinary”. The alternative for me is to continue walking, get dizzy and maybe pass out, which would make matters worse by far.
For years, I’ve held the belief my heart was the weakest link in my body and that someday it would fail. I’m quite comfortable with this idea as heart failure seems like a quick and civilized way to go. My heart is unhappy being cast in this role, however, and demonstrated its feelings in a lucid dream.
My Lucid Heart Dream
Twelve years ago, my heart appeared to me in a lucid dream. It took the form of the actor, Armand Assante.
It was nighttime when my mysterious companion and I came upon a man lying on the concrete at the mouth of a dark city alley. He was facing away from us as we approached. What set this man apart from the other people lying on the ground near him was the fact that he didn’t look like them. He was clean and appeared strong and healthy, his face clean-shaven and his hair combed neatly. He wore new silk pajamas and a silk robe. To all outward appearances, he looked like a man of means.
As my friend and I came to a stop near him, he turned and looked at us. What struck me most was the look of loss and loneliness on his face. Turning away, he shivered and pulled his knees into a fetal position as he forced himself deeper into his new and expensive looking sleeping.
Turning to my companion, I spread my hands palm up and raised my shoulders to form the silent question, what’s up with him?
As we moved away, my friend whispered in my ear, “don’t you know him?”
“No”, I said, other than the fact he looks like the actor, Armand Assante!
“It’s your heart in human form”, he said.
Without understanding how or why, I knew my companion was right; this “man” lying on the cold ground symbolized the emotional and physical state of my heart expressed in human form. The setting, the look on his face, his outward appearance and behavior, all conveyed a message I was ready to see but not ready to understand.
Over the years, since this dream, I’ve wondered why my heart appeared to me in this way. Why would it appear as an actor and why would it prefer lying alone at the entrance of a cold, dark alley when it had a warm, comfortable home to live in? It “acted” as though it was unappreciated and unloved, an abandoned pariah. Why would my heart express those thoughts? What did I do to make it feel that way, if anything? What was it trying to tell me in that dream?
Today, I received my answer.
After years of living with an iffy heart, a heart that recently started jumping into overdrive at the drop of a hat, I contacted my doctor to describe my newest symptoms. He had me fitted with a twenty-four hour heart monitor this morning and my wife, Sandra, and I decided to go for a brisk walk along Santa Rosa Creek, something we’ve been avoiding lately (we want to spare people the strange sight of me lying on the ground with my knees raised). If my heart was going to act up, this should do it, we thought.
Forty-five minutes later, I told Sandra my heart felt strong and stable. There was no tightness in my chest, or shortness of breath, which I experience occasionally soon after we start hiking. These symptoms, when they occur, disappear when I warm up. She said she was glad because she had forgotten to bring water and aspirin, something she always did when we walked regularly. I joked: it knows it is being monitored so it’s hiding its usual behavior to keep everyone guessing. Calling it crafty and wily, we both laughed. In response, my heart flip-flopped to remind me it was listening. Several times lately, it has jumped into overdrive for no apparent reason. It happened once when I was standing still and once when I was sitting down, both in the same day!
Because I had been concerned lately, I asked my inner self and my heart for a “heart miracle”. I don’t fear dying but I have more to do before I leave. For a moment before the flip-flop on our hike, I thought, maybe the added concern I’ve given my heart lately did the trick and wrought my heart miracle. The flip-flop said otherwise.
My Heart Speaks and I Listen
In response to my heart’s flip-flop, I directed my attention inward with earnest as we continued on our way home. I really wanted to know why it was unhappy and why it acted so depressed and alone in my dream. Like a thunderclap, I suddenly understood why. I had singled it out as the weakest link in my body, the one part of me that would be most likely to terminate my life. Without realizing it, I had unfairly placed a burden of responsibility on it that was far greater than it wanted to carry. In my ignorance, I had cast it in the role of hit man. In the role of spoiler, it became a magnet for fear and suspicion from my body, my family and me.
Even though I am convinced dying of heart failure is a civilized way to go, it is difficult not to worry about when my heart will strike its deadly blow. Will I be able to finish with my work here? In my ignorance, I had made my heart an outcast, a pariah. Cast in the role of executioner, how would anyone feel? Even though I don’t fear death and I believe my heart will choose a convenient moment to pull the plug, there is still room for doubt and suspicion.
Now that I understood how my heart felt about my actions, I feel moved to apologize. I had mindlessly accepted the scientific belief in the power of heredity and that, barring accident, I would die as my father had died. The best I could do was make it much later, since he died as much from unhappiness as a faulty heart. In a state of divine empathy, I spoke the following words to my heart – I free you from the responsibility of being my body’s executioner. I will accept death in any way it chooses to visit me.
Despite the evidence that stood before me from my years of exploring the nature of consciousness, I never thought about how my body, or its parts, would react to the way I thought and felt about them. What I saw was a reasonable and quick way to die without prolonged illness or external violence to my body. If my beliefs about my heart had such a profound effect on it that it would appear to me in a dream and “act” out its reaction to my thoughts, I must ask, how do my beliefs about other people and things affect them. How do your beliefs about others affect them? How do your beliefs about you, affect you? Are we too often the victims of our own beliefs?
How many of us suffer from diseases of body and mind because of negative messages we send out and receive (even from ourselves) – messages that injure and disturb us? Is there a lesson in protocol to learn here?
After years of marriage and experimentation with telepathy, I’ve seen how my thoughts, feelings and actions affect my wife and our relationship. If I look for fault in her or compare her to other people, even if it’s just in my own mind, I feel bad and she becomes depressed, as if she “knows” what I’m thinking. When I became aware of the effect of telepathic communication in our relationship, due to shared consciousness, I determined not to make judgments or comparisons of others again. As a result, I appreciate myself and others more. To know how spiritually interconnected we are brings us all closer together.
Can we heal illnesses of body, mind, spirit and relationship by understanding how seen and unseen messages that flow between us, and all things, affect our relationships? Can we benefit from opening ourselves up to the idea that the body and soul can “speak”, and that they yearn to have relationships with us (the outer ego self) that go beyond being taken for granted or ignored.
I believe so, but what is important to you is what you believe.
Pete –http://realtalkworld.com
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.
If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.
If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?
How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth
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