 Well, one sense you could have come at it from a nutritional aspect, some people would say in terms of more what raises your energy and is in alignment with the truth, I mean there's different angles. Some people that are more concerned with health of the body would see it maybe more from a nutritional standpoint of taking care of your vehicle and keeping it clean and clear and flowing and open and vibrationally others may see it that way. There's more that food is still just like a backdrop to opening your mind to this inner guidance and so it's like the mystics and the saints reach a point where fear or lack or limitation is released from their mind. So you might say it becomes a moot point, it's like they don't really need to eat but still they're guided and flowing along maybe as a teaching device. Jesus is a good example, you know, he would make references that he had the disciples, the apostles were concerned about him not eating enough while he was doing all these teachings with the masses and he said, I have manna from above. In other words, I live on light, it's I don't live on fish and bread, I live on light, but yet he still seemed to eat the fish and the bread. He seemed to eat with the apostles. It made him a better teaching example. It would be hard to relate to Jesus if he came to earth, he seemed to walk on water, he never put anything in his mouth, he never defecated, he never took a leak anywhere. I mean it would be like alien, look at the alien over there and you can't relate very well from a human being to an alien, but if you see someone, it still comes down in the same context of follow your inner guidance and that could be, you know, to eat vegetables or to eat fruits. It could be in the ultimate sense I think for me it went to join with your brothers and sisters wherever you seem to be, whatever country, whatever culture and part of the joining is not throwing up any limits or barriers, so I was told early on, eat whatever served and which is a discipline of mind when the ego has preferences of what it likes, what it doesn't like, what it believes is healthy, what it believes is unhealthy, it can throw up all kinds of blocks and roadblocks and this was a way of saying no, don't make food an issue at all, join without having food be a block. Whether you get into food or sexuality or a lot of different areas which seem very important in human experience, the answer is always going to be follow your guidance because the mind that believes it's in this world has set up blocks to truth or love and now it's up to the spirit to join and remove those blocks and in that sense it's highly individualized because even though there's only one ego, the way that that ego plays out in terms of human beings is it plays out in terms of enormous variation so for someone who may be guided to eat a piece of meat as part of their loosening from certain restrictions and limits that they've placed on their mind, someone else may be guided to eat vegetables and fruits as part of that loosening of those rules and rigid restrictions so that's why we can't really make broad sweeping generalizations about never eat a piece of meat or never have sex or never do, you know, those kind of generalizations would not be helpful because only the spirit knows what's best for someone at a given point. Like for example there was in the early years of The Course in Miracles in the 1980s there were two pioneers, a man and a woman named Barbara and Robert Varley and they had done rebirthing for years, they had had the Course for years, they began working on a daily basis getting up at four or five in the morning reading the Course and the Lambsa Bible and all these spiritual texts, very devotional life, they had been vegetarians for years, they actually got into microbiotics, macrobiotics and it was a very disciplined eating routine and they were told in their macrobiotics books do not attempt to drop this diet and start eating meat immediately from this diet, that there will be enormous consequences to your body if you attempt to drop this diet immediately and they were praying with the Holy Spirit and asking about this and they received guidance that they were to stop eating a macrobiotic diet. The next day they received an invitation in the mail that invited them, they lived in Texas, to a Texas style barbecue, pork and beef and chicken, these kind of barbecues, they bought barbecue many different kinds of meat and it's all meat, meat, meat, meat and they prayed on it and they were guided by the Holy Spirit to go to the barbecue and to eat the meat. So they did and there were no ill effects. So it's again, it was a powerful experience, much like the Ram Dass story of the guru taking the whole handful of powerful LSD pills and showing no signs or reactions for the Varlies who were working with the Course, that was a powerful experience going to that Texas style barbecue right after having months and months of a very rigid macrobiotic diet. There's nothing special about meat, nothing special about macrobiotics or vegetarianism or whatever but these are all just symbols that the Spirit uses to show you of your invulnerability of the power of your mind. So it's good news. It takes away a lot of neurosis and guilt about, oh the belief I've eaten the wrong thing and I was actually in South America in a mountain town, it was in a valley and I was at this town in a spiritual community and some of the teachers had come there and had told them that people were eating meat and that they were at bed karma and they were bringing all these ill kind of things upon themselves and the teacher actually accused these people in this town of Medellin and said that they smelled like dead meat, told the students and the students had some guilt over this. So when I got there they had many questions about karma, about eating animals, and so forth and we had to take it way back into the mind from the actions you do or don't do in form but it's the belief structure where the guilt comes in and then when you free yourself of those beliefs then you experience your innocence and that's when you have health. Health is a state of mind. It's inner peace. It's not doing the right things in form. It's just clearing your mind and then your actions will flow from that healed mind and all are blessed. Symptoms are just chosen by the mind and symptoms are made to reflect guilt or project the guilt from the mind onto the body. So if you seem to have a sore body or an ill body or a painful body then those are projections and when you have contact with your divine innocence then the body is neutralized you might say and it's kind of subtle because you could say well then that means if I work with the course then I should feel really good. My body should feel real good and that could be taken to I should have lots of pleasure and no pain and when you read a course workbook lesson like 136 you know basically Jesus is teaching in there you can tell you've practiced well in the mind training by this the body should not feel at all. Oh well it should not feel at all. That's a lot different than feeling well. So it shouldn't feel well or ill. It becomes more like meditation when you sink deeper and deeper into meditation and you go deeper into those states and you literally lose awareness of the body. That's a more accurate approximation of where this is heading than to think that I'll have nothing but pleasurable experiences because pleasure and pain both physically and psychologically are both part of the ego's continuum and when you wash your mind free of the ego you're basically coming to a state of joy or intimate love that's divine and that's where this is heading. So we're painting a more accurate picture here not thinking I'll just use the course and have all the pleasure maximized and eliminate the pain. It's a much deeper than that and that's very important because Jesus says in this world you're so confused that you can't tell the difference between joy and pain and when he puts that line in there then it just shows you how deep the mesmerism is. For most human beings they would say well I sure can tell the difference between joy and pain but it just shows you how deep the mesmerism is and how much clearing you have to do to come to this state of non-attachment or bliss that's based totally in the present moment which is causeless in the sense that it's a natural experience but there's nothing in the world of form you might say that there's no person, place or thing that can bring you that joy it's just what you are and when you've removed all the attachments to the person's places and things then you simply naturally are what you are and it's a very wonderful experience. It's typical in interpersonal relationships when you find somebody and oh no one's loved me this way and nobody's done that to me and nobody's made me feel this way well the flip side is when that person says goodbye there's some sense of loss or sadness or deprivation and that shows right away that the ego motives were involved whereby if you're in your function if you're simply radiating and shining your light and your love to everyone that you come across everyone you meet when they say goodbye you just do your namaste and send them off their way with their blessings and there's no problem so you can always tell the egos involved when the flip side comes in when you start feeling a sense of lack or deprivation. Yes but to me it fits in with the same topic we talked about of food that it all comes down to guidance the spirit knows what's best for you at any given point of the awakening and once you start to see that everything in your world is symbolic that everything in your world is a reflection of your mind and even when you're just beginning to see glimpses of that you still will receive guidance of what to say what to do where to go what to eat and in terms of who you spend your time with whether it's to be with a group of people or with a person as a partner or by yourself off meditating maybe at a retreat or off at a hermitage or whatever so it still comes back to that intuitive following that's so important and you might say that what seems to be a partnership is still a teaching learning opportunity in which you clear your mind and beyond that in other words we could just use Jesus as an example of a mind that that clearly is unified by the statements that made I and the father are one before Abraham was I am this is a mind that's not in time and space even it's speaking it's like eternity speaking you know seemingly through a man and yet 12 apostles why 12 why not 11 why not 13 why male you know the times historically you know had something to do with that in terms of being received and being respected there were women in the your answer book it talks woman core there were many supportive women that were part of Jesus's ministry that they really didn't make it through the Bible and everything but they were very involved but but in terms of the apostles you know is 12 men they this is part of a specific prearranged plan in which the symbols are being used by the spirit as part of a teaching device so in my case I've certainly traveled around there have been times I've been partnered up with people I've been partnered up with singer songwriters that has been very helpful in terms of sharing this with the music I've been partnered up with translators I've been partnered up with those that have traveled with me and at times I've traveled solo the form has has varied but but you might think of each particular form as as an opportunity to let the symbols be used for example recently I have been partnered with Kirsten and when I traveled to South America the questions that came from the audience were relationship-based weren't so much tell us about mysticism or tell us about meditation or contemplation or you know it was ah give us the inner workings of how you and Kirsten live on a daily basis tell us of your experiences and a lot of people that were boyfriend girlfriend or husband and wife came to the gathering because the symbol of a man and a woman side-by-side was something they could relate to and they were more likely to come to those gatherings and ask those questions because of that symbol so for me I've just tried to stay wide open and let the spirit use the symbols in whatever way they seem to be helpful and over time that has seemed to change and so right now I'm I'm here and in Denmark and I'm on a tour my wife Kirsten's on a tour doing in for Danza and the United States and I'm here with Anna my friend from Sweden and you're here and we having these gatherings and this is how it looks right now seemingly it's just the spirit use of the symbols yeah I think it's I see it purely in terms of a state of mind that that my function is to be happy my function is to be joyful to be peaceful I don't really think of my function in in physical terms anymore and so I'm just as much in my function when I'm the body seems to be speaking is when it's not speaking or when it's traveling about or it's you know pushed up somewhere in a tree or in a meditating by a river or on a couch somewhere it's a state of mind function for me and it's been freed of all concepts and ideas that really involve form it certainly wasn't that way I mean I felt early on that I was the construct of David was very shy and so I certainly you know David would never have chosen a speaking function but that's part of the way that played out where the spirit wanted to so to speak use the puppet and speak you know through David in many places and many cultures and so forth so that's the way that it seemed to play out but there came a point where it was like oh my functions just to be happy and I could say internally happy based on my following of the spirit not based on getting outcomes that I want had nothing to do with with travel or partnership or friends it had nothing to do with money or resources or beautiful places or you know any of the things that the world might associate I'll be happy when I get the picture to come out a certain way it had nothing to do with any of that it's just I call it happy with for no earthly reason that's the best I mean that's the only happiness is happy for no earthly reason because you're happy because who you are you know how your source created you that's that's where perfect happiness resides because it can't be touched God's not changing God's mind and God gives only perfect happiness so that's that is the perfect flow and the perfect extension of being happy all the time so that's your state all the time yeah yeah happiness I stay happy in fact I think that's one of the reasons why people even invite me is they go hmm he seems happy and and people want to be around yes authentic happiness you know I mean certainly all of us tried to be happy through we could say ungodly means or perceptual means where we've tried to get the right things the right combination of things in our life or to accumulate or possess or to control and that never resulted in lasting happiness but but being in the present moment you know is a natural high and natural happiness and so the invitations come and they still are coming but also I just follow the prompts if I'm guided to just go off and and into seeming obscurity and just be in joy and bliss in that state of mind it will be of benefit to the universe because it's just a state of mind and so that's why I was talking with Anna today and I was saying yeah I have no I have no interest in the future I've absolutely no interest a complete disinterest in the future you might want to go to a psychic and kind of get a little snapshot of aren't you a little curious and say no it's I'm not I don't my mind doesn't work that way anymore I'm not looking ahead to anything I'm very content with right now and so when people say you know how will it all end you know in one sense the ego ends once you've released it and forgiven it and then you just radiate God's love and the past and the future are not part of that equation anymore it's just present joy yeah you you could say that it's the spirit works with the mind with whatever it believes and you could say that those are still concepts and in one sense we could say a golden age of humanity would be a better illusion then yeah and yet just the idea of a better illusion you know implies that I guess you could say in the helpful way that it would be a peaceful experience with perception and what I'm saying is it's possible to train your mind to have that experience now in fact it's inevitable that you can only have it now so when you try to put it on the timeline and then you get into things how many years before I'm and sinlessness and innocence and then just radiating that so it those kind of ideas just don't it's like they don't register I don't have I have nothing in my mind to hold the idea of a future golden age and yet from a place of blessing I can see that that is for many people that's a goal that they use as an incentive to do their practices you know because they they believe in time and that's something that can be used as an incentive a concept that's an incentive for them to to do their work to do their practices yeah or lots of different rituals or techniques or something that you're supposed to practice diligently you know repeat over and over and over and over whereas this is talking about starting to discipline your mind and getting closer to that point where you can start to let go of the rituals and become so intuitive that you flow and there's a part in the teacher's manual of the course of miracles where Jesus is asked you know you know how does the how does the teacher of God spend his day and Jesus answers you know to the advanced teacher of God this question is superfluous in other words it's not even something that is a question it's so spontaneous to the advanced teacher of God life becomes so spontaneous how do you spend your day is something that never gets asked because you're in the moment and that's how you spend your day moment by moment would be the answer but you see in terms of things like with chakras that's the symbol of opening you know chakras ready representing different aspects of your experience and the base chakras and then the higher chakras and so forth those are symbols that that are very much when you go into Indian philosophy and teachings and so forth they're very basic very well-known when you get into something like Christianity or something you know that are not universal but that they're just symbols that of opening of clearing away just like working with energy you know raising the energy coming to higher energies now the ego can use any of them for its own purposes as well in terms of comparison you know your higher higher energy someone is higher energy than another person that's a comparison or a more purified aura oh this color is better than that color or this color you have a more perfect or more pure it's still judgment it's still comparisons and it's still personal and so you can see that even when you start to get into psychic states and more psychic phenomenon or phenomenon that seem to be more other otherworldly or more beyond the everyday perception the ego still is right there wanting to use those psychic abilities or those phenomenon to reinforce its specialness you know a special or a special mantra a special state of mind and I remember early on when I was reading a lot of non-dualistic books early on I popped open a very thin book by it was talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi and I opened this book up and there were all these people asking Ramana Maharshi about the yogis you know some could change colors and I believe in that book that I read there was something about a yogi that would would turn himself green and fly and of course I was extremely impressed I was like oh my god for that kind of state of mind it was saying you know don't get caught up in the phenomena whatever they are you know realize that there is a grand surprise and that grand surprise is self-realization it's the the awareness of who you are as as you were created by your source so along the way don't get caught up in any temptations with the psychic phenomenon and I've really taken that to heart so that when I've had kind of supernatural experiences or phenomenon it was very ordinary it was almost to be expected like miracles are natural these phenomena oh yeah okay could come they go no big deal nothing to go on and on about and and other mystics like peace pilgrim who said the same thing you know she had experiences with feeling total absolute connectedness and oneness and like flecks of gold coming down from the sky and and the plants all vibrating around her as if coming to life with colors and she said that they're relatively unimportant the the experience of the oneness however and the connection that's what's important the you realize that that's the focal point and you will make everything much simpler because particular systems have many different symbols and can seem to be quite complex and then when the ego starts to do this comparing and contrasting it even gets more complex that's just telling you know it's not it's not the way when you can come back to how you feel experientially and let that be your guide that's I call that being very intuitive and that intuitive experience is your guide not what some guru said or not what some master said all the words are they can seem to be very inspiring they can be point you in the right direction they can reassure you they can comfort you but in the end it comes down to your experience your authentic experience which I would say is being present once you can be present and feel that love then can you know that that's you've done well in your spiritual journey yeah yeah certain states of mind it can seem to come and go sometimes people will have a mystical experience and then when it seems to be covered over or it seems to fade away then the tendency can be to start you know to try to get it back and yet they had no experience no essence of what they did to even bring it on much less get it come back and again that's still seeing it on the timeline so when people say well I had a revelatory experience ten years ago but I haven't had one sense then it's just plucked from the now which is what it is and put on the timeline as if it's just pigeon-holed into some little place ten years ago or whatever and that's that's not it at all oh just just to be really gentle with yourself be very intuitive authentic and and have fun I mean I'm teaching and sharing that the present moment is fun it's playful it's spontaneous it's it's not so serious a lot of times when people work with the course and other metaphysical systems it's become so so serious almost like like okay I can't be playing and playful and joyful and that's really how you know that you're in it and I always tell people if your practice becomes too serious or your pathway becomes too serious and you should really contemplate being open to another another that the ego is taken over your spiritual path and you need to come back to authenticity and and give the ego a little gentle nudge and say enough of this well not for everyone I mean it certainly I say against it it comes down to inner guidance and people work with the book in different ways it was helpful for me so I just have used the symbols but now when I join with people you know we just join in the flow of the spirit and whatever comes whatever comes and it looks how it looks so I'm not affiliated with the course of miracles or or any particular pathway or tradition or country or anything now and it feels very expansive and universal and very natural thank you blessings blessings I can finally let go I am free I can let my true self show I am free isn't all this time it's been here I can finally