44. Are Angels Real? Understanding the Unseen Forces Around Us

In this episode of Spiritually Hungry, Monica and Michael discuss the spiritual concept of angels and how we can connect to their energy to support us in every facet of life. Listen as they explore how we can transform all of our negative thoughts, acts, and traits into positive entities that we can use to improve our life, as well as the experiences of the people around us.

Transcript

Every action that we take creates an energy that stays with us.

If I spend most of my day creating positive energy around me,

Positive thoughts,

Positive words,

Positive actions,

Then that will then continue to manifest.

And by the way,

Even if you had a horrible childhood or you were in a really dark space three years ago and you're not proud of your behavior,

You can absolutely redirect your life and have a very different experience of life today if you so choose.

And you just choose something more positive and elevated each and every day.

You are not only creating the energy for yourself,

You're also creating the energy that's going to be in the places you inhabit,

The place you work,

And the place that you live.

And that's a great responsibility.

Even if a person feels like,

Again,

They're in a rut and they're stuck and they have anger issues or something that's scarring and damaging and that they need to hold on forever to.

In fact,

No,

You know,

Look at your flaws and see them as something useful because you can actually transform it if you view it that way.

Welcome to the Spiritually Hungry Podcast,

Episode 44.

I am really excited about today's topic.

I'm always excited,

I guess,

About our topics.

This idea is about how we are creating more things than we realize through our actions,

Specifically our negative actions.

And positive ones.

Correct.

But we often talk about how to create positive things by sharing and volunteering and going outside of yourself and breaking your nature,

Your ego.

But I don't think that we have yet spoken about how harmful our negative actions are for us and what it's influencing besides the obvious.

So I want to tell you a story.

I love stories.

A few stories,

Actually.

But the first one is,

It's the real Amityville horror story.

I'm sure we've all are.

Are you familiar with this?

I mean,

You know,

I love anything horror and thriller.

You avoid it.

But it's kind of like a lot of shows and movies were based off of this real life thing that occurred in Long Island,

Actually.

It's 30 miles outside of New York City and the town is Amityville.

And on November 13th,

1974,

So just two months after I was born,

Two months and two days,

The estate was the scene of a mass murderer.

A 23-year-old,

Ronald J.

Deffio,

Murdered his entire family while they were asleep,

Which included his parents and four siblings.

It's a terrible story.

Yes.

What makes it,

I guess,

Interesting to some effect,

You can even say that,

Is that 13 months after this occurrence,

The Lutz family purchased the home at a drastically reduced price of $80,

000.

Well,

Actually many did after this one family.

And they only lasted in this house for 28 days before leaving it.

So they told spine tingling tales of paranormal activity that occurred in the house.

And that is how the legend of the Amityville horror resurrected,

I guess,

Or began.

And there are books that followed and documentaries.

So what they claimed that Lutz family was that George,

The father,

Was said to be woken up every morning at 3.

15,

Which is around the time Ron carried out his murders.

It is also said that when a priest came to bless the house,

He allegedly heard a voice screaming,

Get out.

And he told the Lutz to never sleep in that particular room in the house.

Other paranormal activities such as the garage door opening and closing or an invisible spirit knocking a knife down off the kitchen counter had also occurred.

There are also different things that were raised in terms of the validity of this story.

And George and Kathy,

His wife,

Took a lie detector test,

Which they did pass to see if these claims were true.

I will tell you actually.

So the house officially sold in February,

2017 to an undisclosed owner for $605,

000,

Which was 200,

000 less than the original asking price,

By the way.

So now there's many people.

So basically this house has been owned by four other families since the murders,

Which is not,

I guess it is a lot.

They're not staying very long.

And they even changed the address from 108 to 108 Ocean Drive when it was originally 112 Ocean Drive.

That would change the karma or the bad juju somehow.

So why am I telling you this story?

To get scared?

Yeah,

I love it.

I mean,

If they're not going to watch something with me,

I'm going to have to take you on this journey somehow.

But everything in our world is alive.

Doorknobs,

Walls,

Socks.

I know we're going to lose some people for a minute here,

Some of our listeners,

But cereal boxes,

Television,

Lamps,

Cars,

Trees,

Earrings,

You name it.

And I'm not high.

This is true.

And it's also not just based on a Disney.

I don't smoke marijuana or anything for that matter,

Actually today.

But I'm not talking about even like if you look at animated films,

You know,

Disney of Beauty and the Beast,

Where the chandelier and the candelabra all come to life and they sing and dance or Cinderella,

You know,

The pumpkins turn into a carriage and the mice turn into horses.

But still,

Kapelistically,

We understand that inanimate objects to hold energy and they are connected to a light force.

And by the way,

Science tells us that as well,

Right?

That this table is not a solid piece of wood and nothing in our world really is not either filled with energy and or movement.

Correct.

Thank you for making me sound sane.

And also,

I mean,

Have you ever walked into a house or hotel room and you feel something really negative and you're like,

I don't want to be here.

I'm going to walk right out or I don't want to stay in this hotel.

I think we've all had those experiences.

So the walls of a person's home actually speaks.

I mean,

We can't hear it,

But it absolutely emits an energy or a feeling.

So if a person committed a negative act in the room,

Other inanimate objects can inform the things in the room of what has gone on here.

They hold that energy,

Right?

They hold the energy of what has happened there before.

Correct.

And based on how we behave in the space is how much walls and different things will protect us when we need it.

So I'm going to give you a story from my own life where I had I experienced the power of an inanimate objects firsthand,

Which I think it's a really kind of far out story.

But do I know the story?

I think I probably told you.

Let's see if it rings a bell.

So when I was in high school a little while ago,

There was a huge earthquake and it was January 17th,

1994.

There's a six point seven magnitude earthquake.

Were you in L.

A.

Then?

I think I was there for that one.

Is that the Northridge?

Yes,

It was the Northridge earthquake and it hit Los Angeles.

The first quake had a strong moment magnitude,

Meaning the ground acceleration ones are the highest ever recorded at 16.

7 meters,

Which means like Las Vegas even felt it,

Which is 220 miles away from the epicenter.

And the aftershock was a six point now,

Which is really big in its own right.

So at that time,

I was still living with my parents and sisters and my older sister is going through a really dark time and also just our relationship.

She was teasing me a lot,

Saying a lot of negative things in her room and our rooms were connected through a closet.

It was a really weird kind of like it's a little creepy up there.

And leading up to the earthquake,

She kept talking about this ghost that was visiting her like she felt her room was haunted and like really like she felt things touching her,

Waking her in the night and she on a few occasions would come into my room.

And by the way,

Like I said,

She wasn't the kindest to me.

So when she would come in the middle of the night,

Like,

Can I sleep in your bed?

Like,

No,

I don't want your your bad spirit to come and join us in my room.

So anyway,

Cut to,

Again,

Very dark time.

The earthquake happens and our rooms literally like it's our doors are about three feet apart.

I mean,

Really tight space.

And we're shaking upstairs.

I run into under a door,

Which,

By the way,

You're not actually supposed to do that.

Yeah,

They've updated.

I think you're supposed to go under a table and put but everybody should Google that.

I'm certainly not sure,

But I think that has been updated.

Anyway,

I went to do that and I hear her screaming.

I'm I'm stuck.

Help me.

I'm stuck.

She can't get out of her room.

The quake happens.

And in my room,

Again,

We're like the same.

There's no space really hardly between our doors.

Nothing in my room falls down.

Nothing actually breaks.

I'm able to get from my bed to the door.

No problem.

And then she's trying to get out.

And what happened in her room is that the bookshelf fell and the books and the TV and the table.

And she had like six feet of things that blocked her from actually being able to get out of her room.

She was trapped in.

So I think that's zero judgment.

But I think that's an example of how inanimate objects actually come and jump in and support a negative energy or negative things that have happened in a space.

Yeah.

Well,

I think one of the- Did you ever hear that story before?

I think I heard that story.

Well,

I love surprising after 24 years of marriage.

Right.

But we want to really.

.

.

This isn't just about interesting.

We'll call it paranormal or what we don't see.

I think the idea hopefully from this podcast,

The inspiration for this podcast will be the fact that the influences on our lives are much more than what we see.

And knowing that hopefully enables us to make different decisions and live in different ways.

So for example,

The Talmud says that if we were able to see all the energies that were around us,

We couldn't handle it.

And again,

If you would talk like this- So quite literally somebody would go mad.

Yes.

If you spoke about this even 100 years ago,

Certainly 20 years ago,

1,

000 years ago,

It wouldn't make sense to most people.

But again,

As I said before,

Science tells us that everything around us is energy,

Number one.

Both there's energy in the air right here,

And there is certainly energy and movement in all the inanimate realities and things that are around us.

With the spiritual understanding then says is that we influence what type of energy exists and what type of energy exists around us,

What type of energy exists in the rooms that we inhabit.

For example,

There's a concept that again,

It's interesting.

I think they've done surveys on this and most Americans actually believe in the concept of angels.

For some people that might be a foreign idea,

But I think the simplest way or maybe the most obvious way to understand this is the fact that there are these energies around us.

When we speak about angels,

Although there is an entire study about that and that's not really I think what we're going to get into is the fact that every action that we take creates an energy that stays with us.

And we have the power to influence that.

Well,

Of course.

And create.

Every single thought,

Every single word,

Every single action creates an energy that stays with us.

So for example,

The view of if I yell at you,

If I do something negative towards you.

Me?

Well,

Never to you,

But to anybody,

I am creating an energy.

Now,

Where does that energy go?

It stays with me.

And then tomorrow,

The next day,

It's not that there's no punishing God,

Where God says,

Oh,

You yelled at Monica yesterday.

Well,

I'm going to make you feel wake up this morning with a headache.

Wake up this morning feeling down.

No.

That energy that I created through my negative action yesterday is with me from that moment onwards forever.

And that it manifests in my life in a negative way.

So once you really accept that,

That as science tells us,

No energy dissipates.

No energy dissipates.

And therefore,

Every thought even,

Certainly every word and every action that we take create an energy.

You can call it an angel.

If that's your frame of reference,

You can call it an energy.

But most important is that it stays with you.

It stays with you.

And if you are- Well,

I think we need to clarify those.

Some angels are negative,

Right?

When you say the word angel,

It has a connotation that it's positive.

So maybe an entity or some kind of force,

Let's say.

Right.

And conversely,

If I did an action where I did an action of sharing or did something very positive,

It also creates an energy.

And that energy also remains with me.

So throughout life,

I'm actually deciding what type of energy surround me and therefore,

What type of life I'm going to have.

So this I think is the inspiration to live differently because it is too easy and wrong for us to think,

I had the wrong thought or I said the negative thing,

Next,

I'm on to the next or I did a negative action,

A big deal.

That's in the past.

No.

Yeah.

I wasn't a billionaire.

I just did that.

That's all.

Yes.

But then you wake up and then next thing,

And you say,

Why is this happening to me?

Well,

It's happening to you because you created that energy.

And you created it yesterday when you were angry,

But it's still with you today.

And today you're trying to get that job.

It's not going.

You know why?

Because you have that negative energy that you created around you and so on and so forth.

I think what you said a minute ago is really important because I think people to not have to take responsibility and maybe it's not a conscious thought,

It's easy to be like,

Oh,

I'm being punished for how I acted or blame something external.

You're living the energy that you created.

That's the point.

Say it again because it's so important that people really understand this and actualize it in their lives.

Right.

Say it again.

Every thought,

Every word and every action creates an energy.

You're creating the energy that you're living.

That you're going to live.

So if you,

And again,

An extreme example,

If you spent a whole day only having negative thoughts or mostly having negative thoughts and mostly having negative words and mostly having negative actions,

You've now created around you a cloud of negative energy and that will absolutely manifest in the next moment,

In the next day,

In the next week,

In the next month.

We don't have the exact timeline and there are many other variables to that,

But it will absolutely manifest in our lives.

Therefore,

It's not that,

Again,

We do something negative,

God punishes us.

It's that we create the energy that surrounds us.

I think for most of us,

That would and should be one of the greatest inspirations to want to live differently because on the flip side of that,

If I spend most of my day creating positive energy around me,

Positive thoughts,

Positive words,

Positive actions,

Then that will then continue to manifest.

It's literally a cycle.

The more positive energy you create through your thoughts,

Your words,

And your actions,

The more positive occurrences will then be able to manifest in your life.

That's what I love about Kabbalah.

It's all about action,

Right?

It's taking responsibility for where you find yourself in life.

By the way,

We all have the power to change our reality.

I think it's far too often easy to look at other people and say,

Oh,

They're just,

They're lucky and they're just happy all the time or they have a different,

Easier disposition or they had a leg up when they were young.

We make all kinds of excuses,

But in fact,

Actually,

We can create.

By the way,

Even if you had a horrible childhood or you were in a really dark space three years ago and you're not proud of your behavior,

You can absolutely redirect your life and have a very different experience of life today if you so choose.

You just choose something more positive and elevated each and every day.

Absolutely.

There's actually a beautiful section in the Zohar that speaks about the power of even one thought,

Which I'd like to share because I think it helps give us appreciation for the energy that we create.

The Zohar says that even a person who was completely negative in their lives,

Really spent most of their times selfishly not sharing with other people,

Not being positive and so on,

If even once in their lives,

They had a really strong,

Powerful thought,

Meaning,

And almost everybody has this at least once in their lives,

Where they say,

You know,

I realized that hurting people,

I realized that living only selfishly is not the right thing and I wish I could be different.

I wish I could change and they don't.

So they had the thought,

But they don't bring it into action.

The Zohar says that when their soul leaves this world,

Although it has to go through its process,

Call it a cleansing process because of the way it lived its life,

That thought becomes a very positive,

Call it savior,

Support for that soul.

Even the thought,

Although they didn't follow it with action.

The one thought,

Even though they didn't follow it with action.

Interesting.

And again,

For me,

What that tells me is don't underestimate the force of energy created through every single thought,

Through every single word,

Through every single action.

And obviously in the positive side,

For example,

We spoke about the energies that we create around this.

There's a beautiful story in the Zohar about these students who are traveling.

In those days,

They were living in the north of Israel,

In the Galilee,

And they would often travel from place to place and they would study as they were walking.

And they come upon a cave and as they enter into the cave,

Suddenly they start feeling an energy.

And they are told that one of the great sages once had been in that cave and revealed great secrets.

And it says these words,

Once energy is revealed,

In this case,

Light,

Revealed in a place,

It remains there forever.

Thousands of years later,

That energy will still be there in that cave.

And that's what they were experiencing.

And that's what they were feeling.

Well,

That's why when we go to places in Rome or in Israel and you walk in and you cannot deny,

For both good and bad,

Different places,

Right?

Because something historical happened there that was powerful and purposeful and meaningful and you do feel it.

Absolutely.

And that then therefore hopefully awakens us to the understanding of this.

We all live in homes.

We have a house,

We have an apartment,

We live there with our family.

Every action in that house is creating an energy.

In a house where there's a lot of arguing,

In a house where there's a lot of yelling,

In the house where there is negative thoughts,

Words,

And actions,

That doesn't go away when you make up,

Right?

That energy remains there.

And we are responsible for it because,

By the way,

In our home,

The energy that we create in our home is the energy that every single person walking into the house will feel.

It's the energy that every one of our children is going to feel.

So we actually have a responsibility for that.

We have a responsibility in the spaces that we inhabit.

It's interesting.

Do you remember we once we're.

.

.

I'm not going to say we went out of town and.

.

.

To protect the not so innocent.

Really close friends' houses.

And we knew a lot about their personal life.

They were fighting a lot.

And they were out of town and we were staying.

.

.

I think we had like a stopover.

And they said,

Oh,

You know,

Stay in our house.

We're not there.

We're out of the country,

Whatever.

So we did.

And we went to sleep in their bed and we could not sleep all night.

We actually moved the next day to a hotel because we.

.

.

And we started fighting.

Do you remember that?

Started fighting over nothing and we're like,

This,

It's the room.

Well,

I was right.

You were wrong.

Oh,

Yeah.

Sure.

Sure.

But that really,

I remember in that moment,

I was like,

Okay,

You cannot underestimate that.

I mean,

Even if you go to a restaurant,

Let's say,

And maybe the people before you were fighting at the table and then suddenly you're fighting for no reason,

It's not just that you're tired or you're hungry or you're moody.

It's there is an energy,

A force that was created there that's on the table now that you're eating on that is affecting you.

And again,

And that leads us.

.

.

Oh,

Again,

For me,

It's always about how is this going to change my life?

Well,

If you understand that,

That you are not only creating the energy for yourself,

You're also creating the energy that's going to be in the places you inhabit,

In the place you work,

In the place that you live.

And that's a great responsibility.

That's a great responsibility because again,

It's not just for you.

It's also for everybody who enters into that space.

And therefore,

One of the things that the great Kabbalists and Sages would speak about is to really manage energies very carefully.

For instance,

It says in the Zohar that one should not eat with people who have negative energy.

Well,

I don't ever.

People who are negative.

You know,

That's a rule.

Right.

Yeah.

And because the energy of the people that you're with enters into the food that you're eating with them.

And who wants to be ingesting negative energy and so on and so forth.

Called heartburn and digestion.

Yeah,

It can manifest as that and in many other ways.

Other ways too,

Yeah.

So you become much more mindful certainly about the energy that you're creating for yourself.

You become much more mindful of the energy that you're creating in the spaces that you inhabit.

And you also become much more mindful of the people that you allow into your space and the people that you eat with and the people that you allow to enter into because their energy comes with them.

Their energy comes with them.

Yeah,

No,

A thousand percent.

There's also something called emotional residue.

And it's interesting.

Whenever we talk about topics that you and I know is truth,

Mostly through our spiritual study,

But also science,

Then I just really like to offer a whole another bit that supports it that's not just a spiritual thing because I think that I like to approach it from every angle.

So there are a bunch of different scientific studies and research done on this idea.

So they said to a group of people,

Imagine your coworker just moved into a new office.

The woman who used to work there spent many unhappy months in the office complaining about her job.

In fact,

She ended up quitting enraged about something,

Right?

So she left on a not great note.

Upon moving into the office,

Your coworker tells you that she senses some bad energy left over from the previous employee.

Would you believe her or would you think she was crazy?

Or if you had to choose between two apartments,

They're exactly the same.

They cost exactly the same price.

The only difference is one person was depressed in that space and the other person left and was happy.

Which one would you pay for,

Right?

You'd go into the place that had a happy kind of feeling.

So emotional residue explores whether an environment inherently contains leftover evidence of previous emotions.

It's all the stuff we're talking about.

But it goes on to say that our nervous system picks up on these different things.

And that also there is.

.

.

And they checked if it was just culturally,

Right?

So they took a group of Americans and they took a group of people from India and they asked them to.

.

.

They tested out these different scenarios to see how they felt about it.

And what they found is that although Americans said they didn't believe in this idea,

They still made the same exact choices that the people who were influenced culturally into the idea of emotional residue.

For instance,

They said that.

.

.

They asked both participants to read scenarios about David,

A college freshman who moved into a new dorm room.

The previous student who lived in the room was described as having spent a lot of time there feeling very unhappy and depressed.

And the psychologist who did the study,

Savani,

Asked his participants to predict how David would feel in a couple of weeks after living in his new room.

Both the Indians and Americans predicted that David would feel similarly to the student who had lived there before.

In other words,

He'd feel happy if the previous student had been happy and sad if the previous student hadn't.

I thought that was really interesting.

And we know people spend a lot of money to get feng shui experts in and we use sage and we burn incense all to create a different space and energy.

The other thing that's really interesting is that,

Do you think people would be willing to pay,

Would want to pay less for a space if they knew something negative happened there?

I would.

We would.

Right.

Or even if the person was in distress or sad there.

It's funny.

One of the things that we don't like to think about is what happened in the hotel rooms we were staying in before we were there.

I do think about that.

I don't like staying in hotels anymore.

And do you remember when we moved to New York almost eight years ago,

We lived on 67th Street and I could not sleep.

We lived there for six months.

And I remember one day I was even sick.

I went home from work.

I went and got into bed.

I was so uncomfortable there.

I went back to.

.

.

I rather have been in the office than in my own bed.

And so I thought that I had never lived in a high rise before.

I'm from California.

Maybe it's like a lot of energy.

I knew it was energetic,

But I didn't fully understand why.

And then I think I was sharing that with somebody who's in real estate.

They're like,

Well,

You know what happened in that building?

I was like,

No,

Because it was a new building.

Right.

That was one of the things we liked about it.

And he said one of the construction workers who was working on building this building died.

And it was like around one of the floors we lived on.

And so just I mean,

I think I was picking up on that.

So but this is what's interesting is I didn't know this actually.

That we have to by law alert a buyer of a home if a murder took place there.

Really?

Yes.

Violent deaths that occur in a home are a different story.

A murder or suicide,

Especially one that is highly publicized,

Is considered as an event that could stigmatize the property like physical damage,

Water damage,

Lead paint.

This is seen as something that can affect the home's value.

If it's a violent death,

It becomes a marked property that people don't necessarily want to become associated with.

So and then there's also biological underpinnings.

So did you know that human tears emit a chemical that other people can detect and respond to?

Right.

I think you'll find this really interesting,

Men,

Especially all men.

Yes.

Women's tears were shown to reduce testosterone and sexual arousal in men.

Is that true?

Yes.

But this is what I think is so interesting.

Like we take so many things for granted,

Right?

We just think like,

Oh,

It wasn't a big deal.

No,

Everything means something.

Everything has energy.

Everything.

Even human sweat glands emit a distinct chemical that are different according to our emotions.

So like that's why even when you work out of the gym and you're in a room full of people,

That's a lot of energy through all that sweat.

Or if you think about even hospitals,

Right?

Even if you're going there,

Even if I go in and I'm going even to see somebody who just had a baby,

Right?

I walk in and write a well that smell that I'm thinking about like the worst thing I want to get out of there as soon as possible because all of the tears,

All that energy that's in there.

And when a person passes away,

Right,

You're supposed to open a window so that the soul can leave that space very quickly,

Right?

So it's all about this kind of idea of energy.

Interesting.

What I'd like to also speak about in this regard is the idea of collective energy.

So for instance,

When you talk about angels,

You know,

One of the angels that the positive angel,

Well,

There's positive angels and then there's something that's referred to as the angel of death,

Right?

A very negative angel.

And interestingly,

And again,

This is one of the powerful things about spiritual studies,

Certainly this study of Kabbalah is that it gives,

I think,

I don't know if I would use the word logical,

But an understandable way to view that.

So what is the angel of death?

And I hope this isn't too heavy of a concept for our listeners,

But I think it's inspiring if you think about it in the right way.

That it is actually a culmination with the Zohar says is that from the moment that we are at least 12 or 13,

When we started getting more and more responsibility for our lives,

Thoughts,

Words,

And actions,

As we said before,

Everything we do matters.

Every negative thought,

Every positive thought,

Every negative action,

Every positive action,

Every negative word,

Every positive word.

And throughout life,

We are creating,

Unfortunately,

Most of us negative energy as well.

Age 12,

20,

30,

40.

So that at 90,

100,

Whatever age,

Death actually is the culmination of the negative energy that the individual has created.

So it's not that again,

God is doing it or now an external force that we are actually creating through our negative actions.

That force that culminates in the soul desiring or deciding to leave the body.

I think you really need to unpack this and explain it because,

And I'm going to challenge you,

Which I know where you're going,

But I think it's important to do this.

So people die at all different kinds of ages and stages of life.

So certainly a four-year-old or a 30-year-old doesn't necessarily create that.

So let's just break that down.

And also for the most part,

People don't live past a certain age.

They don't live past a certain age.

They don't live past a certain age,

Let's say for now,

100,

105.

So I think you need to just be more specific.

Right.

But the point is,

I don't see this as a negative thing,

But the reality is- Yes,

But our view of death is a little bit different than most.

Right.

But what causes death,

And it might not that it's a negative.

.

.

Let's say this person lived a full life and it's really time for their soul to elevate.

Still,

The question is,

Spiritually,

What energy is causing that soul to leave the body?

What is the.

.

.

Again,

In the- So not a renewal of life is what you're saying.

Right.

In the ancient writings,

It's referred to as the angel of death.

I mean,

Even in the Bible,

There's this talk about this force.

And when you understand,

And this is really my point,

That it is something that we create.

We create.

And again,

It doesn't necessarily mean that it's negative because it might be the right thing for the soul to leave the body at age 90,

Whatever that.

.

.

But where does that force of the end come from?

It comes from a culmination of actions that we do that are of a negative nature.

Are you saying only physical death or you're saying living with an energy of death?

Well,

Of course,

It manifests throughout our lives.

Of course,

A person who's built a person who's built up a backlog,

We'll call it,

Of negative energy through their thoughts,

Words,

And actions can begin experiencing that at 20.

And they can continue experiencing that for the rest of their lives.

But the actual force that brings about death is a culmination of the individual's actions of negativity.

So you're saying maybe they accelerate death?

They could accelerate it or not,

But the trigger,

The force that triggers the actual death is that culmination of actions.

But that's not for all people.

Again,

Four-year-old.

No,

No,

No,

Not for a four-year-old,

Of course,

But I'm saying,

But for most people,

For most people.

And again,

It's not necessarily.

.

.

So it's like if you're not living your life in the way that you were meant to,

You lose days.

So you'll have to come back again.

This goes into the reincarnation thing we've been talking about for a month now,

But you then go and restart and try again because you're not actually on a path that's going to get you to the place that you need to get to.

Right.

But the reason I want to share this is actually from,

I think,

A more important idea.

And as I said,

There's the discussion in ancient texts about this concept of the angel of death,

And there's a name given.

Which you don't say because it draws that energy down?

Yeah.

What is it?

It actually is,

Imagine if we understand that energies do not dissipate.

Humanity from the beginning of the time in existence have been doing positive things and have been doing negative things.

Imagine the force of negativity that humanity has created over all of our existence.

The spiritual view,

The Kabbalistic view certainly,

Is that when there is mention or discussion,

It's not this otherworldly creature.

It's the totality of energy that we as a human being,

All the souls that have ever lived have created.

It's a darkness.

And that when global,

And again,

This is,

I want to be careful in how we say this,

But that global negativity manifests from that.

And also individual challenges.

The idea being that we do not live in a world that is purely our decision of what am I going to do this morning?

What am I going to do today?

There is actually this force that exists that is going to try to push me to do negativity today,

To become reactive,

To yell at somebody,

To act in a negative way.

That force is both a effect of negativity that I have created throughout my lifetime and lifetimes,

And also the global negativity that we as a collective have been creating.

Which means that when you accept that,

When you understand that,

You realize that the fight to remain positive,

The fight to do the right thing,

The fight to have the right consciousness,

The fight to be happy,

The fight to do the right thing is not in a vacuum of I can decide whatever I want.

There is this active force.

And when you understand that,

It both gives you a little bit more,

I don't know if the word is lack of judgment towards yourself and also towards others.

Because we are not,

Again,

Living in a vacuum.

We are living in a world that is a culmination of our own actions,

And also a culmination of humanity's actions.

So it's kind of like what outlet are you plugging into to source up your power?

Exactly.

So if you're constantly or for the most part connecting to a negativity or creating as such,

Then you're almost calling on support from that collective negativity to come and greet you or guide you or meet you.

Be with you.

And conversely,

If you're tapped into the positive,

Then you're going to that power.

Exactly.

So let's talk about that.

That's really exciting.

So as I sit here now,

As any one of our listeners is whatever they're doing,

And we're going to have things to do,

Decisions to make,

Actions to take in the next hour,

Day,

Year.

There is energy beyond me that is available.

Because we spoke about on the downside that there is the totality of negativity that humanity has created from the beginning of time.

There's also the collective good that humanity has created.

Both of those forces exist,

And we do not live in a vacuum.

We live in the flow of one of those two.

So how do I decide whether I am plugging into the collective good or the collective negativity?

And this is also very important.

You choose.

If I judge you,

If I judge another person,

I am deciding to be in a place of judgment,

Really in a place of negativity.

If I decide to speak negative about somebody else,

I am deciding to be where?

I'm deciding to be on the side of the collective negativity.

If I certainly decide to do a negative action toward another person,

I am deciding to be connected to certainly my own negativity,

But also that collective negativity that exists.

So then when I have to make important decisions or I need things to go right for me,

Well,

It's going to be much more difficult because I have plugged in to this source of negativity.

So when you understand that,

That you choose,

And again,

Let's use it on the positive,

So that if I fight my inclination to judge another person,

I fight my inclination to speak bad about another person,

I fight my inclination to do something negative towards another person,

I am actively plugging myself into that collective goodness,

Therefore more able to do positive things,

More able to have things go right for me.

So when you really understand that not only are we living in the effects of our own,

Either positive or negative energies that we have created since the beginning of our lives and really the beginning of all of our lives,

We're also living in a world that has two very powerful forces.

Man has been up to a lot over the past thousands or millions of years.

A lot of negative energy has been created,

A lot of positive energy has been created,

Which,

And we do not live in a vacuum.

We live in that world of these duality,

These dual forces of cumulative energy.

If I do positive action,

If I fight my inclination and do not judge and not speak negative,

Do not do harm,

I am actively plugging myself into the culmination of all of humanity's positive energy,

And then things will flow in a different way for me.

And I think that what you're saying in terms of how you started this conversation is that if you're plugging into the dark side,

Then that has a limited source of power,

Right?

In terms of life,

Right?

So basically a person,

If they're constantly plugging into that source,

That outlet,

They are limiting the amount of days that they have because there is a- Right.

And more importantly,

Even in the days that they're living- There's also an aspect of death to it.

Right.

Because death means an end,

Right?

An end to a relationship,

An end to a job,

An end to a joy.

We are actively choosing,

And this is important to realize,

Which of these great universal forces we are attaching ourselves to.

Also,

By the way,

If I wake up this morning and I have a choice to,

Again,

Think a negative thought about myself or even somebody else,

Or say a negative word about somebody else or myself,

Or do a negative action towards myself or somebody else,

And I don't,

Then not only am I attaching myself to the global goodness that will then manifest in my life,

But I also connect to my own goodness.

And again,

Culmination of all the positive things that I've done.

So we have important decisions that we make every single day by how we allow ourselves or choose to think,

Speak,

And behave.

It's interesting.

I'm going to see it like,

There's always a parallel universe,

Right?

So you can be on this track,

Which is lower,

Or you can then choose to jump on a different track,

Which is going to take you to higher places.

Every day is a choice.

And a possibility.

Yeah.

I find that so inspiring if you realize that,

Even if I've been in a negative space today.

Even if you've been there for a year,

Let's say,

Because people get in a rut,

Right?

Of course.

There is this huge wave of positivity just waiting for me to write it.

To write it.

And if I actively decide my own goodness and the global goodness,

And if I actively push to connect to that,

I'll be on that wave.

I'll be on that wave.

So I always like to give tools and tips because I think it's always a thought followed by immediate action.

And the action part is usually the hard part because I think people will feel inspired,

Hopefully,

By this conversation.

But what are you going to do?

Where are the hacks and ways to get there?

So I thought some of this was kind of funny.

I always like to make myself and you laugh.

So psychologist Stephen Hayes,

He has a book out called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life.

And he suggests these.

He had a few,

But I thought these two were kind of interesting,

Of how you keep your negative thoughts at arm's length.

So it never becomes this thing that consumes you and become enraged.

And you start to throw things and the walls hate you and don't support you.

So the first he said,

Again,

He said money,

But these are the two that resonated with me.

Practice noticing your thoughts.

So,

For example,

If right now,

Let's say you made a mistake and you say,

You know,

I feel stupid.

So that's a feeling.

But if you say right now,

I'm criticizing myself instead of I'm stupid.

But what are you doing through that thought?

If you see it for what it is,

A criticism,

A judgment,

You're able to actually get out of your head and not really make it fully about you.

This other one I thought was really funny.

So let's say you have a phrase running through your head like I'm a loser or that person really screwed me over or whatever the negative thought is.

Try saying that thing,

That thought,

Either very slowly or in a funny voice.

So imagine if you're saying,

You know,

I'm a loser,

Right?

You say,

I'm a loser.

I'm a loser.

Right.

You can't actually take that thought seriously.

It doesn't then escalate to something that's going to tear you down and then you're going to want to hurt other people to make yourself feel better,

For example.

Right.

So it reminds me actually,

There's that song that we sing on Shabbat,

Right?

It's Although I Walk Through the Valley of Death.

Right.

But the tune we sing it to,

And I remember I made this show two years ago,

Decades ago.

It's like,

Although I walk through the valley of,

It's like this funny,

Like super like clowny tune,

Like a circus.

No,

But it's,

It's a joyful one.

Right.

But it's talking about the angel,

Like the angel of death.

So I always thought that that was interesting.

And I think that if we actually approach that and you take a funny approach to the things that really weigh us down and make us or allow us to make really bad choices for ourselves or negative choices or indulge in that negative behavior,

You actually can't because you're not taking it very seriously.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And again,

For me,

Once you begin to realize both how much energy we create,

Positive and negative,

How much energy is around us,

Waiting for us to either connect or not connect to,

It gives us.

.

.

Well,

We're going to connect either way,

But the real,

The sobering thought here is exactly.

.

.

And it's your choice.

We have choices all the time,

Because there are great forces,

Positive forces waiting for us to connect to.

And being evicted,

Right?

A lot of people,

Like you said,

We know people say,

Nothing goes right for me and so on and so forth.

No,

We are both creating and deciding what energy,

What great energies we are going to create and connect to.

I do want to,

Before we wrap up,

There is some thoughts that Ralph Waldo Emerson had that I thought was really powerful,

That you can't really outrun or escape your poor behavior.

We've given tools,

But I just think this is really poetic.

There's two different thoughts here.

He said that the beautiful laws and substances of the world persecute and whip the traitor.

He finds that things are arranged for truth and benefit,

But there is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue.

Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass.

Commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground,

Such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.

So you cannot recall the spoken word.

You cannot wipe out the foot track.

You cannot draw up the ladder so as to leave no inlet or clue.

Some damning circumstances always transpires.

The laws and substances of nature,

The laws and substances of nature,

Water,

Snow,

Wind,

Gravitation become penalties to the thief.

This idea that nature really,

Because everything matters,

Right?

Nature comes to support you either for the positive and the negative.

Right.

And you can't outrun the energy.

You cannot.

I thought that was really beautiful.

And then he says,

On the other hand,

The law holds with equal sureness for all right action,

Love and you shall be loved.

The other one,

Because it goes on,

He's a whole essay,

But I thought this was in relation to how to transform dark habits and behavior.

He said,

The good are befriended even by weakness and defect as no man had ever a point to pride that was not injurious to him.

So no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him.

The stag and the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet.

But when the hunter came,

His feet saved him.

And afterwards caught in the thicket,

His horns destroyed him.

Every man in his lifetime needs to think his faults as no man thoroughly understands a truth until he contends against it.

So no man has a thorough acquaintance with hindrances or talents of men until he has suffered from the one and seen the triumph of the other over his own want of the same.

Has he a defect of temper that unfits him to live in society?

Thereby,

He is driven to entertain himself alone and acquire habits of self-help and thus like the wounded oyster,

He mends his shell with pearl.

So this idea that we can actually transform all of our negative characteristics and traits and actually use it for something good and purposeful.

So even if a person feels like,

Again,

They're in a rut and they're stuck and they have anger issues or they have all kinds of things from their child they've overcome and it's like something that's scarring and damaging and that they need to hold on forever to.

In fact,

No,

You know,

Look at your flaws and see them as something useful because you can actually transform it if you view it that way.

Absolutely.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

So I'd like to share two relatively short letters from our listeners and as always- I love that you get the letters.

We both get the letters.

I don't even actually,

Maybe.

Actually,

I just noticed,

Usually they say dear Monica and Michael.

There's one of them that only says dear Monica.

So as usual,

Make sure that you continue sending your questions,

Stories,

Thank yous to Monica and Michael at kabob.

Com.

As we actually,

Our listeners are telling us,

They are inspired not just by anything we share but also by all that our listeners share and we certainly are inspired by it.

So please,

Please,

Please make sure to continue sending them.

So actually,

As I said,

We're going to share two emails from our listeners.

Dear Monica.

Do you feel left out?

Not at all.

All my love in this hard time.

Thank you for not only sharing this difficult time but being a strong example for all of us who struggle with loss.

May your father's soul forever rise.

There is never really a perfect thing to say but I feel that what you said in the last podcast brings comfort and clarity to you and those who were close to him.

For now your father can see in truth the great light he is revealing in this world through you.

May we all merit to see in truth.

Love and light,

Justin.

Thank you.

And then another one.

Dear Monica and Michael,

I can't begin to thank you for pouring out your heart into your latest podcast.

I really feel sorry for the grief Monica is going through and for where I am.

Please be sure I share a little bit of your pain in the hopes that you feel supported by me and by the community you've helped build.

Your podcast has certainly brought light and healing into my life.

I lost my beloved dad to liver cancer last year.

He had a very rough year before that and though painful and numbing,

I think that time helped us process his suffering and loss.

I was fortunate to be with him when he passed.

He was and still is larger than life for me,

My child,

My brother,

And mom.

It has been the hardest thing I've had to go have gone through and it really heals to be reminded that love never dies and that it is certainly stronger than death.

Your powerful words and your courage to share your feelings have challenged me to live up to my dad's powerful love and example.

Thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you.

Warmest healing hugs,

Anna.

I love that.

I don't know if you guys will hear this or it will be edited out,

But there's this really jovial child singing outside and I hope you hear it because this made me really happy in this last hour just hearing her like belt out.

I'm not even sure what she's saying but it sounds good.

She's creating happy energy.

She's creating very happy energy,

Very happy energy.

So remember,

Please support this podcast by sharing it with all your friends and family,

By going to Apple Podcasts,

Giving five-star reviews,

Writing reviews,

And in any other way that you can support.

We do this podcast because we enjoy spending some time with each other but also because we see it as our life's mission to share wisdom and inspiration with all of our listeners.

And we are excited again to receive these letters,

To receive all the thank yous,

But please do everything that you can to share this podcast forward and send all of your questions,

Comments,

Stories to monicaandmichaelatkabala.

Com.

And I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Bye.