Interview
with Apolonia
Who is Apolonia?
I
am someone having a human experience attempting to walk with
the divine through and through.
I
embrace all aspects of self – by both allowing them
to speak and be seen clearly – not held in denial. Allowing
them to arise in real life – watching the unconscious
– and truly believing that the unconscious produces
reality and that aliveness is an opportunity to embrace all
aspects of self at the same time. We are bringing in discipline
to the reactive body so a more mature, deeper spirit-centered
self truly begins to run a life.
In
the end, it is all about listening to the self – spirit
and body – and the unconscious – the “players
in the reality” and continuing to learn how to mold
all of that energy into something that is truly authentic
– not just real in terms of a “teenager”
given permission to express. And so much spiritual discipline
is geared so that what is in the body and in the unconscious
is in denial. This all more so that one day there is a possibility
that the spirit I truly am, the generosity of heart that is
my birthright, the truly genuine me which is the “spirit
me” in the body will face/experience my life.
The
ability we are growing is to be present in the moment and
embody "my" life, meet "my" life, experience
all of "me" in that and continue watching the evolution
of life in "me" and others – as all of life
brings "me" to a sacred experience of life itself.
How
do you help people begin to grow in this way?
The
first round of experience at the Center for Inner Knowing
is the Inner Knowing (IK) Course. It
is truly about learning, acceptance, more generosity to the
self and others and really beginning to see what is in the
unconscious - and beginning to embrace more truth of who we
are – through care and love. When more truth arises
then we can choose love faster - as though we are untying
a knot.
In
the first stage everything comes from the outside. IK and
all the participants provide the food to allow a person to
begin to embrace what is on the inside. The big leap happens
when a person chooses to want to maintain that space without
the external support. When they are ready to empower themselves
to want to be the master of their reality and not be whipped
about in reactions – then they go to the next level.
In
the second level (OneDream) the
student starts disciplining their listening in order to meet
themselves and begins to generate the love and care and the
spiritual connection from within. This listening and generating
is not dependent on energy from the outside – but is
created and produced by the student wherever they go as an
experience of life.
Most
of us are so associated to blaming the external reality that
we don’t go past the first stage – we get addicted
to the first level because we are being fed (and because the
second level is much harder).
If
we take the responsibility to sit quietly and go to a larger
self to determine how we are generating reality – not
through the style meditation that subdues the reactive energies
– but sitting in a full aliveness - one may redefine
the perceptual identity of who one is as a larger spirit-connected
being.
How
do you teach this process?
This
process is taught through loving life. Not by running from
it and the opportunity it provides. It is about leaning into
living life… there is a curiosity – not as life
as been defined before referent to ecstatic reactions and
emotions – but through loving life through the possibility
of having an extremely deep relational experience to the self.
Like tilling soil – so what we define as fulfillment
that is our nature to contribute becomes the flower that was
seeded in the relationship with the self.
This
gets us out of the deadness of the culture – to meet
the fear and hurts. We must meet the true experience of life
first. Go into aliveness first – till the soil, unravel
your life – eat the food of love and care like fertilizer.
Only then can you produce a level of mindful awareness that
allows sitting with the self and embracing the self deeper.
What
we do in IK is create an energy that
makes everything louder – like a family gathering where
all the family members are present and what is really going
on within can be seen. The spiritual energy that comes into
the room can have love, kindness, care and acceptance for
the self – begins to allow the self to transform - into
who it really is and where it truly belongs.
In
OneDream we provide the stillness
to sit with the self – to hold the self in loving-kindness
and then the spiritual energies come in to re-charge the system
into what it really wants.
I
have worked on myself so intensely, that I create an aura
of this energy for transformation. We bring in an energy that
is intense enough to recharge the soil – most spiritual
teachers are trying to teach in depleted soil. We have students
resolve with their parents enough to parent themselves through
connection to spirit. This allows the absorption of the spiritual
teachings where ever people go to be connected to them.
How
did you decide on this way and path of teaching connection
to spirit?
We
all enjoy the fulfillment of knowing we have treated someone
with care and kindness – of knowing we have stretched
ourselves in ingenuity, creativity and hard work. We know
we are fulfilled when we are truthful with ourselves and are
listening to the voice inside us that has integrity to our
higher values. We really enjoy our lives when we come at them
from a mature space.
How did you
come to this?
We
were born to create. We long to be creators. I kept looking
for what was true inside of me. What is true inside of me?
I
kept pursuing a deeper and deeper honesty in me – the
wants and desires – until I got to the core pieces of
what I really long for – I learned to listen deeper
and deeper to what was underneath the reality I was producing.
And that is what we teach.
This
work began to produce deeper and deeper listening of others
– I became a stake in the ground for people that shines
a light beyond the wants and needs/desires of their constructs
– the proving/starving ego structures. I hold that stake
and go deeper – I can feel and hear the true longing
of their essence. And because I have done this process in
myself – walking my own path – I provide a strong
believing that the longing inside (the dream) can be lived
out.
The
depth of this work gives me the distinct ability to hear and
see the true nature and name someone into it – and hold
that identity, relate to that person from that identity, believe
in that identity – and that believing is what everyone
has always been waiting for. “Please see the real me,
believe in the real me – beyond all my structures and
how I make you feel.” That is what we all want –
someone to see us beyond how we are able to see ourselves
– to hold the ground for us and teach us how to walk
on it.
The
work allows me to create and generate a perceptual redefinition
of a reality for the other – which at first can feel
awkward and un-livable to them. But in the end, it is the
possibility of living their true self – not living a
life that is false to them – and so they love it.
A
lot of my work is about getting down to that truth and developing
the wisdom and compassion to manage it into a life fully aligned
on all levels.
How
are you teaching your other instructors to teach this kind
of deep, life experience-related wisdom as you teach it?
The
instructors in training are in a rigorous training to getting
down to the truth in themselves – how they live their
lives – the actors in their plays – with a witness
consciousness. It is strenuous and develops in amazing ways
over time with lots of compassion to the self in learning.
They continue to refocus on the expansion of the heart in
greater ease every day.
My
teachers provide a loving and caring space to begin to untie
the parental knots in IK. They have much experience at this
level.
The
spiritual piece of holding the vision is still the piece that
I am carrying. It is like being in the “matrix”
and unplugging someone – not through a machine –
but through the energetic stance of seeing, knowing and believing
in the one who is real…
People say you create
miracles in the courses – how is that?
There
is another world – another dimension - that is where
the real world is. I have access to that frequency –
and in that frequency if the moment is right, the false self
just falls away – that is what they are calling a miracle.
It feels liberating and it is the deep sense and experience
of one’s own spirit that is miraculous – it is
not so much related to “Apolonia” as they may
think.
That
world, that frequency is like an underground stream that feeds
everything – and when I put my focus on it and begin
to resonate at the level of that stream – it simply
clears off what is unreal - truth beyond illusion.
I
work to redefine what most people have judgments about into
a deeper “listened-to” truth of the person. Once
this truth is heard the acting-out reactions of a person are
no longer needed.
How
long does it take to go through this process?
A long time.
It
moves though stages. Each stage has a benefit. The hardest
part is getting the person to pick up the believing in their
new identity. I don’t deal with the problem –
I am dealing with the core truth of why the problem was initially
created to pay attention to some aspect of the self –
I pay attention.
This
new identity cannot be had through positive affirmations.
I
actually believe what Christ said, “This and more you
can do…” Well what are we doing? I hear and see
the truth of this statement in people – that is what
I live for.
Why
even live if we are all so reactionary that everything is
just programmed and unreal?
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Interview Contents:
Who
is Apolonia?
How
do you help people begin to grow in this way?
How
do you teach this process?
How
did you decide on this way and path of teaching connection
to spirit?
How
did you come to this philosophy?
How
are you teaching your other instructors to teach this kind
of deep, life experience-related wisdom as you teach it?
People
say you create miracles in the courses – how is that?
How
long does it take to go through this process?
Your
worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded
thoughts. But once mastered, not even your mother or father
can help you as much as the mind that is tamed.
-Buddha
"Transformative
spirituality does not seek to bolster or legitimate any present
world view at all, but rather to provide true authenticity
by shattering what the world takes as legitimate. 'Legitimate
consciousness' is sanctioned by consensuses, adopted by the
herd mentality, embraced by the culture and the counterculture
both, promoted by the separate self as the way to make sense
of this world. But authentic consciousness quickly shakes
all of that of its back, and settles instead into a grace
that sees only a radiant infinity in the heart of all souls
and breaths into its lungs only the atmosphere of an eternity
to simple to believe.
Transformative
spirituality, authentic spirituality is therefore
revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world,
it breaks the world; it does not console the world,
it shatters it. And it does not render the self
content, it renders it undone."
-Ken
Wilber
These
books are CIK staff and practitioner recommendations.
Check this page from time to time for additions
and comments.
Quantum Mind by Arnold Mindell,Ph.D.
The Eye of The I by David R. Hawkins, MD Ph.D.
Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal (Roderick
Main)
Dancing in the Flames by Marion Woodman
Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion by Joseph Campbell
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Any
book by H.H. Dalai Lama.
Any
book by Richard Moss.
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